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The secret is out, folks. Well, actually a lot of secrets are out, but the big one is that Burke has been hiding a tremor ever since he came back to work. George calls in Dr. Hahn of the Denny-LVAD-two transplant patients-Burke shooting day to consult on his dad's surgery and decides to have her do the operation. Izzie is assigned to watch Mr. O'Malley, and manages to spill the beans about nearly every major detail of George's life to his parents, and then to make the gravest mistake of telling them that Burke is the best heart surgeon they could have. They decide, then, to switch the surgery back to Burke, so George retaliates by telling them about Izzie's probation. The reason Izzie was there in the first place is that all of the other surgeons were busy taking care of a ton of extra-bloody patients from a giant car accident. Cristina is separated from Burke, and between that and the arrival of Dr. Hahn, she is freaking out that George told the Chief all that has been going on. As it turns out, this wasn't the case at all: the Chief wants to retire, hire Dr. Hahn in Burke's place, and recommend Burke to the board to become the new Chief of Surgery. Unfortunately, Burke feels guilty, and he and Cristina do a lot of yelling that they're sure to regret, each blaming the other for the surgery situation. By the time they are performing a surgery later that day, he sends her to the other side of the table and eventually dismisses her. That's all she can handle and, covered in her bloody surgical scrubs, she goes to meet with the Chief and spill all the beans. Although Burke shows up later himself to talk to the Chief, it's too late: Burke seems to be in a lot of hot water, and Cristina is out a place to live. Thank goodness, then, that we get some Thanksgiving happiness when Meredith and Derek make it through a blame fight about who knew what with Burke and Cristina and make up by finally having sex again. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Grey's Anatomy, George's dad was admitted for surgery, and George wanted Burke to be his surgeon, which made Cristina tense. We met Dr. Hahn. Adele wanted the Chief to retire, Derek and Meredith were having bubble bath time but no sex, Cristina was denying that Burke has a problem but George saw his tremor, Callie slept with Sloane and confided (sort of) in Meredith, Cristina reiterated to George that everything will be fine with his dad but later told Burke that "George knows." Seriously, if these get any longer they're going to have to double the length of each episode, not just add ten minutes on holidays.
The episode starts with the sound of a heartbeat, then a flash to white, then a horrified-looking Cristina. Things must be in chaos, since she's got voice-over duties this week. "As doctors, we know everybody's secrets. Their medical histories, sexual histories, confidential information that is as essential to a surgeon as a ten blade." Over her voice are flashes of her and Burke having hot sex, but then another flash and the camera pulls back to Present Cristina, showing her covered in blood. "And every bit as dangerous. We keep secrets. We have to. But not all secrets can be kept." The heartbeat is building, the scenes are flashing faster and faster into a muddle, and finally she begins to sprint down the hall as a beeping machine joins in with the heartbeat. The scenery then rewinds to a shot of Seattle.
Derek and Meredith are hanging out in bed, and he does a crossword while she's munching on dry cereal. He comments, "Oh, this is good. No sex, crossword puzzles... When's the knitting start?" Jovial, hanging out, sexually frustrated Derek is SO CUTE. I want him doing crossword puzzles in my bed, and I actually mean that literally. Meredith giggles and tells him that good things come to those who wait. At that he turns and grabs her and there's some kind of adorable canoodling. I'm not made of stone, nor have I had any good making out in a while, so I'm susceptible to this kind of affection on television. There's a knock at the door and Cristina comes in, bundled up in sweats and a scarf and breathing heavily. Once she establishes that she's not interrupting sex, she orders Derek out of the room. He's surprised, but Meredith enforces the order. Cristina gets immediately under the covers, tennis shoes and all, as Mer asks why she's all sweaty, and Cristina says she jogged. Meredith's worried, telling her, "We don't jog. You don't jog." When Meredith says her name quietly, Cristina asks her what she would do in a scenario where Derek robbed a bank, she was the getaway driver, but then only Derek got caught. Would she turn herself in or let Derek take the fall? Meredith is totally confused and having a hard time following, and wonders whose idea it was. "I don't know. His. But you helped! I mean, could you live with yourself? If you just walked away, and let the man you love take the fall?" Meredith just says that if Cristina tells her what's going on, she might be able to help. She gently prods her friend, but Cristina has had as much sharing as she can handle and leaps out of bed to leave, adding, "I jog. Sometimes. Without you."
