Seattle magazine’s Best Doctors issue. [#]. Maybe this year, Seattle Grace!

The joy of nitpicking Grey’s Anatomy has diminshed substantially since the first couple episodes. With the “establishing” storylines out of the way and the cast and crew out of town, there are just fewer opportunities for silly details. Sure, we get a few early morning flyovers and the space needle from afar, but for now the fun has slowed.

This week’s episode did revolve around a rather big conceit. Namely, the wide readership of Seattle Magazine. Amazingly, everyone in the hospital seemed to be reading it, which felt like a pretty amazing overestimation of its popularity. Perhaps it was the annual roundup of the best doctors?

The “point” of everyone reading Seattle is that the issue includes an ad starring our favorite alien, Isabel, posing in something much less than scrubs. This introduces the bizarre plot point of the week: that guys don’t like attractive doctors. Dopey George doesn’t feel like the occasional tampon run is worth having Dr. Model walking around the house in revealing undergarments. Brash Intern Guy makes fun of her for being hot. Mr. Prostate Cancer Patient isn’t at all happy about having a lingerie model in the O.R. with him. Has the world gone mad?

(after the jump, a rundown of what happened in “Seattle’s” favorite fictional hospital)

Sandra Oh Sees Dead People: In a case of the early worm not getting the worm, Dr. Sideways tries to get in on a procedure called “the Whipple” by waking up a patient at an ungodly hour to do a pre-surgery workup. It turns out that she has met her match. The patient is a straight-talking much beloved nurse with pancreatic cancer. Later, we learn that she was the long-time scrub nurse for Meredith’s mom, prompting a bit of exposition and backstorying about how Mother Grey was tough as nails and lived for her work. In a further sad twist of fate, it seems that while Alzheimer Grey can’t even remember her own family, her memories of Pancreas Cancer Scrub Nurse are as clear as day (even though they weren’t exactly traditional BFF at work). It gets even worse when we learn that the nurse has not returned to the hospital for treatment, but to live out her last days. Another strike for Sandra Oh, whose only exclusive activity of the show is calling the beloved nurse’s time of death and almost showing a sliver of emotion — either about failing to save the terminal patient or about not getting to do any fancy surgeries on her.

Even Pinheads Get the Blues: While Sandra Oh is stuck doing enemas, Seattle Grey lucks into yet another fascinating surgery (the benefit of being the title character). This weeks patient rolls in with a head full of nails. When Patrick Dempsey pulls them out before an audience of adoring fans and without much trouble, there’s still about half hour left in the show; so clear sailing seems unlikely. The clock doesn’t lie — It turns out that he has a very scary brain tumor Despite Seattle Grey’s best attempts to convince them that memory loss is no fun, he and his wife decide to have the tumor (and his personality) removed as a tradeoff for 5-10 years versus less memory destroying shorter prognosis that would result from being bombarded with gamma rays. It’s not clear whether they explained that gamma rays don’t really turn people into the Incredible Hulk.

Dr. Model Keeps It Up: As mentioned earlier, Dr. Model had a sexy magazine ad this week, leading to all sorts of grief for her. The drama culminates when her patient reveals that he “fantasized” [Ed: Is that what they're calling it these days? -- when the FCC's watching, they do.] about her and thus doesn’t want her seeing his private parts. Brash Intern Guy uses the photocopier for inappropriate purposes and plasters the walls of the hospital with her photo spread, causing snickers among the male cohort and prompting Isabel to respond with a locker room striptease/smackdown. It’s hard to argue with the logic of posing for pictures to avoid crippling medical school debt. Once she’s come to terms with her hotness, she saves the day for her masturbating patient by persuading the conservative surgeon to preserve his special nerves while removing the cancerous prostate.

George in the Roommate Jungle: The roommate drama wraps up with George getting used to taking showers while Isabel steals his toothbrush and watches, despite B.I.G.’s assertions that she’s “shrinking his salamander,” emasculating him, and treating him like a sister. After all, he’s secretly in love with Grey and not Dr. Model. Bad news for him, since just as he’s coming to terms with the girls, Meredith is coming to terms with getting coffee with Patrick Dempsey outside of the hospital envorons.

Tune in next week for a Very Exciting Party! Episode. Even doctors want to have fun. Grey’s Anatomy airs on ABC on Sunday nights at 10 pm