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Take the worst decision you've ever made. Got it in mind? Now multiply it by a thousand, and you've got the idea just how bad a decision Lexie and Sadie make this week. They decide to up the stakes of the secret intern society and take out Sadie's appendix. It's not a surprise that this goes horribly wrong, and they call Meredith and Cristina to help them out of it, who in turn call Bailey and the Chief. Mere and Cristina, with some coaching from Bailey, save Sadie's life and then all of the residents get together to put all of the interns on probation -- seriously, it seems like you can get away with absolutely anything at Seattle Grace without losing your job. When Lexie tries to take some of the blame with the Chief, she lets it slip that Cristina knew that the interns were up to no good, and Mere is so surprised she turns on Cristina in front of Richard. Cristina is mighty pissed that her best friend didn't stand up for her and have her back, and it kind of seems like the tension might last a while between those two. Fortunately, Cristina at least has a super hot surgeon who thinks she's beautiful -- it's all Hunt is able to finally say after spending the entire episode tongue-tied around her.
The attendings, meanwhile, are treating a man who jumped out a window while sleepwalking. Sloane shows his sensitive side and bonds with the man's 13-year-old daughter, which leads to him figuring out that this happens all the time and the girl barely sleeps. They figure out the problem and while Dad is in surgery, Sloane sits with the girl so that she can finally take a nap with her head resting on his shoulder. He's allowed to relax -- he did his own surgery earlier, on none other than Callie. When the sleepwalking dad was brought in, he woke up and started thrashing so much that he hit Callie in the face and broke her nose. Mark fixes her up, and later that night when Callie is in recovery, Bailey visits and the women both admit they're kind of tired of surgery and adrift at the moment.
And the barfiest storyline is left for last... Izzie is still seeing Denny, and to prove that she's not just reliving moments they had together when he was alive, they have sex. Yes, this show has resorted to ghost sex. Ghost. Sex. Izzie spends a lot of time still trying to figure out what's going on and why she's seeing him all the time, and finally sort of half-heartedly tries to get out of things with Alex. Alex won't break up with her -- he's in it for the crazy, I guess -- so she decides to go to bed with him instead of her dead boyfriend, who assures her that it's okay. It's all as awkward as it sounds.
See who on staff is really a high-schooler in disguise. Come back on Wednesday for our full detailed recap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Between the title of the episode, the shots of Seattle freeways at night against just a couple of eerie musical notes, and Meredith's night-themed voiceover, it's apparent that this episode is going to center around one crazy night at Seattle Grace, "crazy" being the operative word. "When you're little, nighttime is scary because there are monsters hiding right under the bed." Hmm, might any of those monsters be sharks? Sharks that might need to be jumped over? I'm just speculating, here. "When you get older, the monsters are different." We get some dramatic shots from later in the episode to give us an idea of what events lie in store for us: Cristina looking worried with her hands in a torso while Bailey talks her through, "Self-doubt." Callie lying on the floor with blood coming out her nose, looking scarily dead until she blinks, "Loneliness." Lexie sitting, shell-shocked and silent, "Regret. And though you may be older and wiser, you still find yourself scared of the dark."
It's a little obvious when a roll of thunder is used to usher us in to the first real scene. Izzie is sitting on a chair with her knees drawn up to her chest, panicking and trying to figure out why it is that she's having a conversation with her dead fiancée. She thinks she's crazy, but Denny assures her she isn't. No matter what this turns out to be, this storyline is certainly crazy. She asks him what he is and he tells her, "I'm a dead man who loves you." Funny, I'm a live woman who just threw up a little. She concludes that she touched and kissed him when he was alive, so she's just reliving things. He thinks about that a second and then stands and walks towards her, suggesting that they then should try doing something they never got to do in real life. She stands up, he pulls off his shirt, and after a moment of making out, she pulls hers off too and they fall into bed.
Personally, I can pinpoint this as the exact moment this show jumped the shark. I got through Meredith's dying, Bailey's out-of-thin-air marital problems and all sorts of annoying and ridiculous storylines, but this is just too much for me. And the writers trying to sell us on this being a great love triangle and a brilliant idea just makes me angry. Denny died. His character is gone. I'm sorry that he was a good character and maybe that was a mistake, but that's the choice that was made. So having him come back to follow Izzie around, smirk sexily and then bed her is absolutely ridiculous to me. One thing I liked about this show from the beginning was its portrayal of all sorts of relationships and how nothing is ever black and white (hence the name), good people can be stupid, here are situations you could find yourself in, etc. But ghost sex is for a daytime soap. Ghost sex is completely out of the realm of believability. Ghost sex is a cheap way to bring back a good character and, by the way? Bringing Denny back and keeping him around in such an idiotic storyline is making me not like him so much anymore, which I hate. Because at least with him dying, I had the nice memory of a character that I loved. That is fading really, really fast with this garbage.
