Superstition

Four patients die in quick succession, and according to intel from "the guy in the morgue," these deaths come in threes and sevens. Oh, who will be ? It's a tossup between a woman who fell out of a tree while stalking her boyfriend; a very annoying man with a head injury and a bad case of OCD; Webber's old AA sponsor (!), who needs a liver transplant; and of course, our old friend Denny the Magical Heart Patient. All this action has our doctors in a superstitious tizzy. Addison runs around handing out good juju in the form of hot chocolate, even to Meredith. Burke blames his first patient's death on his lack of personalized scrub caps. When he finds out that Cristina has one stashed away in her locker, he orders his guy George to get it back before he operates on Denny. George fails, but when Izzie finds out, she threatens to literally kick Cristina's ass if she doesn't return it. Cristina does, and -- surprise! -- Denny lives. Izzie, by the way, is supremely irritating for the entire hour, especially when she dumps Alex for her soulmate Denny. It does prompt Alex, however, to awesomely get in George's face about what a pussy he's being re: Meredith. This in turn prompts George to finally move the frick on and ask Dr. Callie out on a date. Oh, and the other two patients die, bringing the death tally up to six, and proving the guy in the morgue wrong. We can only hope this means Denny's time is coming.

We open with outside shots of Seattle Grace. Mere voice-overs that her college campus has a magic statue the nose of which students rub for good luck. Inside shots of the hospital flash by as Mere tells us that her freshman roommate really believed in the statue's power, and insisted on rubbing its nose before every exam. That sounds kind of weird, and besides, what if the statue has a cold? MereVO: "Studying might have been a better idea; she flunked out sophomore year. But we all have little superstitious things that we do." Now we see how the doctors are superstitious before surgery: Addison pins her wedding ring to her scrubs and pats it; Burke frets about his personalized scrub caps, which didn't come in the laundry delivery, and then cracks his neck; McDreamy says, "All right, everybody. It's a beautiful morning to save lives. Let's have some fun!" Hee. Bailey's superstitious tell is closing her eyes, leaning her head back, and taking a huge breath. She recovers and snaps, "10 blade!" Suddenly, all the surgeries go wrong. Bailey's patient spurts blood everywhere, Burke's patient crashes dramatically, Addison's has a bad reaction, and McDreamy's doesn't like him rooting around in the middle of his brain. They all die. MereVO: "Knock on wood. Step on a crack, break your mother's back. The last thing we want to do is offend the gods."

In the interns' locker room, George whines, "Four surgeries, four fatalities, and the day's barely started." He asks for a bite of Cristina's breakfast bar. She refuses, saying that he's already in her apartment -- he doesn't get to be in her food. Izzie says that she talked to the morgue guy this morning, and that he said that fatalities come in threes and sevens, so there'll be three more before midnight. Cristina is skeptical, but Izzie's all, "He's the morgue guy! He knows things about death!" Mere tries to hand George something he's dropped, but he pointedly turns around and leaves without taking it. This is going to become very annoying very quickly. Alex is trying to ask Izzie why she snuck out last night when Bailey calls them all down to the ER: "We've all had deaths, now let's go save a life." The interns follow, and are interrupted by Addison handing Bailey a cup of hot chocolate. She explains that it's a little ritual they had in New York -- four surgeries, four deaths, they can all use some good "juju." Bailey's all, "And...hot cocoa equals juju how?" Addison commands her not to question the cocoa, and then hands Meredith one too. She's all shy about it, saying, "Thanks. You know, thank you. For your help. This morning." Aw. McDreamy receives his own juju from Addison, commenting, "You jujued Meredith?" Addison says that she did; she did juju Meredith, we all juju, too. McDreamy says that's very big of Addison, being friends with Meredith. Addison pretends it's no big deal -- McDreamy and Mere are friends, so she and Meredith are friends by proxy, right? McDreamy: "Well, it's not like I'm going to be friends with, say...Mark." Addison says that neither is she, and that he should finish his juju before somebody else dies. I love this Addison!

