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The big news is that today is the solo surgery, which will be an amputation. The attendings all voted and unanimously chose Cristina as the winner, but as she was taken out of the running by the Chief, she instead has to choose which of her peers will do the surgery instead. As if that's not enough, Dr. Dixon has agreed to come back to Seattle Grace for one more day, and Richard tells Cristina it's her responsibility to ensure that Dixon wants to be the head of cardio by the end of the day. Interestingly enough, she seems to have an easier time of it with Dixon, who advises Cristina to rank everyone against the same standards and pick the best, no emotions involved. The other residents, meanwhile, all take turns kissing her butt or manipulating her in some way -- that is, except for Alex, who fails at the ass-kissing and instead lays out why he's the most qualified to do the surgery. Because of that, Cristina ends up picking him. But when Mere comes to talk about the fight the two are in and how Cristina's picking Alex was personal, Cristina loses it. She again reminds everyone else that all of their interns were involved too and that she should be the one operating, along with pointing out that she chose Alex because he was qualified and that Mere was the one who just made it personal. Hunt takes Cristina somewhere private so that she doesn't just break down in the hallway, and it turns out to be the basement where she stands on top of an air vent and has all of her troubles blown away a la Marilyn Monroe. I have to think the passionate making out that followed also had something to do with her resulting good mood. Rowr.
Alex is stoked to get the surgery, and immediately runs off to ask Izzie to assist him. She's been busy shunning all of her work to have sex with Denny (It kills me that I'm writing that sentence yet again) but Alex thinks she's just being aloof because she's scared of loving him. He tells her that he loves her, but unfortunately that sends him into a panic spiral right as he's scrubbing in for the amputation. He pages Mere, who talks him off the ledge, and then Izzie shows up at the last minute to grin away and help him out. George is the only one who has managed to see beyond his own life and realize that something is wrong with Izzie, but he's either yelled at or brushed off when he tries to bring it up with her friends.
Mark is doing a state-of-the-art surgery and Bailey asks to be involved, but he kind of loses it when Bailey keeps asking questions, thinking she's stepping on his toes. He's already on edge because he's so attracted to Lexie, and despite his telling Callie to not lust after hot interns (in her case, Sadie, which... ew) he can't seem to keep himself from doing the same. Bailey explains that she's just trying to learn something new and exciting and when Mark realizes she is sincere, he lets her help out on what turns out to be the successful rebuilding of a woman's vocal cords. Lexie, having been clued in by Sadie to the fact that Mark likes her, heads over to his hotel to tell him that the patient finally spoke and proceeds to undress and talk him into bed with her. That is so not going to end well.
Derek spent the day trying to save the life of a teen who had been in a car accident with her sister, and when she dies (brain-dies?) on the table he gets a bit unglued, telling Mere he can't handle all the losing patients anymore. Dixon has also been on the case, and afterward she can't fathom why the family won't immediately let them harvest the girl's organs. Mere manages to eventually convince them, using not just facts but feelings, which seems to rile Dixon since she can't understand that. But what she can understand is manipulation, and when the Chief admits that he was purposefully torturing Cristina that day we see the first awkward smile from her and she tells Richard to have the Board make her a better offer. I feel like she could end up being interesting, and maybe that will help temper my disgust that both Sadie and Denny seem to not be going anywhere anytime soon.
Who on staff is a doctor and who is a high-schooler in a lab coat? Find out. Come back on Wednesday for the full detailed recap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!This week starts with all of the attendings in a meeting, though they don't look like they're being yelled at for the residents and interns being a band of crazy, unprofessional nutjobs. Lexie walks by with a clipboard hiding her face from the eyes down, which is odd as she's not doing any speaking she might need to hide. Mere tells us, "My mother called it the greatest and most terrifying moment in her life." Lexie turns out to be trying to read lips through the window, and while I still can't figure out why that would necessitate holding a clipboard in front of one's own mouth, she seems to see the Chief say "Karev," and runs off to report to the other interns. Meredith's VO has explained: "Standing at the head of the surgical table, knowing that the patient's life depends on you and you alone."
Ryan takes the verbal baton and runs to report to all of the residents gathered in the locker room. Alex is thrilled, but George and the others are surprised (and Cristina just looks like she was punched in the gut) and when they ask Ryan if he's sure, he falters and runs back out. VO: "It's what we all dream about. Because the first person that gets to fly solo in the OR? Kind of a badass." Lexie goes to spy again, this time from behind a computer, and thing we know Graciella has run into the locker room and said that it's Stevens. Alex demands to know which one of them it really is, and Cristina asks snidely if it's hard for them to depend on the imbecilic interns to find out who won. Izzie, whose ghost sex seems to have given her a healthy dose of (even more) attitude, asks if it's hard for Cristina to watch this, knowing she can't win. We see that Denny has escaped the confines of the house and come to work with Izzie, and he loves her new mean streak. After some more chatter, Two comes in to report that the Chief said Grey. Clearly none of them have a career in lip reading ahead of them. Bailey comes in to get coffee and when Alex yells that this is bogus, laughs that he's only figuring it out. She tells him that they're going to have to just wait and hear when it's announced -- just like she did when she won. Cristina asks the question that Bailey just gave the answer to, and Bailey awesomely tells her she's going to ignore it, because of course she won her solo surgery. She points out all the things she didn't do, like cutting LVAD wires or letting her interns operate on themselves. She toots her own horn for a while until Lexie comes in to say that it's really done, and the Chief sent her with the choice. Alex asks who it was and one of the lamest, cheapest act-outs ever, she points and says, "It's you!" as we fade into the title card.