Mercifully, we cut to the hospital, where Cristina is coming in. She runs into Hunt, who is waiting outside for an ambulance. He literally stutters but can't seem to get any words out until he asks her if she's there for him. She's understandably taken aback and after he tries to explain that he meant was she there for the trauma he's expecting, she calmly tells him she's there for a possible appendectomy. She turns to go and he makes another stuttering attempt at speech so she turns, and after a moment, asks if he wanted to say something. Dumbly, he asks how she beat the ambulance and she tells him that she lives across the street. Ah, you're a full-fledged staff member of this hospital now, Dr. Hunt, now that you find yourself reduced to a babbling idiot around your love interest.
Ah, welcome to the second most worthless guest star ever -- Sadie. I tried to separate Melissa George from her role as Lauren onAlias, really I did, but we're now two episodes in and I find her both useless and annoying. She shuffles into the bathroom where Mere is reading her mother's journals and sleepily carries on a conversation while she uses the toilet. Isn't this the very same thing that Mere found repulsive about Callie? But Mere doesn't bat an eye, just tells her about how fascinating the journals are. Sadie thought they hated Ellis, but Mere admits that she thinks she might have liked the woman if she hadn't been her mother. Resident Ellis from the journals was funny and intense, which Mere compares to Cristina. Sadie sneers at her rival's name but Mere ignores it and assures Sadie that Cristina is awesome once you get to know her, she's an ally, and they need allies at the hospital. Yes, for when you do completely irresponsible and stupid things, which no one seems to be able to avoid here. (Incidentally, Sadie then washes her hands, so at least she's got that going for her.) Sadie asks Mere what she thinks of Lexie as Sadie's very own "intern BFF," but Mere stutters her way through ten different ways to say no. Sadie's taken aback but Mere tries to smooth it over by explaining that Lex grew up with two parents in a stable, loving home, with smiley-face posters on her walls, so she's not their people. Mere then gets sparkle paged that Cristina's got the appendectomy, and Sadie decides to go along to be an annoying nuisance... I mean, to get some time in the skills lab.
As they walk past Izzie's door, they hear her moaning exuberantly. They don't have their own Special Denny Sense, so it's just her voice coming from inside. It is more notable when Alex then comes out of his bedroom. Mere asks what he's doing there -- he paid off a nurse to page him when an appendectomy came in. But what she means comes in the form of an extra-loud moan from Izzie's room. Mere calls to Derek and wakes him up, so we know he's keeping Little Derek under control and Alex reaches the conclusion that Izzie is enjoying some quality time with herself. "It's hot." Alex knocks on the door to get Izzie up for the appendectomy, and when Sadie calls out to Mere that she's ready to go, Derek is none too pleased to realize she's there too. Mere assures him it's only for a couple of days but he announces, "No more strays." She repeats it and kisses him before leaving. Izzie finally opens the door to Alex; she's very sweaty and naked and hiding behind the door. She lies that she's not feeling well (though the noises we heard say otherwise) and says she's going to skip the op. Alex points out what he just heard and offers to stay and assist her efforts, but she just tells him she doesn't want to get him sick. I don't think delusions are contagious, but who really knows at this point?
Bailey walks in and is immediately accosted by the residents, all ready to help her with the appendectomy. Each yells out the reason they should get the surgery -- Cristina met the ambulance, Mere is helping Cristina, George is on call and, in an uncharacteristic but hilarious move, Alex just wishes Bailey a good morning and tells her how nice she looks. Cristina then jumps in to add that she got there first and that the Chief said she's the one to watch. Bailey gets it and tells them she knows what's up, that the solo surgery is coming up, they know it's probably an appendectomy, "So you little mini-surgeons dragged your butts out of bed to pick up some final tips from the master. Yeah, it's kind of cute," she admits. She can take two, and Mere and Cristina manage to poach it over George's rightful protest that he's on call by showing they are already familiar with the case.
A trauma then comes in -- a man named Arthur who went through a second-story window and has multiple fractures and lacerations topped off with possible head trauma. Following his stretcher is his young daughter. George gets to go with Hunt on that one, and then a nurse comes in to announce a patient with severe abdominal pain. Bailey sends Mere and Cristina to the appendectomy and gives Alex the stomach patient, telling him that it could always turn out to be an appendectomy. He just charmingly answers that he's there to help out any way he can, earning him a smile as he leaves.