Mere, juju-hater that she is, takes one sip of the hot juju cocoa and chucks it in the trash. Meanwhile, Burke is on the phone with the laundry about his "ten scrub caps with colorful patterns that were sent out last night." Heeee. He runs into Webber, who offers his condolences on his valve-replacement surgery, and tells Burke not to listen to the rumors going around about fatalities in threes and sevens. Burke is still on the phone: "Look, are you sure they weren't sent to another hospital?" Webber asks a nurse, who is busy erasing names from the board, how many electives they've cancelled today. The nurse says they've cancelled three. Webber: "And what have the surgeons been giving as a reason?" Burke, still on the phone: "Because I prefer my OWN CAPS?!?" Webber tells the nurse that no one changes that board unless they talk to Webber first.

Down in the ER, Cristina remarks that it sure is quiet today. Bailey and the others can't believe she just said the "'Q' word." Cristina scoffs, "Please. You think just because someone says it's quiet that it'll mean..." Just then the door bangs open to reveal two women stumbling in, one of them coughing up blood. The other one is just there to hold up the woman coughing up blood. Izzie's and Alex's pagers go off, signaling the siren call of one Denny Duquette. A nurse hangs up the phone and calls out, "Two incoming!" Bailey gives Cristina a knowing look, which Cristina tries to ignore. But she can't, because it's all her fault!

In the ambulance bay, Cristina is introduced to her patient: a young man involved in a rear-end collison. His head hit the windshield, and he appears to be counting on his fingers as Cristina assesses him. Before he can be wheeled off to his CT scan, though, he stops them: "Wait! I'm counting the siren whoops. We can't go until it reaches thirty-three." Grouchy Paramedic informs Cristina that he also seems to have a touch of OCD. Just a touch, huh?

Meredith's patient is a woman who says she's been struck by lightning. She talks a lot. No, a LOT. Here's her babble, culled down to a reasonable number of words: horoscope said not to leave house today. Left anyway. Whoops! Struck by lightning. Bailey finds this strange, since the woman has no sign of having been struck by lightning. "Nikki" admits that she wasn't struck struck -- a tree was struck, and it fell on her. Well, a branch. Fine, a limb. Nikki has obviously been struck by what, in layman's terms, is called "lying." She claims that it's the same difference, whether she was struck by lightning or hit with a tree branch. Bailey's like, "No, actually, medically, it isn't. And from now on, it would be helpful if you told us the whole truth." Nikki has a tiny scratch above her eye, which Meredith moves to check. Nikki winces in great pain and crazies, "You wanna know the truth? My boyfriend LOVED that tree! He's totally gonna freak OUT!" Oookay.

George finds Webber to tell him that there's someone named "Ms. Warner" down in Admitting who's asking for him. Webber has no idea who this is until George elaborates further that the woman's name is Olive Warner, she's in her fifties, and she says she's known Webber for about twenty years. Webber: "You talking about Ollie?" George is all, "Uh huh. Right." George says that she presented with upper G.I. bleeding and had a TIPPS procedure last month for esophageal varices. Oh, those. I get them all the time. Tums helps. Poignant music plays as Webber catches a glimpse of the patient. He tells George that he'll take it from here, and greets Ollie with a sweet hello. Ollie, who is being played by the excellent Mary Kay Place, pats his hand fondly and says it's good to see him. Boy, that Webber loves his blondes.

Izzie examines Denny as Alex reports on his condition, which involves lots of big words and is bad. Denny is clearly having trouble breathing. Izzie asks him how bad the pain is, and he says it's about a five or six when he breathes. Alex: "That means a seven or eight when you're not trying to impress your doctor." And here's the first of several "Aw, snap!"s that Alex will receive tonight. Denny pants that he heard four patients died earlier, and that they were expecting three more. He himself would like to avoid the OR right about now. He deduces from Izzie's and Alex's looks that there's a slim chance of that. Izzie gently explains that he could be experiencing a pulmonary embolism -- a complication from his surgery -- and that they're going to have to consult Burke. Izzie looks depressed, and mournful music plays.

Mere wheels Nikki into the elevator with Cristina and the OCD Guy, and sighs, "I got hot chocolated. The She-Shepherd hot-chocolated me. It's her juju." Cristina: "I don't like people to say 'juju.'" Heh. Nikki butts in, "I like juju." OCD Guy: "Juju juju juju. Juju juju juju." Mere says that she didn't drink the hot chocolate. Nikki butts

in again: "You're not obligated to honor someone else's juju." This word is making me sad. Cristina thought Mere and Addison were friends. Mere says she is friends, with him; does she have to be Addison's friend, too? Nikki: "Definitely not!" Shut up, Nikki. The elevator dings. As they exit, OCD Guy chants more "juju"s. Mere says that she'll call Psych. Cristina: "That'd be good." What, Cristina doesn't juju too?

