Episode Report Card Lauren S: A- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Pigging Out
By Lauren S | Season 5 | Episode 6 | Aired on 10.30.2008
They all get to work on Tori, and there's a montage of guts. While Richard is wrist-deep in the girl's abdomen, a nurse comes to interrupt him and tell him that Tori's dad is on the phone, asking for an update. She seems to ignore the fact that they are all wrist-deep in Tori's abdomen, and Richard needs to point out that he's too busy to talk to Dad. Then there's some minor disaster and a bunch of alarms start ringing -- they call for more blood, and Hahn declares that if her aorta is in the same bad shape as whatever they were just working on, all the blood in the world won't save her. The power of positive thinking!
Lexie is finally working on a pig rather than stroking his snout. She has decided to name them -- she's working on Wilbur, whose pulse is really high, but Reggie and Babe are both doing well. Cristina overhears and calls out that they are not to name the pigs, since they are subjects, not pets. Their job is just to keep them alive. Under her breath she adds that they need to be alive so that Hunt can eat his words at the end of the day. In a loud voice she advises, "If you want to call them something, call the 'Sausage.' Or 'Prosciutto.'" But before they can re-christen him, Wilbur crashes. He's already got a chest tube in, but she realizes she needs to open him up with a full thorachotomy. I always can't watch when humans have procedures that I myself have had, but it's kind of weirdly compelling to think I might see it on a (fake) pig.
In Tori's OR, it's time to take out the organs. On the count of three, they all get their hands under a pile of intestines and something that looks suspiciously like a frozen hamburger patty, and heave the gloppy pile into a bowl. I'm very surprised that they let Mere handle organs so soon, but fortunately everything stays off the floor this time. The nurse comes in again to pester Richard, actually sounding perturbed that he won't come talk to Tori's dad. Seriously? I mean, dad can't physically get in the OR to do anything to Richard, and Richard is busy operating on the man's daughter. It seems to me he could call all he wants with the same result. But Bailey actually tells him he needs to go talk to them (all the better to have a big emotional revelation, I guess) and reminds him that he put her in charge. Sighing, he storms out.
Derek and Mark are finally getting to take their turn with Alex's patient, and are dismayed to see that he used skin glue. Alex just tells them that Hunt wanted to get things taken care of fast, and Derek responds indignantly that the guy could lose half his face. Mark adds that he can't do [something-or-another to do with his skin] and tells Alex that if he can't take care of it, he needs to call someone who can. Alex defends that Hunt, who he seems to admire quite a bit, says that being in the ER is like being in the field. Mark just asks what qualifies the hospital as a war zone. "Our undermanned gift shop? The lukewarm drinks from the coffee cart?" Derek dismissively calls Hunt a meatballer, and Mark explains to Alex that as a trauma guy, he just slaps things together.