Episode Report Card Lauren S: C+ | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Boxing Day
By Lauren S | Season 5 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.19.2009
Cristina is eating lunch and reading one of Ellis' journals. Weirdly, she's got two different bowls of salad on her plate. Could the prop department really come up with nothing else? Mere sits down and asks how her mom is, and Cristina replies, "Bitter. Angry. Genius." She thinks that with how much Richard and Ellis fought, they probably had great sex, which Meredith thinks is just wrong to hear. Izzie sits down and, still in her snit, asks if she was saying the entire healthcare system of America is wrong. Everyone ignores her, to my delight, and Cristina reads an excerpt where Ellis describes Campbell's technique as "adequate." She compliments Ellis for not continuing to do surgery when she got sick and adds, "Do me a favor and shoot me if I start making mistakes on patients and still think it's kosher to keep cutting." Alex comments that it sounds like she's talking about Derek. It seems a little bit bold, even for Alex, and Mere says his name warningly. Alex explains that his "guy" is right: Derek nicked the aneurysm and now is trying to cover his butt. Mere thinks his guy should shut up, but they're interrupted by both of their pagers beeping.
Jen is moaning and crying, grabbing her head as alarms ring all around her. Derek figures that the bypass must have blown. Rob can't wrap his mind around it and keeps saying that he doesn't understand, that Derek said the surgery was a success. Mere tells him that they'll give him an update as soon as they can as they wheel Jen out to surgery.
The swelling in Jen's brain isn't going down, and Derek is all kinds of agitated. Meredith says his name to try and calm him, but Derek just declares that he needs to take out her temporal lobe. It turns out that won't kill her, but Addison points out that she could lose some speech and memory. Derek has done it before to stop seizures, but Meredith asks if he's done it before for this. Derek declares, "I'm doing it now." Well, why not -- first time for everything, and the charming pregnant lady is right there! The baby goes into distress again, and Addison tries to get Derek to explain himself.
Alex and Meredith get the unenviable job of going to update Rob on the surgery. As they walk towards the waiting room, Alex asks Mere what they say when Derek is in there cutting out part of his wife's brain, and Mere says they will tell the truth: Derek is doing everything he can to save his wife and child. They get to Rob, and Alex gives him the baby update, that he's having heart fluctuations but they're doing everything they can to avoid early delivery. Rob asks then about Jen, and Meredith can only say they're trying to get the bleeding under control and won't know more until it's over. She's unfortunately speechless when Rob asks her to tell him that Jen won't die, and Alex finally jumps in and says just what Mere did, about Derek doing everything he can to save Jen's life. Rob asks again for assurance, and Alex repeats himself. As they book it back to surgery, Meredith thanks Alex and he just replies, "Your guy sucks." Yeah, he's not wrong.