Episode Report Card Lauren S: B | 5 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Meddling Mama
By Lauren S | Season 8 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.13.2011
He seems to have agreed since we next see him in the stairwell. Owen joins him and tells him that they are starting the surgery, then sits down on the step just down from him. Much like the male hug/back-clap, this is a way for him to show he's there to talk but not going to sit too close. Derek admits that he knows he should be with Meredith since he can see that she is in pain too, but he can barely look at her because he still considers this entirely her fault. Yes, and he's been nothing but the picture of perfection through this entire ordeal. Gah! Sorry, I've said my peace, and I'm going to try and make it through the rest of this episode calmly and gracefully, like Catherine Avery would like. Derek adds that every time he thinks he's forgiven Meredith something happens that puts him right back at the beginning of all his anger. Owen tells him that he and Cristina just went through something difficult too, so he knows how he feels. He adds that the girls don't make it easy for them, and Derek chuckles while both of them furrow their brows deeply over their difficult, maddening wives.
Richard finds Bailey and brings up Zola and her poor tiny obstructed bowel. He tells Bailey that this can't be easy on Meredith, and kooky music starts up so we know we are to find Richard's persistence charming. I find it admirable that he wants to help Meredith but I think that he knows Bailey well enough to know that this approach is never going to get him anywhere. She knows this too and asks if he's really trying to use their sick baby as a reason to put Meredith on her trial. Richard pleads with Bailey to help her, and adds that Bailey is the moral compass of the hospital. Normally I'd think that even she would agree but not these days -- she starts to berate herself for not being moral in the least and adds that she's using one man like a plaything while making another bribe Pierre to fix his schedule around her. Richard seems incredibly alarmed at what he just had to hear and what more might be coming, while Bailey reiterates that she's using one man as a plaything, "Often! And enthusiastically!" Richard finally manages just to suggest she could just stop. He then reminds Bailey that he promised Ellis on her deathbed that he would look after Mere but this does nothing to sway Bailey, so he finally leaves with visions of playthings unwelcomly dancing in his head.
Back in the OR, April can't stop apologizing while Catherine just wants a moment to think about how they might salvage the situation now that she has no beautiful dorsal vein to work with. She thinks that they could take a vein from Ryan's leg as a substitute, but Mark has a better idea that I totally couldn't really make out. He has a bunch of reasons why his way would be better, but Catherine is wary. Mark is persuasive, though, and once she finally agrees to go along with it -- provided he's truly comfortable -- Mark is totally jolly as he tells her he's so comfortable, he's going to have her son do it. Jackson has earned the right to give his mom a short but very pointed look, I'd say.