Izzie Makes Us Dizzy

Mention her name during our regular Thursday night "Grey's Anatomy" party and noses wrinkle, eyebrows raise, the criticisms fly. I'll admit, sometimes we're the first to start dishing the dirt on how annoyed we are by Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens on "Grey's Anatomy." But we're also ones to stand up for that blonde bombshell of a surgeon-wannabe played by Katherine Heigl.

That Izzie, she can be so polarizing.

Her fiancee dies. Love her. She gets his millions. Hate her. She donates the money to charity. Love her. She sleeps with her married best friend. Hate her.

In the two and a half seasons (the show was a mid-season replacement in 2004) "Grey's Anatomy" has been on the air, Izzie has managed to make us cry, make us laugh and make us boiling mad -- more so than any other character on TV ever has. One minute we're rooting for her, the next we're seething at her absolute childish behavior.



How can we describe the push/pull? Sometimes, when we're trashing Izzie during the commercial breaks,we feel a little guilty. Kind of like we're talking about our best friend behind her back and we know if she knew what we was saying it would hurt her feelings.

So here we offer our reasons to hate Izzie Stevens. And our reasons to love her.

REASONS TO HATE HER

-- Izzie Stevens is one childish doctor. When we find out that Dr. Callie Torres' real name is Calliope, she doesn't pass up the opportunity to make fun of her in the locker room in front of everyone. And she doesn't hesitate to let loose with Callie's secret (that she's worth millions) to the whole operating room. So. Seventh. Grade.

-- One of Izzie's best friends, Meredith Grey, is lying on the table dying after nearly drowning. Izzie gives a moving speech. She talks inspirationally about how she has faith Meredith will make it. But then it takes a dive. She turns to her best friend, George O'Malley, and tells him that his marriage to Callie was mistake. There's a time and a place for that. Priorities, Izzie. Priorities.

-- We hate to state the obvious, again, but she is a tall, beautiful blonde, whose patients are constantly describing her as "too pretty to be a doctor." She's pretty enough to be a model who earned enough money to pay off her medical school debt. Maybe we just want her hair.

-- Worst of all. She slept with a married man. Namely, aforementioned best friend George after he married Callie. Izzie and George downed a bottle of liquor and got drunk, drunk, drunk. Then they had sex, sex, sex. Not that George is innocent here, but that move had Izzie successfully alienating female fans everywhere who have been cheated on.

REASONS TO LOVE HER

-- There's the constant baking, cooking and all-around being motherly. She's making brownies. Or her famous muffins. Or an entire Thanksgiving dinner. Who can't like her with all that homemade deliciousness going on?

-- It hasn't been easy for Izzie. You want her to get a break. She had a daughter when she was 16 and gave the baby up for adoption. She doesn't keep in touch with her mother, but had the nerve to give mom a call. And she lost the love of her life, heart patient Denny Duquette, after she tried to save him. Just the image of Izzie curled up in her evening gown next to Denny's body makes us tear up.

-- Izzie is willing to stand up for herself. She's a strong woman. She tells other doctors they have to earn her respect. When a fellow intern photocopies a lingerie ad she was for the whole hospital to see, Izzie strips down to her underwear to show them that it doesn't bother her.

-- She makesus proud. When Izzie inherits millions from Denny she cries at the bank when it's time to cash the check. She uses the money to build a clinic to help people. She's able to drill holes in a man's head while he's trapped under a car, saving his life and earning herself the title "rock star."

-- You can see her humanity. After a hungover George remembers that they slept together, the two of them duck into the hospital storage closet to discuss it. But no words are exchanged. George just punches the wall. And after he bursts, she bends over in tears with a look of sheer torture on her face. We've all been there.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Caryn Rousseau is an asap reporter based in Kansas City, Mo. She can't decide between Dr. McDreamy and Dr. McSteamy either.

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