Episode Report Card Lauren S: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Splat
By Lauren S | Season 5 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.23.2008
George walks over to the nurse's station looking wiped out and carrying a stack of charts. Lexie is chirping about missing him at lunch, and doesn't seem to pick up on any of his exhaustion. When he says he was doing charts since his interns don't respect him, she dreamily says that she'd respect him if she was his intern, like it would be the greatest honor in the world. I don't think she'd respect him so much as moon over him, and I don't think he'd respect her until she maybe grew a spine. Cristina's been listening and tells George that he gets no respect because he's not scaring them. "Just decimate one every few days. It's not rocket science." To illustrate, she yells for S2 so that she can quiz him about the surgery and humiliate him when he can't answer. He slinks off, and Cristina smiles and shrugs. Quietly, Lexie concedes, "It's brutal but it's effective."
Mere heads through a door and nearly collides with Derek, who couldn't sound more condescending as he announces that he won't do this with her. She asks what and he answers, "This silent fight." Well then, Derek, why not talk to her like an adult and try to maybe understand her really quite understandable anger? He announces that he's going to call the editors and have them print a correction to mention Mere and looks shocked to learn this isn't what she wants. She doesn't want credit because he knows she's angry, she wants it because he thinks she worked hard and deserves it. "You don't deserve it!" He counters. He tells her she's a baby with a lot of potential, but also a ton to learn. She reminds him that the trial was her idea, and then is saved by the beep of her pager. As she leaves she tells him she also hates the picture on the cover. Oh Mere, you were doing so well in presenting a fair argument before stooping to that level. But still, I have to ask, why is Derek such a sucky boyfriend this season? He knows her well, they're together, he knows kind of what he's in for, and so now he has taken to treating her like a child and that if he just perseveres, she'll be what he wants her to be. It's kind of disappointing after everything they went through to get to this point of being together.
Mere goes to see Bailey and Richard in the conference room and tell them that UNOS does not have a match. Richard drops his head into his hand while Bailey stutters and tries to come up with a solution, saying she'll talk to Mrs. Brian. Richard tells her that she absolutely can't do anything that can be seen as coercion, that the rules are clear and that they can't risk losing their status as a transplant center. Oh come on, after Izzie's shenanigans -- if they didn't lose it then, I can't imagine them losing it now. But it's good to see him thinking about actual rules and regulations and not just how to make themselves look good. Quietly he tells Bailey to let the patients go. "It's over." (In my head I added, "Sooooo over," because it was the exact same delivery.) Poor Bailey looks like she's just been punched in the gut.