The Chief is finally talking to the residents himself, rather than sending a messenger, and tells them that the surgery will be a below-the-knee amputation taking place that evening. Denny has gathered along with the rest of them to hear it, and Cristina is listening from behind the Chief, rather than with the others. Mere is stunned it's not an appendectomy, but Alex is stoked for some "saw action." Richard goes on to tell them that the solo surgery isn't just about having the best skills, it's about who can be trusted with someone's life in the OR. I'd say that rules out most of these yahoos immediately. For the first time ever, the attendings voted unanimously, and their pick was Cristina. But since she's been taken out of the running, Richard explains that instead she'll pick which of her colleagues will do the surgery in her place. Again, she stays silent but looks like someone just dealt her another heavy blow. She will write the winner's name on the surgical board at 4pm, and that person will then be able to pick a fellow resident to scrub in since the interns still aren't allowed in the OR. After the others leave, Cristina gasps that this is torture, but Richard replies that he's not even done. Dr. Dixon is coming back that day and it will be Cristina's job to woo her and to convince her to be the head of cardio -- and the Chief will hold her personally responsible if that doesn't happen.
Immediately, the other interns start in on her for why they should be picked. The first says she held a retractor with Cristina for 12 hours one time, and asks if Cristina remembers. She doesn't, and while the 12-hour-holding seems vaguely familiar, I don't remember this girl either. I guess I should be happy they're actually showing that there is another surgical resident besides our five. George hands her a coffee and reminds her he did heart surgery in an elevator. Alex retorts that George is 007. Seriously, are the only things these guys have to go on examples from like, 15 seasons ago? Denny tells Izzie it's her turn, so she snots that they know who Cristina will pick. Mere replies that she won't do that because Mere is her best friend, she'd do it because she is the best. Cough-deludedbullshit-cough! Honestly, the only one of these five that regularly acts like an actual doctor is Cristina (and maybe Alex). The others have all had moments, but nothing consistent. Cristina yells at everyone to stop and, defeated, tells them she'll think about it before sending them all away.
George heads to the clinic and calls back to ask Izzie if she's going. She's still acting like an idiot about the Denny situation and stupidly giggles and stutters through telling a confused George she'll catch up with him. Denny makes some crack not worth recapping and Izzie tells him to shut up, and then needs to play it off like she's just oh so wacky talking to herself! Alex then plants a kiss on her and promises that she can scrub in when he wins, but Izzie is distracted by her dead boyfriend who gets pissed about it and yells, "Enough!" I've spent most of the last week being really upset that not only do we all have to watch this ridiculous bullshit ghost sex, but that Denny 2.0 is kind of an asshole. Dude, you're dead. She's (presumably) alive and has a boyfriend that very recently, was a situation you said you understood. This Denny's just an obnoxious dick. However, when I was ranting to the lovely Jessica, she pointed out that this Denny is a jerk because he's in Izzie's mind -- he's stupid Izzie's version of what Denny would be like. And since she's a complete asshole, so is he. Voila! The theory made so much sense, I breathed a sigh of relief that maybe this character won't be entirely ruined for me when I go back and watch his original story arc sometime. To illustrate his jerkitude, as Izzie runs off stuttering, Denny follows her while pointing back at Alex. Way to be a classy ghost, there.
Lexie, Graciella, Sadie and Ryan are gathered around and Lexie complains that Cristina is ignoring her, which is way worse than her just being mean. The girls all gripe a bit but Ryan announces to them hilariously that he's solving his problems by getting some sex, since that always makes him better. NOW you're talking like a true Seattle Grace doctor, Ryan. The girls, though, all decline to help lift his spirits.
Instead, Lexie goes to find Mark. He ignores her and she explains that she knows she started the whole insane intern-cutting thing, but that she's been advised to get some sex to solve her problems. Mark finally looks up (but not at Lexie) and freezes like a terrified woodland animal, but Lexie goes on to say she'd rather learn instead, and asks what he thinks. He tries to sound stern as he chastises her for talking to her teacher about sex when he has lots of good, upstanding, non-sexual medical things to teach her, and she doesn't notice that he's fighting every urge to take her to the supply closet right now. She insists that she was talking about the actual medical learning and the sex was a joke. Never joke about sex with a man-whore, Lexie! Bailey mercifully interrupts the moment to ask if Mark is doing a Technicalus Soundingnamus procedure today, and he says that he's helping a woman speak again. He's a little put off when Bailey excitedly tells him she read up on the surgery, but she explains that she was hoping he'd let her help out with this cutting-edge procedure. He agrees, and surprises her when he says that Lexie will be helping too -- by way of bringing him regular cappuccinos, of course.
