Everyone's dealing with the fact that their fairy tales are a little less stellar than they thought they'd be while growing up. Meredith's fairy tale of a Prince Charming sweeping her off her feet to go live in a castle on the hill has turned into a smugly secretive quasi-boyfriend who won't tell her what his favorite color is and who lives in a Silver Bullet trailer on a hill in the middle of nowhere. Izzie's fairy tale was long ago dashed by a real life spent in a trailer park with a mother who made cupcakes that greatly resemble Hostess Cupcakes. George's fairy tale involves Meredith, so that's trashed all to hell. Cristina's fairy tale of living an angst-and-emotion-free life came to a crashing end the day she started sleeping with Burke and got pregnant.
Mere spends the majority of the episode trying to pry her way into McDreamy's secret past life, to little success. He finally shows her his trailer and tells her that his favorite color is Indigo. Izzie spends an inordinate amount of time worried that she can't duplicate her mother's cupcake recipe. A psychic named Duff informs her that she's missing coconut extract and this somehow makes Izzie feel that it's okay to call her mom in the trailer park and say that she's missed her. George grows a pair and gives up on Meredith and asks out a hot redheaded nurse who may or may not have an STD. Cristina schedules a termination, only to find that she has to spend the whole episode caring for a woman who has to choose between her baby's life or her own.
In the end, really, I think we discover that everyone's fairy tales aren't so different. They all suck.
Previously on Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News, I Gotta Bad Case of Screwing My Boss: Meredith finally decided to continue sleeping with McDreamy, even though it's going to make her life much harder, and George had to suck it up and admit that, if he had ovaries, he'd probably be in love with McDreamy too. Hell, he doesn't need the ovaries -- McDreamy's the kind of guy EVERYONE can be in love with.
Until his ex-wife shows up.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We begin with Mere and Dere sharing a little domestic bliss moment in Mere's bedroom as Mere VOs: "You know how when you were a little kid and you believed in fairy tales? That fantasy of what your life would be. White dress, Prince Charming, who'd carry you away to a castle on a hill?" Hm. Well, I can't speak for all the men in my life, Mere, but I'm thinking none of them have ever been into a white dress or a charming prince. Except for my friend Wendy Kroy who seems to STILL believe that one day his prince will come and he'll look like Chris Evans. McDreamy continues to get dressed and put on deodorant as Mere watches him obsessively from the bed. The VO continues, "You'd lie in bed at night, and you'd close your eyes, and you had complete and utter faith--" We interrupt this voice-over, currently in progress, to bring you a pissy Izzie in the kitchen, bitching out loud to George about the chocolate cupcake recipe that she just can't seem to get right. "Nomph," says George with a mouth full of chocolate, "thesth areph goodmph." Mere continues, "Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Prince Charming, they were so close, you could taste them." Izzie claims that there's something missing from the recipe that's making them less than the cupcakes her mother used to make. "But, eventually, you grow up," says Mere's voice-over. "One day, you open your eyes, and the fairy tale disappears." George tells Izzie to call her mother and ask for the specific ingredients so she can shut the hell up already about the damn cupcakes. "Most people turn to the things and people they can trust," says Mere's VO. Izzie tells George she doesn't want to call her mother because her mother is a trailer park waitress with no teeth and Izzie wants to forget that she exists.
Upstairs, Mere shuffles into the bathroom and declares that she and Hunny Bunny should go sleep at his place tonight. I mean, why are they always sleeping at Mere's? Does Derek even HAVE a house? Or does he just live in a damn trailer out in the middle of nowhere while pretending he's going to build a house and put down roots at some point in the near future? Derek pretends not to hear her and just continues to brush his teeth while Mere yammers at him about the house and how he doesn't seem to have one. He passes by her, touches her face, and just adorably goes, "Mmmmph" at her like she's the cutest thing in the world with her silly little questions about a house and personal space and, you know, A BACKGROUND. By the way, I hate it when people do that "I'll pretend I didn't hear you and I'll just give you a non-answer so you'll shut up" thing. HATE IT.
