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The Mercy West doctors have arrived, and they are all sporting orange scrubs to make for extra-easy identification. The Seattle Grace residents are all freaked out and acting even more spazzy trying to save their jobs, while the Mercy West docs either smile and act nice before undercutting the others or are just straight-up bitches. One could argue that ultimately everyone is just nervous and it's manifesting in different ways, but on the other hand they say this is how it was done at the other hospital all the time, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out after this initial shock.
For now, though, everyone winds up conveniently paired up so that we can get to know the doctors while they fight away the hour. Alex winds up with a woman who is just about as underhanded as he is. They spend the time acting immature and arguing in front of their patient, until finally his daughter has to yell at them for being unprofessional assholes that don't really care about him so much as about getting each other. They agree to work together, but it only lasts for about a second and I'm certain this rivalry isn't over. Lexie and one of the female Mercy docs are working with Shepherd on a guy whose back was broken by the man whose house he was robbing. Lexie gets totally schooled by her counterpart so the thief steals the girl's notebook so that Lexie can get info and use it against her. Lexie does, but then clearly feels like a heel when she really hurts the girl, and while she maintains that she doesn't like her, she does at least apologize for what she did.
The attendings seem to be able to stay above the fray for the most part, which is good for Callie because she has her hands full with her dad, who has come to town with the family priest to try and "pray away the gay," as Callie puts it. Arizona convinces her to talk to her dad, arguing that he's allowed to be surprised and have a hard time with her new orientation, but when Callie tries it he loses his cool completely (and even the priest tries to remind him that this is not at all the approach they planned to take). Because Callie is awesome she can match him on his religious arguments, but it does nothing to solve anything. Arizona finally goes and speaks to him herself, and after awesomely telling him about her own upbringing and family, he seems to realize that Callie is still the same daughter he knew before, and they manage to make up.
Mere spends the day in her hospital bed, as she's recovering from her liver surgery, and she is just begging for any gossip from the others about what is going on. Cristina is working in the ER and after being rubbed the wrong way by her own Mercy counterpart, steals an incoming patient from him and saves the guy's life -- his manhood was nearly cut off by his best friend for dating the friend's daughter. When the daughter arrives later, the friend tries to attack him with a hammer and the Mercy doc tackles him impressively. He gets all of the credit from the patient himself for saving his life, which rankles Cristina, but the last straw is that while she is eating lunch, the doc found something else wrong and is chosen by Hunt to help with the surgery. Cristina runs to Meredith's room where she melts down and cries about how she hasn't worked on a heart in forever and has been reduced to fighting for surgeries she doesn't even want. She's inconsolable as she admits that all of the joy is gone from her job and she has no idea what she is fighting for at all anymore. She spends the rest of the day curled up with Meredith, watching movies.
Izzie, meanwhile, seems to get along with her own Mercy doctor. After some initial sparring she decides he's not so bad and that they will be friends, but later she overhears him telling his Mercy friends about how she's his "surgical bitch," doing everything for him. He tries to talk to her to apologize while she is in with their patient, a woman about to have a much-needed kidney transplant, but she shoos him away and then angrily gives some instructions to the nurse. Unfortunately, when the patient goes into cardiac arrest, it turns out to be all her fault because she was so angry that she didn't realize she gave totally the wrong instructions and caused the woman to nearly die. After Bailey yells at her (and then goes off to find the woman a kidney in the remaining 72 hours she has before going into renal failure -- to be continued on Private Practice) Izzie gets called into the Chief's office. She walks in to find him and the HR lady, and realizes that she's getting fired. The Chief was warned to stick to a script on account of fallout from the firing emails of last week, but he tells her that both Derek and Hunt expressed doubts about her and says even Alex said something. Unfortunately for Alex, what he actually did was beg the Chief not to fire her, but she doesn't know that. HR shuts Richard up but the damage is done. Meredith and Cristina are still watching movies when Alex shuffles in with a note from his wife in his hand, on the verge of a breakdown because Izzie has left him and he has no idea if she's ever coming back. Oh, a girl can (and will) dream!!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Cristina is sipping a coffee, radiating displeasure as she watches workers put up a new sign for Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. That's a mouthful. Mere starts us up: "When you get sick, it starts out with a single bacteria. One lone, nasty intruder." Fortunately the nasty intruders are really easy to recognize in orange scrubs, and one guy knocks into Cristina as he runs past. "Pretty soon, the intruder duplicates." Alex gets in the elevator and that same guy jumps in at the last minute, with a second orange-clad doctor. "Becomes two. Then those two become four, and those four become eight."
Meredith watches four of them walk past her room, and one tiny girl with short dark hair gives her a slightly sneering once-over. Now come on, how would she know yet that Meredith is also a doctor? And if she doesn't know that, is she starting out by sneering at the patients in judgment? That doesn't seem like a good idea.