Hunt comes across Cristina abusing a nurse as she tries to find out where Dr. Dixon is since she seems to have already arrived. He asks if she's nervous but she deflects it by asking why he's in cardio. She scoffs when he tells her he's getting to know the other parts of the hospital and asks, "What else is there? The OR, the ER and the place with the food." Hunt tells her she's got a lot to learn and heads off. While that's true, it's an interesting method for wooing the girl he likes.
Little Grey is in a patient's room with Mark and Bailey and introduces Kathleen Patterson, who lost her voice after a procedure 5 years earlier, which repeated surgeries have failed to restore. The odd thing about Kathleen is that she's typing on her laptop the entire time they are there, ignoring the doctors and her husband. Her husband sounds a little too upbeat as he tells the doctors that they have a good feeling and asks, "Right honey?" Without looking up she grabs one of a number of post-its that are stuck to her computer and shows it to him; it says just, "Yes." Apparently she seems to have lost some manners along with her voice -- while I understand being frustrated, I don't understand literally ignoring the doctors while she types away. Mark gives up trying to explain the procedure to her and tells her husband about what they'll be doing, which includes taking cartilage from her nose to build her new voicebox. Bailey jumps in to remind Mr. Patterson that it's a risky procedure, and a visibly offended Mark remarks that he knows that and pointedly asks if Mr. P has any more questions for him directly. Mr. P turns to his wife to ask her and after some prompting she angrily holds up a post-it with "No," written on it and underlined four times, which are four very telling little scratches. She also fails to even look up as she does this.
Sadie finds Mere and asks in her annoyingly peppy way to tell her about Alex. While they pull on surgical gowns, Mere reminds Sadie that they can't be friends while they are in the hospital, and Sadie will have to figure out on her own how not to piss off Alex. Given her personality, I'd say that's impossible. Also, while I love Mere shutting Sadie down, isn't it a little late to make a rule about not being able to be friends with certain people at work?
To her credit, which you know I'm loathe to give, she seems to take it without any sort of tantrum and heads over to see what's going on in the ER. Two sisters, 15 and 16 years old, are screeching at each other in a grating pitch particular to teenage girls about whose fault it was that the older one crashed their dad's car. Having to listen to them for a while actually makes me want to call my mom to apologize for all the fighting I did with my own sister and also thank her for not killing us with her own bare hands so that she could enjoy sweet, sweet silence. Callie demands to know their names and the younger one, despite the threats of the older, says her sister's name is Holly Anderson, and that she was driving and texting. The younger one calls her dad and hands the phone over to Callie while the two continue screaming insults at each other. Hunt demands that Alex make it stop, Alex yells at them to shut up, and they get maybe five seconds of peace before the din starts up again. One yells, "I hate you!" and the other responds, "I hate you more!" to which Callie quietly sings, "I hate you both!" much to the delight of the other doctors.
Oh no, Cristina is brushing her teeth. Is this on purpose? I think I've mentioned before that I'm a complete weirdo and I can't watch people brushing their teeth because then I start to move my lips a little bit like there's a toothbrush in my mouth. Yes, I completely understand that makes me a bit of a freak. George comes in to make his case for the solo surgery, which is that he learned and grew the most of anyone and even more important, he never gave up when things got rough. I feel like there would be some sort of rule that the solo surgery could not be awarded to someone who's only been a resident for about five minutes, but I guess not. Cristina listens quietly, spits out her toothpaste, and merely says, "Thank you." She sounds almost sincere about it, which makes me worry a little bit for her well-being.
Callie tells the younger sister, Emma, that she's got a broken leg and will have to be off of it for a while. Emma pitches a fit since she's supposed to go to a "Future Leaders of America" conference. Wow, if she's anything to go by, then our future leaders are going to try to get their way by crying and stamping their feet while screeching in a tone better suited to a vehicle's faulty brakes. Emma starts to yell at Holly about this being her fault, and once they start throwing things at each other Callie pulls the curtain to separate them. Mere's handling things way better than anyone else and can only giggle at how absurd these two are. On the other side of the curtain, Sadie tries to assure Holly that her dad won't be as angry as she thinks he will be. Even me, with only an "everything I need to know about medicine I learned from Grey's Anatomy" education can see that Holly's eyes are way too dark and she's got deep dark circles under them which weren't there a moment ago. Alex checks out her eyes and demands to know how long they've been like that; as Sadie has no idea what he's talking about, I'd say she already failed at trying not to piss him off. Alex yells for Shepherd to be paged since Holly might have a skull fracture, and sends Sadie to do scut until he calls her. (Having heard this term a number of times, I just looked it up and realized it's an acronym for "Some Common Unfinished Task." I must say, I find that rather clever -- it turns out doctors are rather smart! Just not usually on this show.) Emma didn't hear Alex yelling, so the sheet Callie pulled must have been one of those magic sound-deadening ones. She demands to know where they are taking Holly and Mere tries to sound casual as she says it's just for some tests. Maybe she should have sounded more grave, because Holly is glad they're taking her away, and yells after them, "I hope you die!" As we all have watched TV before, we know that Emma just signed Holly's death warrant. Mere and Callie are shocked and stare at Emma, who just sinks back with an angry, self-righteous tensing of her jaw.
