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If you came here looking for an uplifting hour... this is not your episode. We pick up just a few moments after where we left off last week -- Teddy has gotten Henry to the hospital bed and a CT reveals some big horrible tumor in his lung. Teddy gets called into an emergency surgery herself on another patient so she can't be there at Henry's side through everything. She instead has to operate on a woman Callie just released from the hospital after a spine fusion -- she collapses, and they can't figure out what's wrong until, in surgery, they find a screw from her spine that has come loose and ripped up part of her heart. Callie is completely freaked out and only admits to Bailey the depth of why she is so scared, which is that she let Jackson do the surgery himself while she read a magazine. Judging by the other attendings this seems to be the standard, but regardless she knows she could be held responsible. But as of the close of the episode, it's not clear if the woman is going to survive or not.
Richard does discuss Henry's treatment with Teddy and he wants to open him up to pull out the lung, take out the tumor, and put the rest of the healthy lung back in. Teddy thinks this is far too invasive and wants him to use a laser, but he's never done the procedure with a laser and is adamant that his first go at it not be on his colleague's wife. Teddy knows that Cristina can do it since she just did an identical surgery, but Owen (and Bailey and Richard) all argue that it's too much to put on her shoulders. Teddy thinks that they can just cover Henry's face and not tell Cristina his name and that she won't figure out who it is, and her ability to just be a surgical machine will then work to everyone's advantage. Owen finally reluctantly agrees, and away they go. Unfortunately, as the surgery goes on things start to go wrong and they have to open up his chest anyway; once inside they find that the tumor has eaten through his pulmonary artery and there is no hope for him. Despite Richard's best efforts to keep his heart pumping, he dies on the table. Cristina finally realizes that everyone is acting a little bit strangely and Owen, who has come in to see how things are going, calls her into the scrub room and tells her that it was Henry. We don't hear her reaction because she's on the other side of the window, but basically -- it's horrible and she completely melts down to learn that her mentor's husband just died on her watch. Owen's heartbreaking duties aren't over because he has to tell Teddy, but Teddy is wrist-deep in her own patient and is the only one who can really finish the job. Richard convinces Owen that whether he likes it or not, he has to keep the news about Henry from her long enough for her to finish the surgery so that they don't have another patient die on the table in front of them. He's still pretty tortured but the fact that all are wearing surgical masks helps, and he manages to smile and nod along with Teddy's conversation well enough that she truly thinks Henry is hanging out in recovery somewhere, and the episode ends before we see him finally tell her the awful news.
The day isn't going much better for Derek and Meredith, though at least they are both alive (for now). Meredith gets a call from Janet saying that the court cancelled the hearing and that the way it happens basically means that they are not going to give Zola to them. She actually tells Meredith it's time to move on, so this doesn't really leave a ton of room for misinterpretation. She's heartbroken and when she talks to Derek about it, declares that she doesn't want another baby. She's then called away with Alex to go pick up a newborn that was born unexpectedly in a facility not at all set up for all of the complications she appears to have. When they go to take her away in her incubator they run into her mom, who is predictably distressed. The doctor insists that she can't go along since she just had surgery herself and it would be too much, so Meredith goes to her and promises that she will take care of her baby. Naturally, this means that something is going to go wrong, and that something is that their ambulance breaks down at night (of course), in the pouring rain (of course), on a curvy mountain road with no shoulder, just around a bend so no driver will see them until it's too late (of COURSE). Oh, and the ambulance is filled with oxygen tanks so if they DO get hit, it will blow sky-high. The driver runs to go get help and they manage to call Arizona, who is doing a surgery with Derek and Mark, to tell her what happened. While she has them on speaker phone, they hear a loud noise and then the phone goes dead. What we see is that they get hit by a car and roll over. Alex and Mere seem to be okay (though she has a nasty gash on her forehead) but she decides that they have to get out with the baby. When they finally open the doors and go outside, they see that the road is now littered with bodies and an overturned truck that that is on fire, and we are left with some cliffhangers for at least the few weeks.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We, as a people, tend to say we had a terrible day when we get in a fight with our boss or have the flu, but nothing truly terrible has actually happened. So starts Meredith's voiceover as we see Henry having what could actually be classified as a terrible day (well, night): coughing up large quantities of blood into a bucket while Teddy (her shirt covered in his blood) frets and Bailey and Owen try to figure out what is wrong. Teddy tells them that Henry hasn't had a new tumor since June, and since Webber did that full workup Bailey has him paged to come help out. Owen decides they have to put in a central line so Teddy automatically grabs the kit and starts to open it. Owen goes to her and gently tells her that they've got it, and she nods and tries to hold back her tears, feeling helpless and hating it.
