In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Bailey has finally decided to take on Derek in a contest for who has the most luscious wavy hair, and Derek better watch out. This must be her new peds hair -- she's putting together her application and gathering recommendation letters. All of them are glowing, except for the Chief's which is clearly a form letter. When she confronts him about it, he has a bit hissyfit that boils down to the fact that he's mad that she's not going into general surgery to take over his role one day like he had imagined. It doesn't help that he's a little bit on edge from the goings on in the hospital...
Cristina and Hunt get a patient who had a botched surgery performed by Faye Dunaway. She's an old revered surgeon that they keep locked away except for special occasions, and Cristina can't stand her since she uses old techniques and seems to not keep up. While Cristina might have been a little bit harsh about it, telling on Faye to the Chief, it turns out she's right and so Richard is going to have to fire her. At the same time he has a potential lawsuit on his hands from the woman a couple of episodes ago who came into the clinic and was told by Sadie and Izzie that she has cancer. It turns out she's only anemic, and... why, when Izzie got her own blood tests back at the same time, she thought she was only anemic too, didn't she? So Izzie sulks, yells at the interns for being inept morons, gets a mole tested out, and then gives the interns one more chance to try and correctly diagnose a mystery 29-year-old female patient. Still no official diagnosis, but we're getting closer to just finding out what's wrong, already.
Finally, Richard has to deal with Derek. He operated on poor Jen to get her speech back to normal, but he did so while fighting with Addison the whole time. She has stuck around at his request to make sure Jen's unborn child is okay, but then he only gets mad when Addie thinks he's taking too many risks and going to kill both Jen and the baby. He manages to fix whatever was affecting Jen's speech, but she and her husband only have a moment to be happy because then something goes horribly wrong for the millionth time and she's rushed back into surgery. Once in the OR, he removes one lobe of her brain, and he's going for a second when Addison points out that he's crazy and that even if she lives, Jen won't ever be the person she was before. She wants to deliver the baby but Derek forbids it, so finally Addie sends Alex running for the Chief. Once there, Richard has to basically tell Derek that it's already over for Jen, and Addison delivers the premature baby -- the only teensy consolation of this whole story being that the baby looks like he's got a good chance to live. Rob is understandably devastated, and when Derek can only repeat a bunch of times that he's sorry, Rob snaps and calls Derek a murderer. Derek goes to sulk and unfortunately, Mark picks that moment to blurt that he's been seeing Lexie. Derek turns around and punches him twice, which ticks Mark off so he punches back (and he seems to be much better at it than Derek, too, which must add insult to injury). Mere takes Derek home to heal him with tequila, and Lexie visits Mark after Callie has cleaned him up and he tells her that the beating was totally worth it for them to be public. It's one tiny happy moment in an hour that's a big old downer.
Look back at the worst moments of the show history. Come back week for Lauren S' first detailed recap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Derek is looking at a brain scan while Jen sleeps in a hospital bed and Rob sleeps in the chair to her. Mere VO's: "There's this thing that happens, when people find out you're a doctor." He wishes her good morning and she struggles to use the correct words to ask if he proposed, asking what I think turns out to be, "Did... you... patter?" But he knows what she means and assures her she'll be the first to know. "They stop seeing you as a person, and begin to see you as something bigger than you are." Rob asks how she is and all Derek can tell him is that she's okay. VO: "They have to see us that way, as gods. Otherwise, we're just like everyone else. Unsure, flawed, normal." Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, in case you didn't catch that, this will be the hour that we compare Derek to God. I have my barf beg situated to me on the sofa. Rob kisses Jen's head so we're all reminded how sweet and in love they are, while Mere comes and delivers new films to Derek, who tells her there is no change. She asks if he wants coffee but he turns it down. Her voice tells us, "So we act strong. We remain stoic. We hide the fact that we're all too human."
Mere walks up to do something purposeful in a chart and Alex comes up to ask if Derek is still beating himself up like Addison thinks he is. It turns out she sent her brother back to Seattle, and then has had time to muse about Derek to Alex, pointing out that he's spent three days at Jen's bedside, so he's still beating himself up for what happened. Remember when I said that I didn't get what was going on with all the blood last week? It turns out that Derek nicked the aneurysm. And I have no idea how these things work, other than that they can suddenly burst and kill people, but it seems that the nick probably has to do with the troubles she's having now. Alex tries to get Mere to admit that it bugs having Addison around and she tells him not at all, but when alarms start beeping and Derek comes out to have Alex page Addie, saying he needs her to stay, Mere admits that it bugs a little.
