Episode Report Card LTG: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT In The Immortal Words Of Neely O'Hara...
By LTG | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 04.16.2005
Cristina and Burke are in the hallway outside Nurse Fallon's room. Cristina asks if Burke has seen the overnight labs. He has, and he agrees with her that everything looks bad. She asks why he hasn't scheduled the Whipple, and he responds, "Excuse me? Are you a surgeon now?" She points out that she's spending a lot of time taking care of Nurse Fallon, and she wants to do something to stop her from dying. He makes delaying noises about her biopsy, and Cristina tells him to shut up: "I think you never intended to do the Whipple. I think, I think this entire thing has been bull, and you're behaving like the only reason she's in this hospital is to die." He just looks at her, and she seems to realize that she just hit the nail on the head. Burke walks away from her.
Jorge is just coming out of the MRI. McDreamy is looking at the results, and notes that there is indeed a tumor in the hypothalamus. Mere and McDreamy are both pretty unhappy with the news. Commercials.
McDreamy is breaking the news to Jorge and his wife. He thinks the best practice is to operate to remove the tumor, but notes that he won't be able to get all of it. Thus, the surgery will have to be followed up with chemo and radiation, which will probably give Jorge five to ten "good years," but which won't ever cure the cancer. Jorge tells him he wants to go with the surgery, but McDreamy tells him that there's a serious downside. The tumor is located in part of the brain where Jorge's memory and "personality" reside, so the surgery could cause memory loss and completely change who he is as a person. There's some kind of less-invasive surgical option (which sounded like it involved radiation), but it would only give Jorge three to five years of life. McDreamy and Mere leave the two of them to make their decision.
Nurse Fallon is sleeping in her room. She opens her eyes to find Mere sitting off to one side looking at her. Nurse Fallon greets her warmly. Mere tells her, "I told my mother about you. She remembers you very well." Nurse Fallon thinks that makes perfect sense, as "Ellis Grey never forgot a thing." Mere takes that in for a second, and then starts laughing. After a minute, she apologizes to Nurse Fallon, explaining that it's not really funny. And then Nurse Fallon cuts through the crap by asking what Ellis's diagnosis is. As we know, it's early onset Alzheimer's. Nurse Fallon knows Ellis well enough to realize that she's making Meredith keep her condition a secret. Mere: "You know my mother well." Nurse Fallon: "What a bitch." That sets them both laughing.