Outside there's a significantly lighter, though still annoying situation -- Izzie and Denny walk out to the clinic to find George and a bunch of would-be patients standing outside the locked doors. George asks if she forgot to open it or to staff it, and she admits that it's both. She seems mildly upset with herself for forgetting, but not really at all worried about the sick people standing outside since she saunters back inside with no sense of urgency to get the keys and some nurses. She also has stopped keeping up any pretense of normalcy, and outright banters with Denny as she walks back in. George, seeing her flirt with the wall, seems to realize that things might not be right.
Cristina finally finds Dr. Dixon, who is staring at the surgical board and is clearly troubled by the fact that one of the surgeries has no surgeon assigned. I'm wondering how on earth they got her to come back for a day after her last day there. I figured it would be for a particular surgery for which she was needed, but it seems like she's just hanging around again to see how things go. In her stilted manner of speaking she tells Cristina that she'd like to do the surgery, and Cristina takes a deep breath and tries to explain what's going on. She keeps starting to speak and then rethinks it, so Dixon interrupts her to ask, "Is your stuttering pathological and persistent or is it occasional and stress-related?" Cristina tries to say she doesn't stutter but after Dixon tells her how it can be helped she just quietly thanks her for the advice. Dixon gives a half-smile and then turns back to the board and demands to know why it's blank. Cristina tells her what's up and confirms that yes, the Chief asked her to choose from her peers. Dixon makes a kind of growl that seems to indicate she knows what a rough task that will be.
Lexie brings Mr. Patterson some forms to fill out, and they both look at his wife typing away. Apparently, she blogs about cancer and losing her voice and is famous in certain internet circles. Lexie tries to be positive and says they have a great system going, but Mr. Patterson scoffs at the system of talking to his wife through a few select post-its; he's clearly at the end of his rope. During all this time, she is still typing away on her laptop. Seriously, is this a liveblog of her experience? Because even the most dedicated bloggers don't keep typing literally all day without a break. It feels a little like whoever directed her to type the whole time is maybe not familiar with this wonder called "The Internet" and know that blogs don't have 87 pages of new content each day.
Sadie notices that Callie is looking at x-rays of broken bones, and comes in to flirt about how much she loves broken bones. I'm not sure if it's really directed at Callie or not, given that so far her every interaction with anyone has felt like flirting, and Callie seems not able to tell either but is flustered nonetheless. She accidentally pulls a couple of films off the wall while laughing nervously, and eventually says she has to go. As she leaves, she walks into the chair before rushing out of the room.
Meredith brings her Future Leader down for a CT and finds Alex and Derek looking at scans of Holly's brain. Derek starts to say something and Meredith interrupts him and rather pompously forgives him for not voting for her in the solo surgery, since she knows it would have looked like he was playing favorites. That doesn't seem like what Derek was about to say, but he goes along with it and tells her she deserves it and that Cristina knows that even if they're fighting. All of it is said in a bland, clearly placating tone -- in this single exchange the two of them have totally reminded me of why I don't like them much this season. As Alex laughs with delight at the idea of Cristina and Mere fighting, Holly crashes and they all run in. Emma looks on from her wheelchair in the doorway, confused, while inside the room Holly's nose is bleeding brain matter. My apologies if you were eating anything while you read that! Emma starts to screech again, demanding to know what they did to her sister. Wow, this girl is good at screeching.
Mere finds Cristina in the hallway -- was she seriously given nothing else to do than stand around sadly while she makes up her mind? Mere announces matter-of-factly that Cristina knows Mere is the most qualified and deserves it, but she doesn't want to turn it into something awkward. "So do what you have to do." Cristina nods and rather genuinely answers, "Okay," with a thankful tone. That done, Mere takes off.
She's gone back to Emma, who is having her cast put on by Callie. The girls' parents are on their way, and Emma keeps asking if Holly is going to be okay. The most important thing to her right now is that they don't let her sister die. Rather than directly addressing her sister's chances, Mere says that Emma didn't mean what she said. But Emma maintains that can't be the last thing Holly ever heard her say, and resumes pleading for the doctors to save her life. Callie watches all this with a worried expression, since she knows that wishing your sister dead on TV means it's totally going to happen. Mere tells Emma she'll go for an update, but carefully doesn't make any promises about Holly's life.