Once Addie is there, Derek explains to Rob and Jen that he can't put off the surgery any longer. Jen is having mini-strokes that are causing her aphasia and they are due to a lack of blood flow so he is going to do a bypass. Jen, it should be noted, appears to be the first patient Derek has ever had who no longer has her long blonde locks -- I mean, clearly they are hidden under the bandage turban she's got going on, but I appreciate them finally recognizing that generally, people don't come out of brain surgery with all of their hair in perfect shape. She struggles for words and Rob figures out that she's trying to ask if the baby will be okay -- Addison says she'll be there to monitor things. Rob also asks Derek directly if this will fix Jen's problems, and he answers, "I'm hoping it will work, yes." Clearly Rob hears that Jen will be okay. The docs leave and Derek thanks Addie for staying to help, which she tells him is the least she could do after he saved her brother. Do they have no one else in this hospital who knows how to work with babies? I guess if they do, they aren't good-looking enough to care about them. Rob then pokes his head out to tell them quietly that if it comes down to Jen vs. the baby, to save Jen. "We can make another baby. We can't make another her."
Callie is looking at a badly swollen and bruised ankle -- her patient fell down a flight of stairs and she thinks it was caused from his gall bladder surgery. She pulls a bandage aside to show Hunt and Cristina a long, nasty-looking incision, and they're stunned that the surgery wasn't done laproscopically. Once the man tells them that Dr. Campbell was his surgeon, Cristina snarks that that explains it. Hunt pulls them aside to find out what's going on, and Callie explains that Campbell was Seattle Grace's first female surgeon who mostly works in her office but occasionally does surgery. Cristina smirks that she generally only botches surgeries and offers to page the Chief, but Hunt stops her and says that Campbell should be paged. Cristina still thinks the Chief is a better idea, "Instead of some dinosaur who refuses to retire her scalpel and go join her friends in Boca." And as happens in all TV shows, Campbell has walked up right behind her. "The dinosaur is here!" Faye Dunaway announces. "No need to page me." Look, I love Faye Dunaway. LOVE. I'm totally on her side in the Hilary Duff catfight. But... that is one odd-looking lady -- a cautionary tale against plastic surgery, really.
Callie finds Mark and asks if he's checked out Arizona yet, but he hasn't had the time. Callie is placated only because she thinks he brought her coffee, as does Addison when she walks up. But he grabs it away and tells them it's not for them, and instead takes it and runs after Lexie. Lexie tells him she doesn't want the secret coffee and she doesn't want to date Anne Frank (as in, someone she has to smuggle to and from her attic bedroom), but it should be noted that she doesn't actually let go of the coffee. Smart girl. Mark promises he's going to tell and that once Derek proposes, Lexie will be Mark's date to the wedding. This is Mere and Derek we're talking about here -- I would maybe promise, like, going publicly into the living room or something else more realistic. Until those two are in front of an official saying "I do," I'm not sure I'm going to believe it will really happen, no matter how functional they have seemed lately.
Arizona seems to still be wearing her Heelys, since she rolls up to Bailey to ask if she's excited about her peds application. Bailey is rocking new, AWESOME curly hair and looks fantastic, she feels good, and she has amazing recommendation letters to, "put the competition to shame," in this competitive field. She reads excerpts from Derek's and Mark's letters, but when Arizona asks about what Richard said, Bailey has to admit she doesn't have his letter yet. All of those who can see where this story is going from a million miles away, raise your hand. Well, I can't raise mine because then I'd be typing with one hand, but I'm doing it in my head. Arizona reminds her for good measure that his is the only one that matters, but then softens and grins to say that she couldn't be more excited to have Bailey on board. The Chief then comes down the stairs and Bailey reminds him, but he just says he'll remind Patricia and she'll have the letter by the end of the day. George is also writing a letter so that he can get some more screen time this hour, but he claims more time to finish. Not only is he not getting any, but Bailey tells him that she picked him because he won't screw up, "So don't."
The docs walk Jen to surgery, while she struggles to remind Rob what she wants for the baby. He knows what she's trying to say -- piano lessons, and public school so he doesn't become a snob. These two only get cuter, which really only ever spells certain doom. But Rob assures Jen that she'll pull through to raise their son too. They kiss, and as they go in, Addison mentions that Jen's blood pressure is higher than she'd like. Derek basically cuts her off and says they can't wait, and she did her job and made him aware of the sitch. Rob looks on worriedly, but fortunately he can't hear the bickering between the two surgeons about whether to cut his wife open. Alex notes to Mere, "Your guy and my guy work well together," and Meredith responds that her guy works well with everyone. He works well with everyone he can boss around, Mere. That's not quite the same thing.
