Derek and Meredith are broken up the best way -- with lots and lots of sex. They also agree that mockery can be part of the package, but anything else is off limits. While they're off doing the horizontal mambo (tm Derek), Izzie and George are downstairs discussing his love. Izzie looks delighted, and George is determined to tell Callie that he can't be married to her. He nearly kisses Izzie, but refrains until he can break it to his wife that he's in love with a really, really annoying other woman. He doesn't get the chance, though, because when he runs into Callie, there's a group of patients just coming in to the hospital who were injured in a gas explosion in an apartment building. Among the patients are a young couple and their one-year-old son, a friend of his who had stopped by to visit, and their neighbor Ben Vereen. While Alex is trying to care for the baby, he realizes that the child is addicted to meth and that the accident wasn't so much a gas explosion as a meth lab explosion which has seriously injured the mom. While she is in surgery, Alex tries to treat the baby while his nervous father watches (and hinders) his efforts. Unable to wait for social services, Alex confronts him about the meth, which causes Dad to punch Alex out and run away with the child. Callie, already having a hard time controlling her residents, is held responsible by an angry Chief since he told her to take care of the whole situation. At the end of her terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day, George approaches Callie to have a Talk with her, but she begs him as his wife to not say whatever it is just yet. Because it looks like she has already guessed the horror that is Gizzie.
Meanwhile, Mama has shown up at the hospital to see Cristina, who does everything she can to avoid her, including sending Meredith out to be verbally beaten by the woman. While Mama waits, she doles out some hard truths to George and Derek as well. Cristina spends a while hiding in the clinic with Meredith and trying to keep Lexie away from her half-sister, but eventually, Lexie and Mere are alone, and Mere lays out the reasons that she's having a hard time -- namely that their father left Meredith to father Lexie, and as a result Mere can't have a functional relationship with Derek. Fair enough, really, when you hear it laid out as such. Cristina finally finds the strength to face Mama, who is there to get the key to pick up Burke's belongings, chastise Cristina, and confirm that Burke really is never coming back. But hey, at least that means she'll be able to see the floor in her apartment, again since all of the would-be wedding gifts are gone.
When last we left Grey's Anatomy, George had horrifyingly told Izzie he loved her too, and Meredith and Derek got it on in the on-call room to punctuate their breakup.
The background for Meredith's opening VO is a beautiful shot of Seattle at night. "In the hospital, we see addiction every day." It's post-"I love you too" and George is exhilarated, babbling to Izzie about how amazing he feels, and how it's just like he's woken up. Mere's voice thankfully breaks in to the disgusting reverie to add, "It's shocking how many kinds of addiction exist." She and Derek are up in her room in bed, still "breaking up," it seems. Meredith pronounces it the best breakup ever; Derek asks why they didn't do this earlier. But the giddy afterglow is dimmed when he rolls over to go to sleep and Mere freaks. Even though it's 3 AM, she orders him home, maintaining that they're just having sex since it's the only part of a relationship that works. When he jokes about messing it up with dinner and sleepovers, she mock-pouts, "You're mocking my severe emotional limitations." It's getting a little old for her to keep admitting these problems, while not actually making any effort to overcome them. In a nice little bit of continuity, he points out that he can live without sleeping over because she snores. They laugh, and he adds that mockery is a deal-breaker. Mere declares, "Okay, sex and mockery it is." Mere VO adds, "It would be too easy if it was just drugs, and booze, and cigarettes."
Downstairs, George sort of explains his marriage, explaining that Callie said she loved him, and his dad loved her, so...he drops it before he can add that he decided to take control of his future and try acting like an adult. Instead, he just stammers to Izzie, "I shouldn't have gotten married."
Cristina is in what I still want to call Burke's, but is really her, apartment, sitting in the dark surrounded completely by gifts. VO: "I think the hardest part of kicking a habit is wanting to kick it. I mean, we get addicted for a reason, right?" Cristina grabs a gift and angrily rips some paper off. After a moment she tries it again, with even more gusto, and continues ripping wrapping off of the gifts within reach. She looks more miserable than angry, despite her best efforts to take it out on the paper.
