Episode Report Card Lauren S: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Shit Hits the Fan
By Lauren S | Season 3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.22.2006
In the hallway, Meredith walks up to Cristina to ask if she can get in on the Hahn surgery, which takes Cristina aback; Meredith continues on, wondering who the Very Special patient is that's getting Hahn's services. On cue, they see Hahn shaking George's hand. Cristina very professionally pawns her patient off on Meredith and sprints away.
Over at the site of The Handshake of Certain Doom for Tremor-Prone Doctors, the Chief greets Dr. Hahn warmly. Callie joins the group to ask George about his dad; ever classy, George ignores her and gives his dad's chart to Hahn. The Chief and Hahn walk away and he begins to woo her to Seattle Grace, saying, "We could use another hand around here." If only he knew how literally! Ba dum bum. Don't forget to tip your waitress, folks. Alone with Callie, George shoots down her attempts to be nice and say she still cares about him. He finally gets to use the ammunition he's been packing and throws in her face the fact that she slept with Mark, leaving her stunned in the hallway.
Now in an exam room, Meredith and Addie work on Janelle. Addison tells her that the baby looks good, and asks if she should call the father. As Janelle is telling her that the dad doesn't and won't ever know about the baby, Callie barges in and demands to talk to Meredith. She can't leave, since she's prepping a chest tube for Janelle, but says she'll find her, seeming oblivious to the anger radiating off Callie like physical waves. Mark is suturing Janelle's face while Alex pulls glass out of her skin, and when he suggests he could handle the sutures, Mark informs him that when he can do it with barely a scar, then it will be his turn. Addison leans in to ask Karev if plastics is all he imagined it could be, and then Bailey walks in and announces that there will be no chest tube, since it turns out Janelle has a giant shard of glass piercing her heart. I think this episode is just a giant warning against vegetables, since clearly buying or selling them (as was Janelle's job) could land you in the hospital with a pierced heart or even dead. That's it -- it's nothing but hot dogs and M&Ms for me from here on out.
Meredith is looking for Callie but finds Derek looking at a CT scan, and he exposits for the benefit of the viewing audience that it's been quite a day with the fourteen injured and two dead patients. He has her look at the scan on the elderly driver, and she notes that he has spinal stenosis. Thank goodness for this recapper, they explain to one another about how this means his spine has narrowed from aging, which most likely is causing numbness in his legs, especially with the advanced case they can see on the screen. There's also no chance he couldn't know about it, and this could easily have caused the accident. At that moment Burke comes in, and after agreeing with their assessment, Derek asks him what's wrong with Cristina. Meredith looks worried, and Burke plays dumb. Which can't be hard, since he's acting like the biggest idiot on earth today. Derek explains Cristina's 5 AM visit that morning and her disappearing act on his patient, but only gets a "blah blah blah FINE" from Meredith and an "I'm sure I don't have any idea" and a smile from Burke before he flits out of the room. Once he's gone, Meredith asks Derek not to talk to Burke about Cristina, which only makes Derek more curious about what they spoke about that morning. Meredith honestly tells him that it was bank robberies, and then tells him to cut Cristina some slack. I'm a little bit confused why she does all this, but I think she just knows Cristina is having a personal problem and has no idea how far the problem really goes, so she's trying to give her space to fix it herself. To distract Derek, she gets flirty when she asks him nicely to drop it. He finally smiles and says, "You know what says 'thank you' like nothing else?" He then mouths, "Sex." I have no idea why Patrick Dempsey can light my britches on fire when he's all cute like this, but there's just something about him, and he does. I go to douse myself in ice water, and Meredith giggles and runs out.
The missing Cristina is, unsurprisingly, in the hallway outside the O'Malley room, watching the consult and trying to use her brain rays to hear through the wall. Meredith finds her but Cristina shuts her up. The Chief comes out and asks her to tell Burke he'd like to speak to him. She acts all bright, nice, and dumb, so really in absolutely every way not natural to her being, and the Chief tells her that the O'Malleys have chosen Dr. Hahn to do the surgery and that "Dr. Burke's been replaced." He leaves, and the music swells along with her worry.