At the bottom of the stairs, she comes face-to-face with George and asks about his dad, then assures him he has nothing to worry about. George tells her, stone-faced, that he isn't worried "anymore." To hear his voice, you'd think he contacted his Godfather, or something. It's ominous. Cristina asks what he means, but before she can find out that he just sacrificed his soul, Izzie butts in to bitterly bitch about Cristina and Meredith having cool best friend time. She's oblivious to the tension, acting every bit as blonde as her hair looks today, and no one answers. She finally picks up on something, but instead of asking what's going on, she just mutters that probation makes her cranky. Derek walks in, George announces Cristina's imminent departure, and Derek runs off to more canoodling. There's giggling from upstairs and Izzie looks nearly murderous. Again, Izzie -- things to think about before you cut a patient's LVAD wire to move him up the donor list so that he's a healthier shade of pink and wearing more than a hospital gown to your wedding.
At the hospital, the Chief watches Cristina and Burke having a seemingly tense conversation in the hallway. Burke asks Cristina why she's acting "like the sky is falling," and makes sure to drip with condescension. She snaps, "The sky isn't falling. It already fell. George knows." Burke just tells her about how he's fine, and hasn't tremored in a week, and is doing fine in surgery, but she reminds him he's doing fine with her there to keep an eye on everything. She's worried that this isn't another anonymous surgery, it's George's father, but Burke just uses my favorite word and assures her everything is fine. Ignoring this, Cristina goes on about coming up with a story and a strategy until Burke actually laughs in her face. "Cristina! You're too intense!" I seriously don't even understand this, other than that it's obviously some sick coping mechanism of his, but coming from a surgeon who has been relying on his young, inexperienced girlfriend to help him fake his way through his job the past few weeks -- a job, mind you, that if done wrong could kill someone -- it makes me want to throw him up against a wall by his neck. She seems to want to also, and growls at him basically about how she's covered his ass by learning procedures years ahead of her level and juggling his schedule, to which he does not respond well. He claims he's been covering her as well, and reminds her that they are "a team," sounding extremely threatening. He maintains that he wouldn't be in surgery if he didn't think he could do the job, and basically tells her to pull herself together. She beeps and runs.
Bailey gives the kids the rundown while they all pull on yellow gowns. In what I'll refer to as A Very Special Santa Monica Farmer's Market Story, a driver plowed his car into a fish market and injured a ton of people. Izzie shows up, excited to help, but it turns out she was paged by accident and Bailey sends her off to tend to George's father; it seems George isn't working that day since he switched shifts with Meredith. Cristina jumps in to not-at-all-suspiciously say that's her case, but Bailey needs her, and Izzie is sent off with instructions to not do "anything other than breathe or watch." I get how this works when she's following someone around, but I'm confused as to how useful this is when she's sent somewhere by herself. Is she just supposed to pose in a decorative stance to amuse the patient? Oh wait, that's how she got herself through med school. I guess we'll see. Cristina continues to natter on about being in on her attending's surgery until a thoroughly pissed-off Bailey informs her, "Well, if and when YOUR attending asks for YOU, then YOU have to go. Don't you." I really hope one of these days Bailey actually does something to Cristina rather than just threatening her with something she can't even really enforce, like last week's ban on surgery.
The effects department went all-out on this week's blood budget. There's chaos as people are brought into the ER. Cristina ends up with Callie and Derek on an elderly man with his wife leaning over him, moaning about the car that almost killed him. Derek assumes he was hit by the car, but is corrected that this was actually the driver that caused all the mayhem. The wife won't hear of it and continues to yell and moan about the car lurching out of control and causing the accident all on its own. Bailey tries to send her to make a statement to the police, but she's having none of it and Bailey eventually relents. Throughout, the wife can only moan about what a good driver her husband is. Cristina looks up from what she's doing to see Meredith working with Burke, who is wrist-deep in someone's chest. Addison looks up from a patient she's questioning to see a woman, covered in cuts and blood, eerily standing in the doorway. Meredith and Burke call time of death on their patient, and Dr. Hahn comes in to snark a hello to Burke. Addison finally makes it over to the woman, who is able to say, "I think I might be parked in a red zone... " before collapsing. It's some well-done ER chaos.