Izzie is glaring at all of the orange docs picking out lockers while she gets ready. Mere: "Then, before your body knows it, it's under attack." The sneering girl puts her stuff in George's empty locker and Izzie tells her not to, because they keep it empty for a reason, and asks her to move. What's about to happen might possibly have been avoided if she explained why they do it, but she doesn't, so Sneery won't do it. Her friend, Hannah from Everwood/Kitty from Mad Men, smirks as she watches the confrontation. Izzie gets pissed and orders her to take it out, prompting Sneery to gripe, "Great, I got the crazy one to me." She's clearly trying to rile up Izzie but Iz totally bites, and starts trying to fight with her. Alex comes in at that moment and holds her back. Look, I hate Izzie as much as anyone but I do find it a little presumptive that these guys are already acting like they own the place.
"It's an invasion. The question for a doctor is, what if the invaders have landed? Once they've taken over your body..." Izzie, Alex, Cristina and Lexie all lean on the second story railing and look down at a sea of orange below. Izzie tells them that one of them took George's cubby, and Alex rubs her back while they all gaze down. Mere finishes up, "...how the hell do you get rid of them?" We fade to a flash of orange before the usual white. Fancy!
The remaining Seattle Grace residents are all gathered in Mere's room, and while Cristina checks on Meredith's surgery site, Lexie peeks through the blinds at everyone outside. Graciella, Ryan and Steve (fine, I'll go back to his name because Stinky does seem mean if he's going to be sticking around, though it's so nice and easy to remember!) seem to be the other members of Lexie's class that survived the original massacre. Meredith calls the newbies locusts feeding on their surgeries and I have to agree with Izzie when she then gripes that they might have acted like guests for at least a couple of days first. Lexie asks about the orange scrubs, and Mere tells her it makes it all the easier to pick out the new docs, plus it's a kind of aggressive color to make everyone even more on edge. Okay fine, what she really said is that the hospital ran out of the blue ones but they'll be in week. Cristina is ominously silent as everyone continues to complain -- Ryan suggests that they can just give them their own blue scrubs when they are replaced. Steve chimes in that he doesn't want to be a coroner. Mere tries to keep order and everyone's spirits up, but when she looks to Cristina to back her up Cristina demands to know why bother, "They're here, it's over." Mere maintains that they aren't hosts, and the newcomers can't invade, attach themselves to their faces, and then burst out of their stomachs and slither away while the Seattle Grace docs eat spaghetti. "This is our ship!" Lexie incredulously asks if she's quoting a Sigourney Weaver movie. Hey now! 1. Don't sound so disdainful, that's an awesome movie. 2. Did they not get the rights to say Alien? Mere tries to keep up her motivating speech, but Steve just moans again that he doesn't want to be a coroner. Meredith rolls her eyes, and orders everyone out to go get surgeries before the others do, and then come back with a full report. Cristina stays behind and when Mere asks what's up Cristina argues that she doesn't know what she's fighting for. Mere yells at her that she's fighting for surgeries, and that when a "cardio god" comes to work at the hospital one day she doesn't want to be out of practice. Cristina just clenches her jaw and remains sitting in her fury.
The ER is pure chaos. Hunt explains to Derek (really, to us) that the Mercy West ER closed that morning, and this crowd represents the overflow. Callie shows up looking natty in dark blue scrubs, and the guys congratulate her on being the newest attending (not counting the Mercy West attendings). The group from Mere's room all march in, led by Cristina who asks where Hunt wants them. He tells them anywhere but then a super cute doc in orange scrubs -- the very one who ran past Cristina that morning -- announces that at Mercy West they assign zones to everyone. Cristina pooh-poohs the idea, but Hunt totally stuns her by declaring cheerfully that he likes it. Dr. Jackson Avery introduces himself while Cristina seethes.
Alex accosts the Chief on the walkway and immediately tries to put in a good word for his wife. He tells the Chief that he knows more residents need to be cut, and that Izzie isn't 100% yet but she's recovering, and she needs this. As sincerely as he's ever said anything, he asserts that she needs this. Richard doesn't seem to be moved, though, and just tells Alex he's got a hospital to run before he walks off.
Another of the oranges chases after Izzie and tries to apologize for his friend -- saying what the girl pulled in the locker room wasn't cool. Izzie isn't having any of it since the girl herself isn't apologizing but this guy continues to make jokes and then introduces himself as Charles Percy. Izzie still won't look at him or shake his hand until he starts on a story about how it will be hard not to talk to him for a whole day, which he knows as he didn't talk to his family for a whole car ride across the country. She's charmed -- it didn't really take long -- and finally turns and introduces herself. He then asks her for the code to the research library but she tells him it took her two years to get the code and she needs every advantage she can get.
