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Mere's 3D printer has arrived and there's a lot of excitement around what she will make first but everyone is underwhelmed when she pulls out… a fork. She then gets to work making a model of a liver, which just builds away throughout the day. She and Alex have a surgery to remove a bunch of tumors from a teenager with a super aggressive form of cancer. One of those tumors is smack in the middle of the kid's liver and once they are inside, Alex thinks it's too dangerous to try and take it out. But ever since Cristina told Mere she wasn't a great surgeon, Mere's been trying to prove that she's a genius at everything -- she's built up her confidence so much that she's gotten rather obnoxious and she's convinced she can do it. They have a showdown in the OR and Mere is livid when Stephanie backs up Alex's opinion and they shut her down.
Cristina and Smash are working together to treat a baby with a heart condition whose body is rejecting the implant they put in a little while earlier. Smash does some reading about the 3D printer and realizes that they could use it to make what they need, but Cristina flat-out refuses. He pulls a bunch of research from similar procedures in Japan and gets a special clearance from the FDA to do it, but Cristina still refuses because it's Mere's machine. Smash points out that it's actually the hospital's machine, and that instead of just making a model of an organ it could be making something to save a life that very day. After Mere storms out of the OR she goes to check on the status of her printing liver, and she's aghast to find the unfinished plastic liver on the table and Smash and Cristina using the printer for their own purposes.
When Derek went to witness the fork unveiling, he saw that the printer rep had a twitch in his eyelid. He tells Jackson he can fix it really easily and they accost the guy and convince him to let them operate. While they are working, Leah comes in to report to Jackson on their patients and he tells her that he'll take care of everything when he's out of the OR. When Derek stands up for Leah's ability Jackson says he knows she's good but he's just better so Derek starts insulting Jackson like Mark used to do to remind him that he's got to actually let the residents do things if they are going to learn.
Richard is supposed to be doing laps around the hospital floor but he'd rather hang out in bed and repeatedly tell stories about his glory days to the residents. The woman in the room door, CJ, has taken to teasing him about his stories and the two bicker like an old married couple. While she's doing her own laps, she suddenly collapses and with no one around, Richard finally gets out of bed and then shoos April away to handle CPR himself. He later admits that he feels amazing after finally doing something again, and he tells April that he lost himself for a while but now thinks he's finally found himself again.
April and Matthew are doing counseling in advance of their wedding and after one session, Matthew admits that he wants to have sex now so that their wedding night won't be awkward. April eventually agrees to this, but after hearing Richard's triumphant speech she realizes that she finally found herself since her indiscretion with Jackson and she doesn't want to lose that again. She also doesn't want Matthew to ever have that feeling, so they decide to wait after all.
A position is open in maternal fetal medicine so isn't it convenient that Owen's new flame happens to be a specialist in that field? She comes in and meets with Arizona, and then has her formal interview with Callie. Callie told Owen she'd grill Emma to find out not just if she'd be a good doctor, but also a good girlfriend for him. She does, and that includes asking personal questions that Emma points out aren't even legal, but of course Emma is awesome and likable and answers them anyway. In addition to finding out that she's a good person who wants kids one day, Callie learns that she was once married to a fellow doctor when they were at the Cleveland Clinic, but they got a divorce and she moved to Seattle because she couldn't handle working with him anymore. Later, she tells Owen that she can't take the job because she knows that if they break up, his friends will close ranks around him and shut her out, and she can't handle that (again).
Ben has come back to his old job as an anesthesiologist and he's working with Bailey and Princess on their surgery. Before it even begins, Bailey is out of sorts and freaks out when Owen moves the procedure to a different OR than the one she thought she'd be in, as well as when she finds out Ben switched so that he could work with her. During the surgery she has a number of moments of kind of spacing out and pulling on her fingers like she did back when she lost her surgical mojo last season, and she is also convinced that with each step they are not being careful or thorough enough -- to the point that she actually makes a mistake they have to patch up. Ben later tries to talk to her about it but she insists that everything is fine, though when he leaves her she starts pulling on her fingers so maniacally that I thought she might actually break one. It doesn't look like that happened, but something is obviously very wrong.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Poor Ben, he comes home, Bailey tells him she's disappointed in him, and then she seems to be spiraling into some sort of emotional trauma/PTSD/affliction yet to be explained. He wakes up in the middle of the night to find her searching Tuck's room since she insists that there's a strange smell in there. Ben can't smell a thing and urges her to come back to bed but Bailey insists that Tuck has a habit of leaving food in the room when he goes to his dad's. When Ben mentions that it is a big day tomorrow Bailey comments somewhat snidely that he's going back to his old job, couldn't he do that in his sleep? Ben refuses to take the bait and just offers to help, but she declines, pointing out that he can't find something he himself can't smell anyway.
