In Season 3 after George O’Malley’s father died, a grieving George ran off to Vegas and married Callie Torres. Weeks later he committed adultery with Izzie.
Callie Torres was madly in love with George O’Malley; to Callie, George was her McDreamy. George and Callie began dating in Season 2, Callie fell hard for George; but their relationship was short lived, as George kept choosing his friends over his relationship with Callie and George did not love Callie as much as she loved him. At one stage they broke up because Callie was sick of being second fiddle: however they reunited when George’s father became ill.
Callie and George Happily Married or Not?
Callie and McSteamy Get It On
In the beginning of Season 3 Callie breaks up with George. After work Callie heads to Joe’s bar for a drink where she runs into Dr Mark Sloan (McSteamy); world famous plastic surgeon who has just joined the staff at Seattle Grace. Callie ends up in bed with Mark and in the morning light she realises sleeping with Mark was a big mistake.
Meanwhile George has decided that he really wants to be with Callie and is trying to win her back. Callie will not talk to him, she feels guilty about her night with McSteamy and she is afraid of being hurt. Callie also knows that she needs to tell George the truth about her night with Mark, but Alex Karev beats her to it; having overheard a conversation between Mark and Callie. George doesn't believe it at first, but Alex is pretty convincing.
George’s Father is Admitted to the Hospital
George is paged to the ER by Callie who informs him that his Dad was in a accident in which he broke his collarbone. George misunderstands and thinks Callie wants to talk to him, but Callie interrupts to tell him about his father. It is later on discovered that George’s father has stage 3 stomach and esophagus cancer. To make matters worse Mr O’Malley also needs a heart valve replacement to ensure he is strong enough to survive the cancer surgery. Callie is determined to be there for George and his family, at the same time Callie is unaware that George knows about her night with McSteamy. When he confronts Callie about this, she tells him that she would never betray him; that she and George were broken up.
Sadly Mr O’Malley does not survive the cancer surgery; he never wakes up from the anesthesia. His body goes into organ failure and the family agrees to let him go in peace. George deals with his grieving by becoming a sex machine, which freaks Callie out, and Callie asks Izzie to help her look after George. Eventually Callie tells George she can’t have sex anymore and George gets down on one knee and proposes marriage. They run off to Vegas and seal the deal.
Izzie is Less Than Supportive of the Marriage
When Callie and George return to work and break the news to everyone; Izzie literally turns into Miss Bitch. Callie shows off her ring to the group and Izzie grabs her hand and says, “Wow, tiny diamonds are great, at least you know no-one will steal it.” Alex and Cristina are pulling faces in the background. Bailey steps in and assigns the interns to their cases. She tells Callie and George to take no notice of their jealousy and congratulates them again. However it is clear that Izzie has a real problem with George and Callie’s marriage. Later in the locker room Izzie asks Callie: “You’re not moving in; are you?” George loses it with Izzie, and yells “If you’re determined to drive Callie off you’ll do it and then I’m gone too.” Izzie is speechless for once. After watching that scene; so was I. This was a nasty side of Izzie I'd never seen before.
I had trouble watching this story arc because Izzie is a well-loved character as far as the fans are concerned, however this storyline caused many fans to hate Izzie. George effectively tells her to back off, but does she? No. Izzie keeps up her snide and nasty comments towards Callie, and eventually this blows up into a huge fight between Callie and George which ends with Callie kicking George out of their hotel room. He runs to Izzie, and tells her he needs to vent with alcohol, one thing leads to another and they end up sleeping together. George is so drunk he doesn’t remember at first, and Izzie is convinced that it means something because it was really great sex.
Izzie Feels Guilty; But She Wants George
Despite Izzie’s guilty feelings, she is convinced that George is the man for her. She tells herself that their love-making was something falling into place. Seems like she has forgotten all about George's wife Callie. When George remembers he confronts Izzie, and at first they are speechless. They meet up later in the locker room to talk. George realises that Izzie expects George to tell Callie so they can be together. George refuses to hurt Callie in this way and he chooses to remain in his marriage. Izzie is heartbroken, and does not accept George’s decision. Despite George telling Izzie to leave it alone, she refuses to listen and hounds George tirelessly.
George tells Izzie to back off
Izzie’s inability to accept George’s decision did not portray her character in a positive light. To the viewers she was a home-wrecker. Whether George’s marriage is a mistake or not is none of Izzie’s business, it is up to George to sort out his own feelings. George does not believe in divorce, so the thought of ending his marriage is very painful and if Izzie really was his best friend she would back off and let it be. Izzie is convinced that her best friend George is now the love of her life and George is confused about his feelings too. I can't tell you how much I disliked Izzie in these scenes, and I doubt Katherine Heigl liked it either. However it takes a lot of talent to play the villian, some actors love playing the bad guy because it makes their character interesting.
