It's Halloween, which I expected to be an excuse for a super-gimmicky hour, but which turned out to be the backdrop for a great episode. I know! Bailey is extremely excited for the carnage that's going to come in from Seattle's chainsaw pumpkin-carving contest, which she tells the residents with glee as she and Callie address them in the morning. Callie manages to steal the show, however, by announcing to all and sundry that Izzie and George have been sleeping together. It would have been worth it just to not have this giant tortured secret storyline any more, but there was more than just that to enjoy. Alex gets a surprise visit from Ava, and they put off talking about their relationship by having sex in the on-call room. He's finally pulled away by a page -- Norm, who had been complaining all day of not feeling well, collapsed while assisting with a surgery from what turned out to be a massive stroke. Thankfully, Derek was there to work his magic and remove the clot from his brain, so Norm will be fine when he changes his course from surgery to psych. When Alex goes back to his love nest, he finds Ava gone and just her shirt to comfort him. Which fails to answer the question -- just what did she wear to leave the hospital?
Meredith feels her mother's ashes are haunting her, so she brings them to work, which unsurprisingly creeps out all of her co-workers. She meets a little boy who literally has no ears and asks her and Sloane to do a pro bono surgery to make some for him. Sloane agrees to do it if Meredith can drum up the OR and all the personnel they'll need, so she and the boy go trick-or-treating for ears. It totally works, and when he wakes up after surgery, he advises Mere to send her mom's ashes back to the sea rather than leaving them in her cubby. Between that and a nice moment between Mere and Lexie, she realizes her mom was happiest in the hospital, and washes her ashes down the drain in the scrub room of an OR. Richard comes across her doing so and helps out, which is for him the last task of a big day that involves admitting Adele filed for divorce, and looking for a place to live. Cristina agrees to rent him Burke's apartment, but then takes it back at the end of the day when she finds out he hired Dr. Hahn to replace Burke. She's a little bent out of shape since Hahn arrived that morning to do a heart transplant and accused Cristina of sleeping with her mentors to get ahead. Instead, she ends up inviting Callie to be her new roommate since they wound up bonding over their failed relationships. All in all, it actually had the feel of Grey's of yore, when it used to be a good show, and when you throw in Izzie getting shunned by Cristina for the affair…well, that's just icing on the Halloween cake.
I'm giving up on these far-reaching previouslys. I mean, really? Meredith's mom died? I think we all remember that, right?
From the strange camera effects, lighting, and white scrubs, we can tell that Meredith is having a dream where she's walking down a hospital hallway, and as she walks there are flashbacks to her and Derek's difficulties. "Pick me. Choose me. Love me." Derek pulls her out of the bathtub. Derek pulls her out of Puget Sound. And finally him telling her that she's constantly leaving him. It's like having an extra "previously on" segment, just in case there wasn't anything they fit in the first time. DreamMere just keeps eerily walking down the hall. Her mother joins the Painful Flashback Fun by telling her how disappointed she is that Meredith is only ordinary. This is definitely not a good dream. As she walks into the Dream Morgue, her voice-over narrates. "There's a reason surgeons like to wield scalpels. We like to pretend we're hard, cold scientists. We like to pretend we're fearless." Illustrating the "hard, cold" part, she opens a door and pulls out a tray with her own body on it, grey except for auburn hair and blue eyes that open as she tells herself, "Pick me. Choose me. Love me." At that, Living Mere wakes up with a jolt. And her VO, nicely concise this week, ends, "But the truth is, we become surgeons because somewhere, deep down, we think we can cut away that which haunts us." Her own cutting away begins with Mere digging manically through her closet.
Downstairs, Alex is carving a pumpkin (helloooo again, black tank top and delicious arms) and Izzie is baking. Neither of them could sleep either. Mere VO ends as she tells us what can haunt us. "Weakness. Frailty. Death." Izzie looks up in time to see Meredith grab a baggie and upend the urn into it. She asks what it is, and Meredith simply replies, "My mother." Alex looks incredibly repulsed, and announces, "Happy freakin' Halloween."