Despite my most desperate wishes, the conversation between George and Izzie goes on and on as he babbles about how he thought his marriage was right, but it isn't. Izzie agrees with him. (Well, he did certainly pick the right audience for this little realization.) Mere's voice astutely adds, "Often, too often, things that start out as just a normal part of your life at some point cross the line. To obsessive. Compulsive. Out of control." Out of control describes the level of my revulsion at seeing Izzie lean in slowly to kiss George. Thankfully, he pulls away and says that he has to tell Callie. Izzie seems confused that he doesn't want to jump her excited bones, as he leaps up and exclaims, "I have to tell her the marriage is over. It's the right thing to do." He grabs his things and leaves, but a second later opens the door back up and excitedly asks, "Did you see how I walked out of here all determined?" Izzie says it made her proud, and he leaves again. Mere wraps up her intro to explain, "It's the high we're chasing. The high that makes everything else...fade away." Izzie whispers, "He loves me too." In her case, it's any small shred of sanity, dignity, and likeability that has faded away.
At the hospital, the Chief is gazing at the surgery board while Derek blearily drinks coffee from a travel mug. Derek tells him the board looks good and Richard replies that he didn't do it, since he's delegating -- doing it for his wife. Derek's response to this show of marital faith is to ask if she's talking to him yet. He replies, "She will when she sees I'm a delegator." He then says he should move one of the surgeries, and Derek chuckles and calls him a junkie. We're going especially literal on this week's theme, I see. As he leaves, Mark comes along carrying his own coffee. Or as I like to call it, "caffeinated nectar of life." What? I don't have a problem. I can walk away at any time. Derek's putting in eye drops, and Mark guesses that he and Meredith are back together and doing the "horizontal salsa." Derek corrects him with, "Mambo! Horizontal mambo." I find it very hard to believe that a man-whore like Mark would make such a mistake. Derek then tells him that he and Mere are just friends, all the while with a sexy shit-eating grin on his face. Maybe it's just that this season is already lighter than Season Three, but I feel like McDreamy might actually earn his nickname back one of these days if things keep moving in this good-looking direction. Mark adds, "Sexy friends." He's a saucy minx. Derek tells him he's disgusting, but he's laughing so it doesn't carry much weight, and Mark tells him that the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Derek just asks him how many nurses he's slept with this week. Mark responds, "That's not a problem, man, that's an adventure." If only there were men like this in my workplace. Or even men, period.
At the nurses' station, Izzie hangs on a box containing a "Mixmaster" that looks suspiciously like a red KitchenAid mixer. The male nurse, whose name I feel we really should have learned at some point in four seasons, is admiring "The Round Pro." TV writers -- great at their craft, not so much at the product naming. These two and some other suspiciously generic housewares are spread out on the counter, and Cristina is using them to negotiate. If he's to get The Round Pro, she needs "Surgeries, baby. Preferably cardio." Mere comes by and asks what's going on; Izzie explains that Cristina is giving away her wedding gifts and that Izzie's got dibs on the Mixmaster. She's hugging it and looking more excited than she does even about George. Cristina yells that she's not getting the mixer, and Izzie's face falls. I say give it to her if it gives her something else on which to focus. Mere comments that she thinks it's traditional to return gifts, but Cristina points out, "Burke registered for this crap, now I'm the one stuck dealing with it." From what we saw of Burke and his prowess in the kitchen, wouldn't he have had a lot of these things already? Of course, I should know by now not to question things that can nicely advance the story. I'll leave that point be. Mark comes by and asks about an espresso maker, which Cristina will give him if she can get in on a surgery which as far as I can tell involves "flap" and "repair." It's a deal, and Izzie tries to demand that she get the Mixmaster. Cristina points out, "Face it. You have nothing I want." I'd say that's true for all of us at this point. Bailey comes by and mentions the "big, snazzy residents, standing around, playing with housewares." Cristina pauses and slyly whispers, "Turn a blind eye and the soup tureen's yours." There's no response, so she orders Four to go take all of this stuff to her locker. She must have a magical expanding locker like one out of Harry Potter if it's going to hold all that. Her beeper goes off and she says, "Carnage in the pit. My day's improving." The interns pause, forgetting the rules, until she yells at them to follow. When Lexie asks if they're not going to do rounds, Cristina tells them, "Carnage trumps rounds." She ponders this for a moment and adds, "Write that down. 'Carnage always trumps rounds.'"