Izzie is in the clinic where Graciella eagerly asks if they are going to be able to scrub into a surgery. Izzie tears them all a new one when she asks if they really think they'd be allowed to do that when they could barely finish the Intern Bowl? She then turns around and laughs really smugly to herself. She's confronted by a woman who turns out to be the patient that she and Sadie learned had cancer. The only thing is, after consultations with different doctors and a round of tests, it turns out that she doesn't have cancer, she's only anemic, but it took $80,000 in medical tests to figure that out. As a result, she's suing the hospital. Just in case we don't get it, she explains that her lawyer figures that her blood was switched with someone else's that day. He told her not to come there, but her conscience told her to come so that Izzie can figure out what poor soul might have been told she was anemic but really has cancer. Hmm, who's blood was sent to the lab at the same time that day? Izzie apologizes, but the woman bashes her over the head with, "Don't apologize to me, I'm just anemic! You apologize to that dying person." Cut to Izzie, sitting in a desk chair and looking worried, then pulling out her own test results that diagnosed her with anemia.
Derek is working away when Alex and Addie notice that the baby is going into distress and Jen's blood pressure is dropping. He tells Addie to wait but she says the baby needs to come out -- 4 surgeries in 3 days are a lot for an unborn baby to handle, as it turns out. Derek keeps telling her to wait since the baby is too young, but finally she decides to go in while Derek aggressively tells her to leave the baby in. Just as she's about to cut, Derek triumphantly says he's done. It's a little alarming how much his voice says he's happy to be right instead of Addison, and not just because of his patient's life and all that extra hoo-ha.
Callie has patched her patient's ankle, as it's just a fracture that doesn't need surgery. I think his name is John -- but even if it's not, that's nice and easy, right? John it is. He's self-deprecating and sweet, and Campbell tells him that if he felt something wasn't healing he should have called. She then turns to Cristina and asks what she thinks Campbell should have done to avoid this complication. After some prodding, she launches into a clinical medical explanation and Campbell tells her, "In human, please, Dr. Yang." Cristina takes a moment and announces that the surgery should have been done laproscopically. Campbell then turns to Hunt and asks him why she would do it the way she did, and he explains things like being able to see what you're doing. Oh, details. But Hunt finishes, "It's half a dozen either way," and both women are left unhappy. John loves Dr. Campbell, though, and trusts her decisions. Campbell instructs Cristina to take him to CT and snarks that maybe she'll learn something, while she and Hunt work on a treatment.
Izzie storms in to Bailey, but Bailey brushes her off because of her application deadline. Izzie doesn't care, because whatever Bailey is doing doesn't have to do with Izzie, and launches into how Sadie mislabeled some blood so the clinic might be getting sued. Bailey comments that it's a good thing Sadie no longer works there, then (amen!), but Izzie whines that all of the interns are dangerous and capable of the same thing. She yells about how it's personal since she's worked so hard to teach them, which is a pretty interesting change of heart given that last week all we saw was excitement over the contest. The interns ARE morons, but clearly this isn't really about them -- that, or it's lazy writing that this week we're going to have Izzie hate them. Bailey just turns to Izzie after her rant and asks, "Stevens, you don't think I thought the same thing about you people every day for the first year you worked here?" Seriously, only for the first year? But the Chief told Bailey to get out when she had those complaints, and she wants Izzie to do the same.
Jen wakes up, and happily her speech is normal. She and Rob canoodle but when they aren't looking, Derek does his Furrowed Brow of Worry. Jen asks about the baby and Addie delivers more bad news -- he's stable, but Jen is pre-eclamptic, probably from the stress of all the surgeries. Rob asks if they need to be worried and when he's only met with silence from four doctors, he tells them, "Please tell me we're done being worried." Oooh, Rob. You and Jen are happy and cute, and the doctors aren't answering your questions -- every TV signifier in the book is telling you that you still need to be worried.
It's not clear what the doctors told them, because we see Derek and Addison bickering outside the room. Addison is arguing that it's a serious condition, but Derek thinks they just had the first ray of hope in a week and she squashed it. Yeah, I'm siding with Addison here, given that it's a serious medical condition. Derek takes off and Addison sends Alex -- after he's told Mere that his guy won this round -- to get some test results. Once it's just the two women, Addie asks why she shouldn't go to the Chief about this. Mere weakly argues that the surgery was successful but Addison reminds her how Derek made a mistake that has caused a series of complications, so why let up on the worrying? Mere actually tells her that he lost a lot of patients in the clinical trial but it was good for him. "He cares more, if that's possible." Really? Because all I've seen is a mopey man-child with no confidence. She tells Addison to try and trust him, and Addie for some reason agrees.