Ah, Cristina does have something to do. She and Dixon are helping out on Holly's surgery. Derek starts pontificating that Cristina needs to consider everyone's accomplishments and achievements and look for the standouts. He then tells her to observe Alex doing a brain graft, and Alex nearly wets himself with excitement that he gets to complete the procedure. It's actually really cute -- I think it's just my intense dislike of Derek right now that's making me extra snarky. Dixon just announces, "A system. Devise a system, rank everyone accordingly that's all." Everyone else exchanges glances over their masks at her somewhat robotic speech, which is just maddening. Seriously, if we're to believe that she was a famous surgeon yet no one knew she had Asperger's, fine. But everyone would have known from her day working at the hospital, and I like to think that being adults who already work in the medical profession, they would be more understanding and just let it go. Cristina thanks her quietly while the boys exchange more looks. Holly's brain decides to break the tension and as alarms beep it starts to change color, which freaks out Alex. Derek shoves him aside and announces that she is hemorrhaging, and Alex asks worriedly what he did.
Callie finds Mark so that she can talk about Sadie, or as Mark says, "Psycho with no appendix?" The very one. Callie is in a tizzy wondering if there was actual flirting taking place in the x-ray room. Mark asks some important questions: was there touching, playing with hair, or licking of lips? Callie doesn't even answer, she just slumps as she realizes that there was none of it and she thinks she made it all up because she's lonely and wants attention. She tries to tell Mark how hot Sadie is but he cuts her off sternly and orders, "The hot ones are the ones that cause trouble." They will distract her, and she needs to focus on the medicine. "Take all that pent-up sexual energy you waste thinking about hot, young, naked available interns and put it back into your genius." That is begging to be printed on a motivational poster. Callie agrees, and Mark adds, "Your godliness. Build someone an organ. That's hot." Of course he's now shifted entirely to talking about himself and Lexie. Callie tries to talk about Sadie's smile but Mark yells at her, "No hot interns!"
Unfortunately he has his hot intern hanging over his shoulder as he shows her and Bailey on a computer how he's going to help Mrs. Patterson. He yells at Lexie to back up and get out of his space, then orders Bailey to find her something to do. Bailey sends Lexie off to finish prepping Mrs. P for surgery and then gives Mark a puzzled, yet judgmental, look. He tries to defend, "She was in my space!"
Izzie apparently managed to get herself to the clinic but asks George if he'll cover for her while she runs off to take care of some pressing business. Denny leans forward to explain that she's talking about SEX. I die a little inside each time I have to recount these scenes. Iz brushes off George's protest and tells him he can handle it before she leaves, and a random nurse comes up to George to tell him he's lucky she came in at all, since it's the first time she's been there all week. No wonder these residents have interns that run wild -- they learned the art of not paying attention to anyone's work from their own bosses.
Back in Holly's OR, the mood is sedate. Derek assures Alex there's nothing he could have done and when he asks about something to be sure, Dixon jumps in to give a detailed technical explanation of what went wrong, how Holly's blood supply was cut off and can't be restored. She asks Alex if he understands and he growls, "She's brain dead. I get it." Cristina sneaks a glance at Dixon, who just looks downwards at his tone. Clearly this is the first notch in the "She's totally not going to work here" column. Dixon reminds the room that Holly is only 16, and the others all seem gutted. But Dixon exclaims, "That's good news! She'll be an excellent candidate for organ donation." Derek looks a bit horrified but also nods since she's not wrong. Mere just watches it all from the gallery.
It's now Alex's turn to try to sway Cristina, and he tells her sincerely, "You were robbed. You got screwed by politics." She actually looks around to see if he's talking to anyone else since this is so un-Alex. He adds a bit more, looks really concerned, and then bursts out laughing and announces that he can't actually bring himself to kiss her ass. Instead, he tells her step-by-step everything you do in a below-the-knee amputation. He adds that he's done it once on a cadaver and three times on Stan, then he takes a deep breath and leaves.
Hunt finds her in the lobby making notes and asks who she's going to pick. In the first full sentences she's spoken since the beginning of the episode, she explains how she's ranking everyone. Hunt scoffs a bit, since he thinks she already knows all of that and instead should decide with her gut. She thinks just as little of his plan: "I'm not putting a patient's life in the hands of a nervous surgeon based on my gut." He just tells her that it worked for him, since it's what made him choose her. It sounds like he could mean that as more than just choosing her for the solo surgery.
Callie walks up to one of the nurses' stations and dumps a bunch of files, only to get all flustered once again when she notices Sadie there. Sadie gazes at her for a moment and then breathes, "Beautiful." Callie kind of freaks, but Sadie tells her she was talking about her necklace -- I definitely think that whether she's serious or not, Sadie knows 100% what she's doing. Callie bolts, and Sadie smirks like a cat who caught the canary.