The girl is conscious again and now in bed, Alex picking glass out of her leg while she explains that she literally flew through a window to him, Addison, and Mark. The wife of the driver comes over; her name is Mrs. Dickerson, and flying-glass girl, Janelle, knows her. Mrs. Dickerson asks her if she needs anything and hovers, which raises a bit of a red flag in my eyes -- a red flag with giant sequined letters reading, "Guilty!" while confetti shoots out of the flagpole and a marching band plays beneath. Janelle explains that Mrs. Dickerson is her best customer and then the doctors manage to shoo her away. Mark wants to know why Addison is there and shoos her away, too, until Janelle comments that she hopes Mr. Dickerson didn't kill her baby. Mark gets Addison's high-heeled self back over in a jiffy. Janelle finally seems to take in her surroundings and woozily comments, "The doctors... hot men. They're all really hot. They are, aren't they? It's not just cause I'm wearing a plate glass window?" Addison assures her, "Nope, they're man candy." I'm glad there's finally a show that will admit they have an unusually high quotient of smoking hot employees rather than passing it off as an everyman's hospital. Boss Man Candy flirts with Addison, and Janelle coughs up blood. Yummy.
Izzie enters the O'Malley room, and since George ignores her, his dad introduces Mrs. O'Malley, played by none other than Debra Monk, known and loved by me as Maureen's mom in Center Stage. Once again, everything that is good in this world comes back to that fine motion picture. Mrs. O'Malley knows Izzie's name since she's one of George's roommates, which she refers to as some kind of "set-up." Mr. O'Malley has clearly heard this before and assures her that this is how the kids are doing it these days: "Men and women live together without being... men and women." Izzie laughs as Mrs. O'Malley clarified, "So, it's nothing sexual." The word "sexual" coming out of his mom's mouth is what finally makes George acknowledge that he's not the only person in the room, and he blows up at her as Izzie laughs it off and assures her that it's not. The Brothers O'Malley have been sent back to work, so the room is a lot quieter and the collective IQ a lot higher. Izzie explains that she's going to be prepping Mr. O'Malley for surgery with Dr. Burke. Mrs. O'Malley lights up at the sound of his name and Izzie agrees that he's wonderful, all of which makes George tense up even more than normal. At that moment George gets a page, which confuses everyone since it's his day off. He doesnât explain it but takes off on his mysterious mission. Once he's gone, his mom hopefully asks again if there might be anything going on between him and Izzie. She just wants Georgie to be happy, is all.
In with the newly dead guy, Burke asks Dr. Hahn if she would have done anything differently than he did. His surgical prowess is proven when his rival tells him, "Given the size of the wound, I would have given up sooner." She then asks him how he's doing, referring to the last time they met, which resulted in donor-organ shenanigans and an unfortunate bullet to the arm. She is apparently at the hospital to do a consult, and the two continue to verbally spar.
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.
She and Burke have a talk in the stairwell as she paces. Burke's not fazed at all and has the gall to tell her that Hahn doing the surgery is "a good thing if it means you'll stop obsessing." Way to treat the girlfriend who is worried about your professional career and reputation. Cristina is adamant that George must have told Richard why he wanted Hahn to replace Burke, and adds that he could even be considering her as the head of cardiothoracic surgery. This apparently triggers her memory, and only now does she pass along the message that the Chief wants to speak to him. She again talks about lining up their stories, but he high-horses it and says it's not him to do that kind of thing. It's his "kind of thing" to not fess up to a physical ailment and to conduct surgery when he's absolutely not fit, but lying is out of the question? Sure, I get that. He says he'll tell the truth, and storms out before she can stop him.
In the O'Malley room, Izzie asks them why they chose to change surgeons. She's really respectful about it, just curious and maybe confused. They both tell her that George made the decision, and muse that maybe he fell out with Burke. Mrs. O'Malley then excitedly wonders if he's going out with Dr. Hahn. I have officially never seen a mother so intent that her son get laid. Mr. O'Malley reiterates that Callie is in love with George, which leads Mrs. O to ask why she would break up with him if she loved him. She asks Izzie in a conspiratorial girl-talk way, which is maybe what leads to the horror that comes . Izzie asks what she knows, and Mrs. O'Malley assures her that it's everything, because she is his mom. Taking this at face value, Izzie launches into Callie being "out there" and how much she's naked. Both the 'rents are understandably shocked, which Izzie notices, and softens. She points out that "George seemed to really like her, and he kind of needed her." I'm proud of her for saying that, even if admitting those things came in the middle of this car wreck of a conversation. Because he especially needed her after the "Meredith thing... " which of course they also knew nothing about. The one great moment in all of this embarrassment is how proud Mr. O'Malley is that his sons are studs. The least Izzie can do to make things right is assure them that there's nothing going on with George and Dr. Hahn, and so they again ask why she'd be doing the surgery if she's not better than Burke. Izzie concedes that she's good, but Burke is the best, so they put Izzie on the case to find out why he's not going to be their surgeon.