Callie walks up to Arizona, who has grown on me quite a bit, but I can't quite get on board with her huge smile. I love a huge smile but there's something that seems almost guilty in hers. Not that I get the feeling she's guilty, but that her face just makes that look a little bit. But for all the time I just spent explaining that, I find her cute as a button. She calls Callie "Calliope," which is a little bit funny, and the two flirt a bit, with Callie admitting she's been avoiding Arizona. Callie screws up her courage and says she's ready to go on this adventure for the second time, and asks Arizona on a date. Arizona's usual smile falls when she learns that Erica was Callie's first. She then gets a little bit weird, and politely declines but says she's flattered. Callie is flabbergasted, given that Arizona kissed her first, but Arizona says that Callie's in a new, awesome experimental phase. She even adds a happy, "yay!" in honor of that, very much like the "yay!" in my current favorite commercial, the butt-dialing one. But Arizona spends her day around newborns, so she tries to stay away from them in her personal life. Oh, ouch. That's going to leave a mark. She tells Callie she's really flattered, but it does little to lessen the sting.
Richard finally hands Bailey her recommendation letter, but he's pretty brusque doing it. Callie comes up and starts to complain about the newborn comment, listing all of her life experiences. She realizes Bailey isn't listening, and that's because Bailey is pissed to realize that Richard wrote her a form letter. Callie can't believe it. She grabs the paper, exclaiming, "He's the Chief and you're Bailey." She reads some excerpts out loud but by the time she reaches, "Serviceable amount of research," they both know it's bad. He has said that Bailey would be, "A fine addition to any program." Bailey is totally offended and asserts that she pulled off both a domino surgery and the taking out of six of a girl's organs and putting them back in again. "I am Dr. Bailey. I'm better than fine." She storms off while Callie calls after that at least he didn't call her a baby.
Cristina is finishing up the CT when Hunt finds her; when Cristina asks if he's done tending to "Her Highness," he comments that Cristina is tough on people and reminds her that while it's good to have high standards, no one is perfect. Cristina absolutely won't give any ground, calling Campbell, "stubborn and out of touch." She maintains that the experience she has doesn't mean anything if she doesn't use it correctly and keep up with medical advances. They bicker a while longer until the scan shows up and we get a nice shot of lord knows what (unless you are a medical professional). Cristina declares that no matter how the surgery was performed, no one should've made that mistake. She points to something on the screen that again, I absolutely cannot decipher.
Izzie, meanwhile, finds a quiet room and begins to feel her glands and lymph nodes. She then begins inspecting her skin, and it seems like she finds something on her back. Here's a note for everyone -- it's a good idea to check your skin all the time, not just when your dead boyfriend shows up to tell you you're going to die. That's my PSA for the day, now back to your regularly scheduled recap.
Cristina is in the Chief's office, clearly having just caught him up to speed on what went on with Campbell. He asks her if she's sure she realizes that she's charging one of his most respected surgeons with negligence. In a clear voice she agrees, "Yes sir." Hunt is standing behind her, and when Richard asks his opinion he tries to get out of it, leaving it up to Cristina. When Richard asks him again, he admits that Campbell outranks him, so it's best if Richard speaks to her himself. Resigned to having to do his job, Richard has Cristina page Campbell to let her know that Richard is going to talk to John before surgery. As she goes out, Cristina comments to Hunt, "Way to take a stand!" But fortunately, unlike last time someone didn't back her up, this doesn't lead to weeks of the silent treatment.
Mark bursts in to where Derek is working and totally overdoes it on the compliments, especially when he keeps referring to Derek as "Legend." Derek thinks his friend might be drunk but Mark is clean and sober and glad that his friend has his sense of humor back. Derek comments that this is the first day in a long time he remembers what it's like to feel good at his job. How is it that I feel no sympathy for him in this storyline at all? Oh well. Mark chats him up like a drunk girl at a bar until Derek stops him, and Mark finally admits they need to talk. But before he can say anything, Derek gives him permission to sleep with... Addison. Mark's confused, and when he says that's not what he wants to do, then Derek is confused. It's enough to make Mark chicken out and he takes off.
