January 28th 2010

Grey's Anatomy Teen Pregnancy Palooza

Everyone loves a Grey’s Anatomy/Private Practice crossover and this past week’s back to back episodes were chock full of drama and, just our luck, teen pregnancy. As Mark Sloan (Big Sloan) grapples with the notion of becoming a father and grandfather at the same time, his daughter, Sloan Riley (Little Sloan) questions her ability to become a mother when she is still a child herself. When a medical condition further complicates the situation, Big Sloan asks Little Sloan to stay with him (and Lexie) after the baby is born and they will all take care of him together. Three generations of Sloans living together as one, big McSteamy family. How quaint!

Not so much for Lexie. As a twenty-something fresh out of medical school, Lexie is not ready to become a mother, let alone a grandmother. Sure, she did her job of domesticating Big Sloan enough to participate in a committed relationship, but she is by no means ready for early bird specials and canasta with the other grandmas. According to The National Campaign’s report The Fog Zone, 86 percent of young adult men and 88 percent of young adult women think it’s important to avoid pregnancy in their lives right now. Lexie has done her part in preventing pregnancy until the right time, so should she be forced to take responsibility for someone else’s consequence? Even if that someone else is someone she loves?

So, in true Grey’s style, the alcohol is whipped out and Lexie finds herself rediscovering her youth under the sheets with Alex Karev. Meanwhile Big and Little Sloan venture off to Los Angeles for some love from Addison Montgomery--both for Little Sloan’s even littler Sloan, and for Big Sloan’s, ahem, little Sloan. Is anyone still following here? Translation: Addison performs fetal surgery on Little Sloan’s baby and gets it on with Big Sloan on the floor of her office, all in the same episode.

Big Sloan tosses around the idea of moving to L.A. to be with Addison and join her medical practice, relocating the McSteamy family (minus Lexie, apparently) farther south. Unlike Lexie, Addison is ready for the responsibility of raising a child and is open to the idea of making it work with Big Sloan. Therefore, she gives him an ultimatum: raise your family here with me or go back to Lexie. When forced to choose, Big Sloan realizes his heart belongs to Lexie back in rainy Seattle, which leaves Addison, once again, dumped. If I’ve figured out the algorithm correctly, however, an Addison rejection usually means a hot guest star for Addison to rebound with in the next few weeks. If only real life were like that…

So the Sloans head back to Seattle and Addison’s business partner and friend, Naomi, tells her teen daughter Maya, who had been quietly brooding the entire episode, to find someone she’s comfortable with to talk to if she refuses to speak to her mother about whatever’s bothering her. Maya approaches Addison at the end of the episode and hands her an artifact of her bad mood: a pregnancy test.

ABC is all over the teen pregnancy storylines lately…and I can’t say I hate it. After all, nearly three in ten girls in the U.S. get pregnant before age 20, making this is a lot more realistic than most shows, right?