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Now that the merger has been announced, everyone is going nuts at the idea they might lose their jobs. Cristina realizes that, since cardio has been a mess for a while now, she doesn't have an attending sticking up for her so she sucks up to Arizona so that she can try out pediatrics. The only problem with this is that Cristina hates children, so of course she sucks at it. After Arizona has to perform a crazy emergency surgery with Mark to sew the arm back on a newborn, she lets Cristina have it for using her and lying to her. At least Arizona gets off work and an awesome conversation with Callie in which they officially declare themselves to be girlfriend and girlfriend -- between that and saving the baby's arm it turned out to be a pretty good day after all.
Izzie, meanwhile, says that she's bored and wants to come back to work but really she doesn't want to sit at home when she could be fighting to prove she should keep her own job. She winds up on a hugely long surgery with Shepherd, which freaks Alex out because she totally neglects her own health to do so and he has to watch out for her to make sure she's taking her meds. Between that and his patients he doesn't really seem to be worrying too much about his job, and Meredith so far seems to be handling the stress okay as well. When the first round of cuts are made at the end of the day, all four of them are safe for now but Alex tells Izzie that she has to actually take care of herself as he can't do it all for her. I don't really believe she'll do it, but we'll see how it goes.
The patients of the week are a mother and her grown son who were in a car accident, and what makes things complicated is that the son is a paranoid schizophrenic. The mom has a pulsing mass in her stomach that she's never had looked at because she's too busy caring for him, but they take her in to have a look while Lexie bandages up the son's wrist. He winds up thinking Lexie's got it in for him, attacks her and runs off, but then things get even worse when security finally corners him and he falls down the stairs. It turns out his mom's aorta could burst at any second, but she refuses surgery because she can't leave her son alone, especially given what just happened. Lexie had been kicked off the case, but winds up coming up with an idea -- they do not crucial but not unnecessary surgery on his spleen, injured in the fall, and at the same time repair mom's aorta so that they will be together every step of the way and she can keep an eye on him. Bailey thinks it's genius, Lexie is back on the case after all, and while we don't actually see them come out of surgery, presumably it all works out.
Lexie has a heck of an ending to her day, however, when she finds out 3/4 of her class were let go in the first round of cuts. She and Stinky Two seem to be the only ones who are still there; even Nurse Olivia shows up long enough to be fired as well. Between Lexie melting down from the stress of it all, Cristina melting down and refusing to leave the hospital even to sleep and Meredith refusing to leave if Cristina's not leaving, the guys decide they need to do something to make them all relax and stop thinking about the merger for a little while. They wind up having beers and playing baseball until I'm sure the morning when the mania will begin anew.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!"Paranoia gives you an edge in the OR." And all of the flashing visuals of cars on the freeway and brain scans will give you a seizure, wow. It's nighttime, and while Arizona has a patient coming into the ER, Cristina is talking her ear off about how she realized pediatrics is the specialty where one can do it all: general, cardio, ortho, etc. Arizona looks confused at Cristina's interest but not confused enough to nip this in the bud. Cristina sweet-talks her to try and get on her service and Arizona warns her that she has to like kids. Cristina assures her that she loves kids, so Arizona agrees to see her at rounds. Oh Arizona, how could you have worked there longer than a day and not know that this is never going to end well? Cristina looks immensely pleased with herself.
In the exam room, Alex is looking at the patient that was just wheeled in, and enough of his cheek is gone that you can see all the way to his teeth. Another proud moment for the effects team that made me flinch. Hunt assesses the kid and says that he needs something, and the approximately ten hovering interns in the room all scream that they'll get it. Hunt's confused as it is 4 AM, but Cristina murmurs to him that it's the merger. Hunt thinks that the Chief didn't intend for no one to sleep but Cristina answers, "It's hard to sleep when your job's on the line." Wow, I have the bar set pretty low for this show these days, but it's still a way better show than that clichéd line. Hunt calls for someone to get blood and meet him in surgery; Lexie yells the loudest and runs the fastest so she's the one to go get it.
