Episode Report Card Al Lowe: C | 39 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT How the HR You?
By Al Lowe | Season 10 | Episode 15 | Aired on 03.13.2014
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Callie is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. First off, she's got a young patient who she has been working with for three years to try and fix her legs; the patient has had a condition since birth that resulted in them being misshapen and causing her constant pain. She's decided that she wants them amputated, but her dad and Callie are against it. Arizona, however, realizes that this might not be the worst decision in the world and when the dad asks her about it, tells him it's probably a better solution. Callie feels like this is throwing three years of hard work and surgeries down the drain, but eventually has to concede that it's the right thing to do. But she can't do the surgery because she's called into HR to address one of Leah's complaints, which turned out to be against her and not Arizona as it first seemed. When Leah is sent to assist Arizona with the double amputation, Arizona tries to turn her away since she's upset that Leah is taking her jealousy out on Callie. But Leah reminds her -- rightly -- that Callie refused to teach her during a surgery, out of spite, and Leah wound up running a drill through someone's leg and into the table. When Leah points out that the complaint was to keep this kind of thing happening again, Arizona decides to let her help out after all and even to amputate one of the legs on her own.
The other thing Callie is dealing with is that she can't continue the research that she and Derek started because Derek no longer has time, but also -- and more importantly -- because a condition of Derek getting the Presidential research is that their sensors are now only to be used for that project. That night, Callie is barely able to control herself because she's so hurt and angry, and she can't take it when Arizona starts to apologize again for something. But Arizona tells her that after a year of having to be self-centered -- in order to figure out who she was and how to live her life -- she realized that the only things she really needs to be happy are Callie and Sofia. In response, Callie winds up pulling out Arizona's old wheely sneakers and helps Arizona learn to use them again out in front of their marriage-healing house.
Stephanie keeps trying to hide from Jackson, but she's so distracted that she winds up hitting Arizona with a gurney and breaking her good prosthetic leg, and then later she runs another gurney into Jackson. They both have to fill out accident reports and just happen to wind up in the HR lady's office together where Jackson pleads with her to let him apologize. She does, but tells him she's decided that she's going to get over him and never waste any emotion on him ever again, because she never wants to be pitied again like she was after the wedding.
After Alex's shenanigans in front of the board last week, Owen has to follow through and actually punish him so he's taken off of surgery for three days while Jo is given a mandatory break from pediatrics. She's extra pissed about that because she and Steph found an abandoned baby in a box while they were outside on a coffee break, and she wanted to take care of him. Instead, she's tasked with watching over an organ donor until the mandatory time has passed to declare him brain dead and harvest his organs. She realizes that the organ harvest is going to be like doing six surgeries in one, so she's stoked, but at the last minute the patient's heart fails and he dies with no viable organs after all. The guy's buddy had been at the hospital and asked April if he could get back the kidney he donated to his friend a few months previously, and stalks her all day trying to get her to agree even though she keeps telling him no. It turns out that was just his way of coping and when Jo runs up and tells April that the guy has died, his friend falls apart and finally starts to grieve.
Alex is pissed because he has to miss doing a surgery on one of his longtime patients, even after he has a really great idea of a new way to do the procedure. He has Mere talk to Owen on his behalf, but Owen holds firm and instead tells Mere to assist since someone has to take Alex's place. Alex is pissed at her for taking his place, but is also glad the surgery went well. Mere ultimately makes up for it because she found out a way for Jo and Alex to be together, and it's as simple as filling out HR paperwork about their existing relationship. Then they can get back to pulling off each other's clothes in supply closets. Alex goes on a rant about how he can't ask Jo to sign it, because he doesn't want to freak her out after the proposal debacle, but it's all pretty stupid and Mere basically tells him that and to just sign the thing, already.
Cristina winds up getting the box baby since he's got a scar on his chest that indicates he's already had heart surgery. Richard forces her to take Smash back on her service, and though she doesn't want to work with him she manages to pull herself together and teach him. Smash also feels weird about the whole thing, but when she keeps prodding him he gets back to being a good student and they work well together. During surgery they have a brief conversation about what happened when Cristina tells him he shouldn't need to do things for doctors (like get them coffee or "relax" them) because he's a brilliant doctor who can make it on his skills alone. That settled, she can get back to whatever is going on between her and Owen -- she's thrown for a loop when she hears that he dumped Emma and confronts him, telling him he was stupid for throwing away someone who was going to give him everything he'd ever wanted. They have a weird awkward kinda-argument where Owen contends that Cristina just wanted him to end up with Emma so that Cristina could stop feeling guilty about not giving Owen what he wanted, and she jokes with him but doesn’t actually deny it. So, they aren't at all back together, but… well, I don't know what is going on with them, but they're getting along so I'll take that at least. -- Lauren S
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Hellowe. Here I am again, Al Lowe, sneaking up on your recap when you least expect it.
Arizona wakes up, ready to greet the day, stretching like a happy woman in a tampon commercial until she looks down and sees that someone has spilled juice on her prosthetic leg.
Mere voiceovers about body parts that have changed as we have evolved -- our tailbone used to be a tail, that pink fold in the corner of our eye used to be a third eyelid, etc. Um, are we sure about that tail thing? Owen and April are treating a guy who was in a horrible car crash, and since you can see part of his brain and blood is spurting from it, I don't think he's doing too well.
Stephanie arrives at work but when she sees Jackson, she hides behind a cart while Mere tells us that the story of our evolution is what we leave behind. How Lauren S deals with this opening montage every week is beyond me. It's already on my nerves.
Callie sees Arizona drying her leg with a hair dryer and Arizona gripes that Sofia might have fried the processor with her juice. "I've told her not to play with my leg!" she yells. Callie points out that actually, she's never said that, and then gently adds that she just found Arizona's wheelie sneaks while unpacking and wonders what she should do with them. She's a little surprised when Arizona tells her to toss them, but Arizona assures her with a quick smile that it's fine.
Sure enough, Owen and April are getting no response from their patient and realize that they've lost him as Arizona, just arrived, sees the guy's wife/girlfriend at the desk crying and begging to see him.
Jo, Alex and Arizona (who seems to be everywhere, all at once), are with their patient, a kid who is bright orange due to a liver condition he's had since birth. They have an idea for a procedure that should hopefully mean he wouldn't need a liver transplant; it involves taking a piece of his intestine and turning it into a drain to get bile out of his abdomen. The kid is a little weirded out at the idea of having a hole in his stomach but Arizona is great with him and comes around the bed with reassurance and a good oompa loompa joke. She doesn't realize that her pant leg has caught on her prosthetic and the kid stares a moment before asking if she's a robot. His poor mother is mortified but Arizona handles it in stride, joking secretly with him that she can now jump super high, reminding us just how awesome she is with kids.