Mere's VO this week is about tumors, and how when doctors fight them it's not just a fight against one thing, but actually a war against a billion cells. Alex finds his teenage patient Will up in the middle of the night playing video games even though he has surgery the day. He's not nervous, it's just that there is a crying baby door and the prints of a happy monkey and frog (more suited to a 5-year-old than 15-year-old) are kind of creeping him out. Alex continues to be as awesome with kids as he is bad with adults and talks to him about the game before taking the controller to try his own hand at a particular level.
Mere has fallen asleep at the hospital and Stephanie wakes her to tell her excitedly that "it" is starting to take shape. The two go and stare into the bright glow of the 3D printer like proud mamas.
The other residents are all gathered around Richard's bed like a team of butlers, pouring him coffee (that is sitting to the bud vase on his table) and listening to him tell stories about interesting cases he's had throughout his life. Steph runs in but Richard shushes her so that he can keep talking and as part of his story he explains the "two challenge rule": in aviation, if the co-pilot disagreed with the pilot as to how they were flying, and said something and the pilot ignored him, someone else could say something as well and if the pilot doesn't acknowledge them either, then he has to give up control. I think of this more as "common sense" and "the way the world usually works" rather than a rule, but maybe you need something more formal when doing complicated things such as flying planes or performing surgery. Steph finally begins tapping her foot and when Richard lets her speak she tells everyone that "it" is 30 minutes away, and they won't want to miss it since it's life-changing. Presumably she means the great reveal of whatever she and Mere are printing even though she doesn't say so specifically. As they file out, Smash invites Richard to come with them especially since he's supposed to be up and walking. Richard makes an excuse, however, and after Smash leaves the woman door, CJ, starts hollering at him about how he's telling the same stories over and over. They bicker, and she notes that his hospital has crappy thin walls -- this means that no one even wants to be near an on-call room, like, ever, if that's the case. Even with their fighting, it seems like Richard is already fond of her.
April and Matthew are doing pre-marriage counseling and the Reverend walks in with the results of their compatibility test. It's obvious from her chattering that April is nervous and yet ultra-competitive -- when he tells them they aced it she lets out a whoop and she and Matthew high-five. He then leaves to get them exercises for the coming week and once he is gone Matthew nervously tells April there is one problem that they haven't discussed -- while they are compatible, they aren't totally equal. April is surprised, thinking it didn't bother him but Matthew says that it really does. She declares that they should fix it, and he seems happy but a little bit surprised. Simultaneously, they both say the simple solution to this problem: She says they should get a joint checking account while he declares that they should have sex. I guess that wasn't one of the questions on the test, then.
Cristina has Smash give her the rundown on all of her patients, and he's so on it that he even realizes when she's trying to trick him up. As a reward for being his sharky self and keeping her patients alive all night, she gives him a coffee. He asks her if she's going to go to Mere's printer presentation but she quickly comes up with an excuse and says she'll see him afterward.
Bailey and Princess are talking to their Patient o'the Week, whose esophagus they are going to remove and replace with a piece of his colon. Despite Princess pointing out that they are using a part of his large intestine, not his ass, he and his partner can't help but come up with a lot of good puns since he is a well-known Seattle restaurant critic. He says that he can now honestly say that something tastes like crap. Basically, they are completely awesome and Bailey and Princess are obviously both fond of him. Bailey tells them that barring any complications, he'll soon be bossing them all around about where to eat. She seems to lose her confidence just infinitesimally, but no one seems to notice.
Once she and Princess are out in the hall, however, she orders the resident to give the guy another enema. Princess is surprised since he's already have one, but this sets Bailey off and she spits that they are dealing with the most contaminated part of the body, so he needs another. She asks if she can do it after Mere's presentation and Bailey claims she doesn't care as long as it's done before his surgery. She definitely seems to be on edge.