Nikki screams. I guess it's a step up from her incessant jabbering. Dr. Callie Torres, who's the perpetrator of the pain, has popped her, uh, calf bone back into joint or something. Nikki wails that she never should have gotten out of bed, it's just that her boyfriend had something important to do today and she just wanted to go over and surprise him and wish him luck, you know? I hate Nikki so much. George walks in and asks Dr. Callie if he can give her a hand. Callie: "You missed the boat, George." She's obviously not talking about the leg boat: "A hot chick gives you her number, you're supposed to call." George says that he was going to, really. Nikki, who continues to never shut up, advises George not to give up -- not if he really likes her! Thankfully, Mere enters the room, causing George to leave and the conversation to be over. Callie tells Nikki that Mere's going to take her upstairs for a CT, but before she does, Callie has to ask: "You're bruised all up and down your leg. You sure a tree branch did all this to you?" With a maximum of talking, Nikki confesses that she wasn't actually standing under the tree when it was struck by lightning -- she was in it. You know, just looking over into her boyfriend's yard. I'm sorry, her "boyfriend's" yard. For his "dog." Because she really wanted it to be a "surprise." And the weird thing is, her boyfriend wasn't even there! She finishes by repeating, "I really shouldn't have gotten out of bed." No, and I'm not sure how you escaped from the restraints they had you in at the LOONY BIN.

Cristina runs into Burke elsewhere in the hospital, and says she's sorry about that valve replacement. Burke: "Thanks. Yeah, the laundry guy lost my caps." Aw, Burke. Cristina says that, surely, the guy didn't die just because of that. Burke's all, "Oh, no, I know that. I just prefer to operate wearing my own. It's a comfort thing. You know." Cristina says that she prefers having George out of their apartment, so she guesses they both have "comfort things." She "suddenly" remembers that she has one of Burke's caps in her locker: "But I think I'm gonna keep it hostage. So you kick Bambi out, and you get the cap back." Awesome. Burke says he doesn't do well with ultimatums. Cristina tells him to think of it more as a...trade.

Just as Cristina walks off, George appears to ask Burke if he needs any help with any cases. Burke says that, actually, he does, and ushers George into the privacy of the elevator: "Cristina has something of mine, and I need you to get it back."

Webber walks into Ollie's room and asks the young lady fussing over her to give them a minute alone. When she leaves, Ollie says, "She's my new baby. Six months sober, and already on the ninth step." Webber says that Ollie must be proud, and asks how long she's been on the transplant list. Ollie replies that it's been a couple of years. Webber removes his glasses in a gesture of seriousness and tells Ollie that the cirrhosis is preventing blood from flowing into her liver, which is backing up into her esophagus: "It's serious, Ollie." Ollie's like, "Duh. You don't puke blood unless it's serious. The question is, can you treat it?" Webber says maybe, surgically, but that they'll have to run more tests -- and that whatever they do is a stopgap, because she needs a new liver. Ollie: "Yet another reason I should have laid off the sauce." Mmm, sauce. There's an awkward moment of silence, after which Ollie is concerned that Webber looks scared. Webber says that he is scared. Ollie changes the subject: "Haven't seen you at a meeting in a while." Webber brushes this off, all, "Meeting? What meeting? How have you been?" Ollie reminds him that they're talking about him. Webber sits down on the bed: "Ellis Grey's daughter is working at the hospital. Ellis is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's. I try to go see her every chance I get." Ollie shakes her head in disbelief: "You're having an affair with the woman who drove you to your alcoholic bottom?" Hee. Webber insists that he and Ellis aren't having an affair; Ellis is sick. Ollie knows better, knows he's lying to his wife, as well as having an emotional affair with a dying woman: "And now you're lying to your sponsor about it!" Webber corrects, "You haven't been my sponsor in years." Ollie says that she still has the right to bust Webber's ass if she sees him slipping, which he might not be doing yet, but he sure is making a pretty big mess. Webber gets up and goes to stand by the window, his back to her. She asks how many years he has now. Webber: "Just past seventeen." Ollie says she's proud of him, adding, "And I'm scared, too." Webber turns to face Ollie and says, "You got me sober, Ollie. You walked me through it. And I'm gonna walk you through this." Even though this storyline is kind of silly, aw. Commercials.

