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Derek's latest effort to try and help Cristina get back to normal (whatever that might be) is to take her fishing for the day, which Meredith thinks is totally insane, but Cristina agrees to go. The two of them head to the lake, but Derek's quiet day is not to be, since Cristina can't keep quiet and keeps asking him questions based on all of the fishing research she did the night before. Eventually she quiets down and winds up catching a humongous trout, and when she stands to have her picture taken with it, she breaks down in tears but seems to reach a bit of peace, if only for a second. Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Meredith and Owen have to work together on a patient who seems unfixable. They start to fight in the OR and while it seems to be about the best way to go about fixing the guy on the table, it's totally really about the best way to handle Cristina. Owen does seem in a little bit over his head, but he'll be damned if he takes any advice from Meredith; both of them are stubborn about how their way is right and clearly neither is right, but in this case I'm siding with Meredith, because Owen's plan to just let Cristina drift around and hope that she comes out the other side doesn't seem to be working very well as of yet. Honestly, Derek seems to be the only one who can get any sort of positive interaction from Cristina, even if it's only for brief moments.
Teddy is still beating herself up for also having failed Cristina, and is having a weak moment when she meets a very sick but very sweet patient (played by Scott Foley) who is on his way to propose to his girlfriend. When Teddy sees him he's been shot down, but it turns out that the biggest reason he was asking was to get on her health insurance, as he has some sort of horrible disease that will eventually kill him without proper care. Teddy does all she can to convince Richard to treat him pro bono but when Richard calls a panel to discuss the idea, it's decided that they can't take on the cost. As Scott is packing up to leave, Teddy pulls on her bad idea jeans and belts them tight... and offers to marry him herself, since she's got awesome insurance as well as massive loads of guilt and she's hoping that this will help lessen that. Of course, she only tells Scott the insurance part. Thank goodness he's cute, at least.
Also cute is the new nurse who has actually been at the hospital for 12 years now, but who we have never seen before. He gets onto Lexie's bad side when he doesn't follow her precise orders about how to handle one of Bailey's post-op patients. Bailey is still on a mission to cure fistulas, so she starts a contest between Jackson, April and Lexie to see who can figure out the best way to avoid them after surgery. Lexie goes to Bailey and tattles on Eli, the nurse, but when Bailey comes up to write him up for disobeying orders, she comes to realize that he actually has an incredibly low fistula rate in his patients. They do some research and figure out what he does that's been working, and Bailey nearly bursts out of her skin with happiness that this means she might have finally figured out a fistula cure. When she goes back to talk to Eli he ends up asking her out on a date and she's in such a good mood (and also recognizes that though she's a doc and he's a nurse he's quite a fine specimen) that she agrees to go.
Mark and Callie are still hooking up but have to admit that they each really want other people instead. Mark decides to start pursuing Lexie again, and he finally manages to get her to agree to a drink with him after work, though she really just wants him to stop trying to get her back. But after work, as she tells him all of the reasons why she doesn't want to go out and all of the reasons why they wouldn't work together, he kisses her, and she eventually starts to thaw towards him and kisses him right back. Callie, meanwhile, tries to make herself feel better by performing a kick-ass, cutting-edge hip replacement surgery. She almost convinces Alex to ditch peds and work with her in ortho instead as her mentee, but at the end of the day Alex decides to go back to the kids after all, even though Stark is still a total jerk. But things might be changing for them both, because that night, Callie answers a knock at the apartment door to find none other than Arizona on her doorstep. Arizona admits that she was miserable in Africa without Callie and so was offered the opportunity to come home and took it. And even though Callie missed her, she's clearly in no state to hear or handle this, so after Arizona is done with her speech, she closes the door in her face.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!So, finally, THIS is the week in which I give up painstakingly transcribing Meredith's lame voiceover. All you need is the gist -- that the 24 hours after surgery are the most critical and your every move is being monitored but what do you do in the days and weeks following? Clearly, this is mostly about Cristina if "surgery" equaled "gunplay." Well, I guess actual surgery was involved too, but you know... okay, back to the episode this week.