At the hospital, Cristina takes a look at the bulletin board, removes the flyer advertising "adorable kittens" for adoption, and puts up an "apartment for rent" flyer. I did a little slo-mo on the DVR to catch the price -- $1800/month, for those who are curious to compare to their own rental markets. Richard sees her and notes that she's moving out of Burke's place, which is a good segue into mentioning that Adele has filed for divorce and he's looking for a place to live, and that he saw Burke's once and thought it was nice. When he catches himself and calls it her apartment, Cristina tells him he was right the first time. She then rips down the flyer and hands it to him, telling him that now it's his place, which seems to please him.
She then heads into the locker room, where everyone sits spellbound, watching Meredith fiddle with the bag of ashes. Cristina, not present at Insomniacs Anonymous, asks what's up, and Izzie explains that Meredith put her mom in a baggie and brought her to work. Meredith defends herself, explaining, "I had to get her out of my closet. She was haunting me." Alex adds, "And now she's haunting us all." Meredith calls it putting her mother to rest, and Sydney explains that she's cleansing. "In tribal culture, when one wants to cleanse the past, one cuts off all one's hair and buries it in the earth. You might try that too!" She looks much less put together and much more haggard than usual, despite the trademark peppiness. But it's actually not a bad thing -- it makes her look more like an actual doctor than ever before. Callie and Bailey then come in for morning announcements. Callie talks about all the crazies that will be coming in on account of it being a holiday, and Bailey excitedly adds that today is Seattle's famous Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest. She's wiggling like an excited puppy as she adds, "I love this city." Callie dismisses them, but Izzie calls out a question about rounds. She's told to direct her questions to Bailey, and after some confusion Callie specifies that only Izzie will be directing her questions to Bailey. When Bailey asks why this is, Callie replies, "Because she's been sleeping with my husband." To the slack-jawed faces staring at her, Callie adds, "All righty then. Have a good day," and leaves. Everyone directs said slack jaws in Izzie's direction; she gives a nervous laugh and bolts through another door. Cristina tells Meredith, "This is even more disturbing than your bag full of Mommy." Oh, she doesn't even know the half of it, either.
Lexie is celebrating Halloween in a bonnet, because Raggedy Ann is THE hot costume this year...? She's also got freckles drawn on her cheeks. She's getting yelled at by a woman dressed as a mouse who is pissed that her dad, in the hospital waiting for a new heart, hasn't gotten his meds on the right schedule. He calls out to her that they might not take her seriously, as she's dressed as a mouse. That might be true if the mouse weren't yelling at a woman dressed as a doll. She defends that she works with children, so her costume is much more appropriate than Lexie's. George comes down the hall and rescues Lexie, assuring the woman they'll take care of her dad. He than tells Lex he likes her costume, and she starts to explain, "Dr. Yang said..." He cuts her off to advise, "Dr. Yang is screwing with you," so she rips off the bonnet.
A man comes in to the clinic and asks Bailey for a doctor; he's stomping and jiggling his leg. When she asks if his leg hurts, he explains that it's just his foot, not his leg, and that the foot isn't his. Bailey's understandably confused and asks if he's hurt, but he just maintains that something happened, he can't explain it, and that his foot isn't his. There's a lot of back and forth and he tries to assure her he's not crazy, using the rationale that he works at a bank. I guess his bank provides full psychological profiles during their hiring process, then? Otherwise I'm not really connecting the dots. He's left Bailey speechless, and at her silence, he tells her he just needs someone to remove it, like he's talking about a hangnail. I don't think I'd want this man handling my money.