George finds Callie, and she immediately rushes into an apology for not coming home since she was bogged down with paperwork. As she's talking, she's putting on her disposable yellow Carnage Gown. George tells her they need to talk, but she just goes on about her time and the job kicking her ass. I don't think it's ever going to be easy to watch newly, inexplicably de-spined Callie. George suggests they talk later, and she finally realizes that this might not be good. But just then Chief walks up to save the marriage, for another few hours at least. He asks what's up so that she can tell him, and us, that a gas main blew up in an apartment, and five people were hurt. Cristina, naturally, is delighted. Carnage is her lifeblood. Get it? "Carnage"? "Blood"? Ha? Ha? Forgive me; it makes me sad to watch any scene in which now-meek Callie heads closer to total heartbreak and I'm reduced to extremely bad puns.
The first ambulance to arrive has Marla, a 34-year-old woman with a blown-out abdomen, skull fracture, and third-degree burns on 40 percent of her body. And if you were wondering, a blown-out abdomen isn't so much a technical medical diagnosis as just a cold hard truth -- apparently a chunk of her abdomen is gone. The Chief takes her and orders Callie to triage the rest, and the first thing she does is send Cristina with the Chief and the missing abdomen. Cristina takes One and Four, sending the others to the clinic. The ambulance has Marla's husband Dave and their 18-month-old baby. Alex wants a plastics case but Callie assigns him Dave and the baby, ignoring Izzie begging for the case. Izzie follows Callie, who asks if she was up late, commenting meanly that she looks a little tired and maybe should sit this one out. By the haughtiness of her tone, she clearly hasn't realized yet just who it was that Izzie was staying up with. Elegant liar that she is, Izzie starts to stammer and overcompensate cheerfully that she went to bed early and alone. It's hard to believe she's ever kept a secret from anyone about anything. Which, come to think of it, I don't think she has.
The explosion victim is Archie, brought awesomely to life by Ben Vereen. He's got all sorts of burns, cuts, and other assorted non-life-threatening injuries. He's Dave and Marla's neighbor and friend, and tells the doctors that he only wants them to make sure they'll be okay. Mark asks him if that's his family, and he says they might as well be.
Said baby is screaming violently, and Alex asks how close he was to the explosion. The dad is kind of vague and finally pinpoints their locations, adding unconvincingly that he thinks it was the stove. They'll run tests; Derek asks Alex to keep him posted. This scene is only a few seconds long and still horrible to watch because of the awful, unrelenting screaming -- but still not as brain-splittingly awful as watching George and Izzie interact.
Another friend of Marla and Dave's is brought in, named Clark. The docs have to peel his clothes off of his skin. That's a sexy little sentence there, isn't it? Unfortunately not so much in practice, as he's burned and also bruised, as they see once the clothes are gone. Meredith, Bailey, and George freak out more than usual and order a CT to check for internal bleeding. The guy in turn freaks out at their reactions, and keeps repeating that he was just on his way to work.
Once out in the hall, Bailey asks Callie for a resident to help out in the clinic. Callie turns her down flat -- a move sure to result in a Karmic Bailey Smackdown later, but for now it just results in an incredulous look. She insists that the clinic is voluntary so she won't force any of the residents to work there. "But you can have as many interns as you need, okay?" I think it's safe to say we can read Bailey's mind here, and it's saying, "Oh no she DIDN'T."
Cristina is working at the nurses' station when Unnamed Familiar Male Nurse comes up to demand the waffle maker he couldn't score on the last round of negotiations. He tells her that this time, he's got something she wants. He nods to the door, and Cristina turns and sees none other than Mama Burke. She disappears below the desk as Mama comes up to ask for her. He thinks a moment, but a punch in the leg from Cristina means "You'll be having delicious Belgian waffles by morning," and he tells Mama that he thinks Cristina is in surgery. She announces that she'll wait.
Mere meets up with Cristina and Izzie in the hallway. Cristina tells her that Mama is there, just as Izzie declares she's working with Callie and needs to find George. She's ignored completely. Meredith can't quite figure out that it's MAMA Mama and not Cristina's mom, so Cristina insults her brain power. Meredith is quick to point out she can go back to a patient, but Cristina grabs her and apologizes. Izzie offers to go talk to Mama in exchange for the Mixmaster and George's location. Deliciously, they still seem to not notice her presence. I'd say this is the feel-good moment of this week's episode, hands down. The Chief grabs Cristina to scrub in for surgery and as she leaves, she asks Mere to get rid of Mama politely. Meredith finally realizes Izzie is there; Izzie yells about looking for George. We need more of these episodes in which Izzie and her whining are completely dismissed. Seriously.