Emma is at the hospital and we learn from what Arizona is telling her that a spot opened up in maternal fetal medicine and Arizona thought of her for the job. She recommended her to the Board and the step is for an interview, which will be with Callie. Arizona admits that Callie is her ex but for the most part reassures Emma that it should be fine. Callie, meanwhile, is talking to Owen and thinks that this is going to be a great chance to grill the girl he's dating. Owen is kind of distressed at the idea and assures her that there is no need, but he doesn't seem to convince her of that before they all meet up and Emma and Callie are introduced. Owen looks somewhat worried as the two walk off.
When Jackson arrives at the hospital he's immediately greeted by Leah who says that a patient is there to get her drain removed, though at first I thought she said "brain" and figured she was asking the right doctor and that I think people who need that aren't usually conscious enough to ask… anyway, Jackson says that he'll go ahead and take it himself, despite Leah's protests that she knows the case and can handle it. They arrive in the research lab where everyone is milling about, wondering what amazing organ Mere might have printed first. Stephanie promises them all that their minds will be blown. Even Derek doesn't seem to know what it is -- when he arrives, Mere teases him that he has to wait like everyone else.
Owen comes in and begins a presentation with a speech about innovation, and says that Mere is a leader and they should all follow her example. Jackson and Derek stand together and as Owen talks, it looks like the printer tech standing to Mere is offering a saucy wink to someone in the audience. Derek, though, seems to recognize it as a particular twitch and points it out to Jackson. Mere speaks about how soon they will be able to customize treatments to serve a patient's specific needs, even using a patient's own cells to prevent rejection. With that, she finishes, "Welcome to the age of personalized medicine!" and with a flourish pulls out… a plastic fork. Hey, I could reenact this whole scene accurately at my own desk using only my lunch supplies! Everyone watching is visibly disappointed and everyone immediately turns to leave, which somehow leaves Mere shocked. She calls out after them that they only got the printer yesterday, and soon they will be printing portal veins. But Derek is the only one who actually claps, and I think he's required to do that by the Unwritten Laws of Marriage.
Mere takes the fork to Richard, and despite her witty quips about how her mom would nag her about her hair, he tells her that she'd be proud of her daughter. He then wants to tell her some story from his glory days but she's heard it already and shuts him down. She points out that he's getting too comfortable and needs to walk, so tries to get him out of bed but he declines. After she leaves, CJ yells at him, "Another captive runs screaming from your theater of boredom." She's played by the always awesome Lainie Kazan. She's got her walker and is doing her own laps like a good patient, while April keeps an eye on her. CJ teases him about retelling all of his old stories, and then tries to goad him to get out of bed. He will argue, but he still prefers to remain in his comfortable bed, and she moves on while they shout cheerful insults at each other.
Harvey, the possibly saucy printer tech, has just grabbed a donut when he is accosted by Derek and Jackson who introduce themselves and tell him about how they can easily fix his twitching eye. He's kind of offended and points out that this isn't their business, and tries to shoo them away and eat his breakfast in piece. When Derek hears that he hasn't eaten all day, however, he grabs the donut and tells Harvey that if he doesn't eat they can do the surgery today. He then commits the breakfastal sin of throwing away a perfectly good, uneaten donut.
Cristina gets on the elevator and is less than thrilled to run into Mere and Alex. Alex still hasn't heard that Cristina is getting the worst sendoff of any character ever, considering how wonderful and layered and complex and deep her friendship was with Mere, so he makes a crack about Mere revolutionizing cutlery. But instead of Cristina making some fun, cutting remark, things are clipped and formal between the two women as Mere says she is working on printing out a model of a liver and Cristina tells her it's great. Mere is definitely extra bitchy, while Cristina is just kind of sad and uncomfortable… almost timid, which is one problem Cristina doesn't usually have. Cristina then gets off and Alex turns to Mere to demand to know what is going on, but she tells him to butt out.