It's obviously going to be One Of Those Nights in the ER. Arizona gets a call that a child is coming who had his face half ripped off by a dog so she goes to get ready for that but then gets a phone call and she asks whoever it is, "Where?"
Mere, Cristina and Alex are still at the bar (this episode picking up approximately ten minutes or so after the last one left off) having a good time that seems sure to be cut short if the tone of the first couple of scenes is anything to go by. Alex walks back to their table and they mock him for being rejected by a girl, but Alex (preferring to look like an ass rather than a loser) admits that he got rejected because it turns out he had actually hooked up with her before and she didn't take it so well that he didn't remember that. Hey, at least his taste is consistent. The girls mock him and he defends that this is George's fault, because talking about dead people throws him off of his game. Meredith's phone rings and she sees that it's Janet, so she runs off to take it, asking Cristina to cover the tab. Alex gets a page and has to go so he tries to get Cristina to spot him some dough but she makes him pay, adding that since Meredith is on the phone with a social worker, he can find $20 to cover her bill.
Callie is in the process of discharging a patient and reminds the woman that since they just put a bunch of screws in her back, she'll need to take it easy with her little boy. The woman is flinching with each move and Callie wants to keep her there another day, but she insists she has to go home to be with her son. Is it normal to discharge someone when they are still in this much pain? Something about it seems to warrant more than just Callie mildly suggesting she hang around. But they're interrupted when the woman's husband and son come in to see her and Callie doesn't push it. Instead, she kneels down and tells the little boy that he has to be very gentle with his mommy the few days. She then reminds the woman to call her if she has any problems and she and her husband thank Callie; all of them are cheerful but the woman is clearly trying to cover up some pain and surely this isn't going to end well.
Cristina finds Mere sitting on a gurney outside of the ER and asks her what Janet said. Mere takes a deep breath and fidgets as she says slowly that they are not getting Zola back. Cristina does what any good friend would do and asks then what Janet said exactly, sure that Meredith must be interpreting incorrectly. Mere explains that their court date was cancelled, which means that they love the couple and are giving them their baby back or that the court hates them and it's all over. If it's the first scenario, Janet would get a call saying as much, and she didn't, so Meredith says that means it's the latter. Cristina clings to hope that maybe they just hadn't been able to make the call yet but Meredith finally sucks it up and tells Cristina that Janet's exact words were, 'I think it's time that you and Derek start thinking about moving on." It's true, that doesn't leave a lot of room for misinterpretation. Cristina realizes this and sits down to her friend and tells her it's okay to cry, but Mere quickly shoots back that she doesn't want to. Well, she doesn't want to right here, I imagine. She can barely control herself as she stares blankly, brokenhearted, and says that she is never going to see Zola again. Cristina gives her a hug but it only lasts a second because Mere pulls away and says that's going to make her cry too. The whole conversation is horrible but that really got me because I have so been there, when you can't have anyone express sympathy or you'll just break. Cristina just sits and rubs her back.
Henry's cough sounds horrible and he seems completely miserable. (Hello, my name is Captain Obvious. I think misery is a given when you're coughing up blood.) Richard wants to take him to CT but Teddy immediately argues that he needs to go right to a different procedure to investigate. Owen stays really calm as she reminds Teddy that a CT will help them and also, by the way, she's not his doctor; Richard is. Bailey adds that she hears this Dr. Webber is good though she's not entirely sure, because he's new. It's forced levity on Bailey's part and it elicits a tiny sad chuckle from me but the situation is just bleak and tinged with doom. Henry explains to his audience that Teddy hates it when he's in the hospital, which makes it kind of funny that she married a guy with a chronic illness. I suppose to be fair she didn't expect to fall in love with him but we all took TV 101 and knew that was coming. Teddy turns to Richard and tells him she's coming to CT, almost like she's challenging him to not allow it. Richard just replies evenly that he wouldn't have it any other way. You don't spend half your life being Chief of Surgery and not learn how to handle panicky spouses, especially when they are former employees and current friends.
Cristina finds Derek at the computer, bidding on scalpels from the 1860s for his wife. I'd make a crack but I actually find that perfect and surprisingly endearing, though I will forever be confused by his about-face. He is so caught up in that special eBay euphoria that comes in the last few minutes of an auction that when Cristina runs in and tells him that Meredith has to talk to him, he doesn't pick up on her urgency. She finally has to tell him that Janet called and her tone and her face make it fairly apparent that the news was not good. Derek thinks for just a moment and then bolts.