Sadie finds the other interns in the Basement of Bad Judgment and calls to warn them that all the residents are now there, but finds them all giggling as they poke, prod and tickle Number Two. I love that I'm so used to Cristina's numbers that I can't remember his real name. I actually remember him mostly as "Stinky Two" but I don't want to be cruel. They gave him an epidural, which ticks Sadie off since they didn't call her. Lexie doesn't explain herself because she's too busy getting touchy upon learning Sadie is staying with Meredith. While she pouts, Two tries to get her attention but it's too late -- they laugh as they realize he wet himself because they forgot to put in a catheter. He's against the idea until they point out that he could wet himself again and seems to agree. Sadie then stirs some shit, telling Lexie she's impressed about the epidural and, "Death is so wrong about you." Of course this gets Lexie, who demands to know what she said, so Sadie lies that Meredith said Lexie was a priss. She then says it's too bad that Two isn't pregnant so they could do a c-section, and Lexie pipes up that they could take out his appendix. Seriously, I don't think Lexie could be more gullible. Trying to prove her non-priss-ness, she tells them she's serious, since he doesn't need it. Two is against the idea but most of the others all chip in about how it would work, and they could just keep him on the epidural, so he could even watch! Graciella (yeah, I had to look up her name too, which goes to show how important these interns have been in the season and a half they've been on the show) is the only one who shows any concern, reminding the gang that all of their bosses are there. Two also has decided that he's drawing the line at having his co-workers put a tube in his penis. Fair enough -- but of course Lexie sighs with disappointment. Sadie then offers to sacrifice her own appendix for the sake of stupidity, but only if she gets to do the same to someone else. After just a beat, Lexie tells her, "Done," and they shake on it.
Mark and Callie get ready to go see Arthur, the trauma patient. It turns out his plunge through the window was a result of night terrors -- he was sleepwalking. Mark asks if Callie can imagine waking up bruised, battered, and not knowing where she is or how she got there. In fact, Callie can: "It sounds like my life. Married, betrayed, gay, abandoned, and then I woke up and I have no idea how I got here." But she supposes things are as bad as they can get, right? As they work on him, Arthur sits up and starts screaming about protecting his daughter Ivy from a mountain lion. The docs realize he's asleep and attempt to restrain him, but he thrashes so much that he winds up hitting Callie in the face and knocking her to the ground. Then we see the shot from before, of her lying, defeated, with blood running out her nose. Never, ever suppose that things can't get worse.
Lexie and the interns really aren't good at being stealthy -- they go en masse to check out the surgical board, and Lexie figures out that they can do the procedure down in outpatient surgery where no one will notice them. Mere comes by wheeling her patient into surgery and she seems suspicious, but Lexie lies that they're taking Sadie on a tour. When Mere asks where they're going she's met with sputtering, and finally Ryan yells out that they're going to the skills lab. As they go, Sadie smiles at Mere and sing-songs, "Gotta stick with my allies!" Mere calls a reminder out to her as she goes: "Smiley face posters! It's all I'm saying!"
Alex goes to see his patient, who turns out to be Mary Cherry, and she's married to Will Bailey! I really wouldn't have predicted that. So, actually, Mary's name is Lauren, and Will's name is Seth. Lauren's having stomach pain and can't keep any food in her system, and her husband is less than sympathetic. It sounds like Lauren can't stop researching medical problems on the internet and then diagnosing herself with things like stomach cancer. Alex takes a look and is disappointed to realize that she doesn't need her appendix out, but does need a stool sample. With that he snaps his rubber glove on. Oh, the glamorous tasks that doctors get to perform each day...
Mark is tending to an absolutely bereft Callie. He teases her that it wasn't such a nice nose to begin with but when she protests he assures her it was a gorgeous nose and will be again in two weeks. After a look he amends, "Three weeks. Four tops." She tells him she hates him, but he counters that she loves him. He then gives her an injection and Callie sobs, "Ow ow ow ow!" He tells her it doesn't hurt, but she cries that if she hadn't had such a shitty year, maybe it wouldn't hurt so much, but it does. There's something about her that's just getting to me right now -- I feel like I've totally been there. Not with the cheating husband and then becoming a lesbian, per se, but with the absolutely horrible time of it and then something happening to make everything worse. She's got the deep crying down pat. Seeing how upset she really is, he tells her that instead of local he'll put her under conscious sedation so that she can just go to sleep, and wake up in a new day with a fixed nose. He's pushing her hair out of her face as he says all of that, and it's the little gestures like that between the two of them that make me just love them together. She's stopped crying and morosely asks if she'll still have him, and if he'll still have sex with her whenever she wants? He tells her, "Anytime. You know, once your face heals." Once again she tells him she hates him and he retorts that she loves him. Aw. Since they are such a good twosome, whether they stay friends or become a couple I'm sure the writers will find a way to horrifically break up their relationship too. You can't have people be happy, you know!