Mere and Cristina are waiting for the elevator as the VO continues, "Surgeons play out worst-case scenarios in their heads." Cristina is living that statement, telling Mere that when she asked Callie about the Mercy West residents, she reported that they don't suck. She's already worked out that Mere will be safe because of Derek, Izzie because of the cancer, Alex because he's Bailey's current favorite and George, if he were still alive, because he was Owen's guy. As cardio has been such a mess, Cristina doesn't have anyone protecting her. So, as Mere points out, Arizona is her answer to this. Cristina agrees, because Arizona saves kids, and "No one likes a dead kid." She also figures that as they'll be under anesthesia half the time, it won't be any sort of big deal and asks the always jinxing question, "How bad can it be?" Mere looks like she has a good answer to that question as Cristina struts off proudly. VO: "You're ready to close, you've got the bleeder. You know it, but there's that one voice in your head asking...
"...What if you didn't? What if the patient dies and you could have prevented it?" Alex is wheeling Cheekless to the OR with Nurse Olivia, as if we haven't gone eons without seeing her. She wants Alex to relay any news he hears about the merger because, "Nurses are always the last to know, first to go."
As he turns a corner, a girl calls after Alex and honestly, for a few seconds I totally didn't recognize it was Izzie and thought we were going to have some sort of awful "Alex is tempted by an old flame" storyline. Thankfully (I suppose) it's Izzie in a crazy red wig that makes her look just like her mom -- and turns out in fact to be a gift from her mom. She's excited about how real it looks while Alex is speechless because, well, that wig is many things but realistic isn't necessarily one. I think I used that same wig the year I was Lindsay Lohan for Halloween. He asks what she's doing there and she tells him she's working as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, but he's confused as they had discussed her resting for another three weeks. She thinks she needs to come back while there is still a job to come back to, and that she needs to show people she isn't going to die. She's also bored, which I get, but girlfriend -- you had Stage 4 cancer. She changes the subject back to her wig and asks for confirmation that if you didn't know she had cancer, you'd never guess, right? Mere VO's" "So you check your work one more time before you close.
Paranoia is a surgeon's best friend." Derek and Sloan meet Alex in the OR with Cheekless and get ready to go to work while talking about the merger. Derek is ticked off that Richard shut himself in his office after his initial announcement and won't talk to anyone. Mark's not worried as he thinks it's just "financial restructuring" and Derek has to point out that generally that means a personnel change. After declaring he's not ready to lose good people he seems to make a decision, tells Mark he's got the surgery, and marches off to go talk to the Chief.
Mark runs out after him, which is really nice for the poor kid with no cheek that his surgeons won't just get on with his surgery, already. But he actually displays some maturity as he tries to convince Derek he's too tired and angry and will say something he regrets. He tries to convince him to go hit golf balls or take a walk with Meredith, but Derek counters that Meredith won't leave the hospital. A scream in the distance announces Lexie's arrival as she sprints through the door with an armful of blood, trips, spills it everywhere and then lands on top of it. Derek asks Mark to tell him that Lexie's not worried but Mark concedes that she's totally worried. And, fade to white.
Once Lexie comes back all cleaned up, Mark tries to tease her but she shuts him right down and says it's not funny, and that if it gets back to the Chief she's as good as gone. Mark thinks that it's all in her head, so Lexipedia starts listing off various other hospital mergers and the number of residents let go in each situation. Mark stops her and tells her to get a grip. "You deserve to be here. Act like it." She agrees and leaves as he yells after her to clarify that he meant after she gets some sleep, but she just skips off.
Meredith suggests to Cristina that they get some sleep before rounds but predictably, Cristina thinks sleep is for wimps and would rather try to get in an extra trauma. Alex bolts in and hurriedly whispers, "Don't say anything about the wig," right before Izzie walks in and declares that she is back. Mere and Cristina both step back with complete deer-in-the-headlights eyes. Izzie doesn't seem to notice and claims the first trauma that comes in, but after a moment of silence realizes they are staring, though she thinks it's a good thing. "It's amazing, right?" Cristina and Mere agree too heartily, and Alex wants to know what was wrong with her own hair. Izzie declares it "peach fuzz chemo hair" and wants to keep her patients at ease. Cristina murmurs to Mere that she looks like a Stepford Wife but Mere warns her back not to stare, talking like a bad ventriloquist through sort-of stationary lips. Bailey runs in as there is a patient coming and they all start screaming to claim it. Bailey tells them to make the decision themselves as she's no longer chief resident, but when they can't do it she grabs Alex. Izzie's interns then see her and welcome her back, though they seem a little stunned -- whether it's from her being back early or her wig, it's not entirely clear.