Mere follows him into the kitchen and George gallantly offers them an Izzie cupcake. Both decline. Derek just makes himself at home in the damn kitchen and gets a bowl and some cereal and milk together, all while half-assedly telling Mere that he likes it at her house and Mere said she likes having her things around and sleeping in her own bed, and he's really just trying to deflect her attention from the fact that he's not answering her fucking questions. George points out that Derek is a health nut, what with his morning muesli addiction every day of the week. Mere puts out two spoons for the both of them as Derek acts stunned that he's been at her house for a whole week. Her voice-over says, "But the thing is, it's hard to let go of that fairy tale thing entirely. Because almost everything still has that smallest bit of hope or faith that one day, they'll open their eyes and it will all come true." I have to note that while the VO is stating this, Meredith has realized that McDreamy hasn't bothered to bring HER a damn bowl for her damn cereal, so she has to get up and get her own damn bowl and then she slams it down in front of him like, "Hey, BOYFRIEND. How 'bout you get the girl you're SCREWING some goddamned CEREAL?" He just looks at her smugly. It was at about this point in the series that I started having serious reservations about McSmugly. I don't care how cute he is, the way he sometimes treats Meredith (and how she lets herself be treated) really knots my noodles.
Checking in with Cristina, we see that she's at a clinic of some sort. We can only guess just what kind of clinic it is. A woman enters, and Cristina asks if they can schedule a termination for the week of the ninth because she starts a light rotation then. Unfortunately, they're booked solid until the sixteenth. Also, the woman wants her to know that there are other options besides termination. Cristina looks at her like, "What? You want ME to raise it? Talk about lions eating their young. Just schedule the fucking thing for the sixteenth, okay? And leave the speeches for the girls who get knocked up by their fifteen-year-old pimply boyfriends." "I know this is a difficult decision," says the woman, doing her best to soothe Cristina's troubled soul. The only problem is, Cristina's soul doesn't respond well to soothing. "Okay, you know the talking part? I'm not interested." Then she smiles tightly at the woman with a nod of finality. The sixteenth it is, then.
Alex is working with a beaky-looking girl named Devo. She apparently just had a root canal and she couldn't stop bleeding after it. Devo's got a moderately snarky attitude to go with her center-parted hair, but Alex seems to kind of enjoy it. Burke enters and asks for the bullet from Alex, who tells him that Devo was hospitalized for excessive bleeding after her root canal and has a significant new heart murmur associated with a fever. She's on antibiotics. "If I'm gonna die, could you page my mom and dad?" she sourly asks. Burke chortles slightly and tells her she's not dying and that he's going to chat with her parents in the cafeteria while Alex administers her tests. He leaves. "So, what kind of name is 'Devo', anyway?" he asks her. "80's rocker," she says. "My parents did too much blow." Heh. "I call myself Esther," she says as Alex pulls down her sheet and sees she's wearing a full-length skirt, socks and possibly her shoes. Alex is all, whoa! What are you, Amish? Esther's all, shut up, dingo. I'm an Orthodox Jew. Alex has utterly no response to that.
Mere and Cristina are checking some guy's head films. Cristina comments that the patient belongs in a psych ward, not in neuro, and the referring doctor says that it's his gift to them because the guy's been having seizures. Mere's all, dude? It says here he talks to dead people, his family thinks he's dangerous and they had him committed. "That's psych, not neuro," she states with finality. "Man, didn't you go to med school?" snits Cristina. "Yes," says the referring doctor, "and unlike the correspondence school you attended..." Cristina's all, YOU MEAN STANFORD? The doc's all, THE PATIENT'S YOURS. FUCK OFF. He tells her that they can't take him back into psych until he's cleared. Unfortunately, the patient thinks his seizures are visions. "Helloooo! They're not seizures, I'm psychic!" calls the patient from inside the room. "Of course you are," says Cristina. "And I'm a chicken." Hee.
The referring doctor leaves, so Mere and Cristina are stuck with the psych patient, whose name is Mr. Duff. The actor playing Duff, Kevin Rahm, is one of my favorite tertiary character actors. I've loved him since he was on Jesse and kind of almost had a chance with Jesse until that stupid Diego swooped in and inexplicably stole her away from him. Um. Did I just admit that I used to watch Jesse? Yeah. I might need to...go give myself electroshock therapy for a bit.
Thaaaat's better. So, Duff says that they can work him up and work him down, but it's a waste of time. They start to do their thing on him and suddenly, he gets this spooky "I see dead people" look on his face. "Someone...someone's gonna check out. Bye-bye." Cristina's all, the guy's a fruitcake. Duff's all, I'm dizzy, not deaf, and I'm telling you, someone on the fourth floor is going to die. Sure enough, that very second, a call comes over the PA for a code blue on the fourth floor. Mere and Cristina share a look and then immediately leave the room because Duff is clearly one creepy-ass dude.
"Nobody knows..." why these credits involve high heels and sexy dresses when they have nothing to do with the rest of the show...