Bailey finds Callie and asks her pointedly if the gentleman in the waiting room found her. Callie is flustered and doesn't seem to really care until Bailey alerts her that it's her father, and then she's just aghast. Callie walks up and quietly asks him what he's doing there, sounding tentative. He reminds her about how they used to talk every Sunday and that even when she was in trouble she would still call him and they'd work it out. It's a good opening for Callie and she gives him a hug, clearly relieved at what she interpreted as the offering of an olive branch. Unfortunately, as she hugs him, she notices another familiar face across the room: their family priest, Father Kevin. As Father Kevin stands up, Callie realizes why they really came and her father immediately looks guilty as Callie whispers that he thinks he can "pray away the gay." Angry, she yells that he can't do that, and when he tries to stop her she yells again that he can't pray away the gay. She storms away as everyone stares after her.
Arizona is searching around the supply room while Callie rants about what happened with her father and finally asks Callie if she's done. Callie is taken aback, justifiably, and asks if she doesn't think that her father's coming to disinfect Arizona from her life isn't abhorrent? Arizona does but before she can continue, Callie tells her there's no "but." Arizona then says what she was going to: Callie should talk to him. She reminds Callie that her dad didn't do anything, that she was the one who changed the game. True, and now she's being all understanding, but she might have started with this rather than asking Callie if she was done as her first response. It was a weird moment. Callie's not really taking it and asks if Arizona didn't expect any understanding when she came out. Arizona just explains that she never brought guys home, and she had a poster of Cindy Crawford on her wall. "And I wasn't just looking at her mole." While it wasn't news when Arizona brought home a woman, Callie has up until recently loved men, and even married one. She advises Callie again to talk to her father, and to give him some room to be shocked. Callie tells her she hates her as Arizona leaves the room, but the fight is gone from her voice, and Arizona gloats cheerfully, "'Cause I'm right. And I'm awesome."
Hannah/Kitty is actually named April, and she and Lexie are merger buddies. She seems pleasant enough, and thanks Lexie for being her tour guide, even though she knows it wasn't by choice. Lexie clearly isn't thrilled but does tell her she knows it's scary being the new kid. Of course April mentions that Lexie must have been there when the, "psycho intern cabal was marching around, chopping out each other's organs," and that it must have been scary. So, just in case you didn't get it, these two aren't actually going to get along. They meet their patient, who is handcuffed to the bed and has a cop stationed nearby. His name is Billy, and while robbing a guy's house, the guy caught him and beat him with a golf club. Fair enough. He claims that they don't need the cop as he can't even move but before Lexie can say something nice, April quickly chirps that they'll keep him. Lexie rolls him over and sees some ominous-looking lumps on his back and orders films before defensively announcing to April that it was only one appendix, not a psycho cabal. April is taken aback and as she says it's good to know, writes furiously in a little red notebook that she carries around.
Bailey and her team file into the room of a fairly young woman, Sara, awaiting a new kidney. Izzie and Charles are part of this group, and when Sara holds the phone up so that the doctors can promise her sister and nieces that she's getting a good one, Bailey happily leads them in a chorus of, "It's a good kidney." Once she hangs up Lexie gives her info -- Sara, end stage renal failure, dialysis for three years, and they are on the last possible access site. Sara explains to them and to us that it means they've run out of places to stick the needles. Bailey asks the docs a question about the placement and while nearly everyone raises their hand, Charles just starts answering the question. He notices and comments, "Oh, you guys raise hands." Like it's a quaint, sweet little practice.
A man is brought into the ER -- Frank, 42 -- with lacerations of some kind. As they wheel him in he's followed by another guy, Don, yelling at Frank for touching Don's little girl. Before we can all get too horrified, Frank protests that she's 19 years old, very much not a little girl, and that they are in love. They pull back the blanket and blood spurts from his groin area, as Don apparently went after Frank's frank with a carving knife, though Don claims Frank just ran into it. Avery tries to help but Cristina snatches the chart from him and then immediately works to fix the bleeder, shouting instructions. Avery is clearly pissed but keeps himself contained as he asks a couple of times if she's sure there isn't something he can do. Cristina finishes the job, stops the bleeding, and just turns and yells, "There! That's how we do it on our side of town." Oh Cristina, this is not one of your finer moments, being so vindictive without any glee. She's usually got attitude but this has none of her smug happiness behind it.
Alex, meanwhile, tries to claim an old man who has stomach pains who is in his zone. Reed has another idea, though, and just smirks that she's already helping the guy as she asks him questions. The man's grown daughter is there and explains that he fell a couple of months ago, but Alex cuts her off to insist to Reed that this is his patient. When she won't give him up, Alex warns her to have fun without the chart and goes off to hide it. With the maturity level of all these doctors, it's a wonder either of these hospitals were ever respected institutions.
