Winning a Battle, Losing the War (10 Apr. 2005)

A bike race injures several people, one of whom is left brain dead. Cristina and Izzie want to use his organs for organ donation, but they find the organ harvesting process an emotional one... See full summary »

Director:

Tony Goldwyn

Writers:

Shonda Rhimes (creator), Shonda Rhimes

Stars:

Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Ellen Pompeo	...	Dr. Meredith Grey
Sandra Oh	...	Dr. Cristina Yang
Katherine Heigl	...	Dr. Izzie Stevens
Justin Chambers	...	Dr. Alex Karev
T.R. Knight	...	Dr. George O'Malley
Chandra Wilson	...	Dr. Miranda Bailey
James Pickens Jr.	...	Dr. Richard Webber
Isaiah Washington	...	Dr. Preston Burke
Patrick Dempsey	...	Dr. Derek Shepherd
Keith David	...	Lloyd Mackie
Callum Blue	...	Viper
Claire Lautier	...	Shelley Davidson
Steven W. Bailey	...	Jeremy
Kathleen M. Darcy	...	Anesthesiologist
Zina Zaflow	...	Nurse

Storyline

A bike race injures several people, one of whom is left brain dead. Cristina and Izzie want to use his organs for organ donation, but they find the organ harvesting process an emotional one. Meanwhile, George deals with an over-flirtatious patient, and Meredith has to deal with Izzie and George moving in, Alex showing off, and keeping Derek at arm's length.

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Plot Keywords:

mother daughter relationship | anesthesiologist

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 April 2005 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mark Gordon Company, The, Touchstone Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Every episode of the show is named after a famous song. "Winning a Battle, Losing the War" is a song by Kings of Convenience.

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Quotes

Dr. Meredith Grey: Fools on bikes killing themselves. Natural selection is what it is.

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Soundtracks

"Wishful Thinking"
Performed by The Ditty Bops
Courtesy of Warner Bros.

User Reviews

George comes into his own

It is hardly a coincidence that the funniest character on Grey's Anatomy shares his first name with the funniest character on Seinfeld: George. Okay, so George O' Malley is nowhere near as selfish, chubby or balding as George Costanza, but he is every bit as insecure, as shown in all its glory in this episode.

What started like a normal day becomes a mess rather quickly: an annual bike race is causing several people to wind up at the hospital (the poor idiots think it isn't fun to ride on the sidewalks), including one man who is declared officially brain-dead in a short amount of time. At this point, Izzie and Cristina think it would be a good idea to remove his organs for donation, an idea that would certainly please Lloyd Mackie (Keith David), a cancer-struck friend of Dr. Webber who's been waiting for a new liver for eight months and kills time by flirting with the intern in charge of looking after him: George. In the meantime, Meredith keeps resisting Derek's offers to go out on a real date.

For the first time, what happens on the operating table has an effect on the young doctors and their ethics system - Izzie, in particular, starts to resemble a proper character instead of a mere caricature of juvenile idealism (then again, she used to be a model, so maybe it was deliberate), an element that will be explored further in later episodes. What really makes Winning a Battle, Losing the War memorable, though, is the interactions between George and Mackie: T.R. Knight seems to channel Jason Alexander most of the time, especially when he insists he isn't gay (a bit ironic, given the actor came out during the production of Season Three), while Keith, best known as a voice-over artist, exudes tons of charm with his relaxing, paced words, brilliantly subverting the "dirty old man" cliché.

Overall, pretty good: entertaining, occasionally moving, and clear proof of the show's fine eye for guest stars.

7,5/10