Derek, having not been talked out of it by Mark, storms into Richard's office to say they need to talk. Richard yells back that he's busy and when Derek demands to know what's going on in his department Richard loses his shit and yells, "When it's appropriate I'll consult the people I need to consult with!" Derek is livid and rightfully points out that he's the one that saved Richard's ass and that when he was offered the job, he went to Richard out of loyalty. Richard, however, is just about fully detached from reality at this point and claims that Derek was just trying to look good before stealing his job. Who is this guy? He's so scared he's become an angry Richard clone. Even when he acted like an idiot in the past, which was plenty, he still seemed to maintain at least a shred of humanity, but that seems to all be gone now. He yells that he'll tell Derek when he's ready and orders Derek never to barge in again as he owes Derek nothing. He declares that he's still the Chief of Surgery, but Derek gets in the last word when he spits, "Then start acting like it," before storming out.
Bailey and Alex meet the incoming patient, Jodie, and her grown son, who she can't stop looking at intently. The EMT reports that she lost consciousness and hit a parked car, but the son claims that the car hit them. When Bailey asks who he is, he asks the question back, visibly paranoid, and then shies away when Alex tries to touch him to look at his arm, which is in a sling. Jodie tells them it's her son and that he needs to stay with her as he's a paranoid schizophrenic. Bailey's a bit thrown off but agrees to it, starts to examine Jodie and finds a mass in her abdomen. As her son, Tom, tries to tell her that they are trying to get to her through him, trying to hurt her, etc., she distractedly tells Bailey she's had the mass for a while. She orders Tom to look at her but he yells that someone has to believe him, "Aliens have impregnated my mother." It's a testament to James Frain's acting that this line comes off more alarming than humorous. (It's also a testament that after a little while I was able to stop seeing him as just calculating Thomas Cromwell from The Tudors.) Bailey's confused at all of the commotion and just pulls back Jodie's shirt to reveal... that suddenly this show turned into Fringe as Jodie has a giant pulsating mass in her stomach.
Cristina has her interns give her a full report on what the Chief has been up to as they walk down the hall -- he got food, fought with Shepherd, and then drew the blinds. She gets to Arizona and says she's ready for rounds, instructing her interns to, "Continue on your course of treatment" and keep her updated on any new developments. One might think they want to work and show their worth as doctors if there is a fear of getting fired, but at least they'll have spy skills if medicine doesn't work out. After they go, Arizona says that Cristina doesn't look ready. Cristina is all serious and worried, talking about the prep she did reading over all of the charts, but Arizona reaches over and pinks a pink stuffed bear in a hat on Cristina's lapel and declares that now she looks ready. Really, she just looks disconcerted.
Bailey tries to talk to Jodie about the growth, but the woman is distracted by her son staring at the clock, and she asks someone to cover it up as the number five bothers him. He then looks at the smoke detector and suspects it is a camera. She responds by asking him what they need at the store, and repeats the questioning until he answers that they need apples, pears and strawberries. She happily tells him to make a list and explains to the others that he needs something to distract him from the voices. Bailey asks again how long she's had the growth, and Jodie tells her it's been a while but she never got it checked out because caring for Tom is a full-time job.
Alex and Bailey go out in the hall to confer, followed by a few interns. She wants Alex to take Tom for a wrist x-ray while she takes Jodie for an MRI, but Alex whines that an intern should be the one to "babysit" because if this turns out to be a "triple-a" he wants at it. All the interns yell for the opportunity to x-ray a wrist but Bailey thinks Alex is more experienced. Lexie pipes up, however, that Tom is paranoid and hypervigilant, and will pick up on the fact that Alex doesn't want to be there and might think Alex is then out to get him. Everyone stares at her, stunned, and she adds that she aced her psych clerkship. Alex and Bailey look suitably impressed.
Wow, remember when the stairwell was practically its own character on this show? Mere and Derek meet up there and he tells her about how Richard isn't talking to him, which shocks Meredith. I guess she is one of the few who hasn't had any direct contact with him lately to see what a pod person he's become. Derek asks how Mere is doing and she reports very proudly that she's been up for 48 hours, but she's good. I know this isn't uncommon for doctors, but I'll never get to the point where I'm comfortable with the idea of someone who is sleep-deprived working on me. But Mere really is calmer than anyone else and assures Derek that everything is going to be okay, they will all keep their jobs, and "We're all going to be amazing people and live amazing lives." He feels her forehead for a fever, not knowing this optimistic woman, but she attributes her being calm in a crisis to her unstable childhood. She then asks Derek if this is a crisis, and he admits he doesn't know.