Cristina's barely keeping her morning sickness in check as George mentions that the psychic predicted the dead guy on the fourth floor. She ignores him and asks if he can cover her on the sixteenth. George sees Dere and Mere together at the end of the hallway, and he dreamily wonders aloud if he should let his hair grow and not shave so that he can turn himself into Georgie McGeorgie McDreamy or something. Shut up, George. Cristina's all, dude? Sixteenth? George finally says he'll cover for her and Cristina shambles off.
Mere and Dere are walking through the Glass-Covered Hallway of Relationship Issues as Mere grills Dere on his past and how she knows nothing about him. He avoids her completely, saying she knows he's from New York and that he likes ferry boats. Mere is all, ENOUGH WITH THE FERRY BOATS. Amen, sister. She loses my vote, though, when she starts haranguing him about who his friends are, what kind of life he leads outside of the hospital, what he does on his off hours, etc. And here's the thing: he just moved here from New York, so he has no friends in Seattle, it's pretty clear that he lives and breathes surgery, so he doesn't really HAVE much of a life outside the hospital, oh, and, in his off hours, HE'S FUCKING YOU, MEREDITH. And you've been screwing for a week, and with each other EVERY DAY OF THAT WEEK, so as far as what his extracurricular activities are, Meredith, I'd say that YOU ARE his extracurricular activities. So suck it up and deal.
Mere claims that since they're sleeping together every night, she deserves the details of his life. "I want facts," she says. "And until I get them, my pants are staying on." "Or you could just roll with it," says Derek. Ohhhhh. Even though he's kind of right (see above about Meredith really HAVING all of the details already), that answer is just infuriating and smug and rude and go out on a date with the damn girl, Derek! He tells her to be flexible and see what happens. "I'm not flexible," she says. "Ohhh HAHAHA!" he laughs. "Now there, I disagree!" Heh. Funny. But still a smug bastard. His beeper goes off and he says he has to go. Mere gives him a look. "We'll find these things out," he says with a sigh. "That's the fun part." And he's right. But still. SMUG BASTARD. "That's the gravy!" he says, running off. "That is what I am talking about!" she yells after him. "I don't want to be your gravy!" He didn't say YOU were his gravy, Meredith. Pay attention. He said the Q&A portion of your relationship is the gravy. The meat and potatoes part is...the sex? I...don't know.
Burke and Alex talk to Devo's parents about how their daughter will need a valve replacement. She has Von Willebrand's disease, which explains her excessive bleeding. It also means that she can't take the blood thinners necessary to maintain a mechanical heart valve, so they're suggesting she get a porcine valve instead. The parents are like, uh? Did we mention our daughter's really into this whole Orthodox Jew thing? Because...yeah. YOU explain to her that she has to have pork product put into her body. Good luck with that! The mother says that she doesn't care what they have to do, they should save her daughter's life. The doctors head off to do just that.
Bailey and Izzie are performing a lumpectomy on a middle-aged woman who's actually awake during the surgery. She's talking about the psychic and the death he predicted. Izzie kind of dismisses the psychic's prediction as Bailey finishes up the surgery and says they'll see the woman in a few hours with the results of her biopsy. Izzie's not done, though, and she spits out that she can see further into the future than Duff can. Bailey's all, and you care because? Izzie's all, uh, I don't. Except that I'm a hard-hearted realist who doesn't believe in all that mumbo jumbo claptrap unless it involves falling in love with heart patients who may or may not be my destiny. Suction!
Derek's in the ER with a patient who can't feel anything in his legs. His neck's in a brace, and he can only feel when Derek gets to his upper thigh with his little pizza cutter thingy. What? You know what I'm talking about. Derek asks him to wiggle his toes and he does, but nothing happens. The Drums of Doom on the soundtrack would suggest that something is seriously wrong with this guy. Derek says his films look clear and then confirms with the guy that he fell while rock climbing. The guy says he just had a small drop and that his wife and boys are on the way. Derek tries another test on him and it's pretty clear this guy is screwed. He calls over a nurse and orders a stat MRI and tells the nurse to make Meredith go along.
Alex and George are hovering over a patient, attempting to intubate him. Alex keeps needling George, suggesting that he can't intubate properly. George just ignores him and keeps trying to do it himself. Burke watches from outside. The guy's pulse starts going down as George keeps messing up the intubation. He finally gets it in, only to have Alex discover that it's in the esophagus instead of the trachea. He totally calls out George for being a clueless moron. Burke finally enters and says, "Are you trying to kill this patient, O'Malley?" D'oh. Burke, of course, steps up and performs a perfect intubation in seconds flat as George chitters at him about how he's done this before and he's been good at it. Burke ignores him and walks out with Alex, leaving George to bag the patient with a sourpuss look on his face.