Izzie is giving Charles a tour of the place and is in much better spirits than her co-workers. When they get to the lab, the tech asks her how the IL2 is going and it dawns on Charles that her punky short hair isn't just for fun. She very quietly tells him she's good but when Charles asks her how she is she cuts him off with a final-sounding, "Stable for now." He tries to win her back over, asking if she doesn't want anyone to know because then they would know she's an amazing superwoman and it totally works; even though she tells him it's gross fake flattery, she is clearly eating it up. He asks if she wants to know something personal and points out Reed, saying he's totally in love with her but she doesn't ever notice him and thinks his name is Charlie. He laments that no one named Charlie ever got the girl, then when Izzie smiles jokes that he's not trying to minimize her cancer, but it sucks. Despite the fact that Izzie can't imagine why anyone would like Reed, she's charmed enough that she gives him the code to the research library to soothe his broken heart.
A woman from HR, Missy, is meeting with Richard in his office and gives him a speech to use for any future layoffs. "While performance has been evaluated, the largest considerations have been budgetary." She warns him not to deviate from those words, but he puffs out his chest and says he won't use that and doesn't need a chaperone. To the cats I said out loud, "Yes, because you hide behind email." It's time for Missy to pull out the big guns, and she asks if he remembers Intern Megan. Chief does, she's married to Steve, and he fired her. Missy reminds him that he fired her using an email, and she's now suing the hospital for wrongful termination, saying she was fired for being pregnant. (And while the email was clearly a mistake from the beginning -- and not related to Megan suing because she's pregnant -- since the email technically came from HR aren't they at least partially to blame for that crappy decision?) Richard finally listens to her once she mentions a lawsuit and she repeats that this is the speech, and he's not to deviate.
Lexie is showing Billy's spine films to Derek and they show something painful-sounding called a "burst fracture." She explains how she knows this from the films and gets all technical, so Billy asks if he's got a broken back. Derek assures him he'll have a full life and be able to walk and burgle again, then asks Lexie for treatment ideas. She has some sort of awesome answer that goes totally over my head, and April admiringly says she might be out of her league. Derek happily says Lexie has a photographic memory, so they are ALL out of their league. April then very sweetly says she was there thinking they could use some other procedure, and practically has her hands in her pockets, rocking back and forth while exclaiming, "Aw, golly!" Derek looks at the films again and as April adds that she thought it was a good idea, but maybe not -- all while batting her big doe eyes -- and Derek finally decides it's a good idea and they will try it. He assigns Lexie the pre-op and tells April to let him know the lab results, and she smirks while Lexie looks understandably put out.
A girl runs into the ER, then sees Frank and runs to him to shower him with kisses and call him "Honey." Don rips back the curtain around his gurney and yells at Frank to get off of her. I guess this must be his little girl! He picks up a hammer that's lying on the stand to him, because hammers are always left around in emergency rooms, and goes after Frank. Frank grabs his jewels, but before Don can finish what he started earlier, Avery tackles him from behind. As Cristina looks on, enraged, everyone starts applauding and Hunt walks in and admiringly tells him it was nice work.
He then asks Avery if he played football in college. He did, both offense and defense, which impresses Hunt and sickens Cristina all the more. As she works on Frank, he asks if she'll bring Avery over later so that he can thank him for saving his life. Cristina can't handle it and yells, "No, I saved your life! I'm still saving it," she grumbles, but she seems less inclined to do so now.
Alex and Reed, meanwhile, are mounting the biggest pissing contest these parts have ever seen. He pages her to let her know that he ran a CT and found that their patient has an adrenal mass. She's surprised since she was waiting for lab results to run a CT, then from Alex's smirk realizes he stole the results. He's just happy he'll get a surgery out of it. The daughter comes out with more questions, quite upset, but Alex dismisses her by telling her they'll be there in a minute. She's rightly offended but doesn't say anything, and as Alex takes the film, Reed seethes. So much seething this hour.
As Lexie wheels Billy down the hall, she sees Derek and April talking in the room. Billy catches this and tells her she has to fight back. She gripes that April is just finding her footing but Billy counters that she's found it in Lexie's back. When she asks why he cares, he says that he likes her. He's an incredibly good-natured burglar; it looks like a golf club to the spine hasn't hurt his sunny disposition. He tells Lexie to find April's open window, or her key in a fake rock. So it seems the real lesson here is that fake rocks look fake, and not to hide your keys in one. Well, that's our lesson, while Lexie's is to find April's weakness. Lexie tries to defend that she's not a criminal like he is, so he basically warns her straight up that April is making her look like an idiot.