Mere and Derek run into each other in the hall, literally, and charts and ashes all fall to the floor. Derek asks what that is, and eventually she has to admit, "It's my mom." She explains that it was freaking people out to have the ashes in her cubby, so she's going to take them to the car. Worriedly, she then asks Derek if that's disrespectful. I personally think it's no worse in the back of her closet; at least this way her mom's got a view. He's kind of freaked -- not as much as if she'd asked to have her foot amputated, but still alarmed -- and she tells him pointedly that she's trying to evolve. "So, cubby or car." He wonders if she really thinks this isn't weird, but they're interrupted by a boy who asks if they're really her mom's ashes. Derek looks to him for support, and the kid nods his agreement at the strangeness. He's got on a device that looks like a headband with a small apparatus over each of his ears. When Meredith asks if he's lost, he explains that his mom works in the cafeteria and that she said it was okay for him to go upstairs and look for Dr. Sloane. Meredith asks Derek to take care of him, and he does, on the condition that Mere take care of "her." She's left to scoop up as much of her mother as possible with her bare hands. Now I know why the nurses always insist you wear at least a pair of socks when walking around a hospital wing.
Sloane sidles up to the nurses' station and gives Olivia a sexy hello. She demands that he not smile at her and another nurse joins them, adding not to smile at either of them. Turns out they've talked and compared notes, pickup lines, and even technique. Mark asks questioningly, "'Technique'?" In unison, they tell him, "Identical." Olivia does get around a bit, but with the exception of George, I say very, very well done, my friend. They inform Mark that they've formed a club, "Nurses United Against Mark Sloane." After a beat Mark smoothly asks if there are any club activities, which drives them away in a huff. Derek walks up, but before Mark can tell him about the club, Derek tells him a boy has been looking for him. He steps aside, and the little boy (whose name is Ryan, which I don't think is ever actually mentioned, but which I learned on the internets and therefore will use for recapping purposes) looks up at Mark and hopefully asks, "Daddy?" Mark is more scared than I'd guess he's ever been in his life, and at the look of abject terror on his face, Derek laughs and hands Ryan a twenty. Mark, still scared, yells that he'll get Derek back, and then looks back at Ryan. Ryan announces that Mark's not his dad, but he is hoping that he'll build him some ears.
In the clinic or the ER, I can't tell which, a nurse runs by Alex and tells him someone has requested him in Curtain 3. While they walk there, Norm says he's not feeling well and that he thought he'd head home. Alex gives him a bunch of shit about how surgeons have to work through all that stuff and pretty much dares him to stay, and then pulls the curtain back to reveal...Ava. Norm begins to explain how he's not feeling well, but Alex shoos him away and pulls the curtain back around. A husband she doesn't want and a town she doesn't want to be in seem to be agreeing with her, as Ava looks absolutely fantastic. By way of greeting, she tells Alex about how all the moms in town dress up, so she thought about what she might want to be. Can you guess what that is? The only thing she wants to be for Halloween is Ava. Alex shows her how much he likes that idea by grabbing her into a kiss.
Mark and Ryan are in the lounge, and Mere walks in and asks what's up. Papers are all over the table, and it turns out that they are notes to Mark from all the kids in Ryan's class. He explains that Ryan has the internal structure for hearing, but no canal or external structure. Aaaah, so that's what the headband is -- it's a hearing device. Even though Ryan said he wanted ears, I still couldn't see enough of him face-on to quite get what he meant. Ryan adds that he thought if he came in with all the letters, Sloane would feel sorry for him and do the surgery for free. Mark claims he'd like to help, but Ryan interrupts his excuse to add that on his way there that day, three different people asked if he was in costume, since he looks like a permanent Halloween costume. "Just thought you should know that." Meredith admiringly tells him, "You're good." Mark still hesitates, explaining that a pro bono surgery means they'd also need an OR, anesthesiologist, general surgeon, and scrub nurses among others. He says he can't ask for the help because he has no social capital -- evidenced by the fact that the nurses have formed a club about hating him -- and that he can't ask for favors since he never does favors for anyone else. The thing I enjoy about Mark is at least he's self-aware enough to admit to all this, even when it's a time like now where his overinflated ego isn't necessarily very attractive. He adds that he would do it if he could. Meredith, however, has an idea and tells him that she's got social capital, or at least her mom did, and her mom was really big on pro bono work. Mark cuts a deal: if Mere can get everything and everyone they need, he's in. He leaves, and Ryan turns to Meredith with one question. "These people who knew your mother. Do they know you brought her to work in a baggie?" I'd like to request that Ryan replace Izzie on the show from here on out.