Arthur (better known to me as Walt Cummings -- they are just guest-starring it up this week) has woken up and seems rather horrified to learn that he hit a doctor. He also doesn't understand why he's there, so as Ivy looks on worriedly Hunt tells him that she said he was having a bad dream, and he jumped out the window. It turns out he started sleepwalking when his wife died two years ago, and he went to a sleep clinic where they told him it was stress induced and gave him some meds. When George asks how that's worked, Arthur says that stress is part of raising a 13-year-old (here we get a shot of his daughter, still looking terribly worried) but that he hadn't had an episode in a while. He turns to Ivy and takes her hand, apologizing sincerely and guessing that she must have been scared. Ivy holds it together and tells him she's okay, she's just worried about him. He doesn't seem to be a bad dad -- just one who wakes up and accidently throws himself out windows sometimes.
Sloane comes upon Lexie in the supply closet, gathering everything they need to take out Sadie's appendix. She, like all the other good doctors here, has absolutely no good lying skills yet her frightened sputtering doesn't even faze Sloane, who is looking for an IV kit. He asks where the interns are but her brilliant and smooth answer, "Busy interning," is mercifully cut off at that point by Derek walking in. Sloane defends that he just found her there and didn't invite her there, but Derek seems skeptical. Lexie rushes out and Derek warns him not to do anything, while Sloane unsuccessfully tries to tell him that he didn't.
Mere and Cristina are weirdly attentive and cooperative as they watch Bailey do the appendectomy and ask her questions. The thing is, Bailey has to stop and think to be able to answer them, since doing the surgery is practically just a reflex for her now. She tells them she's getting tired just watching them study her.
Lexie arrives in the outpatient surgery room to find they've got Sadie all numbed and ready to go. Before they start, Sadie tells her that she finds that Lexie having parents, rules and smiley face posters, "Oddly comforting." Lexie's confused but doesn't question it since it's time to begin. And she does so by... reading her instructions out of a book. That's the way to make your patient confident for sure. Sadie looks mildly worried just for the most split of seconds, and Lexie draws where she's going to make the incision. She then actually steals Derek's line and announces, "It's a good day to save lives, people." Of course she babbles that Sadie's life is fine, but on Sadie's prodding grabs the scalpel and... pulls up to protest that it's a bad idea. She babbles some more that this is a bad idea (a realization that's better late than never) and that they could use the frustration of not doing this surgery as the impetus to demand that their residents do a better job teaching. Amen! However, having proven that she's not opposed to self-mutilation, Sadie grabs the scalpel and makes the incision herself, so now they have to go on.
Everyone gasps when they finally see the appendix, and Sadie looks in the mirror. The problem is, once Lexie gets a good look she thinks it's inflamed, and they all realize she's right. Graciella starts to panic a bit, although I mean that in a good way, because she points out that this then isn't a routine surgery and that they should call for help. Sadie gets snotty and tells her they aren't calling anyone, and to leave if she can't handle it. Graciella does, but she's the only one.
Mark finds Ivy in her dad's hospital room but Arthur is still out for tests, so Ivy is watching an old black and white horror movie on TV. She asks how Callie is doing and when she hears that she'll be fine, says that Mark should tell Callie that Ivy is sorry. Mark asks why she would be sorry, since it's not her fault. She tells him that she can sometimes talk her dad back to sleep and might have been able to tonight if she'd been able to get him back to bed. She rubs at her eyes as Sloane asks purposefully, "But this hasn't happened for a while, right? Him sleepwalking?" She rubs her eyes again and lies, "Yeah. Right." While no one in the hospital, including Mark, can tell when a co-worker is lying, he can clearly tell that Ivy is. He asks when she last slept and she lies that she's not tired, but he tells her that she really does need to get some rest, and then leaves.