George pages Alex, who is super annoyed to have to 1) speak to George 2) in the clinic. George asks where Izzie is and when Alex asks how he should know (and adds he thought she was there) George has to explain that since they're seeing each other right now he might know that and might ask her why she doesn't care anymore about her own clinic. Alex has got some of the boyfriend lessons down, but does still have some things to learn. Alex mocks George for not being able to handle a few cases of the flu but George doesn't bite, instead answering, "Something's wrong, Alex." Alex turns back to George and George continues that Alex has to talk to her since she won't talk to George. He's hit some sort of nerve, and Alex growls menacingly that he's never to talk to him about Izzie again. Er, Alex? This is kind of one of those boyfriend lessons as well -- you might want to pay attention if one of her friends thinks something is wrong. Even if you don't like the friend.
Speak of the devil, Izzie checks her pager and tosses it away when she sees it's "just" George. She's in bed with Denny in the on-call room. To make this mercifully short, Izzie says she knows Cristina would never pick her for the surgery, and she's also got lots of surgeries but there won't always be dead fiancés to screw during work hours. The only flaw to this theory is that Denny promised her he's sticking around and, annoyingly, has proceeded to do so, but whatever. It's like a tiny pinprick of light at the end of this long, dark tunnel that maybe he won't be around forever.
Mark and Bailey are in the OR working on Mrs. Patterson, and she peppers him with questions about the procedure. He calls her an eager student, which clearly isn't a compliment. Up in the gallery, Sadie flops down into the chair to Lexie. She proceeds to announce that she's not sorry for what they did, even if it was extreme and stupid, because the problem is the program. Her example for this is that Lexie should be in the OR rather than the gallery, and my response to my television screen was, "Well, she would have been in the OR right now if you hadn't cut yourself open, you idiot." She rants some more about doing charts for Alex, and I get the impression that this is a girl used to getting just about anything she wants. She complains that the only time anyone bothers with the interns is when they want to get the intern into bed. Don't forget -- it's also when they want to hide their own debilitating injuries that might keep them from doing surgery! Lexie argues that's not true, and that Mark taught her today. When Sadie points out that Mark likes her, Lexie is just shocked, SHOCKED, I say. She denies it, but when Sadie maintains that he does, Lexie turns and smiles to herself.
When Bailey asks more questions during surgery, Mark finally asks if she'd rather just do it herself. She's taken aback, clearly hurt, and stutters that she wasn't questioning his skills but rather was trying to learn something new. While the residents are excitedly vying to cut off a leg, Mark made an organ, and she thinks it's exciting. "I was just trying to learn." Mark is classy enough to accept all of this and thanks her sincerely, then asks her if she wants to attach the something to the other.
Mere wheels Emma into an intensive care room so that she can see her sister. Their parents are there, and Emma asks desperately if Holly can hear her. Mere only sighs, and Emma then asks if she can come out of it. From the door, Dixon's voice announces matter-of-factly, "No she can't." She apologizes for their loss but tells them that while Holly's body is functioning, her brain is dead. She plows ahead: "She has no thoughts, no emotions, no sense. I'm Dr. Dixon. I will be harvesting your sister's organs if your parents agree." The girls' father says that they need more time, but Dixon can't understand why they can't see the urgency of the situation. Again she tells them, "I'm very sorry for your loss." But, she tells them that the organs are young and vital and could help save lives. Emma has no idea about Dr. Dixon's Asperger's, plus she's also proven herself to be self-centered and a screecher, so she doesn't take this very well. (Seriously, I would have been far more affected by this storyline if there was less screeching. Obviously this would be a horrible, frightening, gut-wrenching situation, and if it had been acted just a tad less ear-splittingly, I would have been on board like I am with most of the patients of the week. But all of the screaming put me off of this girl too early and I can't get it back.) She starts to pat her sister's arm and begs for her to wake up. Dixon apologizes one more time but drills the point home that Holly is brain dead, and Emma loses it and screams at her to get out of the room. Mere quietly tells the doctor that the family understands, and she should probably go now, please. Shockingly, I think Mere handled the interaction as gracefully as possible that way. Dixon announces, "I have offended you but we are running out of time." Emma yells at her again to get out and then begins screeching for Holly to wake up. Oh, my bleeding ears!
Izzie finds Cristina looking through a microscope and when she notices blondie, she sits and looks at her quietly, waiting for the sales pitch. Izzie, though, just wants to talk about the mind-blowing sex she's having. Apparently the ghost sex is the best she's ever had in her life, and probably the best sex that anyone has ever had, and she can't imagine why anyone would want to do anything else with their time. Izzie laughs in delight and tells Cristina that it's fine that she gives the surgery to Mere, because Izzie is having mind-blowing sex. She finishes up with a manic chuckle, and tells Cristina, "Just thought you should know." Cristina still doesn't say a word.