A very sleepy Meredith has just been told that Cristina and Derek are going fishing, and she can't believe it. Derek just tells her that Owen was concerned about leaving Cristina alone, so he had this brilliant idea for the day. Meredith is quite sure that Cristina must not actually know about the plan yet but when Derek says he spoke to her on the phone the night before, Mere looks like she's been slapped, even though she tries to hide it. It's obviously not the agreeing to do something completely opposite to her personality but the fact that she and Derek actually spoke on the phone without her even knowing. Mere finally resorts to pouting that Cristina doesn't do the wilderness, especially as it has no bathrooms. Derek knows the problem isn't really the lack of bathrooms but gently tells Mere that he knows she's concerned but there's nothing else she can do right now. Mere is kind of offended that he thinks that he can do something, though, especially since that something is fishing. She wants Cristina to come back to work but Derek tells her firmly that they aren't trying to get Cristina back to work, they are just trying to make sure she's okay. Mere is convinced that the only way her friend will be okay is to work again. Derek's obviously a bit fed up by now but he smiles at her, and as Meredith assures him that Cristina's not really going to show, the doorbell rings. Derek, being Derek, can't help but look a little smug.
Callie and Mark are showering together, just like roommates do. It's about as platonic a situation can be -- they aren't facing each other, Callie's just brushing her teeth -- until Mark asks if she wants to Do It. There really isn't a single shred of romance between the two, but instead they're like best friends and sex toys. Callie kills whatever mood there was, though, by admitting that it just makes her miss Arizona and she gets sad. Mark just retorts that he is thinking about Lexie and though she just said the same thing, Callie gets totally offended. She reminds Mark that he's amazing which he already knows -- that's why he suggested It in the first place. But she's all worked up and she sends him out of the shower, though when he gripes about missing Lexie she looks really smug and again yells that she's amazing.
Back at the Home for Wayward Residents, Meredith is staring at Cristina while Cristina stares at the floor. Owen is standing behind his wife like a parent dropping off a child for a playdate, and after a moment of uncomfortable silence offers to help Derek take everything out to the car. After another moment Cristina turns to go but Mere calls after her, and it seems like maybe these two are finally going to talk again for the first time in quite a while. But Mere chickens out and can only finally sputter that there's no bathrooms out in the wilderness. Cristina says she knows but while she still seems rather beaten down, she seems less angry than she has in a couple of weeks, at least marginally.
At the hospital, Bailey and Richard are already well into a surgery and have Jackson, April and Lexie watching; Lexie can't stop exclaiming about how cool it is that they're removing someone's gall bladder through their mouth. I agree that it's really cool and minimally invasive, yet at the same time the idea makes me gag. Bailey asks her how badly she wants to do this type of surgery herself, and Lexie compares it to how much she wanted a pony when she was a little girl. Bailey announces that she's going to run a contest -- each of them has been researching a different protocol to try and eliminate fistulas, but she doesn't think they are getting their results fast enough. So the one with the fewest post-op complications is going to get to pull their own gall bladder out through a mouth. As she's said this she and Richard have been pulling what looks like a standard-issue garden hose out of this poor dude's throat, and after a number of pulls they get to the end which is holding a nasty, green, plastic-looking but still revolting gall bladder. April immediately asks to be excused and after a moment to comprehend what she's doing, Lexie and Jackson ask the same and they all run out. Richard compliments Bailey on being a mad genius but she's not ready to accept the title yet since she hasn't actually rid the world of fistulas.
Having sent their significant others off on their adventure, Meredith and Owen go to work and wind up in the elevator together, slightly uncomfortable. Teddy joins them and asks how Cristina is doing but when Owen says she's fine, Meredith smirks and announces that she's fishing. She gets the horrified reaction that she was looking for, but when Teddy asks why, Meredith just tells her to ask Owen and then sweeps off the elevator at the stop. Owen's pretty ticked and asks Teddy if she has a better idea -- she doesn't, but... fishing, dude -- before leaving in a huff. Teddy slumps against the elevator wall and then notices the attractive patient (played by Scott Foley) (Henry, as he's known on the show, but which I don't think is said until much later) in a wheelchair who asks her how he looks, as he's about to propose to his girlfriend. She tells him she'd be a fool to say no, wishes him good luck, and then his minder wheels him off to pop the question.