Cristina's checking on Duff as he tells her that a little Botox would do wonders for her frown lines. Heh. She gently pokes him in the head and tells him to shut up. He's all, hey, are you allowed to talk to me like that? "Sssssss!" Cristina hisses at him. "God, you're hot!" Duff laughs at her. "In a Mrs. Livingston kind of way." Clearly, the writers are in my age group. Cristina tells him that he has spikes in his temporal lobe, which means he has epilepsy, not psychic visions. She says she's going to order an MRI so she can take a closer look at his brain, and he's all, yeah, there's no way--whooooowaaaaahwaaaaah. That's my shorthand for "Duff makes a spooky-ass face." Duff looks over at Cristina and says, "I wouldn't have picked you for the mommy track, Nurse Betty." D'oh! Cristina just backs the hell off of him and walks out as he tells her she can't run away from this pregnancy thing. Cristina's like, watch me, psych boy!
She heads right over to Bailey and asks off the psychic case. "Ask nicely," smirks Bailey. "This is me doing nicely," says Cristina. Hee. Izzie offers to take him because she's seen his sideshow before. Bailey agrees to the switch after Cristina offers to do her post-op notes for a month. She hands Izzie Duff's file and tells Cristina she's with her on the breast cancer case. "Oh, and there's spotting. You'll need to do a pelvic. She's pregnant." Bailey walks off and Cristina looks up like, greaaaaat. Apparently I CAN'T run from this pregnancy thing.
After the break, Mere and Dere look over the paralyzed guy's films. Mere says they're clear and there's no reason for his creeping paralysis. Derek's surprised; he expected she'd find something. Mere's all, well, you don't always get what you expect, now do you? She's such a pill. Derek agrees with me because he shoots her a look and asks her what the hell her problem is. She wants him to give her something to go on; what are his grandparents' names? Oh, please. I dated a guy for eight months and I didn't even know the name of his father, okay? They've been screwing for a week or two and she wants his damn lineage? She continues to badger him with questions about where he spent his summer vacations and what his favorite ice cream is and he just gets up and walks out, throwing, "Lighten up! It'll be good for your blood pressure!" over his shoulder as he leaves. Heh. "Oh, don't you tell me to lighten up!" she yells at his retreating back. "I'll lighten up when I...FEEL LIGHT." Yeah. That'll be aaaaany day now.
Bailey and Cristina are with the breast cancer patient and her husband. They seem to be delivering the bad news that the woman has invasive carcinoma. Cristina channels her inner anti-Dr. Quinn and rattles off that surgery, chemo, radiation, and drug therapy are their only options. I love her, but DAMN she has the worst bedside manner known to mankind. The woman wants to wait until the end of her pregnancy, but Cristina just impatiently informs her that the pregnancy hormones will likely spread the growth of the cancer. "And the baby?" asks the husband. "Oh, none of these courses of treatment will allow the baby to survive," says Cristina matter-of-factly. Bailey visibly cringes. "Mr. and Mrs. Glass," she says, "I understand how difficult this is for you--" "No disrespect," says Mrs. Glass, "but like HELL you do." Bailey takes this in stride and says they'll have to choose how to proceed ASAP. "You mean my baby's life or my own?" says Mrs. Glass. Bailey considers for a moment and then just quietly says, "Yes." The Glasses try to comfort each other.
The Medicine Crüe is hanging out at a station, kibitzing and yammering at each other. Alex is still giving George shit about the intubation and George is basically screaming at everyone that he's good at things. Cristina, having had quite enough, tells George he needs to get laid and that the redheaded nurse across the way is single. George is all, I INTUBATED SOMEONE. Alex is all, you are seriously tweaked out. Maybe you should see the psychic. Izzie's all, DUFF IS NOT A PSYCHIC, HE'S A PSYCHO. Cristina's all, George? Go buy her a latte and freshen up your gonad, please, FOR ALL OUR SAKES. Izzie chortles and George tells her that she could call her mother about that recipe. Izzie ignores him and he finally just walks away, his purpose as the most annoying fuzzy stuffed intern having been served.