My namesake turns out to have made some rather poor judgment calls herself, but at least she admits them to Alex -- she bought antibiotics on the internet to treat a staph infection, which her husband thought was only a pimple. He adds that her dermatologist also had the same opinion, but she maintains that it was an infection. This is one of those cases where I wonder how these two people ever got to the point of marriage, given that I'm sure this isn't a new hobby of hers. However, I love the actors and the storyline made me giggle, so I'm just going with it. She says the antibiotics made the pimple go away (though Seth thinks that's because, as a pimple does, it just went away) but Alex points out that she also then made all of the good bacteria in her body go away. They are going to have to give her some new healthy bacteria though a procedure called (and here he stutters a moment) a fecal transplant. She's understandably horrified, and Seth drops his head in his hand as she asks, "Poop!? I need a poop transplant?" The worst part, to me, is that it's given to her through a tube in her nose that goes down to her stomach. I'm never going to get that visual out of my head again. Since the donor needs to be someone who shares her everyday germs, the task falls to Seth, who will only do it when she admits it was a pimple. He leaves, and Alex tells her to just say it was a pimple, but she refuses.
Cristina and Mere are wondering where their interns are when they come across Graciella carrying ten chocolate bars and stuffing her face. She stutters, wide-eyed, that she has no idea where they are and instead of questioning her harder (because clearly she would crack) Cristina just steals her candy. Alex comes up also wondering where the interns are. As they throw out possibilities, Alex mentions the fact that at least his interns can now put in an IV, and Cristina has a revelation and leaves. Mere then asks Alex what's wrong with Izzie and he tells her he doesn't know. "I'm sick of people not talking to each other." He goes off to find some poo, and Mere checks her pager. Behind her, a morose Lexie appears and asks if she has a second.
Cristina bursts into the basement where she finds Two in bed doing charts. Say what you will, but at least he's using his partially-paralyzed time wisely. She demands to know what's up and when he can only stutter (man, there's a lot of that going around this week) she interrupts to demand he come along with her and tell her everything the interns have been doing. She's pretty peeved when he doesn't get out of bed, even more so when he yells, "No!" and then squeezes his eyes shut in preparation for the hurt he knows is coming as a result. He finally admits he can't walk, what with the epidural and his catheter.
Sigh. Izzie and Denny are curled up in bed, and she's still trying to figure out what's going on, while he convinces her this is real. It better not be. She then babbles about how she'll keep her eyes closed so she doesn't wake up and realize he's gone, and nearly cries through her whole little pathetic speech. Wow, do I not give a crap.
Ryan is suctioning Sadie's open abdomen as Mere and Cristina run in, and he admits shakily, "I think she's dying." Oh, if only we were so lucky! The two residents get to work, and Mere tells them to page the Chief and to get Bailey -- they're to say that there is an emergency, and nothing else. Mere also demands, "And take that crazy look off your face!" Lexie and Ryan are currently the only two interns there, so does that mean the others really all fled the scene?
Sloane finds Derek and tells him he thinks that Arthur is having more night terrors than he realizes, due to Ivy's obvious exhaustion. He muses that it's got to be scary to go to sleep and not know what you're going to wake up to. Always one to make it about himself, Derek says that's what it's like living with Meredith, what with her taking in strays. That's "stray," dumbass -- the other two were there before you were. As Derek leaves, Mark calls after him that he's only now thinking about Lexie That Way because Derek told him not to; Derek planted the seed. Derek demands, "Unplant it."
Seth comes back to his wife's room, and Alex says she has something to say. She takes a deep breath and tells him, "I believe that you believe it was a pimple." He cuts her off to yell that it was a pimple, and she retorts that it was a staph infection. "No poo!" He declares. "No poo for you!" Alex, who really has had a personality transplant since he decided to be Izzie's boyfriend (which makes her storyline that much more nauseating) stops Seth as he leaves to say, "She could lie to you and tell you what you want to hear but she's not. She's telling you what's real for her. Stop walking away!" Seth comes back in, and Lauren tells him all about her hypochondria, including how it keeps her up all night. It's kind of sad, actually. "The world is a scary place! And there are a thousand things a day that can kill you! And I don't see how you don't see it!"
Ryan finds Bailey and tells her that there's an emergency -- she asks what kind, and as he repeats only that it's an emergency, she sees the terror in his face.
Sloane, Derek, Hunt and George are all gathered to tell Arthur that they'd like to do an EEG to see if maybe a type of epilepsy is causing his night terrors. He insists that they did that already in the sleep clinic, but Sloane tells him it might be happening more often than he thinks, and then asks Ivy about it. Arthur interrupts to say he forgot his meds, but Ivy looks at him with a crumbling face and tells him that he didn't forget, and that even though he takes them this kind of thing happens every night. She admits what's clearly been eating at her, which is that she usually stays awake so she can talk him back to sleep but that tonight she must have fallen asleep. Arthur is appropriately horrified to see his daughter so upset and to learn all this stuff, and it only gets worse when she cries that she knows she is why he's stressed out, and since he takes good care of her during the day she wanted to take good care of him at night. Sloane leans down to explain that the test might show that epilepsy and not stress might be the cause, and she cries harder when she realizes that the test could prove it wasn't her "fault." Seeing this, Arthur agrees to the test.