Derek goes to visit his healing wife, and it's a nice touch that he actually closes the blinds so that they can visit without being in a fishbowl. She wants to know if he talked to any of "them," and he's amused by her attitude and kisses her. She won't be deterred, and tells him she needs to know how Cristina is doing, since she was cardio deprived and depressed earlier. He asks if both of them are in a dark and twisty place, and kisses her again. Mere says that they are, and it's yet another nice sign that they finally let this couple just be a couple that Derek knows that if Cristina is in a bad place, Mere will be there with her in solidarity. And it's a nice nod to Mere's growth in general that she can be there and fully commiserate without actually falling into a wrist-slashing place of her own.
Alex goes back to his patient's room to find Hunt and Reed there, and Hunt reams him out for not noticing that his patient had neurological symptoms. Alex stammers while Reed smirks at him, and Hunt gives Reed the credit for noticing and diagnosing cartotic stenosis. He tells her to book an OR, and when Frank's daughter asks about his other surgery Hunt tells her, without sugarcoating anything, that he has a 90% blockage in his artery and that's the first thing they need to take care of, which is a lot to digest but Reed will be there to keep them updated. Wow, I hope she keeps up the stellar job she's been doing so far. As Hunt walks out Alex lamely tries to tell him since he diagnosed the tumor it's his surgery. Hunt just tells him that he can scrub in on the tumor surgery, then, but for now he's just there to help Reed. I can't decide if Hunt really hasn't picked up on the hospital-wise animosity between the two sets of doctors or if he's just ignoring it as they are all adults and it's not his job to be a babysitter and/or mediator. Alex then growls at Reed that she didn't put the symptoms in the chart, but Reed just questions innocently, "Oh, I didn't? Hmmm." The daughter narrows her eyes at them, but still says nothing.
Taking Arizona's advice, Callie is in a conference room with her dad and Father Kevin, and I don't think it's an accident that Father Kevin is at the head of the table, in between the two of them like a buffer. She admits she knows that this was a lot to spring on him, and that he doesn't have a lot of experience with gay people. She can't help but get in a dig about her single uncle, and her dad admonishes her. He's angry as she says that while it's an adjustment, he should have adjusted by now, especially because she's his daughter who he is supposed to love no matter what. He assures her he loves her but that he's scared for her, and then jumps right in, saying she's facing an eternity in Hell. I laughed out loud when Father Kevin tries to warn him, "Let's not start with words like 'hell.'" Callie's pissed, and demands to know if that's really why he flew so far to see her, but her dad is now completely wound up too and begins quoting different passages from the Bible to back up his point. He actually made notecards for the occasion, it seems. She's terribly upset, and even Father Kevin tries to stop him, but he's too far gone. Finally, Callie counters back with various sayings from Jesus himself, all about loving one another. She starts to cry and finally yells that Jesus is her savior, not her dad, and Jesus would be ashamed of him for judging her and turning his back on her. Callie always kicks ass, but this is especially amazing and also because of that, completely heartbreaking. Even though she lost her cool she made an amazing argument for herself. After she leaves, Father Kevin doesn't say anything and I feel like he's even sitting there thinking she's got a point.
Lexie is spending yet more quality alone time with Billy, and he continues to joke about his ongoing burglary career as she warns him about the potential complications from surgery. He assures her that they'll fix him up fine, and then gets to what he really wanted to say -- he's got a gift for her. He pulls out April's notebook, to Lexie's horror, and starts to read, "You're not just a good doctor, you're a great doctor. You're the future of medicine. Only you can keep you down." And the kicker: "No one can tell it's plastic surgery!" Lexie looks disgusted, then interested, then appalled at herself for her interest. He tosses Lex the notebook as April pokes her head in looking for it, and Lexie is only able to stammer as she hides it behind her clipboard. When Lexie pretends she can't remember what it looks like April snarks, "So much for that photographic memory," in a voice that's very different from the sickly sweet one she's been using all day. It's all Lexie needs to decide she might take advantage after all, and she tells her flatly, "Good luck finding it."
She's reading it at lunch when Alex and Cristina plop down at the table and gripe about the Mercy Westers. The story about the maniac with the hammer has spread, and Cristina indignantly defends that Avery didn't save anyone, he just did a "ninja leap" and tripped the guy. She reminds them that she used actual medicine to save someone. Lexie then tells them that she stole the notebook, and Cristina looks like she suddenly has a whole new level of respect for the Lexipedia. It's too much for her, though, and she puts it away and vows not to sink to their level. She complains about how they are vindictive and aggressive, and how that spirit could infect all of them so they have to fight it -- to which Cristina and Alex remind her that she stole the notebook. Out of real arguments, she says April's really not a nice person. Izzie then comes up with two coffees, and Alex assumes one is for him -- when they find out that it's actually for Charles, everyone gets mad at her. Izzie just acts high and mighty like she does so well, and tells them to get over their egos, and that they can't write off all of the Mercy Westers just because they feel threatened. Cristina and Alex bluster that they aren't threatened, but Lexie concedes that actually they are. Alex then looks around and realizes the only people there are in blue scrubs, because the invaders are all working. Panicked, they all get up and run back to work.
