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
Meredith gets home that night to find blood all over her kitchen island and floor. Look at that, Alex is taking such good care of Ava that he can't tell the owner of the house, who was probably 100 feet away when he came in, that she's going to get home to find blood everywhere. Nice. Mere gets down on her hands and needs and scrubs the floor, continuing her work even after all of the blood is gone.
Richard goes to check on Andrew and finds George sitting next to him; it turns out he never went home, assuming Richard was tired but knowing Andrew would need to be monitored, he decided to stay and take care of it. George gives a full technical report of how he's doing, including anxiety meds that were issued and urine output. It's all very glamorous. Richard comments, "Good job!" and turns to go, but George pulls open the chart and mutters to himself, "It's not a good job." He gets Richard's attention, and once the Chief is focused on him, George says that monitoring urine output, giving anxiety meds, and running labs for Meredith are all not good jobs for him. Richard just listens as George goes on to say he's good at his job, and the Chief knows it, and that it would be different if he was bad at it or if he'd struggled and was lagging behind the others. He says his personality isn't hardened like the others, it's not the personality of a surgeon. "Maybe that's why you made the mistake of not thinking that I deserve a second chance when everyone else around here has gotten one! But, sir, it is a mistake. Because I'm excellent. I'm excellent at my job." He finishes that he knows he failed the test, but he deserves a second chance. It's nice to see this point brought to light, with all of the massive screwups of each of his friends just seeming to not make a whit of difference. He goes back to the chart and after a moment, Richard tells him, "Okay." George repeats it and Richard clarifies, "Okay, you can retake the test." He leaves, and George sighs and repeats, "Okay," to himself, clearly coming down from having just given that speech to his boss' boss.
Beth's parents are by her bedside, fretting about her not waking up. Mere explains that it can take longer with brain surgery, but they ask her if not waking up is a possibility -- asking if she could still die. It seems like a bit of a strange question given everything they've been through and know, but I'll let this one go since a parent whose child has just gone through brain surgery might not have all of their own wits about them. Mere tells them she doesn't want to worry about that until they have to, so Beth's mom asks when that will be. Mere just looks at the girl in the bed and doesn't answer.