Alex has brought Ava to that most sacred of hospital locales -- the on-call room. Clearly we know where this is going to go, since no one actually sleeps in one of these unless it's post-coital. They make out and grab at each other's clothes, but Ava keeps her senses enough to push him away before either is topless. She then points out that he never came after her, even after she practically begged him to give her a reason to stay in Seattle. She quickly tells him that part was fine and she understood, but adds, embarrassed, that she thought he would follow her. "I came back for you, which basically...makes me a beggar. I'm a beggar for Halloween." Not quite; she's in an awesome red wrap top, rather than tattered clothes with her belongings on a stick. Wait, or is that a hobo? Are we even allowed to use the word "hobo" anymore? It's hard to keep up with the P.C. kids these days. Regardless, they start to banter and kiss. And kiss some more. She tries to protest that they need to talk, and he says they will, but clearly he's planned some naked activity first.
Meanwhile, the psychologist has checked out Mr. It's Not My Foot, whose name is James, and says he's got body dysmorphic disorder and suggests anti-anxiety meds. Bailey is disgusted. "The man is requesting an amputation and the best you can come up with is anti-anxiety meds?" But just then a nurse comes up to alert her to "chainsaw contest time," so Bailey turns back around and heads over to her patient to explain that she has to leave, but she's writing him a prescription. He's ticked, and demands a surgeon. She gets back into Business Bailey mode long enough to tell him that she's a surgeon, and that he won't convince her or anyone else to amputate his leg. She strongly suggests the medication and pushes the prescription slip at him.
Meredith's first stop on her goodwill tour is Richard's office, where she announces, "I have an earless boy." After an alarmed moment, she clears up her meaning and tells him about Ryan and Sloane, and asks for use of an OR. As he launches into the reasons he can't do it, Mere turns and nods at Ryan, who makes his entrance holding a pillowcase. He holds it out to Richard and says charmingly, "Trick or treat!" Meredith adds, "Get it? He's trick or treating. For ears." That last part is added in a perfect blend of sympathy and sweetness. She's as good as Ryan. Richard tries to protest, but Meredith pulls out her ace and reminds him how her mother was big on pro bono. He glares at her while Ryan stares at him, and he finally gives in and tells them they have an OR at 6 PM.
George, Lexie, and Izzie are all outside waiting for an incoming ambulance. There's palpable tension in the air, and Lexie offers to wait off to the side so that they can talk. Izzie angrily points out that there's no need, since everyone knows. She seems to actually be mad at George for this, for reasons that are clear only in Izzie's strange, twisted mind. He simply comments that they're in for a long day. The ambulance arrives to mercifully break it up, and they unload a woman with massive head trauma from a brick flying through her windshield. They explain that it was dumb kids pulling Halloween stunts, which I always thought was stuff like smashing pumpkins, not killing someone by sending a projectile into a moving car. They're all appropriately appalled, and Izzie notes the brain matter (little bit of vomit, right there), to which the paramedic answers that her license says she's a donor. They then get a look at her face, with a brown nose and whiskers painted on, and George exclaims, rather horrified, that he knows her, as her dad is in the hospital waiting for a new heart.