When we return, George is rummaging through Cristina's locker for Burke's precious scrub cap. She busts him, of course. George says that he'll do the dishes for a month if she gives it to him. Cristina: "I don't do dishes." George: "I'll do the laundry." Cristina: "I don't do laundry." Ha! George says it's too bad Burke likes having him around more. Cristina: "Interesting, interesting. Are you having sex with him? No? Yeah, I think he likes having me around more." George, knowing he's defeated on this point, asks her what she wants for the cap. She wants him to leave. George brats that he's not leaving until Burke says he has to. Cristina says George is not getting the cap, then: "Now clean up my crap." George says he won't, and slams the locker door. That'll show her!

Bailey and Mere are looking at Annoying Nikki's scans. Her spleen is lacerated, unfortunately, from...falling out of a tree? Okay. Bailey would like to know why Nikki was climbing a tree in the first place. Mere says she thinks Nikki might be just a little bit of a stalker. "More of a gentle stalker than a kill-you-with-a-knife stalker," she adds. Bailey hopes Nikki lives to gently stalk another day. Let's hope she comes down with a wicked case of tongue paralysis. Mere asks Bailey whether she believes in this seven-fatality thing. Bailey: "I believe this girl needs her spleen removed. Now go pick up her labs and get her on the board!"

Denny's magical heart test. Izzie tells him it's almost over. Denny randomly asks her if she likes horses. Izzie says that everyone likes horses. Denny says that's not true, and that horses are a great judge of character -- they can sense you don't like them, and then they don't like you back. What the hell is he talking about? Alex hilariously interjects, "I've got an uncle that's a rodeo cowboy." This is the most surreal scene in the series. Burke tells Denny that his clot is large, and that he can't get it with the catheter: "I'm sorry. We're going to have to open your chest again." Toilet parking lot melting clock!

OCD Guy is OCDing bad as they prep him for his MRI. He explains that he was rear-ended because he was counting the clicks on his turn signal, and couldn't move his car until he hit three hundred thirty-three. The hospital psychologist is there assessing him. He asks when the OCD started. OCD Guy says he's had it all his life, but it didn't get bad until around when he turned thirty, when it ruined his marriage, and now he can't hold a job. Cristina asks him to move over onto the MRI machine, but he needs to know if it's clean first: "Is it clean, clean, clean?" Cristina's like, "We clean it between each patient?" The psychologist tells her OCD Guy needs her to say the actual words "clean, clean, clean." Cristina: "It's clean clern cl." Hee. As OCD Guy moves himself onto the machine, he intones, "Find a penny pick it up. Al

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l day long you'll have good luck." Repeat, repeat, repeat. Clean, clean, clean. The psychologist tells Cristina it's classic behavior -- OCD Guy needs to say repetitive rhymes or prayers a certain number of times, usually in multiples of three. Then he asks, "Uh, is that...normal?" Cristina looks over, and George is pressing his face up to the window, making faces and being generally annoying. Cristina: "Just don't look at him."

Mere literally runs into McDreamy in the hall, and is all big smiles until Addison walks over all, "Hey! Oh, hey!" Mere smiles some more, this time fakely, and indicates that she has very important, other places to be. McDreamy does the same, leaving Addison and her juju-self alone in the hall. She says, to no one in particular, "Oh, I have something, too!" Aw, she's so great in this episode.

Webber is breaking the news to Ollie and Gretchen that he's going to have to put in a very complicated and dangerous something called a "portacaval shunt." There is only a 50% survival rate, he says. Ollie asks what her other choice is, and his silence confirms that that's about it. Ollie wants to know if he'll be the one to do it. Webber says that he's performed this surgery nine times, and had four patients survive. Ollie: "It's perfect, then. I'll be your five out of ten."