Ben and Owen run into each other at the surgical board, where Ben thanks him for bringing him back on and Owen welcomes him back. Bailey walks up and when she sees that she's been switched from OR2 to OR3 she almost melts down. Owen isn't sure what the big deal and when Bailey points out that 2 was set up just how she wanted it to, he replies that the rooms are, in fact, identical. He then leaves, and Ben notices that Bailey is quietly fretting and pulling on her fingers. He makes the most ill-advised crack ever, asking if there's a smell in there too. But it's almost more worrying when, instead of biting his head off, Bailey just says with a deflated air that there really is a smell, and she's going to find it. Ben is quite worried and has no idea what is going on.
Cristina and Smash's patient is a newborn named Nathan, and she explains to the terrified parents that the left side of his heart can't pump enough blood, so they put in a conduit to divert the blood flow. The bad news is that it looks like his body might be rejecting it, and the parents understandably panic. They want to know the worst case scenario and Cristina admits that they will try meds but that they might ultimately have to put in a new implant. When she says they will get back when they have more info, the dad rather sadly points out that they don't actually have any answers, do they? The doctors stay quiet because he's right, and it's almost more tragic because he's exhausted, terrified, and quiet rather than screaming and yelling.
Callie starts off the interview fine, going over Emma's job experience which included a turn at the Cleveland Clinic. She's surprised that she only stayed there a year and Emma tries to give some bubbly bullshit answer about all of the opportunities in Seattle until Callie gives her a look and she admits that she was going through a divorce, her husband worked there too, and eventually it was affecting her work and she couldn't do it anymore. Callie immediately backs off since this feels pretty close to home, and Emma is able to start talking about actual work stuff. But after a moment Callie comes back to it and asks if it was hard for Emma to give up her city and her job to her ex. Poor Emma has no idea what's going on and is caught off guard -- which doesn't really bode well for her being able to survive in this environment with a mind-boggling absence of personal boundaries.
Alex and Mere go in to see their patient, Will, the teenager who was up playing video games. Naturally this means he's totally out now, and they have to yell and pull the pillow off of his head to wake him up. Will reports that he was woken earlier by a scary clown asking if he wanted a balloon animal and Mere admits it's a hazard of the peds floor. They then talk about his surgery -- Will has an aggressive cancer that has resulted in a torso full of tumors. Will's mom is nervous about them trying to take out fifteen tumors at the same time but Mere explains that it's an aggressive cancer, so they have to do all or nothing. They show one of his scans with the tumors mapped out, numbered as they've made a plan of what order to remove them. One of them, Number 8, is buried deep in his liver and they admit it will be tricky to remove, but Alex says they'll do all they can. Mere, apparently feeling buoyed by her fork, says confidently that they will get it, and Alex quickly replies that they will try. He makes a video game reference and she continues to try to be the Woman Who Knows It All by adding some awkward reference to Pac-Man, and Alex basically apologizes for her.
When Bailey gets to her not-good-enough OR, she's already out of sorts and seeing Ben there only discombobulates her further. He thought she'd be happy that he switched so he could work with her, but she just seems perturbed. Princess comes in and when Ben introduces himself she tells him she was at the wedding and bought them a pizza stone. As they chatter about wedding gifts, Bailey stares at the instruments; their voices fade into the background as the light goes funny and the camera tilts at an angle so we know that she's slipping off somewhere in her own mind. She fiddles repeatedly with the instruments and then accuses Princess of dropping her hands below the sterile field, ordering her to scrub in again. Princess argues with her but Bailey responds by basically challenging Princess to call her a liar. Princess turns to rescrub, and Ben asks worriedly if Bailey needs a minute. She snaps at him, and then finally asks for a blade to begin. But the camera is still at an angle just to drive home that she's still not quite right.
Derek and Jackson accost Harvey again right outside Richard's room – he had a scan and they confirmed that the cause of the twitch is just what Derek thought it was. Harvey is skeptical and kind of nervous but the guys try and sell him on it and are backed up by Richard. Harvey is less than receptive to what a patient has to say until Richard calls out his credentials. They all turn to leave but Leah stops Jackson to say she's worried about their patient who needs that drain removed ASAP. Jackson dismissively tells her he'll take care of it after Harvey's surgery. Richard then whistles to Leah as if she's a dog, and much like a dog he wants her to hang out at the foot of his bed and gaze at him adoringly while he tells her the end of his story from earlier.