Mrs. Glass is telling Cristina about the miracle of her being forty-seven and pregnant. She talks on and on about fertility treatments and acupuncture and trying to get pregnant and Cristina just continues on with her tests without saying a word. "Then, one awesome night on the beach with a bottle of merlot..." says Mrs. Glass. Cristina just interrupts her and says she should have the labs back in a couple of hours. Mrs. Glass asks Cristina if she understands her hesitation with the decision. Cristina gives her one of her trademark "I call bullshit" looks and launches into a mini-speech. "You have advanced-stage carcinoma. You're forty-seven years old, so statistically, you have a good probability of survival. Forego treatment, chances are you won't see your baby go to kindergarten, so whose life are you interested in saving?" Damn. I mean, good point, but still. Damn. Mrs. Glass just looks at her like, wow. Bedside manner is NOT your strong suit, eh? Cristina packs her shit and rushes out of the room before she starts uncharacteristically crying or something.
Back with Walker, Derek and Meredith are still trying to figure out what's going on with the guy when he suddenly yells that he can't move his hands now. He can't squeeze Derek's fingers, nor can he feel anything on his chest or arms. He orders a nurse to cancel the second MRI and prep an OR stat. Meredith's stunned. "You're operating? On what? If there was something to fix, wouldn't we have seen it?" Derek thinks the MRI missed a clot in his upper spine, so he's going to cut him open and find the problem. Mere wonders what will happen if he's wrong. Unnecessary spinal surgery could cause more damage than good. Derek just says that if they wait any longer, they'll have a paralyzed man who can't breathe on their hands. "I'm trusting my instincts," says Derek. "Sometimes you've got to take a chance to save a life." Also? Stop asking me so many damn questions, Nosy Parker. Sometimes you've got to take a chance on a hot doctor who treats you (occasionally) like shit.
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Alex is running a sonogram on Devo's chest. He tells her that her leaky valves are getting leakier. He rubs the gel off her chest and she asks if he's hitting on her. He makes this hilarious face and asks her if she wants him to hit on her. "I hear they call you Dr. Evilspawn," says Devo. Heh. I hadn't heard that before, but I like it. Devo tells him that being a teenager these days is hard because her friends spend most of their time screwing around and getting wasted. "At least I have God," she says. "Well, so God wants you to die, huh?" says Alex. Devo says that God wants her to be passionate about what she believes in; Alex doesn't believe in anything. Alex says his mom used to pray to Saint Jude for him. "How appropriate," says Devo. "The patron saint of lost causes." Alex makes another cute face at her and just goes, "Mmmm" in a tone that suggests he's really saying, "Why I oughta!"
Izzie informs Bailey that Duff's MRI came out clean, but there's an AVM on his right temporal lobe. Izzie says she'll schedule the OR for tonight and Bailey's all, ooooh, hold up, girl! We have to show the films to the attending, follow protocol, you know? Izzie's all, but we can fix him, right? RIGHT? Because I don't want him getting all creeped up in my bizness, anymore, you dig? Bailey says that Izzie gets too involved with her patients and that she needs to take a step back. Izzie fakely claims that it's not personal and walks off to have some more non-personal interactions with Duff.
Derek and Meredith are checking out Walker's spine. Derek's doing the cutting and Mere's hitting the bleeders. Mere still doesn't think they should be doing this and Derek thinks Walker may have a spinal hematoma, which is very nearly always fatal. Mere says he's cutting blind and that they should be more practical and Derek says he needs to see more of the spine and then he EWWWWWW calls for a retractor and RETRACTS the skin and I'm totally eating chicken and tater tots right now and this is really gross. Mere goes, "Wow" at the spine and Derek says that there's no "wow" in "practical."
Bailey and Cristina go to check on the Glasses. Mr. Glass says they've decided to go ahead with the fetal evacuation. They never once say "abortion" in this episode, did you notice that? Mrs. Glass says in a falsely blasé voice, "What the hell, right? Maybe this is how it's supposed to be." Her husband looks back at her with a sad expression. Bailey says they'll need to start chemo right away and she and Cristina exit. "Have you ever done a D and C before?" Bailey asks Cristina. Cristina says they learned at school. Bailey says she can go ahead with it and that she'll call an OB res to come down to supervise. Oh, man. She's pregnant and about to have an abortion and then she has to perform an abortion on someone else? Harsh, man. And I believe I've covered the quota for saying the word "abortion" the most times in one recap.