Cristina and Arizona's first patient is a little girl named Sage who just had a tumor removed from her stomach, and when they walk in she pulls the sheet over her head and giggles. Arizona immediately starts playing along, trying to look for Sage, but Cristina is predictably unamused and will barely play along at looking under the bed as Arizona murmurs to Sage's mother that the lab results were all good. I get that Cristina doesn't like this, but surely she can't really have spent her life so insulated that she's never seen this behavior before and needs to actually look confused at how ridiculous it is. It's a bit of overkill. After Arizona asks if Sage is in Cristina's pocket, she's had enough and pulls the sheet off of the girl, who pouts, and tries to check her incision; Sage squeals at her not to touch it. Arizona jumps in to say that she thinks Mr. Bear would like to see her scar. Cristina tries to play along but gives Mr. Bear a deep, rumbly, crazy voice and Sage and Arizona both look at her like she's insane.
Derek is surprised to see a be-wigged Izzie on her service and when he asks her how she's doing, she says she's great and pointedly avoids telling him How She's Doing. She then goes through all of the patient's info. When it's all good, Derek asks her and the interns if they have any questions. Stinky Two asks for any news about the merger, on account of he and intern Megan (who is now his wife) having a baby on the way, he wants to know if he's going to lose his job. Derek tells them that the only thing he's concerned about right now is his patient, and that they should do the same.
Lexie is bandaging Tom's wrist but he doesn't pay much attention to her and instead is convinced that Megan, laughing with someone outside, is laughing at him about his haircut and his ears sticking out. Lexie tries to assure him that they aren't laughing at him and asks him how the bandage feels. He keeps looking at Megan and talks about his hand falling off and snakes, so Lexie moves very carefully as she goes to put away the supplies she used. Tom then notices that her name isn't on her lab coat though all the other doctors had that. She tries to tell him calmly that she had to change, but he now thinks he's being played, that they have his mother and are trying to get him, and he shoves her away and to the ground in a panic before bolting out the door.
Lexie is in an understandable panic about having just lost a mentally ill patient, and she and Olivia are bitching at each other. Lexie wants to know why psych hadn't shown up yet and how Tom could have gotten out of the ER, while Olivia defends that she stepped away from her desk to tend to a patient and had already called psych twice. She growls that she's usually used to being a punching bag for the doctors but that in this merger she won't go down for a mistake that isn't hers, and stalks off to page psych again.
Izzie is briefing her patient about his surgery, letting him know it's a simple procedure but she still has to go over the complications. Alex pokes his head in for a word and won't let Izzie shove him off, so she stalks out. He checks up on how she's feeling as well as if she's taken her meds, which she totally hasn't. That's really responsible for a doctor with aggressive cancer. Alex orders Stinky to get her pills from the locker room and when Izzie tries to tell him not to go, Alex threatens him and he scampers off. She tells Alex that he can't treat her like she is sick, ignoring the major point that she is. He fixes her wig and tells her, "I'll stop hovering if you stop acting like an idiot." That's a pretty tall order -- we have yet to see her not act like an idiot pretty much ever. He reminds her to take her pill at 2, and not to do it on an empty stomach, and then kisses her and leave.
Cristina, Arizona and Mr. Bear are on to their patient, a little boy with kidney stones. Cristina was especially looking forward to using shockwave therapy to break up the stones, and is disconcerted when Arizona tells her they aren't doing it as he had no blood in his urine that morning. When Cristina asks if they should do it anyway just in case (and the boy's mom looks on, worried, at this little exchange) Arizona asks if she's really suggesting doing an unnecessary surgical procedure on a 9-year-old. She's glum but agrees that it's not necessary, but when Arizona asks her to give the mom and boy the good news, Cristina fakes being cheerful much better than I would have expected. The boy is just excited that he can now eat, and Arizona tells him that Cristina will be happy to go get him something. You can easily guess how happy Cristina is at the prospect.