So it appears that the page Alex got was from Arizona, pertaining to the phone call she received: a baby was born a couple of hours ago with something that has a whole lot of syllables and involves a connection between the trachea and esophagus, which really cannot be in any way good since, as Alex points out, the baby's lungs can fill with secretions and have a hard time both breathing and feeding. The tiny hospital they are at isn't set up to handle such a sick baby so he needs to go pick her up and bring her back so that Arizona can take care of her as soon as she's done putting the face back on her dog bite victim. She orders Alex to basically outfit the ambulance like a NICU and also to find a buddy to go along. She sees Meredith sitting where Cristina left her and tells her she is going; when Mere protests that she has to talk to Derek she sounds far too normal and like she might be talking to him about a grocery list. Arizona isn't swayed at all and just shoots back that a baby's life is hanging in the balance, so she has to make it fast.
The dog bite victim arrives, face covered in bandages, and Arizona escorts his gurney away.
At the same time a nurse is wheeling out Callie's patient -- I dug through my notes until I realized that Callie says her name at the end of the hour, but I'm going to tell you now that it's Laura so that we can avoid any more confusion. Laura is in some obvious pain that no medical professional seems to be worried about, though she does kind of pull herself together to say hi to Avery and introduce him to her husband, since Avery helped out on her surgery. He's cute, her son is cute, everyone makes cute, and then they start heading out the door again. Her husband makes a light comment about Avery's eyes and how, if he wasn't so confident, he'd have to challenge him to a duel. Let it be known that he does appear to be confident, but he also seems to lose himself for a moment imagining that duel. He's so busy fighting Avery in his head that at first he doesn't notice when his wife doubles over in agony. He grabs her and they call for help, so April runs over.
Mere is all suited up for travel in her giant Seattle Grace coat and Derek is walking with her to the ambulance, trying to figure out what their options are. He goes so far as to suggest that they could sue but let's hope we don't go there because I'm not sure what leg they would have to stand on at this point that would change the judge's mind. Meredith is totally over it, though, and just tells Derek that they don't think she is trustworthy or that they should be parents. Derek hugs her and tells her that they will find a way but Meredith just tells him simply that Zola was their baby, and now that she's gone, she doesn't want another. She then sits down in the back of the ambulance and stares into space as the doors are closed and Derek frets on the other side.
Owen is frantically working on Laura and he's told that Callie just performed a spinal fusion on the woman. Her heart doesn't sound good and April starts to intubate; Owen has to get stern with her confused and scared husband to go wait outside until they figure out what happened. He then angrily demands that someone find Callie.
Teddy is talking to Henry before his CT and assures him that he's going to be fine, then apologizes for killing his hopes and dreams earlier. Henry points out that he just started spitting up blood so that he could win. I know some people don't like these two together, and I know it was stupidly convenient and contrived, but I like them. This hour doesn't bode well for me. They flirt and giggle and talk about med school and he tells her he knows it is her worst nightmare. She gently agrees but assures him they will figure something out. She then kisses him and goes to the room to observe.
Richard is there and when she asks about Bailey, he explains that they didn't need that many doctors there and also, she'd probably be less of a handful for the former Chief of Surgery. Again, Richard didn't do this job for years for nothing. He asks her what type of CT she'd like to run and then goes with what she says, which is clearly building up some trust for her. She then gets a page for a consult and though she wants to ignore it, Richard assures her that she doesn't have to be there just for a scan and that if she's not back, he'll find her right away with the results. He stays very calm and so she finally reluctantly agrees, and thanks him. A second after she's gone and Richard looks very worried at the grey blobs they show us. Seriously, this show loves to do the lingering close-ups on scans accompanied by dramatic music but it's always funny since the layperson can't possibly tell what they are looking at.
Callie walks in on all of the chaos surrounding Laura and demands to know what happened, but a very angry Owen turns the question back to her. She's totally bewildered to hear that Laura's pericardium is full of blood, and can't believe it when she goes into cardiac arrest and Owen and April prepare to open her chest. She protests, but Owen just yells at her that her patient is dying.
Alex and Meredith are the Morose Twins in the back of the ambulance, and Meredith stares at the empty incubator just like she (and we) has stared so many times at the empty crib in her room. Alex starts to say that it must be a mistake but she cuts him off, fed up, to say that it's all over and what's more, everyone saw that coming and no one wanted to say it. Alex persists that she can't just give up on having a family and suggests Cristina as a surrogate, making a comment about her impressive ability to get pregnant. This is decidedly the wrong approach and Mere threatens to throw him out of the moving vehicle if he doesn't shut up.