Cristina is eating lunch and reading one of Ellis' journals. Weirdly, she's got two different bowls of salad on her plate. Could the prop department really come up with nothing else? Mere sits down and asks how her mom is, and Cristina replies, "Bitter. Angry. Genius." She thinks that with how much Richard and Ellis fought, they probably had great sex, which Meredith thinks is just wrong to hear. Izzie sits down and, still in her snit, asks if she was saying the entire healthcare system of America is wrong. Everyone ignores her, to my delight, and Cristina reads an excerpt where Ellis describes Campbell's technique as "adequate." She compliments Ellis for not continuing to do surgery when she got sick and adds, "Do me a favor and shoot me if I start making mistakes on patients and still think it's kosher to keep cutting." Alex comments that it sounds like she's talking about Derek. It seems a little bit bold, even for Alex, and Mere says his name warningly. Alex explains that his "guy" is right: Derek nicked the aneurysm and now is trying to cover his butt. Mere thinks his guy should shut up, but they're interrupted by both of their pagers beeping.
Jen is moaning and crying, grabbing her head as alarms ring all around her. Derek figures that the bypass must have blown. Rob can't wrap his mind around it and keeps saying that he doesn't understand, that Derek said the surgery was a success. Mere tells him that they'll give him an update as soon as they can as they wheel Jen out to surgery.
The swelling in Jen's brain isn't going down, and Derek is all kinds of agitated. Meredith says his name to try and calm him, but Derek just declares that he needs to take out her temporal lobe. It turns out that won't kill her, but Addison points out that she could lose some speech and memory. Derek has done it before to stop seizures, but Meredith asks if he's done it before for this. Derek declares, "I'm doing it now." Well, why not -- first time for everything, and the charming pregnant lady is right there! The baby goes into distress again, and Addison tries to get Derek to explain himself.
Alex and Meredith get the unenviable job of going to update Rob on the surgery. As they walk towards the waiting room, Alex asks Mere what they say when Derek is in there cutting out part of his wife's brain, and Mere says they will tell the truth: Derek is doing everything he can to save his wife and child. They get to Rob, and Alex gives him the baby update, that he's having heart fluctuations but they're doing everything they can to avoid early delivery. Rob asks then about Jen, and Meredith can only say they're trying to get the bleeding under control and won't know more until it's over. She's unfortunately speechless when Rob asks her to tell him that Jen won't die, and Alex finally jumps in and says just what Mere did, about Derek doing everything he can to save Jen's life. Rob asks again for assurance, and Alex repeats himself. As they book it back to surgery, Meredith thanks Alex and he just replies, "Your guy sucks." Yeah, he's not wrong.
Richard is speaking with John while the other surgeons stand quietly by, and he explains that John has a lacerated bowel and nicked artery. Campbell paces furiously behind him as he explains it, but she's pleasantly surprised when John breathes his own sigh of relief. He figured that when the Chief was coming down to talk to him, it meant he was going to die, so this is nothing. Richard tells him that he has the right to request another surgeon and John is confused; he definitely still wants Campbell to do the surgery, and she smirks to hear it. That done, Richard leaves, but Cristina runs after him since she thinks John didn't really understand what he was being told. Richard has on his Exasperated Pants and just tells her to back off.
George is following Izzie like a puppy dog, trying to get her to help him come up with things to say about Bailey in his letter of recommendation. Izzie's in a right state and calls Bailey an ass, saying she doesn't listen. George follows her as she stomps right into dermatology and sits down -- when he notices where they are he's a little surprised to find out that she still goes there. Izzie finally relents and says to call Bailey dependable and selfless. "Everything she was until she wasn't." She then tells him he should go, and he does after happily coming up with, "dependably selfless." Just after he leaves, Dr. Daisy Peppman comes out and calls Izzie's name for an appointment.
John is in surgery, and Richard comes in to observe Campbell. She teases him about it and mentions one time eons ago when he dropped a clamp into a body cavity. They laugh it off but she is clearly in a better mood than Richard. She manages to work the subject around to his teaching, commenting that she doesn't know how anyone learns by being encouraged, validated, and inspired. She thinks fear and shame are what cause learning, and asks Hunt if his rigid Army training didn't help him become the doctor he is now. He readily agrees, and Campbell turns on Cristina, figuring she hasn't faced much fear in the OR. Clearly she was in her office and didn't hear about the whole, "doing Burke's surgeries for him in secret," thing. Cristina announces that she would welcome any chance to learn, so Campbell asks her how she would perform a pulmonary embolectomy. Cristina would do something that involves a fluoroscope, and seems very pleased with herself and her answer. Campbell then asks what she would do if the power went out, or if she was in a hospital that couldn't afford the tool. Cristina is struck dumb, so Campbell starts to get preachy, asking if kids should not learn math since they now have calculators. Cristina, never known for her long fuse or her ability to play well with others, comments, "If it would help them avoid mistakes like this one." She has managed to ruffle the elder surgeon, who starts screaming at Cristina to get out of her OR. Faye Dunaway is feeling her oats here -- she's got... gusto.