Alex finds Callie to ask if she needs any help that day, on account of Stark hating him and choosing to work with another resident. She and Mark had been walking together but he's left out of the Arizona-bashing that ensues: Alex thinks maybe heartlessness is a peds thing while they both say they pity the kids in Africa since she's making them fall in love with her now, but then she'll probably find something better and take off. Mark has just been watching them, too smart to jump in to their dangerous vortex of hurt feelings, and they finally walk off as Lexie comes up. Mark finally says hi to her and then, at a loss, blurts out that he misses her. She tries to stop him but he can't seem to stop himself and he asks if she's seeing anyone. She is absolutely not amused and turns to leave, but as she walks away he pathetically calls after her again that he misses her.
Because things weren't already awkward enough between them, it seems that Mere is working with Owen for the day. They wait in the ambulance bay for their patients to arrive and after a moment of awkward silence Owen asks her if she ever goes fishing with Derek. She informs him that she doesn't because she's a surgical resident with no time, and even on her days off she's at the hospital, just like Cristina should be. That said, she launches a bit of an attack on Owen, asking him what his plan is for Cristina in the coming days -- cooking class or bowling with Bailey? They're saved by the arrival of two ambulances but Owen calls out that while he's not sure, bowling with Bailey sounds fun. He's not wrong, but he's also choosing to completely ignore her point. Their conversation is cut off by their patients -- first up is Trina, who lacerated her ear after falling 100 feet into a ravine. Unfortunately, her husband was what broke her fall, and he's in the other ambulance with much more than just an ear injury.
Meredith takes Trina, who seems to be okay but who is also understandably panicked about her husband. The two are on their honeymoon, and were hiking and decided to take a picture but when they gave someone their camera, posed, and kissed, the ground collapsed and they fell into the ravine. She begs Mere to tell her that Jason, her husband, isn't going to die, but of course Mere can't say and looks a bit tortured about it.
She goes to check on Jason, who is in awful shape. His abdomen is so distended that he looks like he's got a bun in the oven, but which actually means he's got massive internal bleeding. His vitals start to drop so they sprint him to the OR, and Trina watches them go by, crying.
Once in the OR Owen announces that there isn't time to scrub in and warns that he hopes that no one is wearing new shoes. He then slices into Jason's abdomen and a river of blood starts to gush out and on to the floor.
Let me share the notes that I took while watching the episode, as I think they perfectly describe the scene: "Blood guts lots more blood guts." When the suction doesn't suck fast enough, Owen yells at Meredith to use her hands and scoop the blood and guts from Jason's abdomen, while he hollers at other people to get him material to pack the wounds; when the material isn't coming fast enough, he gets really agitated and yells a whole lot more.
The lake couldn't be more of an opposite setting, all quiet and tranquil as Derek gets the boat ready to go. Cristina then offers him some advice about how to mount their rods (hee!) (No, seriously, you have to admit you immediately regressed to 12 years old at any talk of mounting rods.) (Come on, don't even try to deny it) and at Derek's stunned face she admits that she did a bunch of internet research about fishing the night before. "I didn't want to be anything less than seaworthy." He tries to regain the upper hand by pointing out that it's a lake, not a sea, but then has to admit that she's got a good idea. This gives her all the encouragement she needs to start offering more advice but he cuts her off and asks if she's going to be like this all day. With the tiniest hint of desperation in her voice, she admits she can't help it.
Callie's Patient O'the Day is Ron, who needs a new hip, but had been putting it off because he didn't want to deal with the recovery time. Before he can say much his wife chips in that their daughter is an orthodontist in Sarasota because, well, she wants Callie to know that they have medical people in the family and aren't just nobody. I can already tell why their daughter is practicing orthodontia in Florida, about as far away as one can get from Seattle within the continental United States. Callie proudly shows them a new, minimally invasive procedure that will have him walking by the end of the week, and brags that she's the only doctor in the Northwest currently doing this and she can fit them in at 2pm.
The wife runs around behind the husband and proceeds to be worse than any doctor at this hospital ever was in terms of whispering things that are supposedly just between her and her husband. She wants him to ask why Callie isn't busier and then why no one else is doing the surgery if it's so great. Callie can't hide her irritation and points out that she can in fact hear all of these questions herself; she tells them she was on leave and is just getting her schedule back in order, and Alex chimes in to point out that she's the only surgeon so far even able to do this fancy new surgery. Ron seems rather embarrassed at the way his wife is acting but at the same time, he's obviously put up with it for years, so Ron doesn't get much sympathy on that front. She tells him to tell the doctors that they want a second opinion and he gets pretty flustered at how she continues to ludicrously act like the docs can't hear them but Callie cuts in and agrees that it's a good choice.