April and Arizona are hanging out in the lounge, and April is moaning about how sexually frustrated she is because she does actually know full well what she's missing. She wants Arizona to help her out with some good advice about waiting, since Arizona shut things down with Leah. It's a good time for Arizona to admit that she, in fact, did quite the opposite, and the sex was "awesome." April is so overcome by the idea of other people getting to have sex that she has to leave.
Alex and Mere begin their surgery, and as they take out the tumors they mark each one with an x on a monitor nearby. Alex exposits that like a typical teenager, Will ignored the symptoms and didn't ask for help so that when he finally was diagnosed with cancer, he was already at stage 4. Hmm, this sounds a little like a particular best friendship I can think of. Mere insists that the good thing is, because he's a teenager, he's strong and can beat this. She then puffs up her chest and declares that he's also got the benefit of being in HER OR, and she's standing there at the forefront of medicine and can apparently now do anything. Alex is not impressed.
Leah and Smash have gone to marvel at the printer, though Leah isn't very impressed by the blob she sees even when Stephanie says that it's an anatomical model of a liver with a working portal vein. Smash is reading the manual and suddenly exclaims when he finds what he was looking for, though he plays it down when the girls ask what is up. Leah asks how long the liver is going to take and Steph says it will be another 10-12 hours.
Callie isn't even trying to make her personal questions seem job-related -- when she asks Emma about her typical Saturday, Emma assumes it's because she'll have to work weekends and assumes Callie that she expects this and doesn't mind at all. Callie explains that she really wants to know what "feeds [her] soul." And by that she means, does Emma want kids? Emma stutters that she's not sure Callie is allowed to legally ask that question, and fortunately Callie backs right off and apologizes profusely. With a grin, though, Emma leans in conspiratorially and over Callie's protestations admits that if she ever does have kids, she always imagined having two daughters, like you can put in an order for what you want. Callie grins, and when Owen pops his head in to nervously ask how it is going both ladies give him the thumbs up and Callie mouths, "Love her!" when Emma's head is turned.
Smash finds Cristina and excitedly tells her that in Japan, doctors are making conduits seeded with a patient's own cells so that their bodies won't reject them. He thinks that they could do this for baby Nathan, but Cristina is skeptical. However, he has an answer for each of her protests: he has printed out all of the Japan studies for her to review, and scheduled all of the various tests they need to find out if Nathan is a candidate. Cristina is still doubtful and tells him they'd also have to file for a compassionate release from the FDA, since this is experimental. Smash tells her he'll begin that process and asks her to just consider it. When she looks through a window at the heartbroken parents, she finally agrees.
April sees Matthew in the ambulance bay and runs out to talk to him. He's all excited -- does he think they're about to have sex up against his rig right then? April tells him that she wants their first time to be amazing and to feel right, and that she'd prefer if they had committed to each other in front of God before having sex. He'd still like to do it now, and has her pushed up against his rig while he kisses her knowing that this will maybe start to change her mind a little. He tells her he is going to love her for the rest of his life and he's sure God knows that, and she's horny and kind of torn and finally agrees to it. He's the happiest little boy in the world.
As Bailey and Princess are working, Bailey continues to be super hard on her about every move she's making, warning her that if she's not careful she'll cut the guy's bowel and cause spillage, and you don't ever want those two words in the same sentence. Princess is fine, but Bailey finally takes the job from her and starts working herself. She's so busy feeling for something, sure she's doing a better job, that she doesn't hear Princess yelling at her at first: "Spillage!" The camera angle and light go all funny again as Bailey retreats into her own head but she finally snaps back to reality and they get to cleaning up the mess. She seems anything but okay, however.
They get the guy's insides washed out and patched up, but Bailey makes them continue to rinse many more times and she insists that they have to close him up immediately. Ben, in his best Soothing Voice, coaches Bailey to take it one step at a time and reassures her that this was a routine complication and that they got everything under control. He asks her if she's okay, and she stands, pulling on one finger nervously for a while before getting back to work.
Cristina goes to the research lab to finally check out the printer and finds Stephanie still standing guard while it works away at creating the liver model. She asks casually what would happen if they paused it and Cristina reports that the model would become a useless hunk of plastic and Mere would be set back a full day in her research. (Do I not understand medical research? One day doesn't seem like a huge setback to me given how long I imagine medical studies to take. I mean, I get that it would be a shitty move and waste the printer "ink" and cause a rift and blah blah, but still. One day?) Stephanie adds that also, Mere would want to murder her. Cristina thinks about this and then leaves.
