Episode Report Card Lauren S: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Pay No Attention to the Surgeon Behind the Curtain
By Lauren S | Season 8 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.20.2011
Meredith sees Clay waiting with Emma and asks to sit with him, which he happily accepts. Emma is doing a great job keeping up the tradition of ridiculously cute Grey's Anatomy babies with her little button nose. We then get the Serious Surgical Montage, that shows them waiting as things start to get tense in the OR. A vessel started to leak and Derek has to drain the tumor, so he asks for a needle. Lexie is shocked to see that he's going in blind but Derek tells her he doesn't have a choice. This show is full of cliched, overdramatic medical moments but usually I still get kind of sucked in; unfortunately something about Lexie's exclamation and Derek's tough but take-charge answer just made me laugh this time.
Dramatic Drums then play as Derek walks out of the OR with a serious, unreadable race. We follow him into the elevator, watch him heave a sigh, and then follow him to the waiting area where he finds Clay. After a moment Clay begs him to spit it out and Derek announces that they got the entire tumor. I really like Clay and for all of the OR dramatics, he tugs at my cold, black heartstrings a little bit as he smiles yet crumbles into sobs of thanks. Mere stands and watches them from afar and like their benevolent pink guardian angel.
Alex walks up to Teddy and Chuck in time to hear her tell him that once he's prepped, she'll see him in the OR to do his TAVI. Alex is stunned but Chuck just genially informs him, "Look. The lady had a bigger pair than you. No hard feelings, OK?" He then turns and tries to charm the young nurse helping wheel him to the OR. You know how you can get so frustrated with someone and then you realize it's because they are exactly like you? I think that Alex could easily be Chuck in 40 years, though he probably won't be wearing such natty silk jammies. You know he's going to be the stud of the retirement home, though. Alex demands that Teddy give him his patient back and insists she can't punish him for being cautious. She points back that she totally can because he's now scared after too many bad outcomes. "The only thing worse than a bad surgeon is a scared one." Alex has no comeback to that. He'll have to work on his snappy replies if he really wants to Chuck it up, though.
Tyler is back in his room, sporting a brand-new neck, and Callie jokes with him that now he'll actually be able to look girls in the eye. He's got a big bandage on his neck, probably from a breathing tube during surgery, and can't speak that well. But once his parents start hollering at each other again he searches for what little voice he has and whispers at them to get a divorce. They don't hear him and continue to holler at each other so he keeps trying and finally manages to put on his own version of April's scary voice to order them to get a divorce. This shuts them up long enough for him to say he understands that they stayed together until now, but that now that his neck is okay they can leave each other. Both assure him everything is fine but he yells that they hate each other so they need to go get a divorce. He then holds on to his neck, sore from the yelling, and Callie manages to politely shoo them away. Once they are gone she asks him how it felt, and he smiles and tells her it was awesome.