While Owen and April work, Callie tries desperately to figure out what's going on. Teddy comes in -- this is the consult Owen needed -- and is shocked to hear that whatever is happening is following spine surgery. The doctors are literally just scooping blood out of her chest with their hands and Teddy orders them up to the OR immediately. Callie tries to go along but Teddy stops her in her tracks and informs Callie that this is her patient now. As they leave, she yells for someone to let Richard know where she is and then they are gone, leaving a sad and confused Callie standing amongst a mass of bloody towels.
Richard catches up to all of them as they get Laura into the elevator and as they go up, Teddy looks at the scans and sees that Henry has a tumor in his lung. Richard tells her he's going to go in and take it out with Lexie's help, but when Teddy asks if he's going to use a laser, he says he was going to open Henry up, take out the tumor, and then put his lung back in and close him up. Teddy thinks that's too invasive and wants him to use a laser so that he will heal faster. As someone who has had that exact surgery (minus tumor), I will attest to the fact that one doesn't just jump out of bed the day. Richard tells her calmly that he hasn't done it before, and everyone in the elevator looks at him like he just said he just said he's drinking again. He explains, still calm, that he hasn't done this particular procedure with a laser before and doesn't want his first time to be on her husband, which I find thoughtful. She's still speechless but finally gathers her thoughts and says slowly that she thinks they should get another surgeon. I think my notes on this episode describe everyone's reaction best: "April looks uncomfortable, Owen too -- Sacrilege!" Seriously, it's as if no one has ever asked for another surgeon with more experience on a particular procedure before. Richard is honestly the most calm about this suggestion.
The problem with her wanting another suggestion is that everyone they have to offer is either gone or deemed unworthy. She wants Cristina to do it since she just did a similar procedure almost entirely by herself but Owen and Bailey immediately tell her what a horrible idea this is, and how it's too much pressure to ask her to operate on her mentor's husband. Suddenly what Teddy doesn't love about Cristina becomes her greatest gift -- she assures them that Cristina will be fine because she's a machine. Owen takes some exception to this description of his wife and names some other doctors, but Teddy is having none of it. He suggests Richard again, but Richard speaks up and tells them that he doesn't have anything to prove and he's fine with Cristina doing the laser surgery so that Henry will be up and about sooner. Teddy adds that they don't even have to tell Cristina who it is -- just give her a verbal history of the patient and cover his face and voila! Cristina gets to cut without any of those nasty feelings she hates getting in the way. Bailey and Owen are highly skeptical but Richard promises he'll be there the whole time and at the first hint of trouble he'll open Henry up and do it the old-fashioned way. Teddy admits she doesn't love the idea either but since she can't do the surgery herself, Cristina is the best thing since she knows her protégé will do whatever she herself would do. Owen finally agrees, almost under his breath, and storms out. Teddy tells Richard to watch Cristina closely because she doesn't want to have to tell Henry that they had to remove half of his lung.
Alex and Mere arrive at the tiny hospital and meet Dr. Wagner, who is the one who called. I'm not sure where they are but he says the baby was born six hours ago so that means they have spent at least three hours in that ambulance. He explains the problems and that the baby is still struggling to breathe -- the problem is that the hospital isn't set up at all for neonatal care or even for OB at all, but this was an emergency delivery. Meredith and Alex get to work and Alex is troubled to realize that they truly don't have any piece of tubing or equipment tiny enough to handle what they might need. Mere and Alex exchange a glance over the baby while they work and they look pissed off, but I think it was supposed to look like they are just deeply worried about the baby's chances. Mere opens up the supplies they brought to see what might help.
Owen and Lexie are standing outside of Henry's room as he gives her whispered instructions to not bring Cristina in to the OR until Henry is totally under and his face is draped. Lexie's quivering with nerves and reiterates that Richard will be there; Owen promises that everyone but Cristina will know what is going on. When he asks her if she can handle it Lexie starts to babble and giggle but agrees that it will be fine, especially because she'll be wearing a mask. I think this was supposed to be a brief moment of comic relief, but it's pretty weak sauce. Behind her, poor Henry just lies back in bed with his barf bucket in his lap.
Mark is talking to Derek and tries to assure him that Meredith will come around on another baby, but Derek isn't so sure. Dudes, when a beloved pet dies most people don't try to replace it right away; this is the loss of an actual BABY and only happened about four hours earlier. Let's all give Meredith a moment, shall we? While we're doing that, let's talk about how weird it is that Derek is immediately hoping for another baby. I don't think he's actually supposed to come off as callous, though when you give it any tiny bit of thought, it does. But hey, we've already established that I can't figure out anything about Derek's thoughts and feelings this season, so we'll leave that and see how it works out. Mark thoughtfully offers to work Derek and Meredith into their parenting schedule for Sofia, but Derek isn't so interested. Man, does this scene feel forced, as if someone at ABC was like, "Seriously, guys, this episode needs at least one comedic scene. Give me ONE, at least." There's usually a much more natural balance between humor and drama but this week the humor all seems unnaturally shoved in. Avery runs by with a phone in his hand and Mark asks him about the boy; Avery tells him that the kid's nose is basically hanging off, among other awful things, and he'll call when Arizona is ready for them.
