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Grey's Anatomy Seasons
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The fifth season of Grey's Anatomy premiered September 25, 2008 and ended May 14, 2009. It was broadcast on Thursday nights at 9 PM on ABC. The season consists of 24 episodes, both starting and ending with two-part episodes.

Summary

Live for the moment. Dive deeper into the lives and loves of "Grey's Anatomy"! The doctors struggle and thrive as they enter uncharted territories of life. Discover what happens in the on-again, off-again world of Derek and Meredith, and witness the budding relationship between Cristina and Owen, Seattle Grace's newest doctor.

Plots

  • Cristina deals with the new trauma surgeon, Dr. Owen Hunt with whom she has a hot and cold relationship.
  • Meredith and Derek move forward in their relationship.
  • The residents receive their first solo surgeries.
  • Callie starts to explore her sexuality.
  • Bailey takes an interest in peds.
  • Izzie gets worried when Denny starts appearing to her.
  • Richard deals with the hospital only being 12th best.
  • Derek's discovery of Meredith's mother's journals from when she was a resident and Meredith's reaction to the journals.
  • Lexie and her fellow interns perform procedures on each other (from injections to surgeries) in an attempt to learn things they believe they are not learning from their residents.
  • The appearance of Meredith's old friend, Sadie, back into Meredith's life and Cristina's reaction to this.
  • The intensity rising between the residents as an opportunity for a solo surgery comes into play.
  • As the Chief announced to Dr. Bailey he had made the request to promote her as an attending in General Surgery, one of Dr. Dixon's comments about the way she cared about kids made her change her mind, choosing Pediatric Surgery as a specialty instead. Convinced by Dr. Robbins, she made an application for a Pediatric Surgery fellowship, which leaves the Chief displeased.
  • Cristina had to deal with the reappearance of Dr. Hunt's old fiancée, with whom he had briefly broke up without telling her he was coming back from war. However, he showed her he would stick with her after a case they shared with an older surgeon who was asked to retire, saying he hoped to still be there for Cristina during the years to come.
  • The new-found romances between Mark Sloan and Lexie Grey and between Callie Torres and new pediatric surgeon Arizona Robbins.
  • Mark and Lexie kept their relationship secret for a moment, Lexie being even covered by Sadie after Mark's "injury", but Lexie asked him to go public with her. During the last episode of the crossover between Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, Mark told Derek about his new love, but the latter didn't quite appreciate it, especially after the rough day he had had and they had a physical fight because of it.
  • However, Callie's lack of experience with homosexual relationships seemed to make Arizona hesitate in the following episodes, stating she didn't want to deal also with "babies" in her personal life.
  • After learning of her disease, Izzie lets the interns diagnose a "patient x", unaware that it is her. The interns diagnose her with a malignant melanoma that has spread to the brain, skin and liver, giving her only a 5% survival rate.
  • The season ends with a cliffhanger. Izzie codes and George is rushed into a dangerous surgery. While the doctors work to save their lives, Izzie exits an elevator in a dream of some sort and sees George.

Cast

Main Cast

Special Guest Stars

Recurring Guest Stars

Prominent Guest Stars

Recurring Co-Stars

Notes and Trivia

  • On November 3, 2008 it was announced that Brooke Smith (Erica Hahn) had been written out of the show. Before the announcement of Smith's departure, it was announced that Mary McDonnell would appear as Virginia Dixon a cardiothoracic surgeon with Asperger's Syndrome.
  • Though she was originally to only appear in a couple of episodes, Jessica Capshaw has made a deal with ABC, giving her the opportunity to be featured as Dr. Robbins on all Season 5 episodes yet to come at the time, and to even become a series' regular next year.
  • On November 6, 2008, TV Guide reported that Grey’s Anatomy will feature a multi-episode crossover arc with spin-off Private Practice in time for February sweeps.
  • For this season, no promotional photos were made, except for Kevin McKidd, who joined that cast this season. For the other characters, the photos from season 4 were reused. The group photo was photoshopped, with Brooke Smith being replaced by Kevin McKidd.
  • Kevin McKidd had a voice coach during this season to help him switch from his Scottish to his American accent.
  • Chyler Leigh fell pregnant with her third child and was visibly showing towards the end of production. As her character, Lexie, was not pregnant, shots of Leigh tended to be from above the chest, or her belly obscured by a chart, desk or lab coat. In the episode where Thatcher apologizes to Lexie and Meredith, Ellen Pompeo kept her hands in her lab coat to make herself look bigger to distract from Leigh's pregnancy. According to Ask Ausiello, Shonda Rhimes also had Lexie comfort eating over her anxiety as a in-joke for her pregnancy.
  • This season is the last one in which Richard Webber is Chief of Surgery for the entire season.
  • There are three episodes where Meredith Grey does not narrate the voice over:

Episodes

Reception

DVD Release

GreysAnatomyS5DVD

The "Grey's Anatomy: Complete Fifth Season – More Moments" boxset was released in region 1 on September 15, 2009. On August 23, 2010 and November 4, 2009, the DVD was released in regions 2 and 4 respectively.

Set Details

The boxset contains the 24 episodes of the season, with one extended. The DVD box contains 7 discs. Other set details are:

  • English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround)
  • Audio Commentaries

Special Features

Additional to the episodes, the season 5 DVD set also contains a couple of special features:

Gallery

Cast Promotional Photos

Posters

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