She goes into the locker room, where she finds Meredith on a Blackberry. At that moment Callie comes in and, with a sneer, literally begins rolling up her sleeves, says she wants to talk about "panties," and declares that she's kicking Meredith's ass as she picks her up and throws her against a locker. She's hollering about how she was a good friend and discreet and that she can't believe Mer did "this," as Mer screams back, wondering what "this" is. Izzie is screaming over both of them, telling Callie to "use her words." Her words come in the form of the secret of the panties, and the "adulterous McSex" that she saw, which doesn't explain much of anything, and Izzie has to actually throw herself in between the two, screaming, "I'm sorry but she's very little and you're hurting her!" Best. Line. Ever. It's funny 'cause it's true. Callie finally yells that the McSteamy sex wasn't Meredith's story to spread, and Izzie sighs, not believing that was the big deal. Unfortunately this earns her little friend another beating, since now Callie thinks Mer told Izzie as well. Meredith's lungs are stronger than her bones and she's finally able to yell back at Callie that all she'd known was that Callie slept with somebody, and that George was the one who told her it was Mark. Callie is stunned into silence and wonders who told George. Izzie suggests, "Maybe perhaps the guy you slept with?" (Although it was Alex, the point remains that the girls weren't the gossipy ones this time.) They all breathe, and finally Callie... desperately says that she didn't betray George and that they were broken up at the time. You thought I was going to say "apologizes," did you? Silly rabbit, apologies are for suckers, at least in this hospital. Or so we're generally led to believe. Meredith orders her to go tell George just that, and when she leaves the two girls dissolve into sort of manic giggles as Izzie notes, "Dude, she went all cage-fighter on you!" Second best. Line. Ever.
George finds Izzie in the hallway and asks about his dad, which Izzie answers by telling him his girlfriend is scary. George ignores any mention of Callie and continues on, trying to sound normal and create normal banter by asking if his mom has offered to iron Izzie's clothes yet. (Seriously, there is nothing I appreciate more than slick continuity in the way of little details. Well done, writers, well done indeed.) Izzie assures him that everything is fine, except that they're confused about the change in surgeons and she would like to know why and what to tell them. George, mature as always, turns to a passing Cristina and asks her to share the reason why he did what he did, and she just tells him that everything will be fine, for once without using the dreaded word itself. George challenges her that there are tons of other fathers having surgery in the hospital too. (Which really doesn't answer the question, then, of why he's leaving it up to them and not going straight to the Chief with his concerns. My guess is because it would be the mature thing to do, and George is actually incapable of doing anything mature.) With all of the barbs, Izzie looks worried, and Cristina flees. Izzie thinks that George is just nervous and assures him that, like she did, Preston Burke only came back to work when he was ready. Interestingly, she uses his full name, I think to emphasize his surgical reputation, but also showing that everyone thinks of him like that, and it's not just a hang-up of Cristina's as Burke has tried to put on her in the past. Instead of taking a moment to understand that Izzie has no idea what's going on and that she's doing the best she can, George tells her to mind her own beeswax and throws back in her face that she's only supposed to be watching, not actually doing anything. You can't have your cake and eat it too, George -- you want good care for your dad, and today it's her. Either tell or don't, but quit acting like such a tortured jerk.
