Episode Report Card LTG: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT L.A., L.A., A Hell Of A Town!
By LTG | Season 3 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.02.2007
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.During the first half of our special two-hour event, there's a lot of set-up, and not much payoff. At Seattle Grace, Meredith's stepmother visits the clinic to try to resolve her acid reflux and the resulting hiccups. Some wonder drug helps temporarily, but Meredith ends up suggesting a surgical procedure. It seems to have worked, but she ends up coming back with complications. Meanwhile, both Cristina's mother and Burke's mother have descended on their little love nest to plan a big, fancy wedding. Although Cristina agreed to marry Burke on the assumption that it would be a very small ceremony, he didn't really believe her and enlisted both mothers to plan the wedding. Cristina is uncharacteristically passive, and asks Meredith, Izzie, and Callie to be her bridesmaids. But once she realizes that Burke is in on the whole deal, she seems a bit more resistant. In other Seattle Grace news, Crush undergoes a neurological exam to try to identify the source of her amnesia, and Derek uncovers some kind of cerebral bleeding. It will take surgery to resolve it, and there's a chance that surgery can restore her memories. Meredith tries to convince Derek that she's now a happy shiny person, and he seems to buy it. And Mark is all sad because Addison has taken an unexpected leave of absence. And where has Addison gone? To Los Angeles, where her best friend is a fertility specialist at a fancy private practice populated by the stars of every show TWoP has ever recapped. Addison is there because she wants to make a change in her life, and has decided that having a baby is the best way to do it. While Addison's in L.A., she seems to have a small breakdown, and hears voices. She also discovers that while she spent the last year wallowing in her own misery and ignoring her friend, said friend also got divorced. While Addison is catching up with her friend and her ex-husband, she helps out in a complicated surrogacy situation -- it seems the surrogate had sex with a bunch of people the same week she was implanted with a fertilized egg, and nobody knows who the father is. To top it off, there are serious complications with the pregnancy. And after Addison delivers this news to the surrogate and all the other interested parties, her friend tells her that she's most likely infertile. Hmm, I wonder what kind of major life change Addison will make instead of having a baby? Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously, Addison broke the no-sex pact she made with Mark, and then got her heart broken by Alex. Crush took a little too much vicarious pleasure in the Alex/Addison love story. Cristina agreed to marry Burke, but made it clear that she wanted a small, simple ceremony. Derek was kind of an ass to Meredith. And George proposed to escape from his self-made adulterous hell by running off to another hospital.
Meredith V.O.: "The dream is this: that we'll finally be happy when we reach our goals." It's dark in Seattle, and Meredith is sitting on her couch, desultorily channel-surfing. The V.O. tells us that as soon as we get the dream, we immediately start dreaming of something else. Izzie wanders into the living room and asks Meredith why she's up. Meredith, clearly rubber and not glue, asks Izzie the same question. It turns out neither of them can sleep. And then Alex throws himself on the couch next to Meredith. Izzie: "Why can't you sleep?" Alex: "No reason." Mere V.O.: "Because if this is the dream, then we'd like to wake up. Now, please."
The sun is up, and Cristina is woken up by some loud laughing coming out of the living room at the Burke/Yang household. She peeks out of the bedroom door, and we see Burke yukking it up with Mama Burke in the kitchen. That's scary enough, but then she hears her mother's voice: "Cristina, stop lurking. Come and say good morning to your guests." Cristina hides the terror she must be feeling at this sight and says, "Good morning, mother. Good morning, Mrs... . Mama." She looks around the apartment and sees bouquets, fabric samples, and guest books scattered all about the place. It's like a wedding planner exploded. Cristina: "What? What is everyone doing here so early?" Mama Burke: "Early? Darling, by the look of the calendar we should have been here six months ago." Mama Yang: "She doesn't understand what goes into planning a wedding." The two Mamas head into the living room. Burke walks up to Cristina with a cup of conciliatory coffee in hand: "Breathe. Sip, then breathe." If my boyfriend sprung both of our mothers on me without warning, it would be more like "stab, then bury."
At Seattle Grace, the Chief and Derek gossip about the fact that the police have still not found Crush's family and that she still hasn't regained any memories. Derek notes that now that Crush's other medical problems have been resolved, he'll do a neurological workup and see if he can identify the cause of her amnesia. Mark joins them and, sounding slightly panicked, asks, "Has anybody seen Addison?" Richard tells him that she's gone -- she took a leave of absence. Mark: "Why? I mean, did she tell you why?" He's suddenly aware that Derek is watching him. Richard: "All she said was she needed some time. To be happy and free, if I recall correctly."