Over in Krazytown, Nikki is informing Mere and Bailey that she's sure the spleen is very important, but that she is not, under any circumstances, having surgery today: "You can operate after midnight, but not one minute before." Bailey tries to impress upon Nikki the importance of having surgery right away: "Your spleen is bleeding. Spleen trumps horoscope!" Nikki argues that her horoscope was right -- she went out to her car this morning, and had a flat tire. Then there was a wreck on the freeway, but did she turn around? No, she detoured an hour out of her way to get to Kevin's house. And then at Kevin's house, she got struck by lightning! Mere reminds her that she wasn't actually struck by lightning. Nikki spazzes out, saying that she knows she will definitely die if she has this operation today, die die die! She asks Mere to call her boyfriend and tell him she's having an operation at midnight, please. Kookoo! Kookoo! Find a penny pick it up, all day long you'll kookoooooo! Mere says okay, and asks Bailey if she should call Psych. Bailey says that she can try, but in the meantime, Mere should get her to ICU: "Poor girl's gonna kill herself tryin' not to die." And wouldn't that be a blessing for us all.

Alex is alone with Denny, in Denny's room. He does not, as you might expect, try to take Denny for himself; instead, he says that Izzie likes Denny a lot, and that it sure is going to be hard on her if Denny.... "You mean, when I die?" Denny finishes. "I'm asking you. Man to man." Alex says that, with a clot like his, it could cut off the oxygen to his lungs, and that Denny could die of hypoxia: "If the hypoxia doesn't kill you, the strain on your heart will. And you're a serious risk for bleeding because of all the anticoagulants in your system. What I'm saying is, Izzie likes you, and she's not gonna be the one to pull away." Denny breathlessly (ha!) absorbs this. Let's all take a minute to give Alex his second snap of the evening. Commercials.

Mere and Cristina are outside at lunch, comparing notes on their respective insane patients. Cristina says that they should be introduced: "They'd make a nice crazy couple!" Indeed. George slams down his tray and sits close to Cristina. She's all, "I'm sitting here with Meredith. Have some self-respect." George says that Dr. Burke's orders trump any personal issues he might have, and he loudly chews on his sandwich. Go away, George. Cristina explains to Mere that George is trying to stalk Burke's lucky cap from her. Mere: "Burke has hat juju? And you're using it against him?" Cristina says that she has to, because of the clarinet-playing, and the running, and all the bonding with breakfast food. All the while, George keeps moving his chair closer and closer to Cristina's. Go AWAY, George! Izzie sits down in her darling pink ski jacket and starts talking about how all this seven-people-dying-today stuff is just superstitious and ridiculous...right? Cristina's all, "Oh, really, Tinkerbell?" Hee. Mere asks if she's worried about Denny. Izzie says of course she is, he's her patient: "I mean, if you're asking me if I'm 'worried about Denny'...no! I'm sleeping with Alex, so..." Uh huh. She immediately asks Cristina if Burke said anything to her about the case. Cristina says no, it's not her case, and besides, Izzie's sleeping with Alex, right, so why does she care that much? Izzie's all, "Right, I know. Besides, it's just stupid, I mean, there's no such thing as a death cluster. God!" Heeeee. Meanwhile, George is actively chewing so that the food will fall out of his mouth and nearer to Cristina and her secret scrub cap.

OCD Guy is in his room with McDreamy, asking, "You're going to remove part of my skullcap? And the operating room? It's clean, clean, clean?" McDreamy says yes, it's clean, clean, clean. He goes to get ready, and OCD Guy starts flipping his light on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off. Oh, is that bothering you? IT'S BOTHERING ME. Cristina asks if he can stop that, to which he replies, "No, I'm sorry, I can't." Cristina sighs and starts filling out his chart. OCD Guy tells George he knows Cristina is judging him -- it's always the people most like him who judge the most. "You're Type A, right?" he asks her. "Straight-A student, top of your class?" Cristina says yes, she was. OCD Guy says that she's managed to turn her compulsions into something productive, but that they're cut from the same cloth: "That's why you can't stand me." Cristina's all, "Oop! Time to go!" OCD Guy says he's not done. Cristina says, in fact, he is. George, just to be more annoying than he is already being, is like, "Just let him finish!" Ugh.

Gretchen spies Webber loitering outside Ollie's room, which is full of people. She walks out into the hall: "Ollie says you should come in. She says you need a meeting. She said to tell you not to protect your anonymity over your sobriety." Jesus gay. Webber walks reluctantly in, and then really gets into the meeting as they're reciting the Serenity Prayer. He holds hands in a circle and recites it and everything. Ollie is pleased, if liverless at the moment.