Mark and Alex are still working on sewing up Janelle's face and pulling all the glass shards out of her body, respectively. She wants to know when she's having surgery, implying that having a giant shard of glass embedded in one's heart sounds like something that should be treated sooner rather than later. Mark tells a story about another patient who survived with a chair leg in his chest while Janelle tries to focus the man candy back to the sharp implement in her own ticker. Addison enters and lets her know they'll operate in a few hours. With time to kill, Janelle muses about the day and wonders if surviving all of this is a sign that she should have the baby even if it doesn't have a father. Addie says everyone has a father somewhere, Mark mumbles as he does best, and Janelle guesses that Addison's voting for her to tell the father-to-be. Janelle seems pretty put upon by it all: "He's scum and now I'm the bad guy because I don't want him in my kid's life. That's what you're thinking?" Alex points out that she should think about the baby, and what it will be like in a few years when he or she asks about their dad. Mark orders him to butt out, but Alex defends himself that she asked. She explains that the guy cheated on her. Alex says, "Makes him an ass. Doesn't mean you need to be one." Janelle greets this sage comment by breathing heavily and then passing out completely. Addison barks orders, which include getting Burke.
In the Dickersons' room, the wife has clearly just been told about her husband's condition, and asks Derek and Bailey if it was because of the accident. They gently try to tell her that it was probably the cause, actually. She won't accept that, and desperately assures them that he had no symptoms. Regardless of all that, he still needs surgery, and Derek explains how he needs operations on both his brain and his trachea, so both he and a cardiothoracic surgeon will have to operate. She's taking it all in, but just repeating how they'd only wanted to go to the market that day.
Cristina sees Burke inside the Chief's office and watches as they shake hands and Burke leaves. On The Walkway of Truth, he motions Cristina over to the side so that they look as nonchalant as if they're discussing dinner. Before he can speak, she begins to reassure him that things are okay, but he breaks in to tell her that the meeting was about Richard retiring and wanting to name Burke the new Chief of Surgery. They stand in stunned silence. It's interesting to note, also, that clearly Burke did not tell the truth, as he told Cristina he was going to do. I know there's not a good time for "So, Chief, turns out I've been shaking while doing delicate and rare procedures on people's hearts, and lying about it while relying to heavily on my intern girlfriend," but being offered a promotion might have been a good spot to mention it.
Welcome to one of the hardest scenes I've ever had to watch, much less watch multiple times. Burke and Cristina are in the on-call room, each talking quietly to themselves. Cristina is pacing and he's sitting in a chair against the wall, each dealing with the information in their own ways. She's relieved George said nothing and is working out how to ensure that he stays quiet. Burke just repeats over and over again that he can't believe it. Cristina finally concludes out loud that this is a good thing, and that no one will ever have to know. It's not a good conclusion, she's in too deep, but this gives everyone a way out and no one gets hurt or killed. Burke, though, explodes with unhappiness. He's gotten his dream the wrong way. Point-blank, he announces, "I had a tremor and I didn't say anything about it. It's unimaginable. It's unethical. Dishonorable. I crossed a line." Cristina jumps to his defense, assuring him that they both crossed a line, and so Burke decides to get angry at someone other than himself. "You dragged me across the line. You made us a team. You told Shepherd I was fine, you said nobody has to know. I was out there on my own. You made us a team." She tells him that she did what he needed, and recounts how he'd cried about having no life without surgery and how he couldn't be Preston Burke. Infuriatingly, he yells, "That was your concern, not mine." He keeps saying that, keeps throwing in her face that she's only in love with Preston Burke, Surgeon, but I think the fact that it's what springs to his mind every time means that he's the one who can't see himself as anything else but Preston Burke, Surgeon. She yells back as much, saying, "No, no, no. YOU put that on me."
He's silent, and she goes on. "When you got shot I walked away, and you cannot let that go. Well I'm sticking now, okay? I'm sticking. You know how tired I am." She sounds like she's fighting a lump in her throat. "Do you know how scared I am every time we go into surgery? But I do it, for you." However misguided, this was Cristina's way of showing him her love -- she's a robot, and driven, and her life is surgery and her career, and so she proved her love for him by risking it all for him, so that he didnât lose his own life and sense of self. Does he see this? No. He yells, "Do you know how scared I am when we go into surgery? I don't have to worry about just my career now, I have to put yours on my back too." Because the simple fact remains, he never had to go along with any of this, but by complying from the beginning, he took it all on himself. She again says that they're a team, desperately, but he stands up and takes his last shot. "There is no team. There is no team. There's only me, once again, making allowances for your emotional shortcoming." Stunned, she throws herself down on the bed and says that they shouldn't say anything else right then. He agrees, and leaves.