In the ER, Bailey's enjoying sopping up massive amounts of blood from the hand of an overexcited Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contestant. He gives a happy account of how awesome his pumpkin was until he accidentally cut off his finger. But even that didn't dilute his thrill, since the blood on the pumpkin made it even "sicker." He tells Bailey that he brought in the finger, but that it just happens to still be stuck in the chainsaw. When he turns around to fetch it, though, it's gone. He starts to get upset as he looks around for it, and Bailey tries to tell him that they wouldn't be able to reattach it anyway, not seeming to understand his urgency. I'd be alarmed at the idea that a chainsaw (with a finger in it) was just hanging around somewhere in the ER, but that doesn't seem to be foremost in her mind. Well, not until she hears it start up somewhere. With dawning horror she runs off, followed by Cristina and Norm, and they chase the sound to a curtain. As they rip it open, blood spatters all over Norm from James sawing through his own leg. I saw enough to catch a glimpse of chainsaw and leg in the same frame, and covered my eyes for the rest of the scene. Seriously, they're having a really good time with all of the surgery special effects this season.
Just in case anyone missed it, though, they show the wound as Callie checks it out. She asks if he was high to be able to hold the saw to his leg for that long, but Bailey says that other than the morphine he'd been given for pain, his tox screen was clean. Callie, finished investigating, tells Cristina to prep him for a full amputation and groggily, James thanks her. Bailey shakes her head and then notices that Norm looks funny but when she asks if he's okay, he blames it on everything they just witnessed. Once they're gone, Callie and Mark are left to clean up. He comments that he loves all the crazies on Halloween, but Callie says she can understand how someone would wake up and feel like their life wasn't their own. I think she's stretching a bit for the sake of her down mood, as someone feeling like that about their life and someone feeling like that about a limb and then trying to saw said limb off seem to me to be fairly different things. Mark just tells her that he heard about what happened and offers his services, day or night. "Night in particular." Mmm. I need to come up with something for which I need comforting. Callie's ridden that train before, though, (no pun intended) (okay, maybe a little bit pun intended) and doesn't take the bait, instead marveling about how she was married and said 'til death do us part' in a church. "I mean, it was a church of Elvis, but it was still a church." Really, Church of Elvis didn't give her pause that maybe she and George were rushing into something? Huh. She just can't believe that this is her life.
Upstairs, Richard has just told Jack, the heart transplant patient, what happened to his daughter. He's got tears in his eyes, but he seems too stunned to let them fall. He says, probably not for the first time, that he can't understand how it happened. Izzie tells him quietly that it would have been quick and that she probably didn't feel anything. After a moment, Richard gently tells him that Erin was a donor, and that as of kin he could instruct that he receive her heart; she was a perfect match. Jack just tells them to go away, and when Richard tries again, Jack repeats desperately for them to leave. Realizing that he needs to lay off, Richard tells Jack that George will take him up to see Erin, and quietly leaves.
Elsewhere, Derek heads upstairs to lots of smiling glances and giggles from various female staffers, as if he's in an Axe Body Spray commercial. He runs into Sydney, who happily introduces herself (officially, as they've both been working there a while) and proceeds to throw herself at him in a fit of overly cheerful flirting. To his credit he takes it very gracefully, more so than Meredith, who is watching from the end of the hall. She turns to Ryan and asks him if he thinks Sydney is pretty. Ryan answers, "Yeah, I like cheerful people." Mere's totally surprised and protests that she can be cheerful, but Ryan tells her, "I think the ashes thing makes that kind of unlikely." From the mouths of babes.
The person on their list is Bailey; Meredith finds her in the clinic and asks if she would donate some time. Unfortunately she's buried under paperwork on account of her patient cutting off his own foot. She also promised that she'd be home in time to see her son in his Halloween costume. Meredith asks if he's old enough to even know what's going on, and Bailey concedes that he isn't, but she made the promise to her husband. On cue, Ryan comes trick-or-treating. Bailey, appalled at the manipulation, exclaims, "For ears? He's trick-or-treating for ears?" Mere gives a pathetic little, "Yeah," and asks if Bailey will help persuade the surgical nurses since they like her. Ryan chimes in again, "Trick or treat!" Bailey orders him to stop and gives them a scary glare, but finally gives up and agrees to help.