Denny's on his way to surgery. Izzie stops him and asks how he's doing. Denny tells her that his will is in his nightstand, and to make sure it gets into the right hands. Izzie asks why they're talking about his will. Denny: "We have to be realistic, Dr. Stevens. And if you can't, then I can." Izzie's all, "'Dr. Stevens'?! Why are you talking to me this way, My Magical Lover?" She says that Denny can't go into surgery thinking he's going to die, but Denny says nothing as he's wheeled into the OR.

George follows Cristina into the women's bathroom. I need him to stop making me hate him. Cristina asks him if he wants her to pee in front of him or not. George thinks Cristina has the scrub cap on her. Cristina: "Oh, really. You want to go there?" George: "I wanna go there. Burke said to do whatever I have to do." He manhandles her all over the sinks, trying to remove the scrub cap from wherever she has it hidden. Cristina fights back mightily, and George might have found it if Callie hadn't exited a stall just then. Cristina: "That's my breast! My breast!" Callie surveys the scene, and then calmly walks over and starts washing her hands: "Dr. O'Malley. You're aware that this is the women's restroom?" Heh. George answers, "Yes ma'am!" Callie leaves. George hangs his head. Cristina: "Dude, you called her 'ma'am.' She's never gonna sleep with you now."

George finds Izzie and asks if she's seen Burke, because Cristina won't give Burke's lucky scrub cap back. Izzie doesn't even wait around for an explanation; she just runs off to find Cristina and pulls her into a supply closet: "George says you have Burke's scrub cap. Give it to him." Cristina says no. Izzie says

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that Burke needs it to operate. Cristina disagrees. Izzie says that's not her decision to make -- not when he's going in on Denny: "Now, are you going to give it to me, or am I going to physically take it from you?" Cristina can't believe this is happening, but stands her ground. Izzie bows up to her and says, "I like you, Cristina, I really do. But I grew up in a trailer park, and I am not above kicking your pampered little Beverly Hills ass. And I do mean physically. Kicking. Your ass." Haaaaa! That almost -- almost -- redeems Izzie for all of her recent ridiculousness. Commercials.

Izzie leads Cristina by the arm over to Burke. Cristina poutily hands him the scrub cap. He thanks her, and asks how long she's had it. Cristina doesn't answer him, but only says that he doesn't need it: "I keep that cap in my locker because every morning I look at it, and I'm reminded of what I'm here for, and what I want to be -- a great surgeon. A surgeon who's decisive, and executes, and doesn't need a piece of clothing to give him an edge in surgery. You don't need it." Burke ponders this and says he knows, she's right. Cristina says she knows she's right, all sassy, and walks away. The minute she does, Burke runs away and puts on his scrub cap. Hee. He passes George in the hall and says he's ready to go.

Krazytown. Mere asks Nikki if it might be possible that she's misreading the signs: "Isn't two surgeons telling you you need surgery a sign that you might need surgery?" Nikki doesn't care; she wants to know if Mere called her boyfriend. Mere says that she did, and he said that he hasn't been Nikki's boyfriend in a while. Well, that's a surprise! Nikki: "Did you tell him I got struck by lightning?" Oh my God. I think I need to hit my alcoholic bottom and then go to an AA meeting.

Alex is getting ready for Denny's surgery when Izzie confronts him: "What did you say to him? Why does Denny think he's dying?" Alex says that maybe it's because there's a good chance he is. Right on. Izzie sniffs, and says, "Just so we're clear? We're over." Alex can't believe she's breaking up with him over a corpse. Izzie says no, she's breaking up with him because on Alex's very best day, that corpse is twice the man Alex will ever be: "You're not good enough for me, Alex. You're not good enough for anyone." Well! Luckily, Burke happens in on this little display of drama, and tells them that neither of them is scrubbing in for the surgery; they're both way too personally involved. Neither, of course, can possibly understand why.