It's disgusting to watch and it's nothing but maddening, cowardly behavior on his part. Did she duct-tape your mouth shut? Did she threaten your life? Did she taser you into an operating room? No? Then this is YOUR OWN FAULT, Burke. You can't admit that you were wrong and then try to turn it on Cristina. You both made huge mistakes in this, but it came down to you. You're the attending. You're the one with the career. You're supposed to be the teacher and the role model, and you're the one whose dream it was to become Chief of Surgery. Even on the day she told Derek you were fine and he cleared you for surgery, you could have easily said something then. Anything that happened from that moment on is your fault and your fault alone. Cristina should face reprimands, but you deserve anything that could come from this, and you also definitely don't deserve your girlfriend anymore. She did only what she knew how to do, and you let her, and then depended on her to help you, so you can't then blame her when you realize that this was wrong and decide you don't want to face the consequences of your actions -- or inactions. It's time to be a man, Burke -- you crowed about being more than Preston Burke, and being a good man, but you're anything but that right now.
George goes into his father's room, and his mom comments on his wrinkled clothes, noting that it's a good thing she brought the travel iron. I think it's my favorite absurd trait ever, this ironing. He was paged and asks them what's up, and after some back-and-forth, his dad says he'll tell him. They're grateful for everything he's done and don't want to cause trouble (and throw in that that's especially with all of the Meredith and Callie trouble, thereby getting Izzie in her own trouble), but that they rescheduled his surgery to be with Burke the following day. George immediately demands to know what Izzie said, and when his dad starts to answer, George yells at Izzie that he told her to butt out. I'm curious as to what he thinks she was supposed to do -- literally not respond to a direct question and insult his parents? She's not in the easiest position, and I feel for her, regardless of the inappropriate girl conversation. He orders Izzie out and his dad chastises him, so he takes the really mature route and throws out the information about her probation, "because the last time she was allowed to interact with patients, someone died." Izzie is aghast and takes a moment to compose herself before telling Mr. and Mrs. O'Malley it was nice to see them and running out. Until George acts like an adult, I refuse to cut him any normal slack for being scared about his father. He hasn't handled anything well -- Callie, Izzie, Burke -- and he needs to sack up somehow in order to be given any passes.
Burke's looking over papers and squeezing a stress ball with his tremoriffic hand. Derek comes in while texting on a Sidekick -- are he and Meredith texting when they're out of the line of sight of each other? -- and he asks Burke to scrub in to his surgery. Burke finally turns around to face him and says simply, "Shepherd." Derek responds, "Burke." He has a questioning look, but very evenly asks what's going on. Conveniently, Karev comes in at that moment to get Burke for Janelle's surgery, and Derek points out that Burke can't do both at one time. Both of them are urgent, so Burke tells Derek to invite Dr. Hahn to help him, and he'll work on Janelle. As Alex leaves, Burke tells him to make sure Cristina's on the surgery. Interesting choice, given that he seems to not be able to stand her.
George is sitting in a fetal position on the stairwell, his forehead balanced on a railing, when Callie sees him through the window and joins him. Before he can say anything, she rushes in, saying, "We were broken up, as in not together." George whispers, "We can't do this now," but Callie can't be blamed for not knowing he's serious this time since he's accosted her before in the same way, and wishy-washed through their whole relationship. (Or rather, their excuse for one.) She forges ahead. "I slept with Mark to get over you and guess what, it didn't work. It was a mistake. But I did not betray you, George. I wouldn't, I would never do that." It's too much for Georgie, and he screams, "I can't do this now!" and she flees. The count goes up to two on the "I can't understand why these women want to even try to make it work with these jerks" meter.
Bailey and a team transport Janelle when Mrs. Dickerson sees them and asks where they're going. Bailey tells them they're taking her to surgery and advises her to go back to her husband's room, when she pathetically says that he's in surgery too. With her super Spidey sense, Bailey knows something is wrong; she sends the team up to the OR, and goes to help her. Mrs. Dickerson, in a tortured voice, asks, "What did I do? How could I have done this?" It turns out she knew her husband was having foot trouble, and their daughter even came and took away his keys. Bailey guesses the rest, that she gave them back to her husband. Mrs. Dickerson cries that they didn't mean any harm, and her husband loved driving and would have been so hurt if she'd sided with their daughter. Bailey is amazing, as usual, and softly comforts her, telling her that she knows they didn't mean it but that she still needs to talk to the police. She takes her hand and leads her down the hall, and though she's a few inches shorter than the older woman, she is the much larger and comforting presence. She rocks my socks.