Looking at Jodie's MRI, Bailey sees that she has an abdominal aortic aneurism (clearly the triple-a Alex was so excited about earlier) that has a 75% chance of rupturing. Alex replies that she is a ticking time bomb, just in case we didn't get it when Bailey gave those chances. Bailey is surprised the woman even woke up that morning, let alone drove a car, and orders Alex to clear her schedule so that they can do surgery right away. She then calls into the room that she'll meet Jodie downstairs with the results. Before she can leave, however, Lexie runs in to ask if she's seen Tom. Bailey is none too happy to hear that Lexie lost him, and as Lexie admits she knows how bad it is, Bailey orders her to stop talking because, "the words you are saying are hurting me." She orders Lexie to find him.
Lexie can't find him and has been reduced to looking behind tiny carts where no grown man could possibly hide. Mark watches her, confused, and tells her that she looks crazy, but she blames him for all of this since he told her to act like she deserved to be there, and that led to her losing a schizophrenic. She's worried about getting fired and informs Mark he's not allowed to be charmed by this, babbling about how he won't get cut but she isn't amazing yet and is therefore on the block. Mark grabs her and orders her to breathe. He reminds her security is on it and says slowly, "You have become a crazy person I do not recognize. I want Lexie back. Can I get Lexie back?" He doesn't get an answer, though, because they hear Tom yelling somewhere nearby. These two so far seem to be generally functional and happy so I'm curious what is going to befall them this season, as this is Grey's Anatomy and couples are not allowed to be functional and happy for any period of time.
They rush out to the lobby to see Tom on the stairs, with security guards above and below him. He stops short to avoid one of them and winds up falling backward down the stairs, ending in a crumpled heap on the floor. Lexie just drops her head into her hands, instead of rushing to see if he is okay, but then again no one rushes to his aid. I know that rushing to him actually might be dangerous given his state of mind, but is no one's instinct to check and see if the poor guy is dead?
They wheel Tom into an exam room while Bailey follows behind with a very-upset Jodie. Hunt tells her that while they don't think he's hurt badly, they need to do an ultrasound and she needs to wait outside. Once he goes in, Jodie rages to Bailey that she never should have left him alone. Bailey gently tries to give the woman her own test results, but she barely hears because she's looking in at her sedated son, so Bailey tells her straight-up that if her aneurism ruptures it would likely kill her, and so they need to do surgery right now. Jodie won't hear of it, however, since she needs to stay with Tom, and when Bailey asks gently if there is someone she could call to help with him, gentle music starts playing as she explains how her husband left and friends fell away. She then gives a number of examples of his little quirks and how she handles them, saying she would need to train someone before they could help and she needs a week. Bailey tells her honestly that she might not have a week and has to think about herself, but Jodie firmly replies that with a mentally ill son, she doesn't get to think about herself anymore. And while I get it, I also do find it a little strange that she's not considering what will happen if she DOES die -- that she won't have time to hire anyone and Tom will be completely alone and in a way worse position.
Callie pops in to the hospital for a brief moment and when Arizona sees her, Callie explains that she was stopping by to get case files because of a job opening she heard about in Portland. Arizona is confused so Callie explains that Richard already got rid of her once. Hang on a second, didn't she quit? Well, regardless, both women look confused but aren't bringing up the elephant in the room of Callie just mentioning another city. Instead, Arizona tells her that she's working with Cristina as she is interested in peds. Callie says she isn't and Arizona argues, so Callie passive-aggressively agrees, and when Arizona asks if Cristina said anything, Callie snorts that she didn't have to, "She's Cristina." Arizona doesn't know what that means and asks, and for one second Callie thinks about being loyal to her roommate. After a look from Arizona, though, she declares, "And you're my girlfriend; Girlfriend trumps roommate." She warns Arizona that Cristina is only interested in cardio and is probably sucking up just because of the merger. Arizona seems skeptical until Callie asks if Cristina is good with the kids, and Arizona concedes that she's totally right.
Mere sits down at a cafeteria table where Cristina is eating chocolate pudding, and compliments her bear. Cristina introduces him and announces that he eats children. Mere asks if she's having fun and Cristina responds by telling her how much her little kidney stone patient wants chocolate pudding, and how the one she's savoring is the last in the hospital. Alex comes by to find out if they have a surgery he can get in on as the triple-a was cancelled, but with Cristina in peds and Mere in post-op, they have nothing. Cristina wants Mere to use her dead mommy connection to get merger answers, but Mere cheerfully tells them that they don't need it and are going to be fine. Lexie plops down and tells them all about her crappy day, including how when she went to watch a surgery, a shunt went bad and the patient needed to be opened up. Alex realizes she's talking about Derek and Izzie's surgery, and bolts because he thinks Izzie can't handle a 5-hour craniotomy. Lexie then tells Cristina how much she admires her, just in case she gets fired and doesn't have another chance, so Cristina gives her the rest of the pudding. Lexie then turns to Mere and laments how they had been getting so close.