George Applies for a Transfer to Mercy West Hospital
Because George was feeling confused about his marriage and his feelings for Izzie he applies for a transfer to Mercy West’s surgical program. He tells Izzie he cannot be there at Seattle Grace and see her everyday. Izzie tells George that he’s making a mistake, as does Bailey in no uncertain terms. Izzie decides the only way to keep George from leaving is to tell him that she doesn’t have feelings for him. In the scrub room after surgery Izzie tells George that she’s not in love with him. Later on George is getting dressed for Burke and Christina’s wedding in the locker room and Izzie comes into the room. While helping George fix his tie; Izzie tells him she is in love with him. At that moment the other interns walk in and start getting changed for the wedding. Patricia come in and hands out the intern exam results. George looks at his results and sees that he has failed the exam; he does not say anything to the others.
"I'm in love with you George."
He skips the wedding and goes to talk to Bailey who advises him to repeat his intern year. He tells Bailey he can’t do that, and goes off to clean his locker out. He is about to leave when the new interns walk in and one of them stops to talk to him, he realises she is Meredith Grey’s half sister; Lexie. At the same time Burke is telling Christina he can’t marry her and Season 3 comes to an end.
George Returns to Seattle Grace to Repeat his Internship
When Grey’s Anatomy returns in Season 4, George has decided to repeat his intern year, however he still has not figured out what to do about his marriage. He goes to the basement to find Meredith to warn her about Lexie, her half-sister; however he doesn’t get the words out because Izzie is firing questions at him about what he did while on vacation. Izzie’s constant pressure is not what George needs at the moment. At the end of the first episode George goes to Izzie and tells her he loves her too, but we all know the truth. Izzie and George are not a match made in heaven. George most likely only thinks he loves Izzie because it is possibly the only way he can rationale cheating on his wife. Whether George loves Callie or not, it is not in his nature to cheat on anyone.
Izzie struggling with her guilt
When the others find out, it is obvious that Christina is upset with Izzie and given that Christina was left at the altar it is not surprising. Izzie tries to justify her actions, but Christina will not let her off the hook. Izzie argues that Meredith slept with a married man and Christina was okay with that. However we all know that Meredith did not know Derek was married and Izzie is grasping at straws. Some fans may think Christina was being mean and unreasonable, however it makes sense to me. You don't mess with someone who is married. George eventually tells Callie the truth and at first she tries to forgive him, however she finds this impossible and they go their separate ways. Things are tense with Callie and George, however it does not take long before they are talking again.
George and Izzie’s Chance at Love is Ruined
This changed George and Izzie’s friendship forever. George crashes at the hospital and stays away from Izzie for awhile out of respect for Callie. Eventually Izzie and George get together and when they try to consummate their relationship they are unable to make love like they did months before. No matter how hard they try, they cannot make the sex part of the relationship work and eventually they stop communicating. Eventually after trying to stay together they decide that it's just not their time. George eventually moves into an apartment and asks Lexie to be his room-mate.
Izzie and Georges’ so called once in the lifetime love affair fizzles out within a week. Pretty sad that a marriage had to be destroyed so George and Izzie could find this out. If Callie and Georges’ marriage was not to be, then it would have run its course and ended eventually. Most fans were upset by Izzie’s interference in George’s business and not many fans were happy with George and Izzie getting together. Alex Karev has always been the one that Izzie loved, and at the end of Season 5 Izzie married Alex.
Izzie’s Attitude Was Completely Out Of Character
George and Izzie were only ever meant to be best friends and Izzie’s non acceptance of George’s decision was totally out of character. Izzie is a happy, caring and giving person who is supposed to be catholic. At one stage she goes to confession; so why would a good catholic girl deliberately break up a marriage, which is what she did. Izzie may not see it this way, from her point of view her and George were in it together, however even George told her it had nothing to do with her. It was up to him to sort out his marriage with Callie. Izzie still did not get it; she kept on pushing. Obviously she did not ruin their marriage all by herself, Callie and George played their own parts in their marriage failing. Izzie's interference made her look like the bad guy in all of this and after this storyline happened, I never felt the same way about Izzie again. I think a lot of fans felt this way.
Callie is not happy
Katherine Heigl was brilliant during the cancer storyline, and this helped her character immensely. However when she walked away from Alex the first time in Season 6; all that work came undone. In-fact many fans called it “life imitating art.” And this a result of what is being written in the tabloid press previously and more recently.
Recently TV Fanatic reported Katherine Heigl has asked the creators of Grey’s Anatomy to come back and reprise her role as Izzie Steven’s; so perhaps we will get a chance to see the Izzie of old.
Copyright 2011; Janelle Coulton. Please contact me via email for permission to reprint.