The phone Avery has is for Arizona so that she can talk to Alex. He tells her everything that's wrong with the baby, including pneumonia, and she tries to suggest different things they can do to get the air flowing into her lungs again. They don't have the right device but Alex is able to figure out something else that might help, and tells Arizona that they'll call her once they are back in the ambulance. Before she hangs up, she reminds him that they don't have a lot of time.
Teddy and April are digging around in Laura's chest and find a huge tear in her ventricle, forcing them to put her on bypass. Someone comes in with Henry on the phone and she apologizes profusely for not being able to see him before he goes in for surgery. He tells her it's fine and points out that after the way she acted last time, it might be for the best that she's not there. The two of them get all gushy as they joke about driving each other to the airport, etc. and finally Teddy tells him she loves him and they hang up the phone so that she can attend to Laura and all of her copious bleeding.
Lexie is in Henry's room getting things ready for surgery and he decides to admit his embarrassing med school dream to see what she thinks about it. She's a little bit surprised but not appalled or anything, and just assures him that as an older student he'll have some good perspective that the young 'uns are lacking. He finally tells her that Teddy doesn't like the idea and tells him to give her some time, because it's true that being a med student is pretty hard on a relationship. Henry is hopeful, though, because Lexie's got such a good thing going with Jackson. Reluctantly, Lexie admits that they aren't together any more. Henry tries again, suggesting she's with Mark, but Lexie admits a little bit wistfully that she's not with him either. Henry lets this sink in and then decides to change the subject, asking who is operating on him. Her voice gets all funny as she lies that she doesn't know, but he's in too much pain to notice anything funny.
Owen finds Cristina in the skills lab and when he tells her about the surgery, she totally moans about how she doesn't want to do it since she's practicing for a bucket list surgery and just did a similar procedure the week before. Owen is totally frustrated with her and tries to cajole her into it, but she just keeps practicing something on the heart in front of her and so he finally yells at her to drop everything and scrub in. She does, but thinks he's lost his mind a little bit. She then adds that she hopes the surgery is fast because she wants to be fresh for her procedure the morning. This is almost too much for Owen to handle and he yells at her again to get going. Man, I hope no one ever entrusts him with a horrible secret because he's almost a worse liar (well, "withholder of the truth") than Lexie. Cristina natters on as she goes, telling him that she's not going to do every little procedure Teddy doesn't feel like doing herself. Owen looks like he's going to put his fist through a wall, but this is so not Cristina's fault -- in any other situation this would be her normal way of being and no one would mind, and he is one of the ones who insisted that she not be told why this surgery was so important.
Derek is shuffling around the OR area when he sees Cristina on the way to her surgery. She doesn't have a whole lot to say -- I mean, what do you say in a situation like this? But she finally suggests that this might not be the end, and he could make some calls in the morning. Derek just reminds her that Meredith didn't want kids but he pushed her, so she opened herself up to it, which means that her grief now is all his fault. Wait, did we just hear Derek Shepherd take personal responsibility for something? Cristina assures him that Mere wanted it too or it wouldn't have happened, but Derek retorts that she'll blame him like he's been blaming her all these weeks. Lo and behold, folks, that really IS Derek admitting to bad behavior. Fine, so he only sees it when it's about to come around bite him in the ass, but I'll take it! Desperately, he says that he's lost Zola and he can't lose Meredith too. Cristina tells him that Meredith always comes back, even if she needs a little bit of time to herself first. She then pats his arm and heads to her own surgery.
Teddy and April are still trying to staunch the bleeding in Laura's chest when April's glove gets stuck on something. She realizes she's got a hole in it and quickly is given another glove by the nurses as she assures Teddy it didn't break the skin. Teddy investigates and seems to find what April hit, but has no idea what it could be.
As Cristina enters the OR, Lexie pointedly puts one last towel over Henry's face. Richard -- the single one of them able to act cool throughout this situation -- happily tells Cristina that he's looking forward to seeing the procedure and possibly learning something; Cristina actually replies that it's an honor. Lexie gives the bullet on the patient and then when Cristina has the laser, she decides that she wants to time herself, to see if she can beat the two and a half hours it took her the week before. From Lexie's body language we can see that she's cringing behind her mask but Richard just calls out to the nurse to start a timer. Richard is the only one to remember that no one would bat an eye at this behavior if it weren't a secret VIP patient. But he and Lexie do exchange a tense glance over Cristina's head as she starts.