Alex runs down and bursts into the OR to talk to Izzie but she tries to get him to leave and then tries to get Derek to kick him out. Alex figured he'll argue right there, then, and announces that Izzie gets tired walking to the mailbox and can't do this for 5 more hours, but she barks that she knows what she can handle. Derek mercifully cuts them off and orders them to have this conversation outside, but Izzie snipes that she's not leaving and yells at Alex, so he goes.
Cristina hangs out on the bridge, gazing at the Chief puttering around his office, when Hunt shows up in response to her page. She wants him to march in there and tell the Chief that as George has died, he needs a new guy and that guy is Cristina. He clearly has no intention of doing so and tells her he thinks she's safe, but Cristina is nearing the line of a nervous breakdown about the whole thing. She can't do peds anymore, and she's stressed out because the Chief is making a list of who stays and who goes. When Hunt tells her that they'll deal with it if she goes, she freaks out that there can be no "if," she has to be on the "stays" list. The list is her future and salvation; "That list is life." He's blown away that she's comparing the Chief's list to Schindler's list and the merger to the holocaust. She defends that she's Jewish, so she's allowed to. She then gets a page, and after confirming that he's not going to talk to Richard, she stalks off as he smiles and chuckles at her retreating back.
The page calls Cristina to the OR, where Arizona is asking a crying doctor what happened. Horrifyingly, she tells of how she made a cut to do an emergency c-section but that she must have pulled too hard to get the baby out. Cristina gasps as they show a baby with the arm nearly pulled off at the shoulder. It's actually less horrifying to see it as the baby is not one of the most... realistic effects that this show has pulled off, but the idea of this happening in real life makes up for the waxy baby doll. Arizona orders Cristina to get the umbilical cord and yells at her when Cristina seems to ask why -- the chirpy Arizona that looks for kids under the bed is totally gone for now and Cristina definitely seems surprised.
She finds the cord in the medical waste bin and as Sloan comes in to help, orders Cristina to bring her 5cm of it. She thinks that the umbilical artery is still viable and can be used in this surgery.
Lexie walks past Tom's room, where Jodie is sleeping in a chair to his bed. He sees her, so she stops to ask him if he's okay and he explains that he injured his spleen and they are waiting to see if it stops bleeding. She tells him she's glad he's better but stutters that she should leave as she's not supposed to be there. When he points out that he's in restraints and couldn't hurt her even if the voices told him to, she's not sure how to react until he tells her it was a joke. "Schizophrenia humor." He then admits to her, with more self-awareness than I would have thought him capable, that he keeps trying to get rid of a recurring thought that they planted a camera in him during the ultrasound. He wants to wake his mom, but knows she is tired. Lexie thinks about it and then goes and pulls over a computer monitor that has his scans on it. She pulls one up and shows him the spleen, and the bleed, but that there is no camera. She offers to leave it there so that when the thoughts come back he can look at it again and see that it's not real, and they are just scary thoughts. He just stares at her while Lexie ponders the depths of what she just said and how unexpectedly it applies to her own life right now. Who could have seen that coming?
In the OR, Izzie is sweating rather profusely and a nurse mops her brow as she works to Shepherd. They look up when someone pounds on the window to see Alex, who yells that it's 2:00 and holds up pills, water and a banana. Izzie heaves a sigh but Derek warns her not to fight in the OR, so she walks out. He watches through the window as Alex takes off her mask. She tells Alex she hates him but he tells her to shut up and then gives her the pills and some water, followed by some banana. She acts totally put out but does thank him after all, so he tells her again to shut up, puts her mask back on, and sends her back to work. Any sympathy I might have had for the character is gone with all this sighing and moaning about having to, I don't know, try to stay healthy.
Lexie finds Bailey and asks if Jodie has agreed to the surgery. Bailey tells her no, that the woman is going to go home and die, and echoes my earlier sentiment by wondering what Tom will be left with then. Lexie declares he needs surgery and then after some shocked questioning from Bailey explains her idea: While they don't normally operate if a bleed isn't active, his is really close and if they operate on him Jodie might let them operate on her at the same time. Mom and son could be together through surgery and recovery. She begins to babble about how it might be a terrible idea but Bailey cuts her off to tell her that actually, it's a really good idea. Lexie looks super proud to have done the right thing this time.