OCD Guy is doing his penny chant in the OR until Cristina tells him she's sorry, she has to give him his anesthetic now. He goes out, and some rock music picks up. We get shots of each surgeon's lucky tell, same as in the beginning of the episode. McDreamy says that it's a beautiful afternoon to save lives, Burke cracks his neck, and Bailey takes her deep breath. Very superstitious! Webber explains Ollie's surgery for his interns and the others watching. Meredith interrupts Bailey's surgery to tell her that there's something wrong with Nikki. She's bleeding out, but Nikki still doesn't want to go into surgery. Mere, in a last resort, tells Nikki that her boyfriend called and said he doesn't want her to die -- will she let them operate? Unfortunately, Nikki loses consciousness before she can answer. Bailey calls a Code Blue and the music gets really loud. As Bailey charges the defibrillator paddles, we go to commercials. Whew!

When we come back, everyone is finishing up their surgeries and/or deaths. Izzie anxiously waits outside, staring at the board. Bailey tries to revive Nikki, unsuccessfully. McDreamy is having problems of his own, but we don't know the result. A technician tells Burke that Denny's losing pressure. Outside, a couple of nurses walk downstairs, talking: "See? Told you there'd be seven." Izzie overhears them and freakily asks, "WHO DIED?" The nurses don't know. One says his money's on the Chief's shunt. Alex sidles over and comments, "I got twenty says Burke's guy went down." Now that was taking it a little too far. Okay, no it wasn't. I like Alex like I like my NBA players: the worse they act, the more I love them. Izzie is just stricken. Bailey and Mere come out and say that they lost Nikki. Mere heard there was a #6, too. Oh, who will it be?

Webber walks out of the OR slowly, and sadly approaches Ollie's little band of friends. He totally fakes us out, with such a sad face, and then says, "She made it through." Gretchen hugs Webber tight and thanks him.

Meanwhile, McDreamy angrily pulls off his mask, and Cristina unhooks poor OCD Guy from the vent. Mere voice-overs, "Superstition lies in the space between what we can control, and what we can't."

Izzie leans against a wall and cries buckets. Denny's dead! Oops, no he isn't. We pan over to him in his bed, and he says, "So I wasn't one of the seven." Izzie walks over to him and says that there were only six. Denny: "Why are you crying?" Izzie wipes away her obvious tears and says that she's not crying. Denny -- in a very sweet way, which I hate because I hate them -- says, "You are too." Izzie says that she cannot fall for a patient. Denny: "Okay. Good luck with that." What can Izzie do but kiss him? I feel that there was no other option, but it could just be because I've nearly reached my alcoholic bottom. MereVO: "Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck."

The rest of the interns are back in the locker room getting ready to go home. George mopes on through, and Alex takes note: "O'Malley, you are a sad excuse for a man." George is all, "'Scuse me?" Alex says that he heard him. So did Mere and Cristina, because they start paying close attention. Alex isn't done: "You're like a whiny little girl. Man, you got laid. It went badly. A man would move on! But you? You mope around this place like a dog that likes to get kicked. You make me SICK, and if it wouldn't get me thrown out of the program, I'd smash your pathetic little face RIGHT into that locker!" Please let us snap a third time for Alex Karev, ladies and gentlemen! He slams his locker shut and leaves the others gaping. Whee!

Cut to Cristina and Burke looking mighty fine and walking out of the hospital together. Mere voice-overs that nobody wants to pass up a chance for good luck, but does saying it thirty-three times really help? Is anyone really listening? Burke is: he tells Cris that if she really feels that strongly about George, he'll ask him to leave tonight. Cristina says she does want him out, but...not tonight. Aw. Burke hands Cristina back her scrub cap, which she takes with thinly veiled delight. MereVO: "And if no one's listening, why do we bother doing those strange things at all?"

And finally, the moment we've all been waiting for: George O'Malley moves on. He finds Callie and tells her that he should have called. She ignores him, so he goes around the corner and dials her number on his cell phone. When she picks up, he says, "Hi. This is George O'Malley calling. You gave me your phone number? I know I should have called sooner, but I'm calling now. Maybe you want to go out with me sometime? Because...I love to watch you set bones. And...I don't really spend that much time in women's restrooms. And I really like you." Yay! As if you didn't know, it works. Callie looks over and gives George the bedroom eyes, and it is on.

Mere tells us that we rely on superstitions because we're smart enough to know we don't have all the answers. We cut back inside the hospital, where Addison is bringing Mere yet another cup of hot juju. Mere accepts this one and actually takes a tiny sip. She voice-overs that life works in mysterious ways as she watches Addison and McDreamy leave the hospital together. MereVO: "Don't dis the juju, from wherever it comes."

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