Meredith and Alex are wheeling the baby's incubator to the ambulance, accompanied by some ominous thunder. Someone calls after them and they and Dr. Wagner all turn to see the baby's mom, Dana, in a wheelchair, looking pretty worse for wear. Dr. Wagner is appalled to see her out of bed but she threatened to try walking if the nurse didn't wheel her down, and he has to remind her that she just had surgery and lost a lot of blood, which means she can't go along in the ambulance like she is begging to do. Understandably, though, she's freaked out and begs him, crying, until Mere comes over to talk to her. She introduces herself and Alex and promises Dana that they are taking the baby to the best doctors and will take amazing care of her. Finally, Dana relents, and they take the baby outside.
Callie walks in to the OR to ask what happened and Teddy just angrily orders a nurse to show Callie a tray. Callie looks inside and sees a screw caked with gore, and as she stares uncomprehendingly Teddy spits that the screw was ripping into Laura's cardiac muscle each time her heart tried to beat and now her heart looks like hamburger. Callie is horrified, and when Teddy demands to know what happened, Callie has no answer.
Back in the ambulance, Meredith and Derek have both slumped back into their seats and look exactly like they did on the way in. Alex won't let the baby subject drop and suggests adopting again -- Meredith points out that as social services just took their baby away this would probably not work out for them. Alex keeps suggesting other options and ignoring Mere's pleas to stop, telling her that she can't just give up. But when Mere tells him thanks but it's not his business, he retorts sadly that it is because it's all his fault and he can't handle it. Mere tells him it's not but he's sure it is and seems sincerely tortured and not just saying it so have Mere absolves him of his guilt. They argue about whose fault it is and Mere points out that what Alex did was dirty, but what she did was in fact illegal. Their conversation is interrupted when there's a big bang, the ambulance comes to a stop and the siren slows down and quiets. Alex calls up to the driver to ask what the problem is.
Avery gets pulled out of surgery by an absolutely livid Callie, who whisper-yells at him that after the surgery he performed (oooooooooh) (though, she did supervise) to put screws in Laura's spine has gone horribly wrong since one of those screws was stabbing her in the heart. She informs him that Laura is half-dead now and they get to go tell her husband that.
Richard is watching Cristina as she works and is either an amazing actor or is actually enjoying learning about the laser procedure -- my guess is it's a combo of both -- while Owen watches from upstairs, a bundle of nerves. Something seems to go wrong as the field of vision on the monitor goes red, but Cristina is absolutely calm about it.
The paramedic who was driving comes around the back of the rig and opens up the doors to tell them that he doesn't know what happened to the engine; he called for backup but they are going to take a while since they are in the middle of nowhere right now. He tells them he's going to run the half-mile back to where he thinks he saw a store (note: it is absolutely sheeting rain) and as he throws a couple of cones in the road advises the two of them to get out of the ambulance. Mere argues that they can't take the baby out but they also can't leave her there alone because she'll die, but the dude just points out that the ambulance is on a hill, on a curve (at night, in the pouring rain) and if they get hit, the oxygen tanks inside will blow up. Ominous, LOST-style music accompanies these warnings.
Cristina is surprised and annoyed when Owen busts in to the OR, panicked, asking if she needs help. She points out that there was a bleed and she fixed it -- again, not a big deal if this wasn't Mystery VIP -- and assures him that if there's any sort of crisis, she'll take care of it. They each are thoroughly annoyed by each others attitude but Cristina wins because she's the one with a laser inside a guy's lung. He reminds her that she needs to focus to which she points out that she would be able to focus a lot better if he'd stop inexplicably panicking, and then she reminds him she's on the clock. Richard gives Owen a really pointed look that I like to think says, "Seriously, man, pull yourself together!"
Callie and Jackson are talking to Laura's husband and she explains how a screw came loose, which might mean the bone wasn't strong enough but they won't know until they run some tests. Laura's husband, though, can't get past the initial fact that the screw came loose and was cutting up her heart. Callie assures him that they have the best surgeon working on her in Teddy but admits they won't know what the situation is for a while. He really, REALLY can't understand what she means by, "the situation" -- I would think that deep down he in fact totally knows that means they need to keep her alive first but his conscious self just can't process it. Their little boy, Drew, then asks for his mom and his dad picks him up, which drives the Guilt Knife that much deeper into Callie and Jackson.