And now it's time for the promised Showdown of the Week. Derek still can't stop the bleeding, which is now in the frontal lobe. Well, as the poor temporal lobe is resting in a dish somewhere, Jen's brain has to bleed elsewhere, right? Addison is really worried, and finally says she has to deliver the now very distressed baby. Derek points out that if she takes the baby, Jen will lose too much blood and die. That said, he makes up his mind to take out her frontal lobe as well. Addie is completely freaked out now, pleading with him to stop. Mere asks if she can live without the frontal lobe as well -- she can, but not as the same person she was before and not as the person her family needs her to be. Addison explains, "She'll lose everything that makes her human." Knowing that Derek is ignoring her, Addie pleads with Meredith, who finally turns to Derek and asks if he's sure he can do this. He says he has no choice, which is a really frightening answer from a freaked-out neurosurgeon. Addison yells that if Jen lives, he's creating a monster. "You don't get to play God here." Now whose fault is that, pumping him up as a God just a few days before, Addison? She pleads that Jen is gone but the baby has a chance, and finally grabs a scalpel to start the delivery. Angry, Derek yells at her to put it down, and they have a stare-off as she tells him to put his down. It's all very grade-school of them, yelling at each other like this. Addie starts to yell to Mere but Derek orders her to go nowhere, so Addie has Alex run to get the Chief while she pleads with Derek to stop. He only says in his most haughty voice, "Do not touch my patient, Addison." What Rob didn't know is when he told Derek to save his wife over the baby, he needed to stipulate that he wanted her back as the functioning human being that he knows and not as a husk of a person.
Derek is still working away as Addison pleads with Mere to intervene. Mere orders Derek to look at her and tells him that Jen is gone, but they can save the baby. The vitals are dropping rapidly while Derek works away, and it takes all Meredith has to get Derek to look at her even for just a moment.
Campbell, Hunt and Richard are scrubbing out, and Campbell admits that she made a mistake and is sorry, but she's only human like they all are. She grandly concludes, "And for that, I do not apologize." Instead of a fitted surgeon's cap she's wearing what looks like a shower cap and it's not doing her crazy facial features any favors. Richard starts to speak but she cuts him off, saying there is no need to discuss it -- clearly she knows that things could wind up badly for her. Alex runs in to say they need Richard and while Richard tries to brush him off, Alex is urgent enough that agrees to come along. Hunt, alone with Campbell, admits that he was fired from the Army -- better known as an honorable discharge. "They knew it was my time even though I didn't. I'm grateful to them for that." Campbell looks stunned as Hunt leaves. I must say, that was a pretty awesome last word for this conversation.
Derek is dropping a piece of brain into a pan to a background soundtrack of alarms when Richard walks in. Like a kid going to mom and dad to mediate an argument, Addison tells him the baby is in distress and she needs to deliver. Derek single-mindedly repeats that the bleeding could stop and he could stabilize Jen, but taking the baby out will kill her. Addison sadly points out that she is already dead, but Derek still sternly orders her to wait. Addison repeats, "Most of her brain is gone. For all intents and purposes, she's dead." She then seems to have decided that discussion time is over, and has Alex page a team to let them know a preemie is coming. She then begins to cut and ignores Derek as he protests. Derek then asks for more blood, but Richard firmly tells him, "No more blood, Derek. No. More. Blood." I really wish I found Derek more sympathetic here, but with how this all unfolded I just think he's even more of a jackass.
Daisy is taking the offending spot off of Izzie's back and cheerfully tells her that she was right to have it checked but doesn't think it looks too suspicious. Izzie dully asks what it means if she also has high LDH levels. Daisy remains optimistic and cheerful, saying that could be due to anything. But when Izzie mentions neurological episodes and hallucinations, Daisy's façade cracks for just a moment. Izzie can't see her as she puts some gauze over the wound, and Daisy has composed herself in a moment to remind Izzie that they see patients like this every day, but that as doctors their job is to not worry until there is medical proof. Why, by this time tomorrow she'll be laughing about it! Izzie is clearly not convinced.
