Episode Report Card Lauren S: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT At Last
By Lauren S | Season 4 | Episode 17 | Aired on 05.22.2008
Richard comes out of a patient room -- probably Andrew's -- and finds Hahn doing paperwork at the desk outside. He tells her that she should be celebrating that Cristina flew solo, because that means she's doing her job teaching Cristina how to save a life. Well, it really means Burke did his job by allowing his girlfriend to cover for him and teaching her what to do so that she didn't kill anyone a year ago. Neither of them are really shining examples of good educators. He tells her that residents are like puppies in that they're eager and enthusiastic, and she needs to learn how to teach them, "Without crushing their spirit." He tells her sternly that if she wants to work there, she has to be a better teacher. Without responding, she smacks her chart shut and walks away. Yet another shining example of the respect shown to higher-ups in this institution. Cristina is sitting at the other end of the desk and heard the whole thing -- she lifts up her head nervously to look at Richard and he tells her not to make him regret backing her up. She sits straight up and assures him, "No, sir. Absolutely not, sir. Thank you, sir." He just shakes his head and walks away muttering, "Puppies." She turns back around in her chair with a happy little shimmy and a smile on her face.
Alex is putting on Ava's shoes when Izzie pulls back the curtain, and introduces Ava to a psychiatrist who is going to ask her some questions while she and Alex talk. She then pulls Alex aside while Ava still has no reaction to any of this. Alex menacingly asks Izzie, "What did I tell you?" Izzie, with all the courage and authority she can muster, declares that Ava is her patient, she'll decide the treatment plan, and she's not releasing her without a consult. She tells him, voice shaking but with an even tone, that if he tries to take Ava away she'll have him arrested. He scoffs at the idea but she says, "Try me." He seems to realize that he might have lost the upper hand, and tries to be nicer as he tells her that he understands her concern, but that she's being unreasonable and he's got it. She puts her foot down and when he turns to go, she grabs his arm, causing him to growl, "What, you going to bodily restrain me?" She tells him she will if she has to, and asks if he'll hit a woman. "I will if I have to!" See, this is where I'm out with this character arc. He'll hit a woman, to take another woman away from the medical help she so blatantly needs. No matter how fucked up he is, his medical training wouldn't let him get that far. Izzie tells him, not evenly now, but pleading, that Ava's sick, she needs more help than he can give, and that he could do more damage by taking her home. He protests the entire time that he can take care of her, and that he's done this before. With a squeak in his voice he yells, "She's just going through a bad patch!" He insists that he can bathe, feed, change and watch her. "Until the bad patch is over, I can take care of her!" Starting to tear up, his voice cracks as he said he took care of his mom and he can take care of Ava. Izzie, horrified, whispers, "You've done this before." But where I think she feels sorry for him and suddenly gets why he's been such an idiot, he thinks it means she should understand that he can do it again. He keeps repeating that he's done it before, but says he was a kid then, he's a man now, and he'll do better this time. Izzie finally whispers to him that he can stop talking.