Back in Henry's secret surgery, Richard is impressed and Cristina is incredibly pleased with herself when things start to go horribly wrong. Alarms are ringing and while Cristina wants to try one last thing to see if they can get rid of the clots and bleeding, Richard sees blood in his breathing tube orders her to pull the laser contraption out so that he can open up his chest. Richard starts to open him up and we are treated to a shot of his face -- in case we forgot it was Henry, perhaps? -- and I thought that the towel was going to fall off and Cristina would be horrified, but no. The horror continues with her still in the dark about who the patient really is.
Once away from their patient's wife, Callie angrily orders Jackson to find every film they took of Laura before and after her surgery, adding that if she survives this surgery they also need a CT and a bone density test to try and figure out what happened. He looks serious but doesn't seem to have taken it all to heart like Callie has and when he gets a page, he apologizes profusely but runs off. Callie is staring after him, aghast, when Bailey walks up and asks her what is going on. Callie tells her and Bailey is a little bit shocked, but when she sees that Callie is practically hyperventilating she assures her that this is part of their job, to let students operate, and that they don't always get it right. Note to self: no teaching hospitals, ever. But what Callie feels really guilty about is that she was actually reading a magazine while Avery worked. Bailey puts a stop to her beating herself up and reminds her that it's what they all do, but Callie can't shake the crushing guilt that she knows what J.Lo wore to get coffee and that's why her patient just had a screw mutilate her heart. Bailey just shushes her.
Poor Henry is bleeding like crazy and at first they can't figure out what is going on. But Cristina finally finds that his tumor eroded through his pulmonary artery. Richard reaches in to check this himself while Lexie looks like she might vomit inside her mask. He asks for something and Cristina gently tells him that the patient has lost half of his blood already, and is maxed out on about every type of medicine they can give, so she's not sure what else they can do. On cue, Henry's heart then stops, and so Richard pulls out all the tools and just puts a heart over the organ and starts compressions. Everyone looks at the screen showing a stubbornly flat line, and then a doubtful Cristina looks back at Richard.
The convenient thing about having a child who needs his face reattached is that it gives all sorts of the doctors a chance to work on the kid and therefor discuss their personal problems. Mark tells Arizona about his gracious offer to timeshare Sofia with Derek and Meredith, and Arizona can't believe Derek said no, asking him if he's seen how cute their baby is. Derek protests that the baby isn't a rental car but the two parents go on, mock-offended that Derek has no interest. This is possibly the most uncomfortable "comedic" subplot we've had on the show. Everything else going on is so horrible, it's hard to suddenly enjoy the ridiculous cutesy joking and it feels pretty shoehorned in to give the episode one of its very few light moments. Jackson runs in with the phone (so to his credit, he ditched Callie for a legitimate reason) and tells them that the ambulance broke down in the middle of the road and backup is really slow to get there. Derek tells him to put the phone on speaker so they can all hear Alex yelling about how they are sitting ducks. Derek tells them to use the flares (why did no one think of that before?) and then tells Jackson to try and get them a helicopter. He leaves the phone with them and runs out.
Richard is still doing compressions, but Cristina finally tells him quietly that it's been 20 minutes, and there's no way the patient is coming back since he has no blood left in him to circulate. Noooooooooo! Richard finally stops, and Lexie is overcome and has to leave. Cristina is a little bit confused about everyone's behavior, but calls time of death and reminds Richard that there was no way to take out the tumor without killing him and no way he'd live much longer with it. He's still silent, and she's still confused, but tries to continue like normal -- she tells him she'll write up the surgery but asks him if he'll add a note because, as it was a bad outcome, she doesn't want to have any trouble when she does her boards. Richard is still staring numbly at Henry, and Cristina is by now pretty thoroughly wigged out. Owen comes into the scrub room and Richard gives him a tiny, sad nod of his head. Cristina doesn't catch that, but just calls to Owen what happened, adding that with the eroded artery they were essentially over before they began. She then turns to Richard and asks if there is any family to notify. At this, Owen gestures for her to join him and she walks out. We don't hear what he says but we see the moment he admits that the patient was Henry because Cristina grabs her head, staring at him, and then starts to freak out. She yells at him and hits him, then finally dissolves into tears as he holds her. Man, this is sad.
In the other OR, Derek, Mark and Arizona are still trying to talk to Alex and figure out what he and Meredith can do. Derek thinks they have to take the baby out and get away from the rig, but Alex tells them that they can't regulate the baby's temperature without the incubator. Quietly, Mark says that they are going to have to leave her, then. Meredith hears this and yells at them that she's absolutely not leaving her. Mark thinks one of them should get out but Derek points out that it's not like they would flip a coin. Mark just mumbles that they are sitting in a powder keg.