Jack is sitting at his daughter's bedside, crying, and George is trying to be discreet as he waits but is clearly having trouble watching Jack's abject grief. Jack points out that she's warm, and Derek tells him quietly how she is breathing with the help of machines, and that his daughter Erin, the person, isn't there. After a moment, Jack asks for the paperwork, saying they can have her organs since it was what she wanted. George then asks about the heart. In a tiny whisper, Jack breathes, "Give it to someone else."
Cristina, Meredith, and Ellis's ashes are having coffee in the cafeteria. Cristina suggests scattering the ashes off the roof, but Meredith tells her that her mom was afraid of heights. Cristina tries to tell her that they're ashes and therefore can't have phobias, but Mere maintains that she has to put her mother to rest and not become her. "I need to not die emotionally crippled and alone. And I need to not attend the wedding of Derek Shepherd and Sydney Heron. I need to put my mother to rest." I feel a little like Ellis actually would like just coming to work at the hospital with Meredith every day, but I guess that's too creepy and unsanitary to be a permanent solution. Their musing is interrupted when George and Izzie sit down, and Cristina sighs heavily and turns away from them. After an awkward silence, Izzie says they can just ask. Meredith asks if they're together, and when they say yes, she clarifies, "In love together. Sexy love, not sibling love." Izzie says yes, but their chemistry says no, no, no. It's actually uncomfortable to watch and try to believe that they're a romantic couple. She marvels that they've been doing it this whole time with no one noticing. Hey, I marvel at the same thing. Izzie says that they only did the deed once, and adds that now they're waiting, "Out of respect." George, trying to act like he's comfortable with this conversation, pipes up to add, "For Callie's feelings." Cristina snorts at this selfless declaration and leaves the table. Meredith claims she's not judging, but Izzie and the rest of them know better. As she gets up to leave herself, Meredith tells them sincerely that she's happy for them. It's not entirely convincing, but it's sweet that she's making an effort.
What did I tell you? Alex and Ava are naked in bed, clearly post-coital, when Alex gets a page. Seeing that it's Norm, he ignores it and instead asks Ava how she's been. She answers that she's in love with her daughter and gets all gooey talking about how she sucks on her fingers. He then asks about her husband. Carefully she answers, "My husband's in love with my daughter too." She then comments that Alex is tired, and he admits he hasn't been sleeping a lot. She says that she hasn't either because of the baby, but that she learned a trick of wrapping her in whatever shirt Ava was wearing that day. Alex smiles as he notes that then she can smell her mom. After a moment, Ava asks him what they're going to do, but Alex is finally asleep and she just smiles as she watches him. I enjoy that the bunk bed seems to now be a double instead of a twin, making illicit booty that much easier and more comfortable.
Now here's a face we haven't seen in a little while -- Dr. Hahn has come to the hospital to help harvest Erin's organs. She asks where the heart is going, and Richard explains that he hopes it will be to someone in the hospital who has not yet agreed. Cockily, Hahn comments that she's never had a problem convincing someone to take a heart, and Richard has to explain that the heart in question would be coming from the prospective recipient's daughter. At that moment Cristina and Norm turn the corner, pushing James's bed. Cristina sees Hahn and asks a waiting Izzie what she's doing there. When she hears about the transplant, Cristina makes a beeline to Hahn while Izzie tries to fight her off, claiming that Erin is her patient. Cristina just goes up and smoothly introduces herself and offers her help in surgery. Izzie then jumps in to introduce herself and explain that this is her patient and she has any pertinent info. She's much less smooth than Cristina, sounding defensive and, frankly, juvenile, but Hahn just comments to Richard that he has some eager junior residents. With an eye-roll that says he'd rather he didn't, he tells her to take her pick. When it's just the ladies, Hahn turns back to Cristina and answers, "Well, Yang, I appreciate the offer, but I date men. So I don't think you'll be able to impress me the way you've been able to impress your mentors in the past." Cristina can only stutter in response, so Hahn explains, "My theory is, if you had the chops in the OR you wouldn't need to try and impress in the bedroom." She then commands Izzie to follow her, and off they go, Self-Righteous and Self-Righteouser.