Addie pulls out the tiny newborn and hands him to Arizona, and they comment that he looks strong. As she cuts the cord, Jen flatlines, and Derek pulls off his headpiece and shuffles out of the OR. Stupid show. Always killing the patients I actually like.
Rob is shaking -- clearly they have broken the news. He seems to not be hearing them as they explain that the steroids they used helped the baby's lungs, and the 3 days Derek postponed surgery gave him more time to get stronger. She's hopeful that the baby will survive, but Rob is thinking of Jen right now. He stutters that he doesn't understand. "She just died?" All Derek can say is he's sorry. Rob, with a hint of anger, says that Derek said that, but he's asking how Jen died. Mere explains that Jen's high blood pressure burst the bypass, which caused bleeding and swelling, and there was too much damage to her brain, so they delivered the baby. Rob then recaps for all of us at home. That she had her first surgery, there were complications, then they were fixed, but then the baby got sick and Jen got sick again, but Derek said he fixed that too. "And now she's dead?" Maddeningly, Derek again apologizes and Rob flips out, yelling at him to stop saying he's sorry. "You killed her. You're a murderer. A murderer." He then, horribly, starts asking for his wife as the sad doctors all look on helplessly.
Bailey is reading George's letter and he takes her silence to mean that it's bad, and apologizes. But she just runs up to the Chief and throws the letter in his face, telling him that this is what you call a letter of recommendation. He's appalled to realize that she's implying he take pointers from O'Malley. George just can't get away from being a punching bag no matter what he does, can he? Here was the guy who totally helped the Chief get through a bunch of crap, acting as his intern, and now he's being treated like dirt. Well, not by Bailey, who think he'd be hard pressed to find someone better from whom to take pointers. Richard finally loses it and yells that he's got no time to write a letter just to pump up her ego. He reminds us of all of the bad things that happened this hour to his already #12 hospital and asks if she wants him spending his time writing a letter so she can leave him. She's a little bit taken aback, given that she's applying for a fellowship right there in the hospital, so like a little kid he yells that wasn't what they discussed. She was supposed to be a general surgeon, and then the Chief. Realization finally in her eyes, she corrects that was what he wanted, and that since she's not his daughter, "You don't get to pin all of your hopes and dreams on me, sir." Bailey, as usual, is awesome, but Richard is acting like a whiny baby, and this storyline started rumbling towards us like a Mack truck 5 seconds into her first scene this morning so it's all just a little bit tiring to watch.
Derek is standing on the walkway, hanging his head, when Mark decides on that moment to walk up and announce that he's seeing Lexie. I'm not quite sure how, in a hospital where gossip spreads like wildfire, he didn't realize this wasn't the time. Mark says that it's more than just sex, and they're happy, so... Derek punches him in the face. My, he looks really kind of inept when he does that. I get the idea Patrick Dempsey hasn't actually done much fighting. Mark concedes that he deserved it but then changes his mind, angrily saying Derek can't tell him who he can sleep with. So Derek punches him again, but this time Mark punches back and knocks little Derek right to the ground. Derek jumps up and grabs him, and they start rolling around, trying to kill each other. I'm sure they tried to make this look fair, but Mark is a much more convincing fighter than Derek. For a moment I thought one of them was going to go over the railing and I'm very relieved to report that didn't happen, since I don't think I could have handled a Very Special Episode about one of their broken necks.
Bailey is still worked up, yelling at Richard for being worried about his legacy, which is not her. Richard turns away and Bailey starts to yell at him for not listening, but then both of them realize what is going on outside and run to the walkway. Hunt pulls Mark off of Derek and Mere runs to her boyfriend. Alex says to Addie, who has joined the crowd, "It's her guy." Addison watches as Meredith leads a hurting Derek away.
Campbell is up in the gallery, gazing at the OR like any good surgeon who has just made a big decision does. Cristina walks in and announces how she would do the surgery without a fluoroscope, which Campbell admits is impressive. Campbell allows that this means Cristina is a better surgeon than she first thought, which makes Cristina smile to herself proudly. Campbell then informs Cristina that today's surgery was her last, acting as if it was entirely her own decision. She tells Cristina that clearly she doesn't think she's going to wake up one day and find she's in exactly the same position. "What will you have? I was a god." Faye delivers this line kind of weirdly, with extra energy and a strange growl to her voice that makes her a little bit scary. She also sucks on her cheeks as she's thinking about what to say , and I'm not going to lie -- she's a wee bit frightening. She challenges again, "And now? What will you have?" I'm not even quite sure what that means in the context of this conversation but it also seems like she didn't really make a huge impression on Cristina, who is just basking in being right.