Alex and George are hanging out in the research lab. George is staring at Alex. "You're using up my oxygen, O'Malley," Alex snarks. "How does a pompous, cocky jackass like you always have women all over him?" asks George in amazement. Because he's a pompous, cocky jackass, George. Women don't like nice guys, dude. They'll never admit that, but it's true. But after we've gone through enough pompous cocky jackasses to last a lifetime, we finally come around and realize that nice guys really DO finish last and we want us one o' dem. Unfortunately, they're usually all taken by then. Alex serves up a bunch of smartass answers and then he suddenly says, "There it is, a bovine xenograft." I...tried looking that up but...um, did I mention that I'm eating? Alex cheers for himself and gets up to leave, but sees George giving him the sad eyes, so he stops. "O'Malley, you think too much. Can't you see it? You gotta dance and jab. Dance and jab. Like me. I am the Ali of this place." He dances and jabs off with a smirk, leaving George to ponder why Alex is equating himself to a B-list actress with a role on a new show about everyday superheroes.
Devo's in her room, praying to the wall. Alex enters. "Does the wall ever bow back?" Heh. He's such a smartass. But that's totally something I'd say. I'm really disrespectful. To everyone. Regardless of their religion. Devo finishes praying and turns around. "It's called 'davening', smart ass. This is me communing with God, and you're interrupting." Hee. I dig her. Alex tells them that he's found a valve replacement option. At first he thought cadaver, but they're really hard to find. Then he realized that Burke can transplant a bovine mitral valve instead of a pig. Burke enters at this point and hears this and he gets a look on his face that's like, oh no you didn't! The parents turn to Burke and ask why this wasn't mentioned as an option before. Burke is all, Karev? Can I speak with you? But Alex is on a roll and he starts explaining how bovine replacement's relatively new. Burke interrupts and says it's much more complex than a porcine replacement and Alex smarts that it's actually superior to the pig because it lasts longer. He's awfully pleased with himself. Burke invites him outside so that he can take the air out of his tires.
"What incredibly small fraction of your brain were you using in there?" he snaps at Alex. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you not present an alternative without consulting your attending first?" "I thought you'd be--" "What, impressed? That's just stupid!" "I'm sorry--" "We're finished here, Karev. You're off this case." Alex is floored. Not feeling so special right now, are we Alex? Speaking of "special," Izzie reluctantly enters Duff's room and flings some consent forms at him so they can proceed with his surgery. Duff says he's not signing a damn thing unless it's got his name on it followed by a whole bunch of zeros. Izzie tries to be realistic with him, saying that the AVM could kill him and that they know his visions are actually seizures. Duff's all, oh, do you really now? You sure about that? Izzie's sick of his shit.
"You're really good at reading people, aren't you?" she asks. "Telling them what they want to hear?" Duff just ignores her question and says something about Saturn being in alignment with Jupiter. Izzie's irritated. "Okay, I know what you're doing. You watch people, read their body language. You say 'chocolate cupcakes,' I lean towards you, so, you think you're on the right track. Not only do you know you're having seizures, but you're milking it!" Wow. Someone had a bad experience at a sideshow gypsy tent. Duff contemplates her for a second. "Well, we'll just see about that, cricket," he says. Izzie's all, the huh? Whuh? What'd you just call me? Duff just laughs and returns to his astrology chart.
Cristina carries her handy-dandy D and C kit into Mrs. Glass's room and tells her that the OB res should be down soon and that the procedure's so quick, her husband can even stay for it! Yay! If I were a man about to lose his one shot at a baby, I know I'd definitely want to stick around to watch while someone sucks it up into a tube! Try to grow a heart every ONCE in a while, Cristina, okay? Mrs. Glass just smiles brightly and tells Cristina that they changed their minds. They're keeping the baby. Cristina is all, does not compute. She reminds Mrs. Glass that she has cancer, but Mrs. Glass wants to know if she can get a guarantee that she'll survive if they go through with the treatments. "Having the procedure doesn't necessarily improve the treatment outcome," responds Cristinabot. "You have quite the bedside manner, you know that, right?" chortles Mrs. Glass. She goes on to say that her mother died of breast cancer, so her chances of surviving aren't really high. So she might as well have a few years of happiness with her husband and her baby. Mr. Glass looks lovingly at his wife. Cristina says she'll order a psych consultation. "Don't bother," says Mrs. Glass. "I am going to get fat and happy instead of skinny and bald and, if at the end of it all--" "Look," says Cristina, "if you want to live--" "Honey, that's what I'm doing," says Mrs. Glass. She turns to her husband and Cristina leaves.