Dave is freaking out, talking loudly over his shrieking son. He's freaking out about why Brian won't stop crying, and Alex picks him up to try and soothe him. While holding him, he seems to smell something on his hair. When the nurse comes in and shows the CT results are negative, Alex orders a tox screen.
Bailey's walking through the clinic, instructing Interns Two and Three -- one of whom is Lexie, but I'm not sure which number is hers. They take notes frantically as she points out the rooms for private patient conversations (not private personal ones) and orders them to memorize where everything is located. Male Intern asks excitedly if they'll be able to do their own procedures. Bailey is struck dumb for a moment at the mere suggestion, and puts them in their place in patented fashion, explaining, "No, you are interns. You are in charge of nothing." She expands on just how much nothing they are in charge of, and to punctuate the speech, Lexie knocks over a pile of supplies. I really waffle between kind of liking her on the one hand, and on the other hand thinking she's too much Izzie 2.0. She asks what if they can't find anyone, and is answered only with a glare.
Mere walks through the waiting room and acts surprised but happy to see Mama, who observes, "You're the maid of honor. Miss Grey." She confirms it, so Mama goes on. "When you stood up in front of Preston's friends and loved ones and said, 'It's over, it's over, it's soooo over,' were you trying to smash the hopes of the best man or were you trying to be funny?" Mama 1, Meredith 0. Which is the very shape her mouth is making as she can only gawk, and Mama continues, "Because making light of that situation would be inappropriate. And to use that moment to send a message to your boyfriend, well, that's selfish." More Mere gaping. "So were you being inappropriate, or being selfish?" Out of her league, Mere stammers, apologizes, and runs away. Mama calls after the little cartoon cloud of dust left in her wake that she should report to Cristina that Mama's waiting, and will continue to do so.
In Ben Vereen's room, Izzie knocks stuff off a tray in order to beautifully illustrate my Izzie-Lexie comparison. He's more worried about Dave, Marla, and Brian than he is about himself. It sounds like his shoulder is broken? The medspeak is really hard to follow this week. He just continues on about how bright and gorgeous Brian is. He then asks Mark, who is ministering to his burns, if he has any kids. Not that he knows of! Classy. But then again, self-aware. Ben tells him to get on it and not end up being an old bachelor like he is. Could this be foreshadowing a 'Mark finally falls in love for real' storyline? Izzie watches all this with a Meaningful look on her face. They talk a little more about getting older, and Ben makes note of the two pretty girls in the room with them. Callie laughs and insists she's happily married, causing Izzie to knock over a tray of extra-clattery instruments. I should hope Callie has clued in by this point to what's going on, because if not, they've dumbed her down even more than I thought.
But despite her best efforts to let everyone in the hospital know of their clandestine emotional affair, Izzie grabs George once she's out of Ben's room to tell him they can't tell Callie. He pulls her into a doorway. It must be one of those Magic Doorways where no one can see people having a tense, close talk without all of their co-workers figuring out the massively obvious fact that they've hooked up. And are also really bad liars. Let's make this short and sweet and not dwell too much: Now that Izzie's working with Callie she insists that George can't tell her. That Izzie, always a giver. George is understandably pissed -- he's found his spine again after a long vacation away and now the woman he loves (oh, barf) is telling him not to use it. She apologizes to him and gets really close, and he tells her that until he tells Callie, they can't do anything. She knows, they have an almost-kiss moment, and she finally leaves. Excuse me while I go wash my eyes in bleach.
Mere runs into Bailey in the hall, and after updating her on a patient, Bailey tells her she's needed in the clinic. When Mere starts to say no, Bailey interrupts to uncharacteristically beg, since she's got "idiot interns" in her clinic. But then she goes to some more typical Bailey maneuvering. She tells Mere she's not telling her. "I'm asking. NICELY. I'm just saying, if I ever did anything for you, like, I don't know, saved your life. If you ever felt you owed me a debt of thanks, now is when I'd like to collect. Please?" Meredith is glaring at her now. Bailey 1, Meredith 0. She's really not putting anything on the scoreboard today. Beaten, she heads into the clinic, and her face falls when Lexie runs up to her, all chipper that she'll be around.
Clark is hyperventilating, sweating, and chatting away as he's moved into the CT scanner. He tells George he isn't claustrophobic, but still can't stop sweating and talking about how he was just on his way to work. Even if the episode didn't have "addiction" in the title and repeated references to being a junkie, I think you would be able to see where this is going.
The nurse comes back into the room where Alex is trying to treat the baby, and drums of doom pound in the background. Alex reads the tox screen results and then quietly orders the nurse not to leave Dave alone with the baby while he runs off.
In the OR, the Chief mentions to Cristina that he thought he saw Mama Burke outside. She feigns surprise, and he doesn't pick up on her discomfort because he's happily musing about the best part of his job -- giving good people second chances. I know Grey's isn't known for its subtlety, but this week's theme and story is really getting kind of heavy-handed.
George is talking to Clark, babbling on about himself, of course. You can realize that you're going down the wrong path, it's good to learn from it, blah blah projecting his own feelings onto his patient. He then tells Clark that he can handle this, but when he turns back around, he finds that Clark's handled it by coding.
Alex walks into the ER to notify the Chief that Brian the baby is strung out on meth. Everyone is stunned to learn it wasn't so much a gas leak as an exploded home methamphetamine lab.
George shocks Clark, and his eyes fly open with a gasp. It's a well done act-out, but with no real point other than to convey Everyone's! Surprise! About! Meth!
The surgeons are much less fulfilled by their work once they realize they're operating on a drug dealer. Derek gripes, "Ah yes, the joys of surgeondom. Saving the lives of those who deserve it the most." Richard instructs Alex to have Callie to take care of the situation. When Alex leaves, Derek asks if he wouldn't rather take care of it himself. He insists he has to delegate, as he's trying to get back together with his wife, and that Callie can handle it. I have to ask, though -- by the time something like this happens, isn't it his job to handle things? Once you've got drug dealers, a baby on meth, and the police coming in, shouldn't you be there to lead? It seems like it.
It seems Alex has just told Callie, and she's confused and appalled at the idea that they'd give their baby meth. Alex explains that as you cook it, the fumes get everywhere and can be soaked in through the skin, which is what happened here. It's a convenient exposition tool for Alex to tell it, and just continues to make Callie look like a moron, because wouldn't she already know this if Alex does? She's also rather overwhelmed, but gathers herself up and tells Alex to call the police and social services, saying she'll alert the staff. When Alex asks what to do about Dave, she repeats her order and says they will take care of the dad, and Alex's job is to take care of the baby. She then grabs Sloane to tell him what's up.
The special effects team outdid themselves this week; the shot of Izzie slowly peeling layers of Ben's skin off are absolutely revolting. She's acting really nervous, so he tells her she's doing a good job. Because what you want is a patient reassuring a doctor. Mark then comes in and tells him he needs to ask a question and doesn't want him to be offended, but that his answer could affect his surgery. Ben gives him the okay, so he asks if Ben uses meth. Izzie's shocked and whispers, "He's like, 60!" Because old people don't ever touch controlled substances. But Ben's clean; he has no idea what meth even is, and only takes his blood pressure medication. Izzie asks what's going on and Mark explains the situation, which shocks and saddens Ben. He can't believe it at first, talking about the five years he's known them and how he watches after Brian. But finally he accepts it and sadly notes, "I baby-sit for drug dealers."
Bailey and Callie run up in time to see Clark wheeled out of the room. George explains that he coded but can't understand why; Callie mentions the meth lab situation and adds that Clark could have cardiomyopathy from his drug use. George can't believe he was able to bring him back, which surprises Callie, who can't believe he was all by himself. She asks after Meredith, and he tells her Mere's been in the clinic. She turns on Bailey to demand what she's doing there, repeating that she said to take interns. Rocking on her heels and looking very short to an enraged Callie, Bailey says quietly, "I didn't want interns." Callie leaves, and George apologizes for her; Bailey just tells him, "Some things just don't need to be told." Even I want to cut George a break here -- he had no idea.
Meredith, meanwhile, is examining a clinic patient, and when she asks how something feels, the woman answers, "Weird." Mere's confused until the patient clarifies that the weird lady is staring at them. Of course it's Lexie. We heard about how Mere's half-sister was an amazing med student, and she came off all nice and mature in the bar with Derek last season, yet now she bumbles, fumbles, and stares at her sister instead of doing any work. The only thing consistent about these characters lately is their inconsistency. Cristina comes in to find out how the Mama Showdown went. The answer, that she's not budging and she's very scary, isn't what Cristina was hoping for. She just wants to know what Mama wants, so Mere logically (I know, Mere logical? There's more inconsistency) advises her to go get it over with. And then to come back and tell her how it went since she needs a pick-me-up, which she says while motioning to a still-staring Lexie. Cristina is indignant. "Mama Showdown is not for your enjoyment." She adds that she's going to hide in the clinic for a while, and orders Mere to make Lexie stop. "You're her sister!" Mere tells Cristina to do it: "I'm an only child! You're her resident." Cristina gathers herself up and yells, "If you have time to stare, you have time to get me coffee. Move! Move!" Lexie takes off at a sprint, and Cristina has to call to the other one, "Two! Stay!" Guess that means Lexie is #3, then. Meredith tells Cristina, "Now if you can just do that with Mama." I doubt, however, that Mama sprints for anyone.
One person not avoiding Mama is George -- he sees her waiting and excitedly heads over to sit down and visit. He happily tells her that he was "Burke's guy." He also adds that he once lived on Burke's sofa. Mama seems, rightly, amused. When George asks how Burke is doing, she replies, "He's Preston! He's a gentleman! And so he doesn't like to talk about it. And I just really don't know what to say to him." George suggests telling him he dodged a bullet. He then adds, "Once you're in, you're in." He calls Burke smart for not making a mistake that's hard to take back. He's of the camp that thinks no other human can pick up on ginormously obvious cues, but Mama dryly observes, "'Once you're in, you're in.' Be sure to have that engraved on your wedding ring when you get married." Not picking up on any sort of tone, he conversationally tells her he's already married. George, are you a moron? She's surprised to hear he's married, romantic as he sounds, and tells him that staying in a marriage out of obligation is no way to live and love. She also thinks he knows that. That might be giving him a bit too much credit, there. He says he does, then amends that: "Sometimes I do."
Meredith shows up where Derek is waiting; he paged her, and she's totally relieved to get out of the clinic. However, she's thinking booty call, and he's thinking lunch. Seriously, I need a job where my morning break is sex with a hot neurosurgeon. I love having a Diet Coke and surfing the web, don't get me wrong, but it's just not quite as exciting. She turns him down and tells him they agreed to "S&M only." At his horrified face, she explains, "Sex and mockery!" Good thing she clarified, because otherwise he was really not living up to expectations in the bedroom. ["Not to mention that that's fan-fic we really don't need to see become canon." -- Sars] He's clearly disappointed (about lunch, you dirty minds) but she just orders him to meet her in the lobby at 8 PM and to eat dinner first.
Alex is working on Brian, but he's still shrieking uncontrollably. Dave is freaking out when he sees Alex with a needle, and continues to babble on, culminating in panicked pleas to the baby to stop crying. He finally completely yells, and Alex snaps and shouts back that Brian can't stop "because his nervous system is shot. Because his brain and his heart and his renal system are all compromised. He can't stop crying because he's in withdrawal from crystal meth, you son of a bitch." Dave is stunned, and then starts to freak out, crying that Brian wasn't in the room when they were making it, but Alex exclaims that he smelled it on his skin. Dave then begins yelling about how he's a good dad who loves his family and they just needed some money. Alex snarls, "Well, now you can love your family from jail." For his efforts, he gets a punch right in the face and is knocked out cold, allowing Dave to grab Brian and flee. Was Alex irresponsible? Yes. But was he also more than a little bit...hot, in his indignant rage? Absolutely.
Ben's in surgery and Callie is drilling into his shoulder as Izzie watches. The Chief comes in and Callie doesn't pay a ton of attention, prompting him to ask testily if she doesn't know or doesn't care what's going on. He tells her that he delegated responsibility to her, "and now one of your residents has been attacked and a baby is missing." That's a bad day at work, right there. She's taken so by surprise that she doesn't seem to comprehend what he's saying, but he orders her to finish up the surgery and that they'd better find the baby. Once he's gone, she tries to maintain her composure as Izzie watches. Finally, she offers a compliment in a squeaky little voice, telling her she thinks Callie is doing a good job and that being Chief Resident isn't easy. This is finally what it takes to get through to Newly Dumb Callie's head, and she orders Izzie out of the OR. I don't think it will surprise anyone that Izzie seems stunned that this is the reaction she gets.
Mere sews up Alex's head in the clinic, and he asks what's up with Cristina, since she's quietly circling them like a shark. Mere explains that they don't know why Mama is there, but "My guess is she's here to kill Cristina." She then tells Cristina that Lexie is hovering, so Cristina looks up long enough to order them to "go fold something." Alex, naturally, watches Lexie and vocally appreciates her hotness. Thankfully he gets paged to talk to the police before Meredith can stick those scissors in his skull. Cristina repeats that she just wants to know why Mama is at the hospital.
But Mama's visitor isn't Cristina; it's Derek. He sits down all suave charm and dimply smiles and says that Burke is no longer returning his calls. She tells Derek that he's doing his best, and then asks if Derek thinks Cristina really loved Burke. Derek thinks she loved him the best she knew how. Mama guesses this wouldn't have been enough for Derek either, and he agrees, but he can't agree that he would have ended it. He tells her that he and Burke were built differently, and Burke was stronger than he. Mama declares that honorable men are all built the same, and he's surprised that she thinks he's honorable. I'm more surprised that she thinks Burke was, though I guess he didn't come home and tell her over milk and cookies all about how he covered up the tremor in his hand and coerced Cristina into doing his surgeries for him. Mama asks Derek, "Do you know when to walk away? Do you know when not to take less than you deserve? If you do then you're an honorable man!" It doesn't really seem to be a linear conclusion, but she delivers it with such gusto that I'm swept along anyway.
George is in Clark's room, and explains how his injuries plus his drug use caused him to go into cardiac arrest. He's bleeding internally and will have to stay in the hospital, he's probably about to go into withdrawal, and he will have to deal with it there since he's probably going to need surgery. Clark asks George if he has any good news. "Well, Clark, the good news is that we force our personal issues onto all the patients, so your time here will be filled with some good people-watching as I try to figure out the situation between my once-cool wife and my always-annoying girlfriend!" That's what he could have said, but instead he actually says he wishes he could say yes. Clark cries.
Callie runs around, opening doors and looking for the baby, totally panicked and completely ineffectual since someone else has probably thought to, say, look in an empty room nearby already. Mark asks about Ben's surgery, and she tells him it was fine but that she needs to find the baby. He asks if she's okay, and she babbles, freaked out, about losing the baby and blowing it when the Chief left her in charge. So she tells him no, she's not okay. But despite his man-whore tendencies, he's also pretty astute, and he pointedly tells her, "No, you are not okay." She turns around and after a moment admits that she thinks her husband is having an affair. He looks crushed on her behalf and encourages her to talk to George. "You know, as an alternative to destroying your career." He's really a good egg -- wrapped in a yummy, muscular, man-whore package.
In the clinic, Lexie finally approaches Mere instead of just staring, and asks where the thermometers are. Mere cuts her off and asks if she really doesn't know, or if it's an excuse to talk. Lexie stammers, and Meredith adds, "Simple question, Lexie. Are you an idiot? Or a stalker?" Lexie is stunned and clearly hurt, and Meredith looks annoyed, but also pained. She knows it was mean and she's not usually mean, but she finally lays it out: "But I'm a person who just doesn't want to know you. And you are a person who is making that very difficult. So please, just stop making it so difficult for me to not know you. Okay." She leaves, and Lexie gapes after her.
Derek's checking on a still-asleep, post-surgery Marla when he hears a noise from the bathroom. Inside is Dave, panicking because Brian won't wake up. Derek pleads with him while Dave sweats profusely and cries that he's a good dad who doesn't want to hurt his baby. He also doesn't want to go to jail; thank goodness he picked such a slick hiding place that no one would ever look. But I think by the time you're cooking drugs on the kitchen stove, you're not getting mistaken for a rocket scientist. Derek convinces him to give up the baby, and runs Brian out of the room to get help.
It turns out the reason Brian went quiet is that he had a stroke. Bailey and Alex are watching the surgery, Bailey commenting on how horrifying it is for a baby to have a stroke, and Alex sitting silently. He then tells Bailey she can yell at him, but she replies that it's not her job. He tells her she can if she wants, with a slight note of hope in his voice that she might do it, and says he deserves it. Given the chance, she gives him a fantastic ass-whooping. "Oh, you do deserve it. You do deserve, Dr. Karev, to be chas-tised for your stunningly poor decision-making. You certainly earned a reprimand for your unbelievably destructive tactical error." She continues, even smacking him when she gets to the part about getting in the face of a known drug dealer. "Are you without intelligence, because I know you were taught better than that. I taught you better than that, Dr. Karev. Got in the face of a drug dealer. Fool!" During the entire tirade he never turns his head, but once she's done, he glances towards her and quietly and sincerely thanks her. She rocks with her eyes closed, coming down from her own high, and replies, "Oh no, thank you." While I respect the Chief's reasons for not making her Chief Resident, it's moments like this that tell me everyone there needed her to be.