Izzie wakes up only this time she's in bed alone, and she stands up and panics until she sees him in the doorway. She screams that she thought he'd left her again, and when he says yet again that he's there for her, she counters that he already left her once by dying. He seems almost happy to see her freaking out as she yells at him that he left her, and that she'd moved on. She yells about how she's probably going crazy and talking to herself while there's a real world outside and she's stuck there now. He apologizes which makes her freak out even more and she lets loose the guilt she's clearly been carrying around about the part she played in his stolen heart and his death. He finally stops looking happy and sits down on the bed near her. He tells her, "I love you," and with her head in her hands she says it back.
Bailey comes to join Mere and Cristina and when she demands to know whose idea this was, Lexie admits it was hers. Cristina and Mere have been doing a good job, but Cristina starts to panic that she can't do it. Calmly, Bailey tells her to feel for whatever it is she needs to reach rather than look for it, and she's able to talk her through the procedure. Mere asks if she should do a particular type of suture, and Bailey continues to teach, telling her to do what feels right. Ryan looks on in scared awe while Lexie just looks panicky.
Wherever the rest of the interns fled to, they now are all gathered in the hall worrying about going to jail. George finds them and quietly asks why Lexie didn't come to him, saying he might have been able to stop her. Lexie retorts that this is the first thing she's done in months that wasn't actually about trying to get him to notice her, and maintains that it was all her before she walks away. George stands there a second and Graciella tells him, "Dude, she's like in love with you. How did you miss that?" Wait, he was supposed to still not know that? Because I thought he put two and two together when she got mad that he didn't pick her as an intern. Clearly I was wrong. (As you all know, not for the first time this season.) Lex walks to the railing to see Richard arrive and talk sternly to Cristina and Mere.
Izzie gets a 911 page so she has to leave, and Denny tells her with a smirk to go. This is one thing I haven't figured out yet -- why he seems so weirdly smug and unaffected by much of what he says. It's kind of the way that Erica reacted in the same way to everything Callie ever told her, and it's a little bit unnerving. Izzie wants to know if he'll disappear forever, if maybe she needed this one last night to move on, but he tells her he's not going anywhere. That's too bad.
Alex is about ready to start mixing up the poo cocktail. Okay... yes, I just grossed myself out there. But how else am I supposed to put it? Medical terms aren't going to make this any less disturbing. Lauren takes Seth's hand and apologizes for being crazy, but he assures her he loves her even with the crazy, and Alex takes note. There's time for one more poo joke: "Okay, I've taken your crap all these years, it's finally time for you to take mine." But for the sake of their sex life, he decides not to watch the procedure.
The rest of the boys are operating on Arthur, so I guess that means they figured out from the EEG that this was epilepsy. Derek's able to be condescending even in surgery, and asks the room how Arthur could have not known this was happening. George, in a welcome move we haven't seen in a while, stands up for the guy and asks how he was supposed to know, since he was living life thinking that he and his daughter had the kind of relationship where she would tell him this was going on and she was in trouble. But then George adds that if you really love someone, you should talk to them. I don't think he's supposed to be implying that Ivy doesn't love her dad -- I think that was a super clumsy attempt to relate this to his and Lexie's relationship and there just so Hunt could reply that maybe she tried to talk to him, but words failed her.
Mark comes out to the waiting room to update Ivy and tell her that since it will be at least an hour, she could take a nap. He finds her drinking coffee and she actually claims to drink it for the taste. Instead of challenging that he tells her about his own childhood with parents who were more interested in their own social lives than in having a kid. Before he went to bed he'd turn on all the lights and televisions, but he still couldn't sleep. He asks, "It's hard to sleep when you don't feel safe in your own house, isn't it?" She whispers, "Yeah," and he takes the coffee from her hand and orders that she's going to fall asleep. She tries to fight it, but he promises he'll be there and pats his shoulder. She closes her eyes and rests against him in what I have to say is one of the most genuinely sweet moments -- if not the most -- of this season for me. Man-whores have hearts too!
