Episode Report Card Lauren S: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Shut Up Some More, Meredith!
By Lauren S | Season 5 | Episode 2 | Aired on 09.25.2008
Cristina is in a right state, asking her interns to read her x-rays. They seem to think the icicle is hitting nothing, but when Cristina demands to know if they know how to read an x-ray, Unnamed Intern #1 stutters that she always is the one to read the x-rays. It doesn't seem to sink in, at least yet, that Cristina is exactly the kind of "teacher" that she herself hates. She just dismisses them to go find "someone with a brain" to help her out. And who should sneak in, rolling up his sleeves over his delicious arms? Major Hunt, of course, who comments that her interns seem scared of her. Cristina argues that she's not scary, but as he's an outsider who hasn't yet learned to stop recognizing anything obvious about other people, he clearly knows she is totally scary. He looks up at her x-ray, and then silently stares at her, inching his face closer to hers, and then... YANKS the icicle out. She's stunned at what happened, and then tells him she didn't give him permission to do that. The Man of One Word answers, "So?" Mere comes in at that moment and Cristina knows just by the tone of Mere's voice that Vincent died.
Derek is standing with the Chief, looking through the window to Phil's room. While Richard points out that he's currently stable, Derek can't resist mounting his high horse and trotting him around in circles. He can't believe the Chief listened to some dude off the street, risky, could have killed him, yadda yadda. Richard calmly points out that Phil deserved a chance, and could also point out that Phil is, in fact, alive, but he doesn't and Derek continues. Finally though, Richard cuts him off and says in a slightly more authoritative tone that Phil deserved the best that they could give him. He then goes on to say that he's let a lot of things slide, and he's gotten soft. As Derek starts to say he's not soft, Richard goes on and muses about why he's gone soft. Why is that? I'd guess it's because he got comfortable at the top and stopped pushing the envelope to stay in a safe zone... oh, I'm sorry, no. He thinks he's gone soft because of MEREDITH. Wha? Because Ellis' daughter is an employee, he's stopped giving his all? For goodness' sake. Speak of the devil, in comes Meredith to report Vincent's death. She lists everything they gave him and interestingly enough, says, "We did everything we knew how to do, we just couldn't bring him back." What convenient wording that is for the Chief to blow up in her face! "You don't know how to do anything. None of you!" He says they walk around like it's their right to be there, but in fact they are there because he allows them to be. Derek furrows his brow a bit at that, as the Chief goes on to say that he only asked one thing -- to keep Vincent alive -- and she couldn't even do that. This seems a bit much to me, since I think that you can't actually decide if you're going to work hard enough to keep a severely injured man alive. Isn't there a point where the injuries are just too much? But I am just a recapper, so I don't know. Ah, Derek agrees with me. He cuts Richard off and asserts that he can't save everybody. I was right! Ha HA! Richard just growls that they should try harder, and walks out.