Burke and Cristina scrub in for surgery silently.
In Janelle's surgery, Burke pulls out the absolutely ginormous piece of glass and gives the team instructions. Cristina asks about stitching her up but he sternly says he's got it, and when she presses about how she's been practicing, he sends her to the other side of the table. It's as insulting as if he actually told her she needed to sit in the corner for a time-out, and it isn't lost on the others in the room as glances are exchanged over their masks.
In the other OR, working on Mr. Dickerson, Hahn is joking about how lucky she is to be working with the famous Dr. Shepherd who saved the famous Dr. Burke. Everyone's jovial until something Hahn is working on begins to tear, and suddenly she's urgently instructing everyone to help turn Mr. Dickerson over. She's going to need help, and Meredith is sent to fetch Burke.
Burke's cool as a cucumber, telling everyone that Janelle's heart needs ten minutes to warm up and come off bypass. It's fantastically convenient that at that moment Meredith comes in and shouts the request. He and Cristina share a glance, and he leaves and orders her to stay. They've gone from a team to more of a master/lapdog relationship. It's very healthy and I'm sure it's not going to cause any problems at all. As he leaves, Cristina grabs Meredith and asks her what's going on, then, worried, runs after Burke, which he sees and shouts at her to stay. Scratch that -- it's not master/lapdog, it's master/unruly, not totally wanted puppy the kids convinced you to adopt. Meredith gently asks, "What, do you think Burke can't operate without you?" She sees the look on Cristina's face and finally gets all of the bank robber messages. "Oh my God. Cristina." She tells Mer to shut up. "He can't operate without you." Desperately, Cristina says, "If you ever gave a crap about me in any way, you'll shut your mouth and get back into that OR."
Back in her time-out, Cristina waits and watches Janelle's heart, which begins to beat on its own. She tells the nurses that Janelle needs to come off bypass, and gets worried that she could have a stroke. Someone comes in with a message from Burke that it's taking longer than he thought, which sends Cristina into a tizzy.
Meanwhile, Dr. McShakey is starting to stretch his hand out a lot. Meredith stares at it intently, which Derek notes and begins to joke about. Hahn thanks Burke, as if we haven't had enough reminders of how much he is revered, even by those who don't like him much, as Derek then snaps at Meredith to focus on her job, while he notices she's still looking at Burke's hand. Hand-stretching! Furrowed brows! These are tense times indeed.
Cristina orders Janelle off the bypass machine. "I'm not having this girl die of a stroke after all this." Oh, the irony if someone died because Burke wasn't there, huh? She tells a nurse to page a surgeon just as Burke sweeps back in. She accusingly tells him he could have taken too long, but he merrily ignores her and begins the process. Everything is going well -- until blood gushes out of the heart and all over Cristina. They quickly get things under control, and Burke assures her that this is a normal complication, but he's stretching his hand out. When she makes a suggestion -- not even a suggestion to take over, but a medical suggestion, as an intern is wont to do -- he icily says, "Dr. Yang, I don't need this." They share a long stare and Bailey comes in, having just been paged. Burke tells her to scrub in, and with that, Cristina is basically dismissed. It's absolutely amazing acting with her eyes as you see her pain and exhaustion and stress collide as she leaves the room. She walks out and doesn't even remove the bloodstained gown, but picks up where the episode began and begins to run down the hall as people stare after her.
There is a knock at the Chief's door, and he bids the knocker to enter... it's Burke, and when he walks in and says they need to talk, Richard agrees that they do and looks over Burke's shoulder. Cristina is there, cleaned up but looking tortured and nauseated, and finally, finally the secret is out.
She sits in the hall and watches through the window as Richard yells. Burke hangs his head; the Chief's body language is clearly asking how he could do this to him and to the hospital. Naturally, at that moment Dr. Hahn walks out to make a biting, witty comment about how lucky Cristina is to be Burke's student. "If your little intern brain can retain any of what he teaches you, maybe you'll become half the surgeon he is. And that's pretty damn good." Oh God, we GET IT. We've been watching the show; we know he's brilliant and how horrific this mistake was. Let's relax with the clubbing over the head with his tremoriffic arm, shall we? Dr. Hahn continues to laugh and snark and goes on her merry way.