Alex is pretty confused but once they are out of the room Callie explains that the other doctor is going to give them a 6-week recovery window and that they'll come right back to her, begging. Oh Callie, you ARE awesome but don't try to make these weirdos your cure for feeling abandoned by Arizona. (Oh, and by the way? Yes she left you, but you were a complete and utter jerk to her and it's not all her fault, mmkay?) She then tells Alex to keep her 2 pm slot open since she knows she'll be replacing Ron's hip.
Continuing the trend of all employees of Seattle Grace Mercy West being really ridiculously good-looking, we meet Eli (played by easy-on-the-eyes Daniel Sunjata) who is another of those characters that everybody knows but we have never met before. Lexie's in a tizzy because he didn't send a patient's fluid sample to the lab even though she asked him an hour earlier, but we learn that Eli's a not only hot, but nice, and he was letting the patient sleep since he hadn't slept the night before. Jackson then walks by with a little old lady on his arm and brags about how soon she's up after surgery, though April joins Lexie and says there's no proof that getting someone up and going helps at all. They compare protocols until April brags that when she was little, she also wanted a pony, so she worked really hard and then got one. It pushes Lexie's buttons just like she meant it to, and Lexie goes back to Eli and orders him to get the sample.
A nurse is pushing Henry down the hall, presumably back to his room post-proposal, but conveniently just drops him off at the nurses' station and walks away. It's never explained why he was left there, but it makes it really convenient for him and Teddy to have a conversation. She asks him about the proposal but it turns out not to have gone well, but Henry admits that while he liked her okay, he was more interested in marrying her awesome health insurance since he capped out his own three operations previously. Teddy asks to look at his chart and is surprised to see he has scarypotentiallyfatal disease, and has been in the hospital a huge amount of the past three years. Webber is his doctor but he's discharging Henry that day on account of his not having any money left to pay, but Teddy is appalled since he needs the care, and she promises to see what she can do. He's grateful but tells her sadly that he's sure that he can't afford her fee, whatever it is.
Mark is working on Trina's ear, and to keep her distracted from the pain he has her talk about her husband. They met at work but their company had a no dating policy, so she kept turning him down when he asked her out until finally he kissed her at work bowling event. That kiss led to her finding a new job and them getting married and going on this ill-fated honeymoon. Mark of course admires Jason's tenacity and obviously is getting some ideas.
Jason is still in really bad shape, and Owen and Mere have to dig around to try and figure out what's wrong. Owen finally guesses at what it might be -- a torn vena cava -- and then stops working and declares it a lethal injury. Mere is stunned and reminds Owen that this guy is on his honeymoon. Jason's vitals drop while Mere demands repeatedly to know what he's going to do, reminding him they can't just stand there while he bleeds out. Owen seems to have wanted to just give up but finally he's spurred back to action, and he comes up with a plan. As he starts to execute it, though, he tries to put Mere in her place and orders that she can never talk to him like that again, and that if she can't keep their problems out of the OR then she should just leave. He punctuates his sentence with a bone saw. This is where I kind of take exception to what is going on -- obviously he's at a loss with Cristina and he and Mere disagree, and this patient is there to illustrate all that. But I don't think anything we've seen of Owen thus far would lead to him just give up when there are still things that could be tried -- and these are possible solutions that occur to a resident, so they should also have occurred to a top trauma surgeon. I get that he is defeated personally, but I don't know that I buy that this would bleed over into his professional life so badly that he would let a patient die.
Back at the lake, things are completely tranquil. My Boston swan boat ornament that hangs on my Christmas tree to the TV just gazed at the huge, peaceful lake longingly during the gorgeous shots. There's only one thing disturbing the idyllic silence, and that's Cristina as she goes through their supplies and tries to guess the correct name of all of the bait. I actually think that what she's holding up are called lures, but I'm even less of an outdoors girl than Cristina Yang, so who knows. Derek reminds her that the fish can hear her so she whispers her questions until he tells her to just be quiet. They then argue about the location of the boat, but Derek is sure that they are fine where they are and should just sit, even when Cristina gives a well-thought out argument for moving. You can take the girl out of the operating room but you can't take the logical reasoning skills out of the girl. Derek points out that she'll just scare the fish away no matter where they are, and he finally orders her to stop talking, thinking, and worrying. Finally, she honestly admits that she just can't turn her mind off, but Derek assures her that she can and won't take any more excuses.