Cristina runs in to find Hunt and Avery working on some mass that has formed on Frank's leg that is most likely a pseudoaneurism. He tells Avery that if that's what it is, he gets to scrub in to the surgery. Avery gives Cristina a sly look and thanks Hunt, which is the last straw. She pulls Hunt aside and he tells her simply that Avery was there and she wasn't. He turns to walk away, but Cristina screams his name, silencing everyone for a second. She shakes off his confused touch of her shoulder, and yells at him for prioritizing based on some random code. I don't think it's random -- I think it's a) who is there and also b) he might be overcompensating a bit to look like he's not playing favorites with his girlfriend. Maybe that's just me, though. He tells her that it's just one surgery but her will is broken and she slumps off, telling him to forget it.
Charles is bragging to April and Reed that Izzie will do whatever he asks, that he's got the code to the research library, and that overall, "It's like I have my own surgical bitch." Their nasty giggles are replaced quickly and April clears her throat but it's too late, Izzie heard it all. He at least looks genuinely shocked and embarrassed, but it's far too little too late. Izzie motions to hand him his coffee but when he reaches for it, she drops it on his feet. The other two slink away like cowards.
Arizona finds Callie sobbing amid a sea of Kleenex, sad to realize that it didn't go well. Callie tells her that now she can move on and stop thinking about reconciling with her family, which just sounds awful, and she's torn up about it. Arizona just puts her arm around and holds her as Callie continues that she doesn't need a father who won't accept his daughter.
Alex is working on his patient when he starts mumbling gibberish. As his daughter gets a little panicky, Alex checks him out and then tells Reed they have to hold off on the surgery. Reed brushes him off as pathetic but Alex argues that he just said "weird crap" and that means something is wrong on his left side of the brain, not the right like they thought. They start to outright argue about what is more likely until finally his daughter yells at them and breaks it up. She admonishes them for their deplorable behavior, and points out that all day they've only been happy when they think the other one is wrong. She has to remind them that their patient is her father, and that they are supposed to be healers. Both look suitably shamed; Alex tells her they will run more tests, in a much more polite tone than before, and Reed apologizes for both of them.
Charles tries to talk with Izzie while she's in with Sara, and she tells him to go away. He hands her the lab results and offers to do the dialysis, but Izzie says she's got it, and that she doesn't need a "surgical bitch." Fortunately by now she's out in the hallway, because it's about time someone around there remembered that doing this in front of a patient wasn't a good idea. Charles tells her that this is their job, and that they can be friends when they are outside of work but are competitors inside, at least that's how it was at Mercy West. She spits back that it's not that way here, and that they support each other and throw themselves in front of busses to save strangers. "You will never measure up to the people we lost," she says, shaking with contempt. She walks back into Sara's room and slams the paper with the results to the table, shooting directions at the technician. Sara tries to smile but is clearly uncomfortable, because, you know, she doesn't expect her doctors to bicker in front of her. It's going to really help that ranking if none of the doctors can maintain civility even just for a few moments in front of the patients.
Cristina walks into Mere's room, shuts the door, sits on the sofa and starts to cry. Mere is shocked, turns off her movie (It Happened One Night, and thanks to Jessica for knowing that as I had no idea other than it was Clark Gable looking dashing), as this is about as anti-Cristina as behavior gets, but as she repeats her friend's name, Cristina only cries harder. Mere tries to hand her a Kleenex but Cristina won't reach for it, so eventually she tosses the box to the sofa since she can't get off of the bed. Mere asks her what happened and Cristina finally sobs that nothing is happening to her. We haven't seen her this upset since Burke left her, and she's absolutely desperate as she talks about how long it's been since she held a heart and felt any joy or rush at her job. After a moment, she admits to missing Burke. Mere is taken aback but Cristina explains that she doesn't miss the relationship, but she misses basically having him there as a mentor, when she got picked for surgery not for favoritism but because she was right for the job. Well, and as I recall it's also because she'd help him cover up a career-threatening injury, but it's not as good for this argument now. She takes a deep breath and adds, "And I felt seen." She spent this whole day fighting and finally admits she doesn't want to do it anymore. Mere pats the bed to her and as we've seen so many times before, Cristina crawls in. Mere turns the movie back on and just holds her friend.