Jackson is helping Derek with Harvey's surgery, and Derek offers to let him do some of the work himself. Leah comes in at that moment to tell him they are needed on a couple of traumas that are arriving and asks if she can do the sutures herself. Jackson dismisses her, saying he'll take care if it and will be there in an hour. Once she shuffles out, Derek stands up for her, but Jackson cockily says that he knows she's good, but he's better. Did he and Mere go out for drinks spiced with extract of jackass ego juice or something? Derek gives him a note about the work he's doing, and calls him a dumbass, which catches Jackson by surprise. Calmly, Derek just keeps instructing him but peppers that with insulting names. He reminds Jackson that Mark used to do this to him when he thought he was better than Jackson, and Derek convinced Mark to actually start teaching him. Jackson is still reluctant to do the same but Derek points out that they have to do it sometime, and better now than later. Derek then gleefully continues to call Jackson names because he's enjoying himself so much, but I think he's also giddy to actually be doing some surgery again.
Alex and Mere make it to Number 8, but instead of tackling the hardest tumor they will face, Mere decides to skip it and come back to it at the end. Alex argues that they made a plan for a reason and also, if they can't get this one there's no point in getting the others so why not try now? Mere and her overinflated head just declare that she will have better exposure if she takes the others out first, and while she hears Alex's objections she is going to completely ignore them because she's the lead surgeon and neener neener neener.
Smash finds Cristina, who reports that Nathan's little body is full-blown rejecting the implant. He triumphantly reports that the FDA agreed to a release and she just has to sign, but she refuses. They argue, but she sticks to her guns and says that they have other options they are going to try first. Smash can't believe his ears and practically stomps his foot as he yells that none of those options are as good as printing out a biological conduit. Cristina finally declares to him that it's Mere's printer, not theirs, and she's using it now so they can't. She adds, "I'm sorry," but it doesn't seem to lessen the blow.
Richard is in bed doing a crossword while CJ does her laps like a good patient and tells him her secret to making perfect meatballs. The two trade affectionate barbs until there's a crash, and then silence from the hall. Of course there are no doctors or nurses outside -- it's only a hospital, after all -- so Richard gets out of bed and works his way over to the door. He sticks his head out and sees CJ lying unconscious on the ground, so he manages to jog to her and kneel at her side. April rushes up to help but Richard waves her off as he starts CPR and begs CJ to hold on dammit.
The longest interview of all time has finally ended, and Arizona tells Emma that Callie loved her. Emma is still kind of weirded out by how "thorough" it was, but seems to feel pretty good. She then asks how long Callie and Arizona have been divorced, and Arizona is shocked and replies that they are not, fiddling with her wedding ring so that Emma notices it. Emma points out that they are seeing others as if this is a fact, though I have no idea how she'd know that unless she'd stumbled into a room where Leah and Arizona were occupied with one another. She then apologizes for getting so personal, but the interview kind of rubbed off on her. At Seattle Pres they apparently don't discuss each other's sexual antics over surgery. Arizona tells her that if she's looking for way too personal, she's found the right place.
Mere and Alex have gotten all of the other tumors, so it's time to tackle Number 8 -- the problem is that it's buried much deeper than they first realized. Alex thinks that they can't get it without removing too much of the liver, but Mere has fully internalized her own hype and insists she can do it. Steph runs in to show Mere a picture of the half-printed liver and Mere tells her to scrub in since they need some help. She then insists to Alex that for a kid this young, they have to be as aggressive as they can.
Bailey's surgery is just about done, so they run a test to make sure no leaks are found. The test is clean, and Princess and Ben are ready to celebrate. Bailey joins them only for a second, and then her mood abruptly shifts and she says they need a bubble test as well. When Princess has the nerve to ask if they need both, Bailey angrily lectures her about how bad a leak would be and again paints it as if Princess wants to play fast and loose with this guy's health. Ben watches this whole thing and then jumps up to say the test only takes one second. He pushes some air into the line while they pour saline into the guy's open chest, and voila! No bubbles. Except that Bailey is practically having a nervous breakdown, and decides she sees a tiny one. Ben defers to her even though he obviously thinks everything is fine, and points out that putting on an extra patch certainly can't hurt. I'm glad they did the second test because I think I just learned how my surgeon checked my lung for leaks in my own surgery – I knew they did a bubble test with it submerged in water, but I could never quite figure out HOW this would have worked without detaching it and throwing it in a tank as if it's a tire that had driven over a nail. Yay medicine!