Inside said powder keg, the two doctors are yelling at each other and Alex tries to order her out, but Mere yells back that he should leave if he wants to, because she's not going to assuage his guilt by letting him die in an ambulance. Too late, however, there is a giant crunch of metal and a screeching as the ambulance is hit by something, and in arty slo-mo they both fall to the ground, hitting their heads on the way down.
Owen walks in to see Teddy, who is still enraged at Callie for what she thinks is her mistake. She asks how Henry is doing and Owen says that surgery is done, and does she have a second? She does not, and explains to him what "Callie" did and how she's going to be working for a while. She then asks Owen to check on Henry for her and jokes about being a bad wife who can't be with him in post-op. Owen offers to take over for him but she just laughs and tells him he would be way out of his depth with this surgery. She finally realizes his un-poker face is all tortured and asks what's up, but he manages to blame his face on the ambulance that broke down. She accepts this and then goes right back to chatting away about Henry and his med school dream, and asks Owen if he can talk him in to something else. Owen can barely stand it and seems relieved to flee to go supposedly check on him.
Derek, Mark and Arizona are all staring at the phone, which now is just playing a dial tone. Jackson comes in to tell them that another ambulance is on its way, as well as the police, and that they would get there just as fast as a helicopter at this point. He then asks if they are still on speaker, and Arizona very evenly tells him that there was a loud noise and then they were disconnected. Derek looks like an empty shell of himself, sitting near the kid's head with instruments in his hand. Mark tells Jackson very slowly that Derek is going to put down those instruments and step away, and that he and Arizona will walk Jackson through the rest of the surgery. Derek actually then drops the instruments and snaps off his gloves as he leaves, and Avery sprints to the scrub room to get ready.
Owen is having a secret argument with Richard about what to do, and cannot handle not telling Teddy immediately what happened. Richard, ever the calm one, points out that a patient is on bypass and will die if Teddy walks off of the surgery. Owen is tortured, not least of which because Teddy is such a good friend, but Richard reminds him that right now he needs to think like the Chief, not like a friend, and an hour won't change what happened to Henry. Finally, Owen admits that when Teddy finds out they waited, she'll never forgive him. Richard counters sadly that her husband just died in their care, so she's never going to forgive any of them. I hope, though, that she does forgive Cristina since she's the one who pushed and pushed for her to do the surgery in the first place against everyone else's advice. But I fear that isn't necessarily going to be the case.
It's a tough day to be Hunt -- Derek sees him talking to Richard and walks up to tell him that they lost contact with the ambulance, and he needs to call emergency dispatch. He picks up his phone and dials, but Derek immediately senses that something else is wrong and asks the men what it is. I'm relieved that we don't have to see them answer.
It doesn't look like Teddy is going to be out of surgery anytime soon. Owen goes back in and things are still going quote badly. He stares weirdly at her a while until she gets nervous, but when she asks how Henry is doing he manages to smile and tell her that he's fine but woozy, and his vitals are good. She asks some other questions, including if Cristina figured out who it was she was working on, and he sadly laughs and tells her no. But it's the finest job he's done all hour of actually hiding his true thoughts and emotions. Teddy tells him she told him so, and that sometimes Cristina's lack of interest in the patient personally can come in handy. Well yes, until you tell her afterward that her mentor's husband just died on her operating table. Teddy keeps chatting away, and Owen just smiles and nods. Mere picks up her voiceover to say that when really terrible things happen, that's when we beg for all the little things like a root canal or an IRS audit that suddenly don't seem so bad.
The baby is still in the incubator, and both Alex and Mere manage to get themselves up though Mere has a nasty gash on her head. She immediately reaches down and opens the incubator, pulling out the baby. Alex thinks she's insane but she shows that her mothering instincts are alive and strong and tells him that the baby was just thrown around inside a plastic box and needs to be held and have a human touch. Alex accepts this but tells her they have to get out, and when Mere points out how much stuff she is hooked up to Alex just quickly figures out what each of them can grab (oxygen, IV, etc.) so that they can go outside and take their chances. The open the door and step out to find that the rain has stopped... but in front of them is an overturned truck, on fire, and three bodies lying in the road. (At first, I was sure these were dead bodies but I am not entirely sure if that's the case.) They must be in some serious shock because all they do is stare as Mere finishes up with a question: When we have some kind of little bad thing happen, would it help if we could see what gigantic horrible thing was on the horizon? "Would we have known that those were the best moments of our lives?" Well, we will have to answer that question in a few weeks, dear readers. While we ponder, I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Lauren S is a writer and gal-about-town who lives and works in Atlanta and prays she won't have to recap ghost sex with a beloved dead patient yet again. She wants everyone to know: "The views expressed in my recaps and anything else I might write on TWoP are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer."