Izzie has been lying on her bathroom floor in her prom dress all night, mourning Denny. When Meredith decides to start cooking food (okay, "making sandwiches") to help Izzie cope, Cristina decides that what they're actually doing is sitting shiva. This offers a fine opportunity for flashbacks, including the intern mixer where Izzie meets Alex and Cristina meets Burke, and the bar where McDreamy picks up Mere for the first time.
Addison has discovered Meredith's forgotten panties from her prom tryst with McDreamy. She doesn't have time to do anything with them yet, because two things happen in the E.R. First, there's an outbreak of the plague. No, really. Derek and George are quarantined in the locker room, while the infected woman they performed surgery on dies, and her husband -- Eugene (!), also sick, also quarantined -- is freaking out, more than a little bit. Bailey, feeling guilty and shaken by Denny's death, attempts to tend to Eugene through the sealed door. The second thing is a baby that's found in a high school trash can, and Addison and Alex have to figure out who the mother is from a line-up of four fourteen-year-old prep school girls and their "not my daughter" parents.
Adele shows up and tells Richard he has to retire or he'll lose her. Callie and Finn show up (separately) at Mere's house and have a lovely conversation about how doctors are just arrested adolescents, while Meredith proves Callie's point by hiding from Finn in Izzie's bathroom. Derek's time in quarantine convinces him that he wants Meredith, for real, and he tells her so. Now it's her turn to be feckless and indecisive! Addison eventually sniffs out the baby's mother, which gives her another opportunity to be completely fucking awesome, and then she takes Meredith's whore panties and pins them to a bulletin board at the hospital, under "Lost and Found." And, when she finally gets sick of all the flashbacks, Izzie decides to get up off the floor and into some clean clothes.
Welcome back! Let's get to it.
We open with shots of a generic OR. Meredith voice-overs, "In the OR, time loses all meaning. In the midst of sutures and saving lives, the clock ceases to matter. 15 minutes? 15 hours? Inside the OR, the best surgeons make time fly. Outside the OR, however, time takes pleasure in kicking our asses." Meredith, still in her dress from last season's finale, bangs on the front door of the hospital (she's...locked out?), then runs out into the rain. "For even the strongest of us, it seems to play tricks." Webber sits alone in the empty room where the prom was held. MereVO: "Slowing down. Hovering." Addison sits on the bed in the trailer. She's got McDreamy's coat on, and she's carefully inspecting the black pair of panties she's just pulled out of its pocket. Her face is contorted in pain. Oh, shit! MereVO: "Until it freezes. Leaving us stuck in a moment." We switch to an overhead shot of Izzie, lying on the cold bathroom floor of Meredith's house, still in her pink prom dress. Poor Izzie. Outside the door, the rest of the interns try to get her to come out. George says they have to do something, and they all look at Meredith. She's all, "Why are you looking at me?" Cristina says this is familiar territory for her. Mere: "There is nothing familiar about this. Unfamiliar!" She reminds them that Denny, the man Izzie loves, died. Cristina: "Yeah, but you're all dark and twisty inside." Heh. Meredith scrunches her face up in confusion, and they all start listing off reasons she's dark and twisty. "The Alzheimer's thing. The father you don't talk to." "The tequila thing. The inappropriate men." Hee. That last one was from Alex, which on my first viewing, I misheard as "inappropriate bed-wetting." Probably also true. She certainly always looks like she has to pee really bad. George says someone has to go in there. They all regard the bathroom door with trepidation. Aw, go on in, Mere. You can relieve yourself WHILE you comfort Izzie!
On the other side of the bathroom door, Izzie starts hearing voices. She's not going crazy(er), it's just a flashback. We hear ticking, like the stopwatch on 60 Minutes, to indicate that we're going back, back, back in time! Webber's disembodied voice tells the interns to look around and say hello to their competition. Izzie holds her hand out and introduces herself to someone off-screen. "Hi!" she says brightly. "Izzie Stevens, Washington!" She's wearing a sweet little headband and a dress that looks like it sprung fully-formed from the head of Laura Ashley. The person whose hand she's shaking is revealed to be Alex. He gives her a look like, "THIS is the competition? Score." Izzie blabs that it's so nice of the hospital to give them this chance to meet each other. We see Cristina off to the side, glaring at everyone from the depths of her leather jacket. George stands around looking miserable. Meredith is actually having a normal conversation with someone, and looks happier than we've seen her since. Alex tells Izzie the party's just an excuse to get the interns drunk before they're tortured. He asks Izzie what program she's in, and is astounded to find out she's in surgery. She's all, "You don't think I can be a surgeon? I can be a surgeon. I'm hard-core." Alex takes a swig of his beer. "You won't last the first year, babe."
Back on the bathroom floor, George is lying to Izzie as she returns from flashback land. He gently suggests that perhaps she could change her clothes, maybe wear something more comfortable? Izzie: "Stop it. STOP. TALKING. There is nothing to talk about, do you understand me? There is nothing to discuss." George whispers, "I'm so sorry." Izzie's eyes fill with tears, and she says yeah, she is too. Another beautiful overhead shot of them on the floor, and we cut to...
...Seattle Grace. Bailey's in the morgue. Some guy in a suit sitting to her says, "So you're a surgeon? Usually they don't send a surgeon for this." Bailey, obviously distraught, asks what she's supposed to do. He says she just needs to identify the body before he takes it to the funeral home. Bailey just wouldn't believe how many times he's taken the wrong guy! He's all sending text messages on his phone as he explains this. Ugh. Shut up, Funeral Home Guy. A body is wheeled out in a bag; when it's unzipped, Bailey's face falls as if she didn't expect it to actually be Denny in there. "That's him. That's Denny...Duquette." She stops the body as it's being wheeled out again, and sort of heartbreakingly pats him, then rests her hand on his...bag. ["Hee." --Joe R] "I'm sorry," she says, her voice breaking. "I'm so sorry." Sniff.
Mere's kitchen. Cristina is on the counter reading a magazine while Meredith makes a bunch of sandwiches. She says it's what you do when someone dies -- you cook. I'm not sure when "slapping jelly on bread" became cooking, but whatever. Cristina: "Yeah, I know what to do when someone dies. I am a Jew. It's shiva." Meredith wonders if it's shiva if Izzie's Catholic. Cristina's like, what the hell, sure, but if we're going to do this right, we're ordering in. Sandwiches, she rightly says, are not the same as cooking. Meredith argues that sandwiches are comfort food, then tears into one of them like it's her first meal in weeks. Which, come to think of it, it probably is. Anyway, she's eating like a maniac, and it's kind of gross. Cristina stares at her in horror. "What's wrong with you?" Mere says she's fine; it's Izzie they're worried about. Cristina: "Oh, what did you do?" Mere asks her friend to remember that, in the wake of Denny's death, and Burke getting shot, what she did was a tiny, very small, insignificant thing. She takes a deep breath and confesses, "I lost my panties."
Cut to Addison, removing Meredith's freshly laundered panties from the dryer. She folds them neatly, seals them in a Ziploc, and places the bag in her purse. Oh, this is so good.
Back on the bathroom floor, George is lying to Izzie as she returns from flashback land. He gently suggests that perhaps she could change her clothes, maybe wear something more comfortable? Izzie: "Stop it. STOP. TALKING. There is nothing to talk about, do you understand me? There is nothing to discuss." George whispers, "I'm so sorry." Izzie's eyes fill with tears, and she says yeah, she is too. Another beautiful overhead shot of them on the floor, and we cut to...
...Seattle Grace. Bailey's in the morgue. Some guy in a suit sitting to her says, "So you're a surgeon? Usually they don't send a surgeon for this." Bailey, obviously distraught, asks what she's supposed to do. He says she just needs to identify the body before he takes it to the funeral home. Bailey just wouldn't believe how many times he's taken the wrong guy! He's all sending text messages on his phone as he explains this. Ugh. Shut up, Funeral Home Guy. A body is wheeled out in a bag; when it's unzipped, Bailey's face falls as if she didn't expect it to actually be Denny in there. "That's him. That's Denny...Duquette." She stops the body as it's being wheeled out again, and sort of heartbreakingly pats him, then rests her hand on his...bag. ["Hee." --Joe R] "I'm sorry," she says, her voice breaking. "I'm so sorry." Sniff.
Mere's kitchen. Cristina is on the counter reading a magazine while Meredith makes a bunch of sandwiches. She says it's what you do when someone dies -- you cook. I'm not sure when "slapping jelly on bread" became cooking, but whatever. Cristina: "Yeah, I know what to do when someone dies. I am a Jew. It's shiva." Meredith wonders if it's shiva if Izzie's Catholic. Cristina's like, what the hell, sure, but if we're going to do this right, we're ordering in. Sandwiches, she rightly says, are not the same as cooking. Meredith argues that sandwiches are comfort food, then tears into one of them like it's her first meal in weeks. Which, come to think of it, it probably is. Anyway, she's eating like a maniac, and it's kind of gross. Cristina stares at her in horror. "What's wrong with you?" Mere says she's fine; it's Izzie they're worried about. Cristina: "Oh, what did you do?" Mere asks her friend to remember that, in the wake of Denny's death, and Burke getting shot, what she did was a tiny, very small, insignificant thing. She takes a deep breath and confesses, "I lost my panties."
Cut to Addison, removing Meredith's freshly laundered panties from the dryer. She folds them neatly, seals them in a Ziploc, and places the bag in her purse. Oh, this is so good.
Meanwhile, her husband is still at the hospital. Webber sees him sitting around despondently, and asks if he's back already. McDreamy says he never left. He certainly came, though. I did not just say that. Webber says he's been there all night, too -- he wanted to see the autopsy on Denny. McDreamy abruptly changes the subject, because he doesn't care about anyone but himself: "Have you seen Meredith? Uh, Dr. Grey. Have you seen Dr. Grey?" Webber's all, "Why?" McDreamy asks him to get someone to cover his rounds so he can "take care of some stuff." Uh huh. Like the panties you lost, you freaky, freaky man? Before Webber can answer, Bailey interrupts. She asks McDreamy if he's free, because there's an incoming head trauma, and the pit is overcrowded with all the early flu sufferers. Damn medicine, always getting in the way of a good panty hunt!
The patient is Gisele Toussaint, 42, who was ejected from her car in an accident. Her head is totally busted. Gisele's husband Omar explains that they were coming to the ER anyway -- they couldn't shake this flu thing. She was better, so he let her drive. Gisele has no idea what's going on and starts talking about dancing. McDreamy says something about spinal fluid and tells George to get an OR ready. Gisele is all, "The dancing's so beautiful!" Omar sweetly tells her that she's beautiful, and then is overcome by a coughing fit. George discovers that Omar is burning up with fever, and McDreamy calls for someone to get him a bed.
Down in the pit, a paramedic rushes in with a tiny newborn, who he tells Alex was found in a trash can. Alex discovers that the umbilical cord is still attached, and that the baby is dehydrated. He says he needs to start an IV. Nurse Olivia walks over and just stands there, staring. Alex yells at her to help him with an IV; Olivia says she just came down to help with all the flu patients. Alex looks around and sees all the sick people coughing in the baby's direction, and gathers him up. "If you think I'm leaving this sick, premature infant down here in the ER..." Olivia tells him he can't just take the baby -- he has to be admitted! Why is she being so weird? Alex keeps on walking with the baby. He calls over his shoulder, "Page Addison Shepherd. Tell her to meet me in the NICU." Fade to the little, little credits.
When we return, Alex and Addison are in the NICU with the baby. Alex reports that the baby has some sort of platelet problem. Addie asks where the mother is. Alex: "I don't know. The baby was found in a trash can at a high school." Along with this, the baby has intra-abdominal bleeding. Fun! Addison freezes for a minute, clearly thinking about something else, then gives Alex a bunch of orders. She finishes by telling him to find out where the mother is, so she can test for maternal platelet antibodies. Alex asks if she can't just do surgery to fix the abdominal bleeding. Addison: "If I wanted to KILL him, I could do that." Olivia walks in to tell her that there are some people there...about the baby. Ominous!
McDreamy and George are in surgery, getting ready to close up Gisele. McDreamy asks after Izzie. George says she's as well as can be expected. McDreamy imparts some wisdom to George: "It never gets easier, you know. Losing a patient." George says softly, "Izzie was in love with him. Denny wasn't just a patient. They were in love." Aw, George. Still romantic after three whole months.
Meredith's house. Cristina has had to sit down at the table to take in this news. "You had sex with Derek at the prom in an exam room?" Meredith says yes, but Cristina's not done. "Last night. You and Shepherd did it. You and McDreamy. Did the nasty, nasty." Heeee. Mere jerks her head up from the table. "Cristina!" Oh, what's the problem, Little Miss Dark 'n' Twisty? Cristina says she's not judging -- she's just trying to wrap her mind around it. She asks if Derek's leaving his wife, and we hear the ticking of the Flashback Clock.
Meredith's about six years old, and riding a carousel. She yells, "Mommy!" and tries to wave. Her mother, however, is not paying attention, because she's standing near the carousel arguing with Richard Webber. We only hear snippets of their conversation, but it's clear that Ellis is begging him to leave his wife, and Webber is refusing to do so. He wrenches himself from her grasp, and Ellis wails, "Richaaaaard!" Of course, little Meredith hears all of this no matter where she is on the ride. The flashback ends, and...
Webber is in his office at the hospital. He tells Adele, "You didn't have to make an appointment to see me, I'm your husband." Adele says an appointment seemed to be the best way to get his undivided attention, because here he is. She's pissed, and tells him to sit down. Webber doesn't wanna -- he's acting like he's super-busy so they don't have to talk. Adele shouts, "SIT DOWN!" She smoothes out her sweater and then sweetly reminds him, "We have an appointment." Hee. Unfortunately, Bailey walks in just then to tell Webber that the couple that came in this morning? Derek just finished a craniotomy on the wife, but the husband has severe flu symptoms, swollen lymph nodes, buboes. The word "buboes" makes me kind of nauseated. Turns out the Toussaints came in contact with..."the plague?" finishes Webber. Bailey nods. Webber tells Adele he's sorry, but he really has to go take care of this. Adele makes a face like, "I KNOW you did not just SAY that." Alas, he did.
Addison arrives to greet the parents of the four girls who may or may not have birthed a baby in a high school bathroom stall. She introduces herself, then says she needs to know immediately whose baby it is, because he has an emergent blood condition. The four prospects, who are extremely young and cute and dressed in plaid uniforms, look up guiltily at Addison. One of the parents says they'd all like to know whose baby it is, too, and commands her daughter, "Sarah. Talk." Sarah says she don't know nothin' about birthin' no baby. Another girl says that none of them do. Addie wonders how that is, since otherwise they wouldn't be sitting here. One of the mothers says the principal said they were the last ones in the bathroom before the baby was found. The parents all start talking at once: they don't want the police involved, blah blah, one of the girls better confess, etc. One mother asks why they can't just do DNA tests, so the rest of them can get out of there. Addison sighs and explains that DNA results take days, and she's not really all that concerned about getting the rest of them out of there. "If this baby isn't treated, he is going to die." She says she can do vaginal exams on each of the girls, but one of the mothers screeches, "My daughter is fourteen years old! She's not sexually active, and I won't have you violating her body!" Lord. One of the dads says Addison has his consent to do whatever it takes to clear his Lisa's name. Addison turns to the girls. "A child's life is in jeopardy here." She says it's not the parents' consent she needs. The girls are silent. One of them finally speaks up, repeating that they didn't do anything wrong. Another one chimes in, "Yeah, do we look like the kind of girls to have a kid and throw it into the trash?" Oh, come on. That's like asking, "Did Ted Bundy look like the kind of person to slice up girls and throw them into the river?"
McDreamy finds George in the locker room getting ready to leave. "Nice work today, O'Malley," he says. "Hey, did Meredith go home with Izzie?" Nice one, Derek. Super smooth. Not obvious at all. George says she did, and he's headed there now. McDreamy says he'll go too. What?! George says Izzie probably isn't up for a lot of people, but McDreamy says he's going to see Meredith.
McDreamy opens the door to find an IDC guy wearing a hazmat suit. He asks if McDreamy is the person who performed surgery on Mrs. Toussaint today. IDC Guy explains that she and her husband may have been in close contact with a victim of the plague, and been exposed -- which means that they may have been, too. McDreamy says he has to go, but IDC Guy blocks the door. He says the room they're in will be sealed off until the threat has been contained, and they're sure everyone is safe. Ha! George and McDreamy stuck in a room together. There's surely going to be some kind of whining/ego showdown. IDC Guy tells them they're quarantined, and slams the door in their faces. Commericals.
We return to Bailey informing Webber that everyone in contact with the Toussaints has been quarantined. She says Shepherd and O'Malley are not happy, but everything's under control if he needs to get back to his wife. Yes, I'm sure he can't wait. Webber's all, "Oh, no, no. I need to stay on top of my hospital. Keep me posted." Bailey just rolls her eyes.
Bailey's pager goes off just as she hears someone yelling from inside a hospital room. "Hello? Hello! I need help. Please!" Bailey walks over to the door, outside of which is posted another IDC Guy. It's Omar who's trapped inside. "I know you can hear me! I see you standing out there in your giant white space suit." Hee. The guy tells Bailey she can't go in. She gets that look in her eye and stares up at Giant White Space Suit. "LOOK. I know he is under quarantine, but he is also a patient. And I will not IGNORE a PATIENT." Space Suit walks off shamefully. Yeah! Omar thanks God Bailey can hear him through the door, and asks how his wife is. Bailey tells him she's out of surgery -- quarantined in recovery, but doing fine. "Now, you were asking for help?" Omar's like, "You know how many days I've been in here?" Bailey says it's only been a few hours. Omar is truly surprised; he says he's losing it. Bailey points out that he's sweating, and asks him to please get back in the bed. Omar trudges back to the bed, and asks again about his wife Gisele. He really is losing it. Bailey tells him that, as she said, his wife is doing fine. She starts to leave, but Omar pleads with her to just stay a minute. Bailey, clearly consumed with guilt, says she's staying. Omar tells her his name, and he looks so sad and pitiful that he could probably ask Bailey to jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton, and she'd comply. "Okay, Omar," she says. "I'm right here." Who loves Bailey? I do.
Cut to Mere's house, where Callie has just arrived with two giant grocery bags. Meredith opens the door and just looks at her blankly. God. Callie barks, "I brought food." Mere says George isn't there, and Callie is all aggravated. "I know!" She says he's in a quarantine thing, and she was worried about him, and going crazy, and thought about Izzie, so she brought food. Meredith still doesn't get it. "For the shiva?" Callie's like, "Dude, are you going to let me in? Stupid?" Mere opens the screen door for her. Callie barges inside and then turns to Meredith. "Relax. I'm not gonna bring it up -- you, and McDreamy, and the sex. I'm not that person." Mere sighs with relief. "Good." Callie heads into the kitchen, wondering if it's shiva if Izzie's Catholic. Good question!
Now it's Cristina's turn on the floor with Izzie. She tries tough love. "What you're doing, Izzie, it's not healthy. You've gotta take off that dress." Hee. Izzie, instead of taking off the dress, asks Cristina to tell her about shiva. Cristina says it's something you do when someone dies. "People bring over food, family comes over...it's supposed to help with the grieving. It honors the dead." Izzie says it sounds nice. Cristina scoffs that it's great, if you like seven days of no other shoes, no work, no sex, no sitting on things higher than a foot, no shaving... She stops herself. "What?" Izzie asks. Cristina looks over at her. "No clean clothes." Aw. Izzie nods and closes her eyes so the tears won't start again. Cristina tells her it doesn't have to be shiva. Izzie: "You know they took his body away. I'll never see him again. How would you feel if you never saw Burke again? So we're sitting shiva for Denny." Sniiiiiiffff.
Alex stands in front of the four totally non-sex-having, non-pregnant-getting, teenage girls. They gape. He walks closer to them, all confidential. "So, you wanna see him? Your baby?" Girl Two: "It's not our baby." They're good. Teenage girl good.
Inside a conference room, the parents want to know what the hold-up is with determining the mother. Addison has to explain to them, like they're five years old, that she can't do anything to the girls if they don't want her to. A mother argues that they're minors; as parents, they should still have a say. Webber tells them they certainly don't -- if someone doesn't want to submit to a vaginal exam, they don't have to, because it's the law. Just how stupid are these parents? Don't they watch medical dramas? The angriest daddy says he's taking his daughter home right now. Webber blocks his exit and says he'll have him arrested as soon as he hits the parking lot. Addie tries to make them understand that it's not just the law at stake here -- with a vaginal exam, the girls could be experience bleeding and/or vaginal trauma and/or emotional stress. This causes the parents to start fighting with each other about whose little girl is the worst: this one doesn't have a curfew, that one steals lipsticks, and so forth. We get a close-up on Addie as she starts to tune them out, and the ticking starts. Flashback!
It was a dark and stormy night. No, seriously. It's raining outside Addison and Derek's house as he pulls a bunch of clothes out of the closet, and she beseeches him to listen to her. "Derek. Derek, you can't do this. We have to talk about this, you have to give me a chance." She's got on an old CBGB t-shirt, no makeup, her hair's down -- she looks beautiful, and she is positively frantic. He ignores her and starts down the stairs with the clothes. Addie follows him. "You have to give me a chance to explain. What are you doing? What are you doing with my clothes? Derek, it was one time, I know that's what people say, I know that's what always gets said, I don't even know how it happened, he was just here!" She can't stop talking. It's pathetic and awful, and now McDreamy is at their front door. "You screw my best friend and all you can say is that he was just HERE?" He opens the door and flings her clothes out into the rain. "Get out." Addie says no. He tells her again to get out. Addie wants to stay and talk about it. Derek: "Get out. Of my house." He grabs her off the stairs and literally puts her out, then slams the door in her face. We get a shot of Addison standing outside her house, with no pants, in the rain, crying, and it's the saddest thing I've ever seen. "Derek, please," she begs. "Please, please, please." She's bawling, and her voice is hitching like when you're a little kid. Oh, Addison. Derek can't stand it anymore, and opens the door for her. She falls into his arms and says she's sorry, so sorry, and he has to give her a chance to show him how sorry she is. Oh my God. She tries to touch him on the face, but he won't let her. He says he'll stay elsewhere and get his clothes in the morning. Addison begs him not to go. "We can survive this. We're Addison and Derek." He says he can't look at her without feeling nauseous, and they're not Derek and Addison anymore. Addison tells him that if he goes now, they are not going to get through this. "If you go now, we don't have a chance. If you go now." As she says this, he opens the door and walks out. Tick tick tick. Back in the present, the whole world is crying. Commercials.
Aaaand we return to another flashback. This time it's Cristina's, and they're at the new interns party from Izzie's flashback. Cristina watches Burke and another woman fall all over each other. She steels herself, spits out her gum, and walks over. "Hi. Are you Preston Burke?" Burke, obviously not in the mood to tear himself away from his lady friend, turns around and says yes. Cristina immediately begins to gush, and Burke is polite, even though she's totally on his nerves. She's all, "THE Preston Burke? I am such a huge fan. That stentless valve replacement? And your use of transmyocardial revascularization? If I could JUST get the chance to study under you. You are SO AMAZING!!!" Heeee. Burke thanks her, and Cristina walks off awkwardly. Over in another part of the room, George and Meredith are getting to know each other. She says she actually lives in Seattle, and catches sight of Webber across the room. She looks at him strangely and walks away as George blabbers to no one that he's living at home with his parents, and it sucks. When he turns around and she's gone, he calls out, "It was nice meeting you!" Aw.
George and McDreamy's locker room of quarantine. McDreamy assures the worried George that when the test results come back, they'll be out of there. George is like, "What if the results come back and she has the plague? And then we get the plague? And then we die in here, with the crappy benches, and the dirty scrubs, and the lockers full of old food?" McDreamy jumps up. "There's food in the lockers?" Heh. He bites into Alex's apple. Dirty! George declares that Dr. Shepherd is just rude.
The teenage girls still aren't talking. Addison tells Webber that if they had just left the baby at a fire station or hospital...and now everything's a mess. Webber asks what their options are. Addie says they can do blood typing -- the baby is double-O, and if the girls are A or B, it means the baby isn't theirs. Webber tells her to do it.
Meredith's. Callie is cooking -- the actual kind, with actual heat -- while Meredith whines. "Everyone thinks that I'll know what to say to her. I don't know what to say to her." She can't believe people think she's "dark and twisty," and if she is, it's because she lives her life under a banner of avoidance. Callie just stirs her food. "I'm an avoider," Meredith repeats. Someone calls hello from the hallway, and...it's Finn! Meredith is all, "Hey! Uh, I've gotta go check on Izzie." Avoider, indeed.
Callie tells Finn not to take it personally -- it's just the doctor thing. "Four years of high school, four years of college, four years of med school. By the time we graduate, we're in our late twenties, and we haven't done anything except go to school and think about science. Time stops, and we're socially retarded." Finn is intrigued, and sits down to hear more. Callie says look at her -- she's in love with a guy who won't say he loves her back, and there she is in his kitchen, cooking, just hoping he comes home and notices her. "I'm a total freak. I'm that girl in the back of the class who eats her hair." Yes, but the hair you didn't eat is very, very pretty. She tells poor Finn that Meredith is seventeen years old -- they all are. "This is high school with scalpels, Finn." He nods ruefully.
Meredith has her turn on the bathroom floor. She tells Izzie she doesn't know what to say to her. Izzie asks, "When Dylan died? When the bomb went off? Did you feel like you were moving in slow motion?" Mere says he was just...there, and then he wasn't, like she blinked and he was gone. Izzie shuts her eyes. "I feel like I'm moving in slow motion. Like I'm moving in slow motion, and everything around me is moving so fast, and I just want to go back. To when things were normal, to when I wasn't poor Izzie lying on the bathroom floor in her prom dress with her...dead fiance." Aw, Iz. She says she's happy to let people hover around her waiting for her to scream or cry or whatever it is she's supposed to be doing if it will make everyone feel more comfortable, and she can play that part. But really, she continues, she doesn't know how to do this, or be this person. "How did this happen? How did we end up here? Why am I alone? Where's Denny?" Meredith is crying now, too, and takes Izzie's hand. She tells her she's not alone, and we leave them like that, lying on the floor holding hands. Damn.
McDreamy is still ransacking lockers, and now George has given up and joined him. McDreamy's found granola, cookies, and muffins in one locker. "Who eats this much?" George says that's Izzie's locker. Heh. He says she ate a lot, because it kept her energy up. He devours a container full of popcorn. McDreamy: "Eats. She didn't die." George says it feels a little like she did. "She's never coming back here," George says, as he munches on a gummi worm. "I don't think she's ever going to be the same." Man, doctors have really good snacks. McDreamy says there are moments -- split seconds -- when your life changes, and you'll never be the same. Webber suddenly calls them from the other side of the quarantine plastic, and while George goes over to ask him what's going on, Derek has a flashback.
Emerald City Bar. McDreamy sits alone at a table. He grins across the bar at Meredith, who's just ordered tequila. Joe the Bartender tells her she's going to be sorry in the morning. Meredith says she's always sorry in the morning, but tomorrow she starts her first day at work. "So keep them coming." Nice. She looks healthy and happy, and then here comes McDreamy to fuck up her whole world. He sweeps up to the bar in a cloud of hotness and orders a Scotch. He flirtily asks Meredith if this is a good place to hang out. Meredith says she wouldn't know -- she's never been there before. McDreamy says he hasn't either, because he's never been to Seattle. He's new in town, new job and all. Meredith tries her best to ignore him, and he says so. "You're ignoring me." Heh. Meredith says she's trying to. McDreamy tells her she shouldn't ignore him, because he's someone she needs to get to know to love. GAG! Meredith's all, "Really. So if I know you I'll love you?" Derek says yes. Mere: "You really like yourself, huh?" He says he's just hiding his pain. They laugh. McDreamy asks her what's her story. Meredith says she doesn't have a story; she's just a girl in a bar. McDreamy: "I'm just a guy in a bar." Uh huh. And probably a drunk one. If you're having a flashback and you're too drunk to remember it, did it really happen?
NICU. Addie stares down at the baby, exhausted. Alex asks how you don't know your own kid is pregnant. Addison: "You love your kids; you want to see the best in them." Alex volleys, "Okay, then how do you have a baby, and throw it in the trash can?" Addie says something happens, and you panic. You freeze, and want to pretend like it didn't happen. She gets that, she says. She just doesn't get what happens afterward. "I don't get how you go back to class and pretend everything's fine. Everything's NOT fine." Someone walks in and hands Alex the blood results. He announces that Karen and Lisa aren't a match. "And then there were two," Addie says, walking out of the room.
Omar calls to Bailey again from inside his room. He's much less panicky than before. He tells Bailey he's feeling better -- the fever broke, which is good, right? Bailey appears to be in shock, and she says that's good. Omar asks about his wife, and wonders if she's asking for him. She tells him that Gisele being exposed to the plague...it complicated things. Omar's not smiling anymore. "Complicated what things?" Bailey can't even look at him. "We did everything we could. I'm so sorry." Omar starts screaming "no!" and THEN he starts hyperventilating. Bad combination! Bad! Bailey tells him to breathe, and tries to get in the door. Giant White Space Suit Guy stops her. "He can't breathe! Someone has to go in there!" Bailey screams. Omar hyper-hyperventilates as we go to commercial.
Back: from commercials. Omar: still hyperventilating. Bailey: still yelling for him to breathe. Omar pants in between breaths, "My wife. I need my wife. I need Gisele!" Bailey tells Omar to look at her. When he won't, she pounds on the door. "LOOK. AT. ME!" Who can ignore Bailey when she's emphatic? No one. Omar looks at her. She tells him to put his hand against the glass, where she's placed hers. "Omar! Look at my hand. Put your hand on my hand." Omar, weeping now, puts his hand up to Bailey's. Bailey says that's good, he's doing real good. "Can you remember my name? Can you tell me my name?" He says it's Miranda. Bailey nods and says that's right, that's good. He cries, "I want Gisele. I have to save her. Please let me out of here." Bailey says she wishes she could help him. "I wish I could turn back the clock and make it yesterday. You don't know how much I wish that, but...I can't turn back time." Omar says he shouldn't have let her drive; he should have taken over. Bailey says she knows. Omar cries harder. Bailey: "Come on. I know. I should have taken over too, but..." Aw, Bailey. Damn it! Bailey tells Omar that you can't go back, and even if she could let him out of the room, he couldn't help Gisele now. Omar asks Bailey if she believes in God, and she has to put her head down to hide her own tears. "Do you believe in the afterlife?" he asks again. Bailey says she has to believe, with what she does. "I have to believe that when our time comes, that we go to a place...a beautiful place. A better place." Omar just loses it as Bailey is saying this, and slides down to the floor, unable to stand the grief.
George is getting nervous. He tells McDreamy that he can't believe that woman actually died, and now he's all sweaty and hot. McDreamy: "That's because you're pacing." George says his pulse is rapid. McDreamy: "Because you're still pacing." Hee. George is all, "No, seriously. Feel me." McDreamy declines to feel him. Seriously. George calls him an ass. "You've lived! You've done things! And you got the hair! And the hot wife. And the beautiful ex-mistress who pined for you!" McDreamy ignores all of this, except the last part. "She's pining for me?" Oh, shut up. George says his point is, he's lived -- who cares if he dies? "But what if I die? What, this is it? Callie told me she loved me. I just sat there." He's sad because he wasn't ready, and now if he dies, he won't have a chance to tell her he loves her back. McDreamy asks if he does. George is all, "Maybe. Eventually. One day. I could. Soonish." McDreamy looks up from his magazine. "SOONISH? I will love you...soonish?" He laughs. Twice. George asks if he ever told Meredith that he loved her. McDreamy says no. George says he did. Ha! He says he knows it's different, with Callie... McDreamy says he should tell her, and do it soonish -- before it's too late. George: "You mean before I die of the plague?" McDreamy: "Before somebody else comes along." They have a little moment. It's sweet. Shut up.
When Meredith returns to her kitchen, Callie and Finn are laughing it up, having some delicious food and a glass of wine. Callie sees Mere, and gets up quickly. "Oh. I'm going to leave the room for a period of time, for no reason whatsoever." I love Callie. I don't care who knows it. Before Mere can say anything, Finn starts talking. He says he doesn't know what happened last night between her and Derek, and he doesn't want to know. They never even said they were exclusive. Mere reminds him that he has plans. Finn: "Yeah, well, I didn't say I wasn't pissed off. I said we weren't exclusive. That's all I wanted to say. Oh, and this: I know you think you're scary and damaged." Mere corrects him, "Dark and twisty." Finn says he knows she thinks she doesn't deserve good things, but she does. And Derek, he says, is bad for her. "But I? I'm a good thing. And if there is a race...if there is a ring? My hat is in." Damn, look at Finn go! That was awesome.
Uh-oh. Adele is still in Webber's office, and she is PISSED. She says she made an appointment for a reason. She scheduled the time because she had something important to say, and he made her wait. Webber says he had a situation, and tries to go on explaining his stupid self, but Adele interrupts him. "I've spent my life waiting for you. Waiting for you to finish med school, waiting for you to come home at night, waiting for you to leave that...woman. I'm done waiting." She tells him it's time for him to make a choice -- her or this hospital. "It's time for you to retire, Richard." Aw, shit! Webber doesn't know what to say.
NICU. The two girls left are standing over the incubator, looking at the baby. Addison says she wants them to take a close look at the baby, because that's their son; she wants to make sure they know that they did something wrong, because they are both wrong. "You're wrong for covering this up, you're wrong for lying about it, you're wrong for letting this sweet, innocent, beautiful little boy suffer like this. He's dying, and it's your fault." I mean, who is pulling punches in this hospital tonight? NO ONE. Addison reminds them that, in time, the truth will come out, because it always does. And when it does, this baby will be dead. One of the girls looks at the other girl, who is already crying. She looks up at Addie. "Don't tell my mom, okay?" Addison is so relieved she hugs the girl, and thanks her for telling the truth.
George asks McDreamy if he's sure he doesn't feel anything. McDreamy says he feels like he's been in that locker room for a very long time. It may be too late, he says. While George is wondering what he might be too late for, someone who is NOT in a giant white space suit rips down the plastic sheet keeping them in, and tells them the threat has been contained. Derek hauls ass, and George quickly follows suit. They do not clean up the huge mess they've left in the locker room, but I guess the space men are in charge of clean-up.
Addison's in surgery with Alex and the baby. She wonders what kind of childhood this baby is going to have, what with his mom who's going to juvie, and his grandparents who are so clueless they didn't know their daughter was pregnant. Alex says, with the tone of someone who knows firsthand, that you can get over a bad childhood. "You can have the worst crap in the world happen to you, and you can get over it. All you've gotta do is survive." Addison looks up at him with her sad, sad eyes, and I guess we know what she's got to do.
George and McDreamy arrive at Meredith's. Callie rushes George, saying how worried she was. "George. I really, really love you." George just looks at her, then kisses her hard. He does not tell her he loves her, which McDreamy notes with dismay. George doesn't care. McDreamy finds Meredith in the kitchen as she's cleaning up. He smiles at her and tells her what happened. Meredith says she heard. McDreamy just looks at her, and oh man, he's really hot. Mere asks him what this means. He says it means she has a choice to make, and he doesn't want to rush her into making a decision before she's ready. "This morning I was going to come over, and I was going to say...what I was going to say... but all I can say now is that I'm in love with you. I'm in love with you. I know I'm a little late. I just want you to take your time. Take all the time you need, because you have a choice to make. And when I had a choice to make? I chose wrong." They're both all teary-eyed now, and I want to hate it but I can't. Damn you, Shonda Rhimes! (I would just like to note here for the Everwood fans who are reading that this in no way resembles any damning of Berlanti. There is no comparison. Sniff. ["Whatever, lady, I'm totally squealing on your two-timing ass." -- Joe R]) McDreamy says good night and walks out.
Mere starts her voice-over: "Time flies." Well, thanks for the words of wisdom. Bailey sits alone in the hospital hallway, marinating in guilt and sadness. We cut to Adele and Webber in the hospital lobby. "You're not going to retire, are you?" Adele asks her husband. Webber says he just needs more time. Adele stops him, and says she doesn't have any more time to give. MereVO: "Time waits for no man."
Cut to Addie, her face full of determination. She walks out of the hospital, and we see she's pinned the panties up on a bulletin board. A sign reading "LOST AND FOUND" is pinned above them. Awesome. MereVO: "Time heals all wounds."
Cristina walks into Burke's hospital room, where he's dressed in his dashing pajama set, reading the paper. He asks where she's been all day. Cristina says she's been sitting shiva for Denny, and asks how he is as she climbs into the bed with him. Burke doesn't answer her, just asks, "How are you?" and Cristina bursts into tears. She looks up at him and says, "Don't ever die." Burke nods and says he'll do his best. She rests her head on his chest, and MereVO says, "All any of us wants is more time."
Back to Izzie, still on the floor, and we immediately hear the ticking of a flashback. Izzie's at the intern party again. They're all getting ready to leave. Cristina walks out alone, and Alex walks out...with his arm around Nurse Olivia! Heeeee. Izzie walks out with George, grinning her ass off. "This is so cool. Can you believe it? Tomorrow we're gonna be surgeons." Back in the present, Izzie peels herself off the floor, as Meredith helps her. MereVO: "Time to stand up. Time to grow up." Izzie: "I'm ready." Meredith: "Okay." Izzie turns around, and Meredith helps her unzip her pretty pink prom dress. She voice-overs, "Time to let go. Time." And we fade out.