Post-surgery, Mark, Bailey, Lexie and Mr. Patterson are gathered around his wife's bedside. Despite their encouragement, she's too scared to try talking. She shakes her head no, and then opens her laptop. That's the final straw for her husband, who begins to yell, "No!" He wants no more typing nor post-its, and demands that she talk to him. She merely recoils from him and starts to cry, and Bailey and Lexie quietly orchestrate giving her some space, including from her husband. He answers angrily, "I've given her five years of space."
Sadie finds Richard in the hallway and announces that the surgery was her fault, she knew what she was doing, and she should be punished instead of Cristina. I know we've only known her a short while, but I don't feel like this is entirely sincere. Richard isn't having any of it, and shoots back, "You know who your father is and you know he's why you're still here. So if I were you I'd stop worrying about whose fault the appy was and start figuring out what I was going to do to make up for it." Stunned, she agrees. It's the first time she's ever seemed genuinely shaken up -- I think that despite her telling Holly that she'd gotten in trouble with her dad loads of times and been forgiven, she's actually scared of him, whoever he might be.
Dixon and Cristina are sitting in the hallway, and Dixon muses that there are people dying. "It's inappropriate," she adds. Cristina apologizes -- all of the fight has been taken out of her today and there isn't even the suggestion of an edge to her voice. Dixon tells her that she wasn't talking about Cristina, and that she approves of Cristina's system. Her voice lifts just a degree to show that she does admire it quite a lot. She's talking about the organs, and she is upset since she knows Holly can't hear her sister but her organs could help people right this moment. "Leave feelings out of it. Leave them out of science, leave them out of the decision making because people are dying as we speak." And there's Cristina's problem laid right out in front of her -- Does she go with feelings or not? She looks at Mere puttering around in Holly's room, and seems to have made a decision.
She walks to the board and stares a while as Richard and the other residents (minus Izzie) watch her intently. She then writes "Karev" on the board. Alex cheers, George thinks she must be kidding, and Mere turns and congratulates Alex. "Whatever," he responds, too cool for school. Cristina just walks away silently and Richard tells her, "Interesting choice." Cristina merely replies, "He made the best case." No feelings it is, then. Mere, on the other hand, just stares at Alex's name.
Alex bursts into the on-call room (there's the bonus to sleeping with a ghost -- no need to lock the doors since no one else will see him!) to tell Izzie that he won. She's confused and groggy since she's been sleeping, and she's also disconcerted to have one boyfriend there while she's in bed with the other. Alex announces, "I love you." She's a little taken aback, but he happily repeats it. Unfortunately, he explains his personal theory as to why she's never around anymore -- he thinks she loves him too but is scared because Alex screwed up once and because Denny died. He knows she had the patient that reminded her of Denny (a little too much, clearly) but promises to not leave or cheat or die or anything else. "I think you're my best shot. I think with you, you make me better. You make me want to be better. You make me want to be good. And I think I can. With you, I think I can." This is such an awesome breakthrough for Alex and I wish it wasn't wasted on such a miserable cow as Izzie has become. He tell her that scared is okay, and she should be scared with him when she scrubs in with him for the amputation. As if she's just catching up to the beginning of the conversation, she repeats, "You love me." He tells her to shut up, kisses her, and leaves. Denny, in bed with his hands behind his head, growls, "I'm really starting to not like that guy." Well, the feeling is mutual... though we each mean different guys.
Emma has finally stopped screeching, and tells Mere she never should have said what she did. Mere instructs her to then tell Holly the last thing she would want Holly to hear, because she has to believe that if the roles were reversed Emma would forgive Holly. Emma starts to sob, "I'm sorry," and her parents come to the doorway to watch. She tells her sister she loves her and Mere replies that Holly loved her, no matter what was said or what happened. "She loved you. She loves you. She loves you." Emma finally puts Holly's hand down and cries for her mom; her parents rush in to hug her and they all cry together.
Mere finds Derek staring at the surgical board, and she takes a deep breath and admits that she and Cristina are fighting. All together now: "Duh." Derek advises Mere to talk to her, they're best friends, and it's important. She then says his name when she realizes he has other things on his mind, and he comments that they don't tell you that being a doctor is going to be like it is, losing more patients than you save. "I'm sick of the death." She tells him she's sorry, and he turns and high-tails it out of there, saying he'll see her at home.
Lexie goes to see Mrs. Patterson and sits down on the bed as she types. She then reaches over and, to Mrs. P's surprise, closes the laptop gently. It struck me as rather presumptuous, but Mrs. P seemed ultimately okay with it, so there you go. Lexie tells her that she can try to speak now, since Lexie's just a lil' old intern and it's okay if she can't speak in front of just an intern. Mrs. Patterson seems to gather up some courage and then whispers "Hi." After encouragement, she tries again and a little scratchy voice comes out. She starts repeating the word and laughs happily, which her husband sees through the window. When he comes to the doorway, she whispers, "Hi." He says it back and then comes in to embrace his wife. Lexie just grins happily.