Teddy and Richard are arguing about Henry's care and Richard tells her that the hospital can't afford to take on his long-term care pro bono. His course of action is to treat his condition with drugs and have regular follow-ups in the clinic. This only ticks Teddy off because she thinks it's as good as nothing, and she's further incensed when Richard says his hands are tied. She announces that his excuse is crap because she's seen him bend rules, and she thinks he would this time too if she were Bailey or Shepherd. She backs off pretty quickly at his angry response and tells him about Cristina fishing, and how she feels like her quitting surgery forever is partly her fault. She wants to do something good to try and help make up for that. Somehow, I imagine because Richard also feels guilty about Cristina, this gets him to relent and he says he'll set up a review board meeting.
Callie and Alex are waiting to hear back about Ron's decision, and while Alex is antsy Callie manages to remain totally confident and calm that they will call. She finally admits that part of her bravado is just her being stubborn, but she wants to believe that sometimes people make the smart decision instead of being evil and leaving her in an airport. Again, I repeat: That was so half her fault. Finally, her phone buzzes, and she's incredibly smug when it's the message that Ron wants her to do his hip surgery. Alex is duly impressed.
As Meredith and Owen operate away, he gives her an instruction to do some stitches and she asks if he's really letting her sew. In any other situation this would be taken as Meredith kind of not able to believe her luck, but Owen takes it as a personal attack and snidely asks if he's questioning her judgment or saying thank you. She changes her response to thanks, so he instructs her as she starts working.
April, Jason and Lexie are all eating lunch and trying to find more info about fistulas when April again starts needling Lexie, telling her about her pony. She's cut off, though, when Eli comes and informs her that her patient is back in the ER with a fistula and she needs to meet Bailey in the OR. Neither Jackson nor Lexie is sad to see her go, and size each other up now that it's just between the two of them to remove a gall bladder via mouth. Lexie goes back to Eli to ask about the fluid sample but this time he really frosts her cookies when not only does he not have it, he tells her that he went ahead and removed the patient's drain. Lexie is incensed but Eli insists he can tell by looking if a patient has an infection and informs her that he'll only put the drain back in if Bailey orders him to do so. Since she's in surgery he plans to wait, and when Lexie tries to take the patient herself Eli orders her to get away. He then informs her that he's been at the hospital for 12 years (he and Rose must have been hanging out in back rooms a lot) and that experience has taught him how best to treat these patients. He finishes by informing her that residents come and go, but this is his home, she is his guest, and she is no longer welcome.
Having been shot down by Eli, Lexie goes to Mark for help. I love that she wants him to stay away until it's convenient and helpful for her. She bitches about Eli and then asks Mark for a favor, claiming the nurses love him. Since when? Didn't they once form a club against him? I mean, I know that was the ladies, but still. But if we're just going with Eli having worked there for 12 years, then we'll just go with this too. Mark has the charm turned up to eleven but Lexie's not enjoying it, though she was the one who asked him for help in the first place. Finally, he offers to help her out if she will meet him for a drink at Joe's later. She reluctantly agrees, though not before reminding him how the two of them already tried a relationship and it didn't work. When Mark finds out the nurse in question is Eli, he raises the stakes to two drinks.
He then heads over to talk to Eli while Lexie watches through a window in the door. Mark's back is to Lexie and he starts by immediately assuring Eli he knows better than to mess with him on his own turf, but he's asking a favor so that Lexie will go out with him. Eli's not so sure on account of he thinks Lexie's a bossy pain in the butt, but Mark likes that, and he also offers box seats to the Seahawks plus parking in exchange for pretending to argue loudly. He also makes sure Eli mentions how highly Mark thinks of Lex. Eli does all this while holding his ground that he won't put the drain back in unless Bailey asks him for it, the men shake hands, and Mark heads back over to where Lexie is anxiously waiting.
Mark says he did what he could and asks what time she's off work, but Lexie is incensed that he didn't actually accomplish anything. Mark just tells her he'll see her at 9, and he walks off. Jackson overhears this and needles Lexie about it but she tells him she's only going to have one drink, and then orders him to come and pretend there is a medical emergency to get her out of a longer date. He agrees, but not without teasing her about how he's going to be the one to win a date with a gall bladder.