In his office, Richard bellows at Mere and Cristina that he was finally sleeping when he got this call, and they each answer that they can't believe it. Richard immediately backs off and tells them not to beat themselves up. He tells them that they actually showed maturity (!) by handling the surgery and saving Sadie's life but most importantly by calling for help immediately, adding that not that long ago they would have stuck to "the code" and protected each other by trying to hide what happened. "Sometimes protecting your colleagues is solidarity, and sometimes it's just hubris. I'm glad to see you know the difference." Mere and Cristina seem pleased with how this talk turned out but then Lexie has to bust in and try to take the blame. She yells over Mere that people really did try to stop her, including when Cristina told her the day before that she had to shut it down. Richard's face immediately changes and he demands, "You knew about this yesterday?!?" He then turns and asks if Mere knew and she blurts out a no, which causes Cristina to turn on her in horror.
After the unseen beat-down by Richard, Mere and Cristina go out to the hallway to yell at each other. Mere is appalled to think Cristina knew what was going on, and Cristina defends that she only knew about the sutures and she thought she didn't have to say anything since she shut it down. First of all, it's a pretty big assumption that yelling at them once would stop something that crazy and second, wouldn't she have told Mere what was happening so that Mere would at least know Lexie wasn't a secret cutter? But clearly that didn't happen. Meredith yells that obviously it didn't shut down and that because of that Lexie nearly lost her job and Sadie nearly died -- the mention of both of them is enough to send Cristina over the edge. She yells at Mere that Sadie brought this on herself, and orders Mere to stop acting like she has a real relationship with Lexie and cares about her. Mere doesn't argue that but does argue that she cares about her job and doing the right thing. Cristina wants to know who she thinks she is, talking about doing the right thing. (Fair enough.) "You're not an attending, Meredith. You may be sleeping with one but you aren't one yet." (Not as fair.) Mere wants to know if once again this is actually about Derek and Cristina has to admit that it's not, but yells that it's about the two of them and how Meredith didn't have Cristina's back in front of the Chief. Now, I love Cristina -- she is one of the few characters left that I genuinely care about and like to watch each week. But I think that's kind of not fair, given that Meredith was taken by as much surprise as Richard. Even if she ultimately would have wanted to lie for her friend, I don't think she could have come up with anything given a shock like that and also, I think the two of them should have matured enough by now to have a little bit of perspective on the whole "lying to their superiors" thing. Mere wants to know what she should have done and Cristina reminds her that she has a relationship with the Chief and she could have stood up for her rather than just watch as he laid into her best friend. It turns out that he took Cristina out of the running for the solo surgery, which clearly is what's at the root of her anger. Cristina then says it's not all on her since they all had interns that took part, which means they all clearly failed to supervise them. More importantly, I think Cristina should realize that they also have failed to do a single shred of teaching because if they had, the interns might not have felt the need to pull life-threatening stunts for practice. But that seems to not have gotten through to either her or Mere. Cristina adds that if Sadie had died, it would have been on all of them too, and that's what Mere should have told the Chief. She then storms out of the room.
Bailey walks down the stairs in her street clothes to find her residents (minus Izzie -- my favorite group!) waiting for her, wanting to know what she's going to say to the interns. She laughs and nips that idea in the bud. "I raised my babies. You were my babies. Now you're all grown folks, it's on you. You raise your own babies." They ask her what they are supposed to say, and Bailey visibly deflates. She asks if they really need a speech from her because after all this time, if they need that they shouldn't be there. "If you do, then I haven't raised you right and I know I raised you right." She tells them to make their own speeches, and leaves.
So the young residents gather the interns and everyone files into Sadie's room, where Cristina demands that Lexie present. As she does, Sadie tries to figure out what's going on. Mere demands that Ryan continue. Poor Ryan -- from what I saw, he's the only one that stuck around to try and help and he seems to be getting it only second to Lexie right now. He tells them she should fully recover in two weeks. Cristina asks, "And?" Lexie steps forward and tells Sadie that as her surgeons they made mistakes that compromised her care and reflect poorly on a #12 institution like Seattle Grace, and it won't happen again. Seriously, #12 is looking so generous right now. The residents all take turns talking but it boils down to this: all of the interns are on probation and won't be allowed in an OR until further notice. George tells them they've lost the Chief's respect which he knows personally is very hard to regain. Alex adds that personally, they've lost his respect and they probably will never regain it. One of the vaguely-familiar-looking interns whispers something and Alex demands he repeat what he said, which is that Alex still respects Izzie after she killed a patient. I don't think that one of my reactions to that was supposed to be, "Good point," but... good point. But I do also like what actually happens, which is that Alex throws him into a wall -- which I like because I like Alex, not because he's defending stupid Izzie. He tells Nameless Intern that Izzie was trying to save a life while they almost killed their friend for fun, and of course Izzie has arrived in the doorway to see it all and look distressed.