Lexie, April and Derek are in their scrubs and ready for surgery, and when Derek asks April tells him that Billy's already been put under and is all ready. Lexie's a little surprised as she was supposed to be doing that, and April is nothing but sweetness and light as she says she knows, but wanted to make sure everything was ready for Dr. Shepherd. I can't believe Derek seems to be falling for this hook, line and sinker -- he was younger once, yes? He's surely seen people sucking up and is able to see past it, right?? Well, it's questionable right now -- he just beams that on her first day, she's already making his life easier. Lexie's had enough, and agrees brightly that April's not just a good doctor, she's a great doctor. April is flattered but once Lexie calls her the future of medicine, she realizes what has happened. As a last twist of the knife, Lexie points to her own nose and says, "I can tell." Horrified, April says she needs a moment and runs off in tears. Lexie, rather than gloating, looks kind of sick with herself.
Alex and Reed look at their patients' scans and find that he's got a subdural hematoma, which explains everything that has been going on. They seem to have a bit of a truce going with this diagnosis but when Alex says he'll tell neuro, she absolutely won't let him and says she'll do it. They bicker some more about who it was that can take credit for this diagnosis until finally Alex asks if she can give it a rest, recalling what the guy's daughter said. Reed apologizes and says she'll stop if he does, and he agrees and gives up, saying she can have it. "Talk to Arizona Robbins, she's head of neuro." She looks like a cat that got the cream until it dawns on her that this was too easy and she asks the tech if Arizona Robbins is really the head of neuro. She then races out after Alex.
Izzie runs down the hall to Sara's room where she finds her in the middle of a seizure, foaming at the mouth. She yells for a crash cart and demands to know what Charles did, but he yells back that he didn't do anything and Izzie was the last doctor in her room. Izzie shocks her and Sara's heartbeat seems to pick back up, but it's pretty much the definition of shit hitting the fan.
Callie's dad is staring out the window into the dark when Arizona approaches him; after a moment he tells her that he doesn't know her enough to talk to her about Callie. Arizona doesn't say anything but after a moment, tells him that while most people think she got her name because of the state, she was actually named for the battleship USS Arizona. Her grandfather was serving on the ship when Pearl Harbor was bombed and saved the lives of 19 men before he died. She tells him that everything her dad has ever done was to honor her grandfather, and that Arizona was raised to be a good man in a storm, and to love her country and her family. And she protects the things she loves. It turns out her dad is a Colonel in the Marine Corps, and that when she came out she thought he'd kick her out -- instead, he just asked if she was who he raised her to be. Finally, Mr. Torres gives Arizona a sideways glance. She tells him that her dad doesn't bend for anything, except he bent for her because she is his daughter. She gives Mr. Torres a pointed look before reminding him in a not-quite-warning, but firm, tone that she protects the things she loves, and she loves Callie even though she doesn't need her protection. She stressed that Callie is awesome and everything he raised her to be, and he finally turns his whole head to look at her before looking back out the window and straightening up his stance. Arizona waits a moment and then heads out, having done her best to protect the one she loves.
Bailey walks out of Sara's room, the commotion over, and faces Charles and Izzie. Izzie asks if she's still getting the kidney but Bailey shuts her right down and announces that she will be asking the questions. Izzie answers that yes, she was in charge of the dialysis, but when Bailey asks if she was upset with Charles (as he reported) Izzie wants to know what that has to do with it. Bailey points out that could have to do with her mental state affecting her judgment, and how that could explain how she either misread or didn't read the labs. It turns out Izzie gave Sara something that, given her lab results, wound up sucking all the potassium out of her body and stopped her heart. Bailey then reveals that she's not getting the kidney after all, and that if they don't find one in 72 hours and Sara dies, Izzie will have killed her. She gives Charles a glare but motions for him to follow her while she leaves Izzie behind, looking like she might vomit.
Billy wakes up from his surgery and is told by Derek that it went well, and he'll be back to about 70% of what he was before, which is good considering his injuries. He leaves, and Billy jokes to Lexie that he guesses now he'll only steal 70% as much stuff. I have to wonder if it will be as easy for him given that he likes to brag about all of his burgling, and he seems like a pretty easy catch for the police, but I am also not a criminal so maybe I've got this whole thing wrong? Lexie just opens up April's notebook to point out the splotches inside, which she realized were tears. She was crying and scared when she wrote it, and those sayings make her feel better, but they took that comfort away from her. She tells him that they are taking things from people and leaving them at 70%. He looks like he just learned A Lesson, though I'm not sure why this would now sink in as he seemed wholly unconcerned with being left at 70% himself.