Richard finds Dixon and asks about her day and if she might feel like working at Seattle Grace. She responds by bluntly replying that he emotionally tortured Cristina that day. "Was that your intention?" He's a bit taken aback but he does admit that it was. Dixon then gives her little half-smile and tells him, "Have your board make me a better offer?" She leaves, but fortunately it means Cristina might make her way back into the Chief's good graces.
Cristina is in the gallery to watch Alex's solo surgery. Mere sits down to her and tells her that she doesn't want to fight, and that it doesn't matter what happened, it's behind them. She adds that she knows that's why Cristina made it personal by picking Alex, "So let's just move on." Cristina's brow has furrowed deeper as Mere goes on, and she finally turns and informs her that Mere was the one who made it personal -- she's doing it right now with this speech. She chose Alex because he was the most prepared, not because of their fighting. "Because, unlike you, I can separate my personal life from my job. You made it personal." Mere nods, and Cristina stands up, clearly about to crack. She announces to the gallery that no one said anything even though it was all their interns. "But I won this. They picked me. If I don't deserve this solo surgery then none of us do." It's a tough situation, because as much as I love Cristina, and as much as no one was keeping tabs on their interns, she was the only one who knew what they were doing and therefore she had the biggest burden. She storms out past Hunt, and George takes her seat so he can talk to Meredith. He admits he's not sure if he's more jealous of Alex or worried about Izzie. He tries again to tell someone about Izzie. "I think there's something wrong with her, Mere." But since it's only all ever about herself, Mere replies, "There's something wrong with all of us, George." She then gets a page from Alex.
Cristina turns a corner into the hallway and takes a deep, jagged breath, but Hunt follows her and directs her into the stairwell. She follows him with tears about to spill down her cheeks.
Mere goes to Alex as he's scrubbing in and freaking out, which he announces. He recounts that he told Izzie he loved her right before his first solo surgery ever, and now she's not going to show up. He's beating himself up for being such an idiot but Mere orders him to stop, because if he kills the guy she'll be pissed. "Then I'll know I should have won it. You have to kick ass in there Alex. You have no choice!" It's a moment where her being all about herself actually works. The Chief comes in and asks Alex if he's ready. Alex doesn't answer but when the Chief asks again, Izzie comes walking through the door in her scrubs and answers that he's ready. She then gives Alex a big crazy smile.
Hunt leads Cristina down to a boiler room in the bottom of the hospital. She's all suspicious about where they are going but he assures her she will like it. She follows him into the room and is puzzled as he tells her to wait. Then, all of a sudden, air shoots up through the vent on which she's standing. She starts to laugh and he tells her happily that the vent will clear your head. He asks if she feels better and she does. "Anything can happen on a vent," he tells her. She asks sexily, "Like what?" He tells her to wait and the air shoots up again, and then they start to make out. Ah, so THAT'S what can happen on a vent.
Mark hears a knock on his hotel room door and opens it to find Lexie, who tells him, "You made her speak." She tells him what happened with Mrs. Patterson as she walks in the room, and Mark looks worriedly back at the doorway like someone's going to hop in with a camera, yelling, "Gotcha!" She tells him she respects him as a man and as a teacher, "So, teach me." She starts to take off her clothes, and he pleads with her to stop as she'll only repeat, "Teach me." He pleads that he can't do this because she's Little Grey and he made a promise, but she's down to her skivvies and he's wearing down. She asks sadly if she's really so bad and he answers, "No, I am," before grabbing and kissing her.
Mere tells us, "We enter the world alone, and we leave it alone." Alex preps the patient while the Chief appears to be reading a magazine in the corner. I guess that's actually good, that if Alex goes nuts there is someone there to back him up after all, but it still is a pretty funny picture.
Mere's VO continues, "And everything that happens in between? We owe it to ourselves to find a little company." Retractor girl and another random extra/resident make bets on how fast Alex will choke but as she hands over her money, Mere chastises them that Alex is one of them and they should show some respect. Though they slink down in their chairs, I notice he doesn't give her money back yet. VO: "We need help. We need support." From the gallery, Bailey watches and nods proudly. Callie glances over at Sadie, who is staring right back and smiles.
"Otherwise we're in it by ourselves. Strangers." Lexie and Mark are in bed quickly becoming not strangers. "Cut off from each other. And we forget, just how connected we all are." Dixon is in another OR, harvesting Holly's organs. Back in the solo surgery, Alex draws on the leg and then looks at Izzie, who smiles encouragingly. "So instead, we choose love. We choose life. And for a moment we feel just a little bit less alone." Izzie then looks up in the gallery to see her jerky ghost lover smiling at her. Alex asks for the blade and she hands it over, and everyone in the gallery leans forward as he holds it a moment. He touches it to the skin... and with that, we are done. I guess at this point we assume he didn't actually kill the guy, but we will find out for sure in the new year. Happy holidays, everyone!
Watch as Beth and Val discuss the peculiarities of Izzie's torrid affair with Dead Denny in ourTV Is the Answer vlog.