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
Alex stands a respectful distance away while Rob holds his wife's hand and says goodbye. Mere tells us, "We don't rest on our laurels or celebrate the lives we've saved in the past..." Rob gets up but then totally falls to pieces and Alex has to help him stand. Alex looks like anyone would to witness this level of grief: embarrassed and upset in his own right.
"...Because there's always some other patient who needs our help." This time the patient is Derek, and the medicine is tequila. He downs a glass, then pours one more for him and one for Mere, and as the camera pans out, he drinks and pours again.
Izzie has gathered the interns as Mere tells us, "So we force ourselves to keep trying, to keep learning..." Iz tells the interns how unmotivated, careless, selfish and distracted they are. I would be careful using many of those adjectives, lest someone call her out on a little bit of pot/kettle action right there. They are the people she'd trust least with her life, but that's how it works, since they are the babies of the hospital. She informs them that they are lucky to have a job where they save people's lives. And as she starts to put up films of a "Patient X," a 29-year-old female, we know that she is quite literally trusting these interns with her life. Because why ask any other of the tons of fully qualified doctors when you can make it a big secret game? She tells them that this was a patient who was misdiagnosed, and they'd better not make the same mistake again. Mere finishes, "...in the hope that maybe, someday, we'll come just a little bit closer to the gods our patients need us to be." Except maybe Derek, who might try aiming a little lower and being a reasonable adult for once.