Lexie seems to have gathered up her courage, and approaches Mere one more time in the clinic, seemingly a glutton for punishment. She tells Mere that she is a nice person, and that she doesn't know what she did to Mere, but they have the same dad. At that moment, Mere cuts her off to say that they don't. The anger is gone; it's stated as fact. She explains sadly, exhausted, "My dad disappeared when I was five years old and I never saw him again. Does that sound like the dad you grew up with?" Lexie shakes her head. Mere continues, "I kicked a man out of my bed in the middle of the night; the world's most perfect man, who loves me, and I can't let him. And it doesn't take a shrink to figure out why. Because our dad chose you. So I'm sure you are a very nice girl, Lexie, but I hope you can understand, you're not a girl I ever want to have to know." Lexie tries to breathe and control the tears in her eyes. I feel like a proud mom; after so long, Meredith can reasonably have a conversation and admit, concisely, her true feelings. But at the same time, it would be nice to see her make even a little bit of effort to fix them as a step.
George sits by Clark's bed as he babbles and sweats, chastising himself for trying drugs just once at a party and ending up an addict. This scene shall be called "Kids, Don't Try Drugs!" He says drugs aren't him, and then on cue he seizes up.
Cristina finally sucks it up and goes to find Mama. She tells her hello, and Mama greets her with, "Took you long enough." It's moments like this that I feel the two of them are actually more similar than Cristina would like to admit. Mama says that she came to pick up Burke's things and her necklace from the apartment, and so Cristina offers her keys and says to leave them under the mat. She turns to leave, but Mama adds that she wanted to say sorry. She says she thinks she came to know Cristina, and that she loves being a surgeon even more than she loved Burke. She confirms that Cristina wants to continue with cardiothoracic surgery, and says she's not only sorry Cristina lost the man she loved, but that she lost her teacher. "With him by your side, you could have been a brilliant heart surgeon." Cristina is stunned to receive such a slap wrapped up in a conciliatory tone. She merely responds, "I see." Mama then tells her, "You're a strong woman, Cristina, I respect that. I wish I could have been born at another time, I may have been more like you." She says she'll leave the key under the mat but as she turns to leave, Cristina asks if Mama will take away the wedding gifts, which she will. After a beat, Cristina asks, "He's never coming back, is he. Not even to say goodbye." Mama just tells her, "Remember, you're a strong woman." It's a strange scene, but even with the odd teacher comment, I think that somehow she did end up respecting Cristina for who she was.
VO: "Still, they say you don't kick the habit until you hit rock bottom. But how do you know when you're there?" George approaches Callie, who guesses that he still wants to talk. But when he confirms this, she interrupts with a stern, "No." That word seems to have spent all of her attitude, and she picks at her shirt and then begs him not to say anything. "Not tonight. I'm your wife. Do this for me?" She's crying, and with a deep breath, he agrees, and they turn and walk away. He's done a lot of crappy things lately, but I think not breaking up with his wife on one of the worst days of her career isn't one of them.
Mark walks towards the door toting his espresso maker when he sees Meredith and invites her for a drink at Joe's. She tells him no, as she's meeting someone. Mark tells her that Derek asked him to relay that he's stuck with a patient, and she's surprised, but takes it fine. He asks again about that drink, but she turns him down to go home. Turns out, Derek's been watching the whole scene from the balcony. Who knew my godfather comparison was so apt? Satisfied that his non-girlfriend doesn't want to sleep with his former best friend, he calls her name, and they leave together. Classy.
VO: "Because no matter how badly a thing is hurting us, sometimes, letting it go hurts even worse." Cristina walks into her apartment and sees that all of the gifts have been cleared away. She sits in the chair, looking like she could really use some paper to rip right now. Cheer up, Cristina -- you got a really fantastic apartment out of the deal, which I think ultimately is a better prize than the man would have been.