Down in one of the break rooms, Cristina sits by herself and thinks about what she's going to do. Burke enters and Cristina quickly puts any idea of sex right out of his mind, saying that she's not in the mood. He sits down across from her and says that he's not in the mood either. After a few seconds of silence, Cristina's all, uh, whaddya want? He doesn't want anything; he just hasn't seen her all day. Aw. But Cristina's not in the mood for sweet talk either. Burke suddenly spills that he's never done a bovine replacement before and he doesn't know what he's doing. Cristina's all heart. "Look it up, research it and get someone to assist you." Nice. Burke scoffs and says it isn't that easy. "This is a problem that has a solution, Burke," says Cristina. "There are a lot of problems that don't." She has a point. He's considerably cowed. Way to make your boyfriend feel like shit, Crissy.
Mere and Dere are still elbows-deep in Walker's spine, and they've yet to find anything. Mere thinks that maybe Walker just injured his spinal cord and there's nothing to fix. Derek chides Meredith for depending too much on her books, but before she can deliver a tasty retort, Walker's pressure starts going up. Mere asks what's going on and all I can make out is that Walker's BP is wonky and that it has to do with potential nerve damage. Mere's concerned. Derek says they have to get the blood clot out, dammit! He tells Mere to keep on the bleeders and keep looking for the clot.
George is shuffling down a hallway when the pretty redheaded nurse comes out and tells him that her patient's pulse oxygen is dropping and she needs to be intubated. "Isn't...there...anyone else who can do this?" asks George. Red is all, uh, dude? You're standing right here. Grab your nuts in one hand and intubate my damn patient with the other! In an effort to impress the girl, George smoothly and quickly intubates the patient as Burke just happens to pass by the window. "Smooth moves, doctor," says the nurse. "Kicked ass," smurfs George. Burke watches all of this and seems to consider something.
Later that day, Alex is coming down some stairs as Burke is coming up. Burke nonchalantly asks how quickly he can get a cow valve, and Alex says it'd take about sixty minutes by messenger. "You're scrubbing in," says Burke. Alex thanks him profusely. "This doesn't get you any points, Karev. I'm the only one with points around here, okay?" Alex nods in agreement and starts to leave. "Oh, by the way, Karev," says Burke. "Devo wants a rabbi to bless her before her surgery." "Seriously?" "You came up with the cow, you can find that girl a rabbi." Heh.
Checking in with Walker's back, Derek suddenly spies something on the third thoracic vertebrae. Mere sees it too. I guess it's the clot they've been looking for. Mere can't believe it's there. Derek acts like he knew it was there all along. Smug bastard. After the surgery, Mere and Dere exit the OR and she asks if Walker's going to be okay. Derek thinks so. Mere's all, but you don't know for sure. Derek says he knows that they stopped the paralysis from advancing. Mere says he doesn't know if the paralysis that's already occurred will be permanent. Derek agrees that he doesn't know that. "You know, you keep taking everything on faith," she says as they wash their hands. "How do you know what's real and what's not?" "You just do," he says. "Oh, and you stop ASKING SO MANY FREAKING QUESTIONS." Mere just looks at him and Derek says, "You know, some people would call this a relationship. The kind where you exchange keys, leave your toothbrush over." "Who?" she asks. "Who would call it that?" "Me. I would." "And I'm supposed to believe you." "Uh-huh." "Show me something. Give me a reason to believe." He just looks at her and then walks away. GOD.
Mrs. Glass is packing up her things. Cristina enters and basically flings her discharge papers onto the bed. "Ohhhh, you're not happy with me, are you?" chides Mrs. Glass. "I'm your doctor," says Cristina. "It's not my place to be happy." No, but it's your place to BE KIND sometimes. Mrs. Glass tries to explain that her husband and their child are going to be together long after she's gone. "It's our decision and that's okay," she says. "So why do you need my approval?" asks Cristina. "I just want you to understand," says Mrs. Glass. "Well, I don't," says Cristina. She walks out. Well. That's that, then.
Duff's room. Izzie enters. Duff is looking sadly off into nowhere. Izzie wants him to sign his consent forms because his surgeon's already schedule the OR. He doesn't respond, so she asks if he's having another seizure. He kind of clears his throat and says that he thinks maybe he is having another seizure. Izzie reluctantly asks what it is. Duff says that it's him, that he thinks it's about to over, that he's going to die. Izzie assures him that they know what they're doing and they caught the AVM just in time. She says he's not going to die. But he's not talking about that. "My whole life has been about what I see," he says. "And about believing in myself, whatever people think. And you're telling me there's a very good chance that will go away." Izzie tries to convince him that he's a healthy guy and that he's going to live a long, full life; and if his psychic visions are real, he's got to believe that he'll still have them when he comes out of surgery. She hands him the consent forms and he signs them. Guess that "cricket" thing really made her change her tune, huh?