While Mark and Arizona work on the baby, Mark wonders how this could have happened. Ever generous, Arizona says the surgeon made a mistake but Cristina snarks that it's the wrong time to make a mistake with the merger happening. Mark is so sick of it, and says they all have to calm down. He cites hospital revenues actually going up, but Cristina kind of nastily points out that's excluding elective procedures, which went down. Mark calls her on referring to plastics and she just counters that no one is safe. Mark says he's safe, and Arizona finally puts an end to the bickering to remind them to think about the little baby growing up and being able to throw a ball, and wave goodbye.
Unfortunately for everyone, Tom's brief period of rationality seems to be over and he's adamant that he doesn't want to be cut open since they will put a camera in his stomach. Consequently, Jodie is also totally against the plan. Lexie tries to appeal to Tom and connect with him like she did earlier, saying it will save his mom's life, but he won't answer, and Bailey finally throws up her hands, literally, and orders him to look at her. She re-introduces herself to him and tells him about her son, and that she's human. She tries to convince him that he needs to do this for his mom's sake, but still nothing. Finally, she pulls out a needle and pricks her finger to show a drop of red blood. She orders Tom to look at it as proof that she's human, and begs him to trust her. Jodie just watches him as he furrows his brow in thought.
Back in the OR, Mark, Arizona and Cristina wait for the wax arm to pink up and show them that they fixed it. Seriously, Clara's detached blue arms last week were more realistic than this. It does pink up, and everyone is happy and relieved. Sloan then tells Cristina that this is how he knows his job is safe. "Because I reattach babies' arms." She watches him go, probably disappointed that someone else that isn't her really does seem to be safe, and Arizona tells her it's not good to piss off her attending. Still underestimating Arizona, Cristina thinks she's talking about Mark and is genuinely surprised when she realizes that's not the case. Arizona informs her that she likes kids and their parents, and doing things for them, because it makes reattaching their arms fun. She announces that she doesn't like being used, and when Cristina tries to protest she cuts her off and adds that she likes being lied to even less. Cristina is finally silent.
Tom seems to have finally believed Bailey, as he and his mom are both on gurneys in the OR, ready for surgery. She asks him what they need from the store as a doc administers anesthesia, and Tom recites fruit until he falls asleep. Jodie is visibly terrified, and asks Bailey what happens if she doesn't make it. Bailey tells her to let Bailey worry about that, and Hunt and Lexie come in. She looks at her son once more, and then they wheel her to the OR.
Derek's craniotomy is coming to a close and as they get ready to finish up, Izzie sways a little bit. He tries to dismiss her but she insists she is fine -- I guess being roommates for a while really made her comfortable in not listening to his orders regarding leaving the room to fight with her boyfriend or relaxing after a hard surgery. He points out that her cap is soaked through with sweat and so she goes to the nurses and they start to take it off. She finally breaks face a bit, though, and desperately tells them to take off the wig and pat her head down, and then put just her cap back on. Derek watches this all, and Izzie walks back over and again declares she's fine.
Derek, not satisfied with his earlier fight with the Chief, goes back for more. He points out that Izzie was on her feet in surgery for five hours because she was scared for her job, not because she was ready. Richard is incredibly mature and just ignores Derek, so he goes on and says that's fine, but even if he doesn't talk to Derek he needs to talk to the staff. Richard finally cracks as he feels like his stellar leadership is being questioned and yells about his having been there 30 years, he knows his people, and he's spent three days trying to save as many as he could. He then admits that HR is currently sending an email to the people who are getting fired, gets his bag, and says he's heading home. Wow, talk about avoiding your duties -- he hides for three days in his office, and then hides behind an email? This isn't the Chief of the five seasons, that's for sure. And I get that he's scared, but this seems too out of character. Derek is appropriately appalled at the idea of the email.
Meredith pages her friends and explains that they need to check their email and why. She's still calm, but this is the kind of calm that could snap at any moment, not the realistic calm of earlier, and she admits that if any of them got an email (she didn't) she's not going to be calm any longer. Everyone checks their Blackberries and other assorted PDA's, and none of them have the email. Izzie, however, paused a moment before saying that and I thought we were going to find out she lied. It looks like she didn't, or at least we won't learn about it this week, as it never comes up again. Meredith is relieved and happy, but Cristina rains on her parade by grousing that this is just the first round, and she stalks off.