Harvey is examining his face in a mirror while the doctors grin at him expectantly, and he admits that he misses the twitch a little bit since he'd had 20 years to bond with it. Leah then runs in and asks Jackson which of their two patients he'd like to see first. When Derek gives him a look, he offers one to Leah with all of the excitement of someone about to have a root canal. Derek raises an eyebrow, and Jackson takes a moment and then grits his teeth and gives both to Leah. She does a little excited wriggle like a puppy and grins at him, promising that she won't disappoint him.
April is getting Richard settled back in bed with oxygen, and he admits that he's exhausted but that it's a good exhausted. He tells her that he's been reminiscing about his whole life to try and feel like himself again, and now he's ready to BE himself again. Just in case April missed that she should be applying this to herself, he delivers a frying pan to the face when he says that he lost himself for a while, but now he's ready to get himself back.
Back up in the NICU, baby Nathan is in full heart failure. Smash won't let go of the biological conduit idea and he tells Cristina that actually, it's the hospital's printer, and she was the one who taught him to take what he needs for a patient. She still shuts him down, and he still persists, telling her that he went over Mere's research and she's months away from making a portal vein for an actual human being but they could save this baby TODAY. Cristina finally snaps a little and points out that she knows this full well, but still gives him other instructions.
Alex and Mere are still arguing about Number 8 and when he tells her she's on a power trip she acts like she might pull rank on him again until Stephanie interrupts and says that they can use the two challenge rule. She quickly explains it to them and Mere replies, with absolute self-assurance, that she and Steph are challenging Alex to shut up. Alex responds that he's challenging her back, and they both turn to Stephanie. She's deathly nervous but after a moment, begins a long string of compliments about how Mere is amazing and she feels honored to be a part of her research, but that she's currently pushing it too far and Steph agrees with Alex. Mere spits at him that he can close up the patient and practically throws down her scalpel in a huff before storming out of the OR. Stephanie is batting her eyelashes in a way that seems to convey, "I'm about to vomit because of what I just said."
That night, Owen is walking Emma out and telling her how much everyone loved her but she cuts him off to tell him she can't work there. Based on having worked with her ex-husband, she knows that if they ever break up, everyone at the hospital will be on his side and will shut her out -- obviously what she experienced in Cleveland -- and she can't deal with that. Owen, who somehow hasn't learned that she's totally right and one might want to date people outside of their workplace, dopily asks if she's planning to break his heart. She smiles at him, he begs her, and she shows that she might be one of the smartest people on the show when she firmly turns him down. Then as she leaves she calls out sweetly that she doesn't want him to break her heart either. This would be so sweet if I could get invested in these two at all. She is a sweet, totally unremarkable, placeholder just there to be Not Cristina.
Will's mom is understandably worried about the doctors not getting Number 8, and Will realizes that it means he's going to be spending yet more time in pediatrics. Alex feels horrible that they couldn't get it, so he comes up with some ways to make the room more comfortable for a teenager -- he takes down the animal pictures, offers to increase visiting hours so his friends can hang out, and says he'll make sure no doctors do rounds on him until after 11 each day so he can sleep in. Will smiles and agrees, and Mom seems happy.