Oh, cool. A female rabbi is blessing Devo before she goes under the knife. Man, I love to listen to Hebrew blessings. I find them oddly soothing. Once the rabbi's done, Burke gives the anesthesiologist the nod that it's okay to put Devo out and she goes under quickly. Burke then turns to a TV monitor and introduces a Dr. Chesney; he's an expert on bovine valve replacement surgery and he's going to basically walk Burke through the procedure. Awesome. Chesney starts talking and Burke puts on his gown and gets ready to do the surgery.
The Medicine Crüe Hallway of Insecurities. Mere is whinging on about how she tried to talk Shepherd out of the clot surgery. "What is wrong with me?" "Basically," says Alex, "you tried to kill the guy." "Basically, you're an ass," says Cristina. "Oh, you know you want it," retorts Alex. "Come to papi, baby." Hee. George enters and points at his nametag. "This? This is George. And George? Has a hot date." Meredith giggles and tells him that that's great. Yeah, I'm sure he cares what YOU think, Meredith. Alex gets up and tells him to look in the left pocket of his lab coat. "No glove, no love." George kind of disdains him for a second, but thinks again and grabs a condom quickly. Tee hee. Izzie announces that her psychic had his surgery and now she's wondering about his...gift. Meredith points out that Izzie previously didn't believe in that hokum. Izzie says that she grew up in a trailer park and that she waited tables, which was supposed to put her through college, but her mother was always calling these psychic hotlines, finally creating a pile of bills. Izzie had to use her waitressing cash to pay them. So she basically has a grudge against psychics. "But this guy has been saying things to me," she says, "things he couldn't possibly know anything about. So...I just...wonder."
Mere checks on Walker, asking him if he has any sensation. He says he has feeling in his stomach and feet, but his bladder and bowels aren't so good. His wife and kids are standing by, watching. One of his little boys lays his hand down on his father's arm and Mere watches, hoping that Walker feels it. But he just kind of sees it. The little boy looks sad. Wah! Walker thanks Meredith for everything, especially for believing in him and that he wasn't making it all up. Mere's all, WELL I'LL COME BACK TOMORROW THEN! Heh. Then Walker goes, "Hey, I wanted to show you something. Wasn't sure it would last, but now...look." He wiggles his finger just a little bit. "I know it's hardly anything but--" "No," says Mere with a smile. "It's something. It's something really big!"
Tegan and Sara appear on the soundtrack as Meredith's voice-over says, "At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it." Izzie rides the elevator with Duff. He wakes. She tells him he's still with them. He tells her that for her recipe she needs to use one tablespoon of coconut extract. Izzie almost falls to the floor. Mere's voice-over keeps going, "It's like, one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed." Outside the hospital, McDreamy escorts Meredith to his car and she asks where they're going. He tells her to trust him. The VO again: "The castle? Well, it may not be a castle." Cristina is milling around a hallway as she sees the Glasses being escorted to the hospital exit. They look overjoyed. Cristina looks like she's going to vomit. Alex is listening to Devo's heart and she asks if it beats or moos. Heh. Burke watches them and smiles. And some more VO: "And it's not so important that it's happy ever after. Just that it's happy right now."
In Izzie's Kitchen of Anger and Avoidance, she's just finished whipping up a batch of coconut extract cupcakes. She takes a bite and realizes that it's the real thing. So she picks up the phone and calls her mom. "Mom? It's me. Cricket." Duff really IS a psychic! Mere's VO: "See, once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you." Dere and Mere are walking along an empty expanse of grass. Mere, once again, is full of questions. "Where are we?" Derek shushes her and says that he's going to tell her where they are. He stops and turns to her. "Alright. My mother's maiden name, Maloney. I have four sisters. I have, uh, nine nieces. Five nephews. I like coffee ice cream, single-malt scotch, occasionally a good cigar, I like to fly-fish. I cheat when I do the crossword puzzle on Sunday. And I never dance in public. Um, favorite novel, The Sun Also Rises. Favorite band, The Clash. My favorite color is blue. I don't like light blue. Indigo. The scar, right here on my forehead, that's why I don't ride motorcycles anymore. And I live in that trailer." He turns and points to a Silver Bullet trailer behind him. Mere just smiles at him. "All this land is mine and I have no idea what I'm gonna do with it. So that's it. That's all you've earned for now. The rest you're just...just gonna have to take on faith." Mere turns and starts to walk toward the trailer. "And once in awhile," says her voiceover, "people may even take your breath away." She reaches out her hand to him and they run, run, run to the door so they can go have sex on a bed the size of a postage stamp. Yay for trailer sex!