Episode Report Card LTG: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Big Finish
By LTG | Season 3 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.17.2007
Down in the O.R., Callie asks Derek if he can proceed without her. I know the interns don't actually do anything in a surgery (except, of course, for when they're covering up their boyfriend's inability to operate), but I would think the resident would be pretty involved -- especially in a procedure as complex as this one. Derek seems surprised, too -- but not because Callie is so essential. He just thinks it's odd that she would leave such a rare procedure when she was the one who brought the patient to him in the first place. Callie looks up at the gallery and sees Cristina run out, and she tells Derek that she doesn't want to leave, but she feels like she has to leave. She does, leaving McDreamy all on his lonesome to rebuild Heather's spine.
In a conference room, Bailey (with Meredith standing at her side) sits at one end of a table while the O'Malleys (mother, George, and the meatheads) sit at the other. Bailey tells them that she called the family in because she has to perform a procedure on Mr. O'Malley and wanted to inform them. George sees Callie outside the window and nods for her to come in. The medical details are not especially important (they need to replace Mr. O'Malley's breathing tube because it has developed a kink, but because of the surgery on his esophagus, there's a chance they won't be able to get a new tube in once they remove the old one), but the dynamic in the scene is very important. Bailey tries to explain things at the simple level she would for any patient's family, while George holds himself back from speaking to her in complex medical terms. All the while, Mrs. O'Malley and the meatheads ask the typical uninformed questions any normal person (who doesn't ever watch any medical dramas on television) would have. Before long, George finds his niche, filling in bits of explanation for his brothers and giving his mother cues about what is or is not troubling in Bailey's explanation. The end result of the meeting is that Bailey tells the family to be prepared for Mr. O'Malley's potential death in the next few minutes if the new intubation is not successful.
Cut to the O'Malleys and Callie all leaning up against a wall as they wait for news. One of the meatheads makes a face and covers up his nose, and then George and Callie start to look like someone just cut one. Which someone just did. It's the meathead on the end, who claims that being nervous makes him fart. And then he proves that he's really, really nervous as he proceeds to tear gas the hospital. He keeps letting them rip, and in seconds everyone else is reduced to laughter. Callie leans into George as she laughs and covers her nose with the hood of his sweatshirt, and we see that the two of them are holding hands.