Bailey goes to check on Callie, who's finally relaxed and enjoying the good drugs. She tells her she looks great and describes her crazy bandages as, "A badge of honor all over your face," which makes Callie giggle and then wince. She then asks if the interns really did what they did and Bailey confirms it for her. Callie dismisses it as crazy, but Bailey starts to reminisce about when she was an intern who was totally excited by surgery and would do anything just to be able to operate. Something tells me, though, that Bailey would have never been goaded into something this stupid by another dumb intern. She takes a seat and admits that now she can do most surgeries without even thinking about it, and she doesn't even remember most of them any more. She also hates appendectomies -- the very surgery that is so exciting the residents -- and even resents the appendix for acting up and needing to be removed. "I resent an organ." She laughs at herself, but then admits that maybe she shouldn't do general surgery but should find a new challenge. She then muses that maybe she's just tired. Callie tells her it's okay to be tired and then asks, "Right?" Bailey realizes that Callie is tired too, and Callie admits she's absolutely exhausted. She knows she wants something, but doesn't know what, and Bailey replies, "That makes two of us."
As Sloane carries a sleeping Ivy into her dad's hospital room, Mere starts to wrap us up. "Sleep. It's the easiest thing to do. You just... close your eyes." Sadie opens hers when Mere walks in and tries to laugh and admit the surgery was a bad idea but Mere doesn't play along. She tells her it was actually a terrible idea, and speaking as her boss it was irresponsible and reckless that makes her question if Sadie could even be a good doctor. This seems to finally get to Sadie, who starts, "Death..." Mere goes on to ask, as her friend, what on earth is going on. Sadie admits she doesn't know. I think it's that Melissa George is doomed to play unnecessary guest stars brought on a show to create friction that could have been created just as well with existing characters.
"But for so many of us, sleep seems out of our grasp." Like Lexie, for example, who is just sitting in the waiting area. Sloane watches her and when Derek walks up, reminds him that Derek's mom used to bring Mark home when she saw that he was tired and needed a family. He then adds that if Derek doesn't bring Lexie home, he will.
"We want it, but we don't know how to get it." Cristina walks across the street to her building, where Hunt is waiting on the front steps. Mmm, I wouldn't mind it if that's what was waiting on my steps when I got home from a bad day at work. You know, ignoring the whole unsettling crazy kissing of last episode. She just looks at him as he once again struggles for words. He finally chuckles ruefully and admits he doesn't know why he's there. She finally asks if he wants to come inside, but he answers quickly that he doesn't think it would be appropriate. When she asks if he wants to go somewhere else, he quietly tells her no. She clearly isn't really up for this now but is also too exhausted to fight it, so she sits down to him and just stares straight ahead with her chin in her hands. Hunt watches her, and then quietly tells her, "I think you're beautiful." She turns to him with surprise as Mere narrates, "But once we face our demons, face our fears..." Cristina rests her head back on her hands.
Meanwhile, Mere gets home to find Lexie drinking tea in the kitchen (still rather zombie-like) and Derek making up a bed for her. Mere happily comments, "You brought home a stray." For once, Derek actually just looks like a nice boyfriend as he smiles and confirms the fact.
Mere's VO continues, "...and turn to each other for help..." Alex and Izzie get home (Izzie in a hideous green sweater with a neckline that makes it look like she put it on backwards) and she stops him as he turns to head into his room to tell him she knows she's a complete fucking mess. But as she apologizes and tells him he deserves better, he cuts her off. Proving he's picked up the whole boyfriend thing quickly, he tells her that it's okay if she can't deal with their relationship right now but that if she wants out, she has to break up with him since he can handle the mess and he's not going anywhere. He walks into his room and asks if she's coming. After a deep breath, and with Denny watching from her doorway, Izzie goes in but turns at the last minute to apologize. Denny doesn't seem terribly surprised and tells her that it's okay, and he'll be right there. Oh boy, more of this storyline, it's what I've always wanted. Mere wraps up, "...nighttime isn't so scary because we realize we aren't all alone in the dark." Poor sad dead Denny mopes in the doorway, since he actually is all alone in the dark. I can't believe there seems to be plenty more of this drivel to come. Sigh. But until we have to deal with this again, happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Sometimes doctors are so immature! Click through our Grey's Anatomy: Doctor or High Schooler gallery and see what we mean.