A nurse comes in to the OR to give Owen his phone messages, and Owen can't hide his desperation when he specifically asks if Cristina called. She didn't, and Mere shoots him a look before getting ready to do her stitching.
Cristina is actually too busy sitting and trying not to think to call her husband, and Derek just watches her while he waits for the fish to bite.
Ron and his wife come back to Callie as she guessed, understandably sheepish, but Mrs. Ron tries to save some kind of face by mentioning that their orthodontist daughter thought they might want to wait, but Ron decided he wants this. Callie decides to play this up as much as she can, and pretends to be already booked for the 2 pm time slot. Alex isn't quite so quick-witted but once he realizes what's up he plays along rather brilliantly -- when they are looking at her phone and the day's supposed schedule, he points out that she has an award to accept that night. Poor Ron is sincerely appreciative of her efforts while his wife hides behind him, looking worried. Finally, Callie agrees that she can be late to her fake awards dinner and is pleased that they fall over themselves to thank her for her generosity.
Surgery over, Bailey heads over to give Eli what for, and Lexie can't contain her glee as she follows in Bailey's wake. He flirts like a pro but Bailey is immune to his charms, and when she says that he has to put the drain back in, Lexie blurts that she's also there to write her up, and Bailey has to silence her. Eli is still respectful but gets serious and defends himself -- he points out that he doesn't follow protocols, but just keeps an eye on the patients. Bailey still isn't having it until Eli points out that he hates complications just as much, if not more, than she does. Not least of all because it takes a dent out of his fantasy football playing. The girls are totally confused by that but Bailey takes notice of what he points out -- that he's always made sure his patients don't have complications, and when was the last time Bailey can remember his having a patient with them?
Owen and Mere are STILL in Jason's surgery, and Meredith successfully does her stitch. Owen compliments her but when Mere says she can get in one more quick stitch, he shoots her down. She's adamant, and he finally blows a gasket and orders her to stop. She puts her hands up, but she was successfully able to get in the extra stitch, and they have a glare-off as tense music plays in the background, and Owen finally orders her out of his OR.
Mere bitches to Derek about it on the phone and admits that she's totally sick of her and Cristina not talking and also about he and Cristina "pretending to be friends." As much of a douche as Derek is I do think he is sincere in wanting to help Cristina, but I get her frustration. It probably doesn't help her mood that Derek pretends he's talking to another surgeon and not to his wife lest her one-time best friend figure out she's on the phone. As Cristina was not born yesterday, though, she realizes that it was Mere. They don't actually talk about any further than that, and their silence is broken by Cristina's actually catching something. She starts dancing around in excited panic wondering what to do while Derek tries to get her to sit down and then reel it in. She's shrieking with happiness, which is quite the nice change from her darkness of late.
As Callie replaces Ron's hip, she compliments Alex, who in turn bitches about Stark. This gives the needy Callie an idea, and she sweet-talks Alex and finally offers to make him her protégé and the second person to be able to do this minimally invasive procedure. She catches him in just the right mood, he readily agrees, and she happily gets to literally hammering something into Ron's hip. Ouch.
Jason's surgery is finally over, so Mere does the adult thing and goes to talk to Owen. Seriously, I'm not sure why this struck me as so refreshing -- maybe it's the general middle-school behavior that takes place around here? But I'm glad she didn't just sit in the locker room and seethe. The guys mopping up the lake of blood leave to give them a moment alone, and Mere launches into a tirade. She says she knew just what she was doing in the surgery and that Owen knew she could do it as well, but that he slapped her down with a good-sized audience just because she's questioned how he is handling Cristina. Owen retorts that Mere is reckless with her own and patients' lives and that he doesn't want that kind of person around his wife as she struggles to hold on. Mere points out that she's struggling because Owen married her and then made it okay for her to fall completely apart. Both are completely heated and it's sad because they both want exactly the same thing but have totally opposite opinions about what is right. When Meredith finally challenges him to say what he has planned once Cristina gets home from fishing -- and points out that the rest of them will all be working -- he tells Mere that he doesn't know, but Cristina has a right to figure that out on her own. Meredith thinks she knows better, and that Cristina needs to work because that's who they are.