Sara has just gotten the news from Bailey and is crying, pointing out that Bailey promised her nieces that she would get a kidney. Bailey apologizes repeatedly and promises to make it right and find her a new kidney. Sara's phone then rings and when she sees it is her sister, asks what she should tell her. This scene feels kind of shoehorned in, like we have known Sara longer than we actually have and should care more, but I realized later it was necessary for Bailey to make a little trip on down to Santa Monica later. Outside the room, Izzie is waiting when she gets paged. When she sees who it is, she heaves a sigh and trudges off.
April is getting her stuff from her locker when Lexie comes in with the notebook; when she hands it over April snatches it and stuffs it into her bag. Lexie apologizes and says that it must be hard being new. But, she warns, it's not an excuse for being a bitch. Well, she stops right before she says that outright but I have no problem finishing the sentence. She tells April she doesn't like her, and April lets out a rueful chuckle. Honey, you didn't give her any reason to like you, don't try to take the high ground here. Lexie says that while that's the case, what she did was over the line, and after she goes, April looks thoughtful at Lexie actually admitting that.
Izzie walks into Richard's office to find him and Missy waiting for her. She thinks for a moment that the page was mistaken, but when he introduces Missy, she connects the dots and starts to panic. She immediately tells them that they can't fire her because she has cancer, that's illegal. She gets yelly pretty quickly but he tells her it's not the cancer. And here we have my favorite part: she guesses (correctly) that this is about what happened with Sara, and tries to defend that doctors make mistakes every day. Richard tries to reply but she cuts him off by reminding him that she didn't even get fired when she cut the LVAD wire. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, she tries to defend her job by bringing up the time she broke rules and laws all over the map, essentially stole an organ from a deserving donor, and managed to stay employed. That said, no wonder she thought she was invincible! He tells her that this is a different era. Yes, an era where doctors actually need to be accountable for their actions and not run willy-nilly playing God. A new day has come!
He adds that Derek and Hunt both had concerns about her stamina and emotional stability, and then tells her that Alex also had questions. Before he can explain, though, she replies as if punched in the gut, "Alex said something to you?" It's at this moment that Missy gives him a polite warning, and Richard has to resort to the script we heard earlier. Izzie's hand is over her mouth, tears spilling onto her cheeks, and she finally whispers not to do this to her, that she doesn't have anything left. He keeps a fairly good poker face but you can still tell he hates every second of this. You might, Richard, but there are a whoooole lot of us out here who are clinking cocktails in celebration at this very moment!
Closing VO time: "What do you do when the infection hits you? When it takes over?" Callie is leaving work when her dad calls after her, but she just sighs that she can't do it anymore and she'll see him in hell, and keeps walking. He then announces that he has to catch her, and she's confused enough to stop. He tells her that her whole life she's been on a bridge, and she likes to dance on the railing, and one day she'll leap and he has to be there to catch her. Callie says that he doesn't have to catch her, but he says it's his job. I don't really find this in any way to be an apology, a vote of confidence, or really a positive assessment of her character in any way but I guess it must be, because she smiles. He then asks if things work out with Arizona, if she'll give her mom a wedding. Callie says that if Arizona would like to spend the rest of her life with Callie, then that's a definite possibility. He asks about grandkids, and she also says that when the time came that could also happen. He finally asks if Arizona makes her happy and that's all she really needed to hear, she cries that Arizona makes her very happy and finally hugs him and says she loves him. He then has one more important question -- is she a vegetarian? Callie assures him that she's not, and he's relieved and then admits he feels very old.
"Do you do what you're supposed to do and take your medicine?" Mere asks, "Or do you learn to live with the thing?" In a flip from the scene that morning, the four key orange-clad doctors lean on the railing and look down. The difference is that now, blue and orange scrubs are mingling in relative harmony down below. "And hope someday it goes away?"
Alex gets to the locker room to change for the night and finds a note stuck in his locker. He sits down and reads it, then looks up, confused.
Cristina and Mere are still in bed watching movies but Cristina is much calmer and more contained. Alex walks in with the note in his hand, looking lost, but Mere doesn't pick up on it right away and she turns off the TV, excitedly telling him to give her a full report of the day, and did he kick their asses? After a moment, he manages to say, "Izzie left me." The girls are totally confused and Alex stutters that she left a note, and as his voice rises with panic he says he doesn't know if she's coming back. Mere asks what he means and Cristina still just looks on silently, but clearly as confused as the others. Mere finally tells Cristina to go hug him, but as she's not a hugger she's reticent. She eventually gets out of bed and takes a couple of steps towards him, but he steps back like a frightened animal and then crosses his arms defiantly. The three of them stay there like statues as Mere's voice asks, "Or do you just give up entirely and let it kill you?"
And for those of you wanting to know just how Bailey is going to kick ass and take names this time, you can jump on over to Private Practice to see if she really can find Sara a kidney to make up for the selfish mistake of her now-former resident.