By Lauren S
So, a second of Bailey's patients died of the mystery infection and her third patient, Seth, is only hanging on by a thread. Richard is caring for Seth as the CDC comes in to conduct an investigation. While that is going on, Bailey is ordered to stay away from all patients and is locked out of their records. This makes her crazy since she wants to try and help Seth. At the same time, Seth's parents think the hospital is a cesspool and want him moved, but Richard convinces them that it's too dangerous. However, in order to convince them he insists that the infection has been pinpointed to one doctor and it's been contained and all is hunky-dory. Bailey of course overhears this and slinks away without anyone knowing she was there, but naturally the second she leaves Richard tells Leah that he thinks that's all bullshit and it's not Bailey's fault but that he needed to say something so that they didn't move Seth and surely kill him in the process. Mere tries to sneak Bailey a peek at Seth's chart but Jackson catches her and shuts them down. He's on edge because the other board members are all mad at him for calling the CDC already and are treating him totally like the Bad Cop. April's mad at him too, accusing him of stealing her virginity like a thief in the night and then telling her to lie to Matthew (which is of course ridiculous). By the end of the day, fed up, he reminds her that she was a very willing participant and that while he's sorry she's hurt, he's not sorry that they hooked up. Of course, Matthew picks this moment to show up at the hospital to make things right with April and get back together.
One of the reasons Jackson is under fire from the survivors is that he also wants to put out a press release about what is going on. He's sure that if they don't, it's going to somehow leak to the press and the hospital will look like it was trying to hide something. But so far he's overruled by the other board members who insist that there is no story yet to release and that they should keep quiet until they know what's going on. A group of patients comes in who are all members of a family that played tug-of-war at their family reunion. A number of the unfortunate folks either lost fingers in the fight or mangled their hands and of course the youngest family member turns out to be an intrepid school reporter. She overhears all the whispers about Bailey and the infection situation and manages to start putting together a story to the point where Arizona and Callie start to worry that she could get them in deep trouble.
Alex and Jason are thrown together on a case along with Cristina where they have to deliver a baby who then will need immediate heart surgery to survive. Before they do the surgery, Princess drops the bomb that she's planning on moving in with Jason, so Alex becomes even more tortured. He's still in total denial about his feelings and maintains that Jason is just an idiot, but finally he realizes that there might be some truth to the idea that he could luuuurve her. In a total dude bonding moment with Jason, he explains that he was also a foster kid and that's why he and Princess understand each other so well -- Alex is the only one that doesn't realize that Jason clearly has no idea about Princess' past. She finds Alex later and completely tears into him for spilling the beans since that's something she doesn’t tell anyone (except him). Yeah Alex, how dare you assume that before moving in, two people might discuss the very general broad details of their personal histories? After yelling at him, Princess orders him to never speak to her again or something.
Owen is still totally obsessed with Ethan, even though his grandmother has finally arrived to take care of him. She's not handling her son being in a coma very well at all, so thank goodness Ethan's mom is doing better, right? She's up, and talking, and even goes to see her husband and speak to him (which causes Grandma to have a breakdown since she's sure he's dying). Cristina gently tries to convince Owen to get some rest/engage in a little bit of sexy funtime/step back from these patients in whom he's too invested but he's too far gone and to her credit, she doesn't push him. In the middle of enjoying an ice cream with Ethan, his mom suddenly falls into a seizure and winds up dying. Ethan's grandma can barely handle herself so after Owen breaks the news to him, Ethan goes to hold her hand and be the tragic young adult in the situation. Cristina tells Owen that she's sure Paul will still wake up one of these days, but it's fairly obvious where this all is going.
Oh, and Mere wants Cristina to be there when she gives birth because she thinks Cristina will be better than Derek at handling the nurses and making sure Mere gets what she wants (a natural birth). Cristina, however, is totally squicked out by the idea. Mere keeps at her, and Owen tells her that it will be amazing to witness the miracle of life; though she seems doubtful, Cristina finally agrees to it. That night at the house, Alex comes to Cristina's door and admits that she was right and he's in love with Princess. She has him come in and sit down with her, and after he gets over how weird it is, he does. She then admits she thinks she's losing Owen.
Bailey is interrogated by the CDC a few times regarding her patients -- she's made to recount the surgeries in precise detail a number of times to make sure her memory is accurate. In the meantime, it's been determined that they both died from a particular strain of staph infection. She finally gets tired of reciting her actions and demands to be told the results of her test, which ultimately turn out to be that she is carrying that same staph strain. When the board meets with the CDC to hear the results of the investigation, she turns up, gutted, and asks to stay to hear the results of the investigation. After a vote, they let her. It turns out that the cheap shitty gloves that Pegasus made them use are actually the culprit, and that if they had been using better gloves the patients would not have gotten sick. This isn't much of a consolation to Bailey, who still feels responsible and runs out of the room. Later, she and Richard talk outside and she absolutely unloads on him since she still thinks he threw her under the bus. She's so upset that she starts dealing out low blows, telling him she covered for him when he was operating on people while drunk and expected the same kind of loyalty in return, but didn't get it. So, with three episodes left, now plenty of seeds of personal turmoil have been planted and are lovingly being watered.