Janelle is asleep with Addison by her bed, and Karev comes in to check on her. She'll be okay, and the two of them talk about if she'll tell the dad-to-be or not. Addison thinks not, but thanks Alex for what he said. "You're a decent guy, Alex. I'd hate to see Sloane beat that out of you." They exchange a Long Meaningful Glance, at which each seems surprised. Oh dear goodness, can we please have one intern-doctor relationship that doesn't get sexual? Please? I'm all for hanky-panky, but it's starting to be a little much. Just because Burke and Cristina are headed for rough water doesn't mean we need to replace them immediately. I'm just saying.
The elevator doors open on Burke, and Derek enters the elevator, stone-faced. He finally tells Burke, "I would have helped you if you told me." He finally looks at Burke and says his name, but Burke just says he can't talk about it right now. Derek asks, "I thought you were my friend?" "I thought you were my surgeon," Burke replies. And I thought that maybe, deep down, I might have been able to find something redeeming in Burke, but now that he's again trying to shift blame anywhere but himself, I know I can't. ... Okay, that's totally a lie. I'd lost all respect for him about twenty minutes ago, but now it's just been cemented.
Cristina begins to wrap up the horrible events with another voice-over. "In some ways, betrayal is inevitable. When our bodies betray us, surgery is often the key to recovery." Mrs. Dickerson works on hers by talking to the cops. "When we betray each other... when we betray each other, the path to recovery is less clear." Bailey watches Cristina walk by, and Richard stares solemnly at the board.
Outside, Cristina waits on a bench; George and Meredith come out the hospital doors. George ignores her and keeps walking, but Meredith stops and sits. Cristina tells her, "It was both our idea[s], to rob the bank. It was both of us." Meredith knows. Cristina goes on, like a lost little girl: "I just, I couldn't do it anymore. It wasn't... " Meredith assures her that she did the right thing, but Cristina asks, "Yeah? Then how come I walked across the parking lot and realized I can't go home? Where am I supposed to go?" Somewhere you can actually be yourself, for one thing. Somewhere your boyfriend won't constantly berate you and throw your weaknesses in your face when it suits him, for another.
Izzie gets home, and George is napping on the couch. She confirms that he's switched the surgery back to Dr. Hahn again. George tries to explain his actions, saying it was his dad and he was scared, and then tries to play on Izzie's experience, saying he expected her to understand about a loved one in the hospital. She's having none of it, and forbids him ever to speak of Denny again. He tries to apologize and she tells him she's not ready yet, but does sit to him on the couch and take his dinner out of his hands. As she begins to twirl pasta on the fork, she concedes that he might be able to try apologizing tomorrow. I'm not too worried about these two, because as immature as each of them always is, they always come back to one another. It's a platonic perfect match.
In bed, Derek comments on Meredith watching Burke's hands during surgery. "You knew." She defends herself, saying, "I can't say anything. There are things Cristina told me, she's my friend, I can't say anything." The camera pulls back to show her facing the ceiling, and him facing the other wall. He begins to turn, and tells her that's not how it works. "How could you know what you knew, or suspect, and not even tell me?" She points out what I imagine is probably at the core of his upset: "You cleared him for surgery, Derek. How did you not know? You can't be angry with me. She's my best friend. And right or wrong, she... " Derek: "What?" "She was there when you weren't." There's been great debate about this, but I think she's referring to both when Meredith needed someone and he left her for Addison, and when Burke needed someone and Cristina stepped up to the plate, however awkwardly she did it. To his credit, he seems to understand this and he finally turns and looks at her, so she turns and looks at him. Cristina's voice adds, "You do whatever it takes to rebuild the trust that was lost." They smile at each other, and she goes to kiss him. Once she's made the move, he puts his arm around her, and the camera pans up to let them get it on alone. Let's hear it for Meredith and McDreamy, shall we? I feel like they talked something out and he actually listened to and respected her, and I'm happy to see them be functional. Hot and functional. Rowr.
Cristina ends by adding, "And then there are some wounds, some betrayals that are so deep, so profound, that there's no way to repair what was lost." She finally goes home, and once inside, sees Burke in the bedroom. He looks at her for a few long moments before closing the door in her face. "And when that happens, there's nothing left to do, but wait." Yes. Wait to see you punch him in the throat, Cristina. Oh wait, did I say that out loud?