Outside in the hall, though, Mere is sulking and when Alex walks out she growls that she could have gotten Number 8. Alex sticks to his guns and says that they made the right call because no one could get the tumor but in response Mere pouts, "I COULD HAVE." Seriously, where did this complex come from? Someone is really overcompensating after her fight with Cristina. Speaking of, her former Person comes up and asks to talk to her about the printer, but Mere keeps snidely shutting her down each time Cristina tries to talk. Cristina manages to say that she needs the printer, and when Mere says, "It's mine," like a 7-year-old with a Barbie Dream House, Cristina points out that it belongs to the hospital. Mere goes slightly unhinged at this point and shrieks that she got it for the hospital with the money from HER research grant. Cristina's pleas to use it to help a patient immediately fall on deaf ears and Mere yells that just because she made a fork, it doesn't mean she and her research are a joke. And there we have one of the reasons she's become an insufferable jerk. Cristina desperately tries to reassure her that no one said that but I think plenty at least thought it – Cristina herself, however, never did. They argue some more and Cristina tells her this is time-sensitive but Mere just maintains that she can submit a proposal to the board. Cristina finally gives up and Alex turns on Mere, realizing that Mere's attitude is a result of Cristina calling her a bad doctor and Mere needing to prove that wrong. Mere pouts that he's wrong but of course he's right, and he shouts that if she needs to hear she's good then fine, she is, but today she was a bad doctor. He leaves, and Mere looks genuinely surprised to be told she's anything less than a genius.
Richard is actually up and out of bed, looking at CJ who is fortunately still alive and asleep. He calls out to Callie, who is thrilled to see him up and takes a walk with him. She's shocked when she hears that he is the one to do CPR and he takes her arm so that they can walk and he can share the entire story.
Matthew is getting his bed all ready for his lady when she arrives, and as soon as she faces him it seems fairly obvious that she's about to do more talking than sexing. He, poor thing, looks almost drunk with anticipation but she tells him that she lost herself and worked really hard to get back to who she was… as she keeps talking, his face falls because he realizes what is happening. She loves being with someone who shares her faith and she loves him too much to have him break a promise and lose himself the way she did the year before. She assures him that on their wedding night it will still be her first time with him and so it will be amazing and special. He's bummed, but she promises they can lean on each other for support and they begin to make out. As things start to heat up, she points out that maybe they shouldn't actually physically lean. He then takes her up in a big, sexless hug.
Arizona is at home, getting ready to hop in the shower and thinking about stuff as she looks in the mirror. We then see Leah pop her head out of the shower and ask if Arizona is coming in. Arizona slowly, sadly, takes off her necklace with her ring on it (I guess after the thing with Lauren she didn't want to leave it pinned in her scrubs anymore) and puts it in a tiny little jewelry box. Granted, it looks like she still has her wedding band on her finger, so I'm a little confused, but the takeaway is that it's a first step towards actually breaking up with Callie.
Bailey is back at home, sitting in Tuck's room with glassy eyes, when Ben comes in and sits to her. He finally says that he knows he changed their plan, and it will take time to adjust, but he's glad he's home because something is CLEARLY going on with her with the checking of drawers and the pulling of fingertips. She was actually doing that as he said it and she looks down at her hands as if she didn't realize it until this moment, which she probably didn't. He gently tells her that they both know there was no bubble earlier. In response, she holds up a baggie of brown goo and triumphantly tells her that Tuck left apple slices in his soccer bag that must have been there for weeks. She protests that everything is fine but she won't look right at him, so finally Ben gets up and leaves the room.
Mere is gazing at her fork when the elevator arrives with Derek inside. He's all smiley and on a surgical high but she snaps at him that she could have gotten Number 8, doesn't he believe her? Derek assures her that of course, she wouldn't say it if she couldn't do it. But he seems to be saying that as a way of soothing his wife rather than as someone who knows the actual situation. He's thrilled to have gotten rid of Harvey's twitch, and when Mere keeps pouting he assures her that she's the future of medicine. He sends her off to go check on her liver model and offers to put the kids to bed. Mere finally manages a smile.
She's a little bit surprised to find the lab unlocked, and a whole lot surprised to find the half-finished liver model discarded on the table while Smash and Cristina stare into the printer, with Smash holding the manual. She demands to know what they are doing and Cristina, it should be noted, looks totally conflicted.
Mere's VO is still talking about fighting those billions of cells, standing strong, pushing yourself past rational limits, and the like. The problem is that no matter how hard you try, sometimes you are just outnumbered. Unsaid is that it would be easier to deal with it if you hadn't alienated your friends with your bad attitude.
Bailey sits by herself in Tuck's room, and as time passes she begins pulling and twisting harder and harder at her fingers, one by one, as if she is counting to make sure they are all there. As she goes, she gets rougher and rougher until I thought she was accidently going to break one of them. Something is very seriously wrong.
Lauren S is a writer who lives and works in Atlanta and never wants to be woken up by a clown. 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."