Lexie walks into the locker room (and they really did become residents, as that's the locker room they are using now) and excitedly starts to tell Stinky Two about how Hunt let her repair Tom's spleen all on her own. She's so excited she doesn't notice the stunned look on his face, and tells him that she realized as long as they focus on their jobs and their patients, they'll be fine. He replies by telling her that Megan was cut from the program, but he wasn't. Lexie is horrified and he tells her about the emails, and that 3/4 of their class was fired. He repeats that he's having a baby, and looks like a lost little boy as Lexie walks a discreet distance away to check her own email.
Derek walks into chaos -- doctors and nurses all with boxes of their belongings, getting ready to leave for the last time. He tells someone we've never seen before nor will again that it was a pleasure working with him, and then Megan approaches and tries to put on a brave face as she asks what she did wrong. Derek assures her that she did nothing wrong, it was just about money, and she leaves sniffling. Then we see Olivia, who also got cut. She is calm about the fact that she can find another job, but is stunned that she got cut after seven years and that all her friends are there. Derek can't really find anything to say other than to sincerely offer her any job recommendation she needs. She hugs him as Hunt watches it all. Derek joins him, Cristina and Meredith and agree it was a rough day, and Hunt tries to get Cristina to go home. Despite the fact that I think she's gone at least 60 hours with no sleep, she refuses. Meredith tells Derek she can't leave if Cristina isn't leaving. But things are winding down, because we get some Mere VO: "We're all susceptible to it.
"The dread and anxiety of not knowing what's coming." Lexie is in her street clothes, sobbing as if her heart is broken when Mark finds her. He assumes she's been cut and begins to tell her that he's going to the Chief himself but she stops him and tells him that she's safe. Even so, she can't stop crying and he puts his arms around her. VO: "It's pointless in the end."
Callie is getting food out of the fridge in her apartment when Arizona walks in and declares she hates the merger because she hates and actually doesn't even believe in long distance relationships, so Callie can't move to Portland. Callie acts petulant and tells her she didn't seem to mind earlier, but Arizona says she didn't know she was allowed to mind. But when Callie called her her girlfriend... she babbles a bit and then asks if she is, in fact, Callie's girlfriend. In a happy "duh!" voice Callie says she is, and Arizona happily tells her that she's then not moving to Portland and instead is going to go beg Richard for a job. Callie refuses but Arizona is adamant, and Callie smiles. I missed Callie this hour -- hopefully with the merger coming we get more of her again. The show is missing something without her.
Back at the trailer, Alex crawls onto the bed to Izzie, who is staring at the ceiling. VO: "Because all the worrying, and all the making of plans for things that could or could not happen, it only makes things worse." She tells Alex that for a few hours she forgot she was sick and that George was dead. Alex reminds her, gently but firmly, that George is dead and she has cancer. He plays the part of husband really well as he tells her that he wants her to do what she loves, and that she has a great future ahead of her, but she has to take care of herself, take her meds, eat and pace herself because he can't be her nurse. He's both kind but totally spot-on and it's one of the more mature moments we've seen of him. She pulls his arm around her, and they spoon.
"So walk your dog. Or take a nap. Just, whatever you do, stop worrying." Hunt, Cristina, Mark, Lexie, Derek and Meredith are all on a baseball diamond, and while Cristina tries to leave and go back to the hospital she's in street clothes so clearly she was convinced at some point to take a breather. That, or they held her down and dressed her, but I don't really see that. Derek tells them that they are not going back; they are going to play baseball and drink beer. Lexie doesn't think she can right after her friends all got fired, and Cristina tries to go, but Hunt puts a batting helmet on her head and while she protests, has a pitching machine fire a ball over the plate. I love the idea that one of them just had this lying around so that they could go out and do some batting practice right after work. Seriously? Cristina is pissed at the ball that just flew past but he yells at her to stop thinking about what's going to happen, and focus on what is in front of her. He sends another pitch flying and Cristina smacks the hell out of it -- everyone starts screaming excitedly and Lexie bounds up to take a turn. "Because the only cure for paranoia is to be. Here. Just as you are."