Episode Report Card Lauren S: B | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Into the Wild
By Lauren S | Season 9 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.04.2012
Back in Seattle, he and Meredith meet with Callie and doc named Schacter, who I'm guessing is a well-regarded specialist based on the way that Callie beams and gets flustered when he compliments her work. She shows them Derek's current scans and explains that she went in and cleaned up the job that they did in Boise. Schacter is there to try and repair the nerve damage, and Derek optimistically adds that he thinks this surgery can get him back into the OR. Schacter gently tells them that there is hope, but at least conservatively he knows he can get Derek back to the offensive 80% we heard him yelling about earlier. The others in the room exchange Meaningful Worried Looks while Schacter tries to smile.
At home later Derek tells Meredith that he can teach or consult if he can't ever operate again but Meredith also won't hear that kind of talk from him. Her aggressive optimism is kind of scary. He reminds her that he is at least still alive and Zola still has both of her parents, and as she gives him a big hug he concludes that that is enough. Shockingly, at this moment in time, I actually do believe that he is happy with just that.
When yet another previously-unseen brain surgeon at Seattle Grace needs some help with a tricky tumor, Derek is there to look at the scans with her and Owen. He naturally has a better (and riskier) method than the one she wanted to go with and she is suitably impressed and plans to try it. Owen happily comments that this is why they keep him around and while in text that seems extremely condescending at a time like this, Derek actually seems to take it the right way. I totally don't think this mellow Derek will stick around, but it's a bit of a relief with all of the other tensions in the crash aftermath. The surgeon, Dr. Ramsey, happily invites Derek to join her and there's a rather awkward pause to accommodate the elephant in the room that has wrapped itself around Derek's arm. She invites him to observe but he tells her smoothly that he probably has a class to teach. It has to be an excuse because there's no way he'd have gotten set up with teaching this quickly, but Owen does assure him that he is invaluable.
He makes his way to the gallery and sits down next to Smash to observe from above. Smash is almost giddy over the awesome technique she's about to use, which he starts explaining to Derek until he kindly tells him he's got it, and holds off on pointing out that he's the real brain behind this operation. Ba-dum-bump. Don't forget to tip your waiters, ladies and germs. Pretty quickly something goes wrong and Ramsey's attempt to fix it is of course totally wrong. Derek runs downstairs and into the OR to yell instructions at her and while she follows his first recommendations she then thinks she's got it and uses a different technique than he suggests to stop a bleeder. She has one moment to bask in her success before the patient codes because she somehow doesn't yet know that Derek's brilliance is never to be questioned. This must mean she's a sub that's filling in while he is gone, and also that she's been living under a rock until now to not know to follow The Brilliance of The Shepherd.