And here's where it gets interesting. He yells at Meredith that she told the guy to shoot her, and Mere asks him what on earth that means. Seriously, I want to know what it means because I don't get it. We've seen Mere be a dark and twisty lunatic who tried to die, but I think that many significant others would beg a gunman to shoot them instead of their beloved. Owen's argument is that most people wouldn't tell a gunman to shoot them, and calls her fearless, but not in a good way. He then tells her that most people are like Cristina -- afraid -- and so what she needs isn't the same thing Meredith needs, because they aren't the same person. I've got to say, while I appreciate the sincere concern on both sides, I'm with Mere here. Poor Owen is floundering but instead of admitting it he's turning angry while actually becoming more useless as a support for Cristina and something's got to change. They are a couple I love, but things just aren't working for them right now and it's frustrating to watch.
Meanwhile, Bailey and the residents have pulled Eli's patient files and find that his fistula rate is 12% rather than the usual 42%. Lexie calls it a fluke but she's just mad because she thinks Eli is mean, and her ego is bruised. She's especially miffed when April keeps talking about how hot he is, even if he is just a lowly nurse. Bailey has ignored all the chatter to look at the charts and then finally lets herself get excited; she grabs the charts and sprints off happily, leaving the others quite confused.
Teddy and Richard are in a meeting about Henry, and Teddy is appalled that the only thing they are offering is to give him a medic alert bracelet, and she thinks that if they wait until he has a medical crisis to treat him he'll die. However, she's interrupted by Bailey who runs in and breathlessly tells Richard that if they remove the drains on day three instead of five, they can reduce fistulas by 30%. Everyone is staring at her with their mouths hanging open and she's too excited to notice that she just ran into a rather tense meeting. Instead she tells them all how she was going to write Eli up until she realized that he actually was doing the right thing. She leaves the files for Richard to review and beams at him before finally realizing that they are in a meeting, at which point she turns and literally dances out of the room after she introduces herself to the board as the doctor who "cured fistula."
Out at the lake, Cristina and Derek have brought the boat back to the dock where a fisherman is weighing a positively enormous trout. Cristina looks like a little kid who needs to use the bathroom, jumping around uncomfortably, clearly excited but also totally not sure of herself since she's so far out of her element. Sandra Oh seriously does an amazing job of conveying just how hard it is for Cristina to do anything about which she isn't 100% educated and prepared. It turns out her trout weights 28 pounds, and a very excited Derek hustles her over and places the flapping fish in her arms so they can take a picture. He goes and stands with the fisherman, who is waiting with a Polaroid camera, and as they watch Cristina she looks up at the sky, her lip trembles, and she starts to cry. The fisherman is pretty alarmed at the situation but Derek orders him to take the picture and says basically to himself, "We're gonna want to remember this." Cristina finally smiles as tears roll down her cheeks, and as the guy hands Derek the picture Cristina closes her eyes and turns her face up to the sun as she takes a giant, deep breath. Having finally let something out, she smiles to herself; Derek smiles at her like a proud father.
Meredith wheels Trina in to see her husband, who is still unconscious and on a ventilator. Trina is understandably terrified and Owen warns her that the 24 hours are crucial -- when she asks for confirmation that he'll recover, Owen carefully just tells her to take it one day at a time. She's afraid to touch him, but when Meredith notices she gently assures her that while all she can see is the machines and the damage, her husband is still in there. Trina takes his hand, while Owen looks at Mere and thinks about how amazingly this parallels what's going on with them and Cristina. Meredith looks back but she's still pretty pissed.
Callie, meanwhile, is feeling on top of the world after her successful hip replacement and when she sees Alex she tells him she's taking him out for celebratory drinks. Alex looks a little bit sheepish and admits he can't, because Stark turned out to hate the other guy even more than he hates Alex, and is having Alex assist on a surgery. Callie looks totally betrayed but tries to play it cool, and when Alex tries to explain his decision Callie just tells him to go. After he walks off, she tells the stuffed Santa on the counter to her that she's still awesome. She is. She could also take some freaking responsibility for what happened and stop looking for everyone else in her life to fill the Arizona-sized hole that was left.