Bailey runs into the clinic and notes that nothing appears to be burning down, while Izzie sulks that it just means the second she looks away the interns will all screw up. Then, to prove she's awesome and Izzie is a selfish pain in the ass, she apologizes, unprompted, for being busy with her own business earlier when Izzie wanted to talk. Izzie tells her not to be sorry, since she called Bailey an ass. Bailey seems to find this kind of amusing. Izzie admits she's sick of the hospital, and Bailey points out that Derek just beat Mark up because he was sick of it all. But she contends that making mistakes is how you learn.
Almost time to close, since Mere is starting to voiceover. "Patients see us as gods." Bailey having gone, Izzie is sitting and thinking when Daisy comes up behind her with a file and a worried look on her face. Knowing this show, it could be a totally errant frown and week once again we'll have no idea what is wrong with her.
Mere's voice points out the flip side. "Or, they see us as monsters. But the fact is, we're just people." Callie puts a splint on Mark's wrist, which is fortunately unbroken. Lexie runs in and Callie smiles at her, looking at her as she says that the wrist needs icing. She gazes at the happy couple before she goes. Lexie tells Mark she's sorry, but he tells her that it was worth it. She denies this, but then agrees with a grin that maybe it was, just a little. "Thank you."
"We screw up. We lose our way." Callie is about to do the former, as she sips on a drink and watches Arizona from across the bar. With some Dutch courage, she walks right up to Arizona and launches into an explanation of all of the experience she has to give. She mentions her marriage, and adds that she was in the Peace Corps in Botswana, which is what made her decide to go to med school. As she talks about how she just started cooking, she doesn't notice that the girl Arizona was talking to before Callie walked up is giving her a weird look. And Arizona's grin has definitely turned from surprised to embarrassed. Callie announces that if Arizona can't see what experience Callie has to offer, that makes Arizona inexperienced. It also makes Arizona... on a date with the now pissed-off looking other girl, Julie. Callie turns and takes a swig of her drink before leaving the bar.
Addie walks in and hands Bailey, also sitting at the bar, a letter of recommendation since Callie told her about Richard's awful form letter. Bailey is sincerely touched and thanks her, but Addison tells her just to kick ass, since she said that Bailey was the most promising young peds surgeon she has ever worked with. Of course, she hasn't worked with her on an actual peds case, but that's just a minor detail. She knows, like we all do, that Bailey is awesome. As Bailey reads the letter, Mere VO's, "Still, we move forward." Hunt goes up to Cristina at one of the tables and chastises her a bit. He says that she taught someone who needed to learn but also bullied someone who needed compassion. Cristina isn't budging, and just says she wasn't a bully AND she was right. Hunt says out loud what we all have seen -- that she's a lot like Campbell, being stubborn, opinionated and smart. I love that Cristina agrees with him, and he tells her that in 40 years he's going to have to pry the scalpel out of her hand. Cristina corrects dramatically, "From my cold dead hand." Hunt laughs, but also tells her she just completely missed the point, which is that he wants to be around in 40 years. He smiles at her while she just looks surprised. I mean, I love seeing these two develop, but that's some quick decision making right there.
Alex stands a respectful distance away while Rob holds his wife's hand and says goodbye. Mere tells us, "We don't rest on our laurels or celebrate the lives we've saved in the past..." Rob gets up but then totally falls to pieces and Alex has to help him stand. Alex looks like anyone would to witness this level of grief: embarrassed and upset in his own right.
"...Because there's always some other patient who needs our help." This time the patient is Derek, and the medicine is tequila. He downs a glass, then pours one more for him and one for Mere, and as the camera pans out, he drinks and pours again.
Izzie has gathered the interns as Mere tells us, "So we force ourselves to keep trying, to keep learning..." Iz tells the interns how unmotivated, careless, selfish and distracted they are. I would be careful using many of those adjectives, lest someone call her out on a little bit of pot/kettle action right there. They are the people she'd trust least with her life, but that's how it works, since they are the babies of the hospital. She informs them that they are lucky to have a job where they save people's lives. And as she starts to put up films of a "Patient X," a 29-year-old female, we know that she is quite literally trusting these interns with her life. Because why ask any other of the tons of fully qualified doctors when you can make it a big secret game? She tells them that this was a patient who was misdiagnosed, and they'd better not make the same mistake again. Mere finishes, "...in the hope that maybe, someday, we'll come just a little bit closer to the gods our patients need us to be." Except maybe Derek, who might try aiming a little lower and being a reasonable adult for once.