Teddy has kind of the same problem as she looks for any way to help assuage her guilt over what has become of Cristina. She finds Henry with his bags packed and watches as Richard says he'll be set up in the clinic when he needs it. It's the basic kiss-off that Teddy was worried about, and after Richard leaves, she apologizes for everything. Richard at least scored him a number of free samples of his medicine, so that will hold him for a little while. He's obviously rather defeated but trying to stay positive and something in him tugs at Teddy's heartstrings, as well as her guilt. She tells him that she's got great health insurance, but Henry doesn't get it, so she searches for the right words and finally says that she will marry him. Henry is stunned and says that while it's totally generous, he can't do it. Teddy persists, and while Henry tries to argue he's also in desperate need of the help and can't keep saying no. He finally tells Teddy she'll regret this in the morning, and the two stare at each other for a while before Teddy says that he's dying, but he doesn't have to because she can and will help by marrying him. Teddy! Oh, this is so bad and misplaced it hurts me to watch it, but she seems to be sure and hey, he's quite good looking. But in terms of bad ideas... let's all remember a certain patient-doctor relationship that resulted in a cut LVAD wire, death, and then ghost sex. Please, please, let Henry live if only so we never have any threat of ghost sex again.
After her performance in the conference room, Bailey goes to Eli to tell him to keep doing just what he was doing, taking out the drains on day three, unless he hears otherwise from her. She's all excited and asks if he really knows what this all means, what he did? I'm glad she said that because I was a mite worried in the conference room that she was going to take all of the credit when it turned out it was Eli who initially stumbled on to the solution, even if he didn't track it and realize that it was, in fact, a solution. Bailey is beside herself so Eli uses the opportunity to ask her out on a date. I didn't see that coming at all and neither did Bailey, who looks at her feet and struggles for words. Like all good Seattle Grace employees Eli has the gift of gab and knows how to babble to fill an awkward moment, and he says that the shocked look on her face from a nurse asking out a doctor is cute. He figures she's trying to figure out a way to say no but she decides that he gets a date since he gave her a fistula cure -- hey, she's getting the very guy she was imagining when she was drunk at Joe's a couple of weeks earlier! Eli points out that he's also very handsome, which is something he mentioned before and even though he's right, he might want to watch how often he makes a point of reminding people just how aware he is of that fact. The ego can outweigh the abs after a while, dude.
Speaking of Joe's, Lexie walks in to meet Mark and shuffles up to him like she's heading to the guillotine. Before he can say anything she launches into a speech about how unfair this is to both of them because nothing between them has changed, but Mark recalls the story Trina told about her husband and so he grabs her and kisses her. Mere starts to voiceover about healing at one's own pace. When Mark pulls away Lexie looks almost drunk as she tries to absorb what happened. But when Jackson tries to cut in with the promised fake medical emergency, Lexie brushes him off and goes back to kissing Mark. Poor Jackson is pretty bummed by this turn of events, but Lexie seems to be coming around to the idea of her and Mark again.
Cristina gets back to her firehouse sweet firehouse carrying a cooler, and informs Owen that they now have 21 pounds of trout. Yum? Owen's super gentle as he asks how her day was, and she finally just tells him casually, "It was good," before putting her picture up on the fridge and staring at it a while. Seriously, there is some major disconnect going on here and Owen's got to figure out some new approach because this one just feels like he and Cristina are friendly roommates.
At Resident Mansion, Derek and Mere are in bed together, and Mere asks him if he thinks Cristina is going to be okay. He does, but when she asks if he thinks Cristina will ever be a surgeon again, he admits he doesn't know. He must be done talking about Cristina, too, because he rolls over away from Meredith and goes to sleep, while Mere contemplates life to a completely melancholy version of Silent Night.
With Alex in surgery, Callie goes back to the apartment and is having a glass of wine when there's a knock at the door that she assumes is Mark sans housekeys. When she opens the door, though, she's facing Arizona. Seriously, how is it that it's only ever once you've truly given up hope that the person will appear on your doorstep, that the person then appears on your doorstep? Because this is Grey's, Arizona launches immediately into a slightly meandering speech that boils down to this: she was doing incredible work in Africa but was crying all of the time because she missed Callie, and when offered the opportunity to go home and have another doc take her place, she accepted and came back. Callie can do nothing but stare, and seems to be having trouble processing what's going on as Arizona babbles away. When she's done with her story there's a moment of silence, and Arizona finally tells Callie she looks really pretty. That's finally enough for Callie, who closes the door in her face. Mere VOs that if you can get through recovery and believe that you can heal, you can get your life back. "But that's a big 'if'."
And with all these "ifs" hanging in the air, the door closes on Grey's until January. Happy holidays to all, and see you in a few weeks when I hope Cristina starts to turn some sort, any sort, of corner. It's my Christmas wish.