Unsurprisingly, Cristina's not taking this too well; she gripes to Norm about how she's got a bad reputation, so she's helping amputate a crazy man's foot instead of helping with a heart transplant. James starts to protest, "I'm not --" but Cristina cuts him off with, "Crazy! Cutting off your own foot is crazy." James tries to defend himself, telling them that crazy is walking through life as if you have no power over your own body, or say in your own destiny. Brilliantly, Norm comments easily, "Hmm. I still think it's cutting off your foot with a chainsaw that's crazy."
Hahn, now in bright red scrubs, heads in and greets Jack. Without even looking up from her paperwork, she brusquely tells him that the transplant team is waiting if he's ready to say goodbye. He doesn't flinch, just comments that she must not have children, because if she did she'd never say that. For one second she looks appropriately put in her place, but then her bravado comes back and she suggests again the idea that he take the heart. Jack adamantly refuses, saying having Erin's heart in his chest would haunt him every day. Not knowing how to be truly sympathetic, Hahn simply tells him she's sorry for his loss, and heads out. After a moment, George looks down and quietly tells him that while he doesn't know what it's like to lose a child, he does know what it's like to lose a parent. He says that Erin loved Jack; Jack saw it himself that morning when she was fighting for his life. George then delicately says he knows that she'd want Jack to have her heart. "I would have given my dad my heart if I could. If I could have saved him, I would have given my heart." It's sad and touching, and has left Lexie in tears. Jack thinks to himself, looks at his daughter, and then in the slightest of whispers answers, "All right."
Cristina and Izzie cross paths in the stairwell -- you thought it was only uncomfortable romantic confrontations that took place here, didn't you? -- and Izzie is completely miffed when Cristina ignores her. Fine, so this is an actual slight to be outright ignored, but Izzie really just lives to get indignant at whomever is supposedly wronging her. Not able to take the silent treatment, Izzie turns around and sneers that she can't believe Cristina is judging her, especially after what Hahn just said. Cristina's very calm, and tells her it's not the same, but Izzie shoots back that it's exactly the same. I'm very curious to see just why she thinks so. Izzie adds, not entirely convincingly, that she didn't mean to hurt Callie. I actually believe that she didn't mean to hurt Callie, but I also believe she just doesn't care about Callie one way or the other, so I think "sorry" is stretching it. I think she's only sorry that people are mad at her now. Cristina's now somewhat pissed, and points out, "You slept with her husband. I slept with my boyfriend? It's not the same thing." Like a little kid whose best comeback is something involving rubber and glue, Izzie says that Meredith slept with another woman's husband. I think she's forgetting that Meredith didn't know he was married at the time. She's really making an effort here, but it's not cutting the mustard. Cristina ignores her and turns to go, so Izzie yells it again and then accuses Cristina of being "a closed circle" with Meredith, and within it they can do whatever they want and it's fine. A little too late, she adds that she knows Cristina didn't sleep with Burke for her career and that if she'd been asked, she would have defended her. Izzie's effort to make herself look like a good person is getting more ridiculous by the minute, and Cristina looks almost amused. Izzie just tells her she's looking for a bit of slack, and for Cristina to believe Izzie's sorry she hurt Callie. Cristina only tells her, "We are not a closed circle." Needing the last word, Izzie shoots back, "You are," and leaves. The thing is, Cristina doesn't care about the last word, because Izzie's just wrong. Izzie and Cristina have never been close anyway, so I feel like Iz's effort would have been better exerted elsewhere in the forgiveness category. But then again, I think she's just desperate for everyone to believe she's not a selfish brat, even though that appears to be pretty much impossible at this point.
Derek's still attracting a lot of mental undressing by all the nurses when Sydney runs back up with the foolproof pickup line, "Were there actual shepherds in your lineage?" I know when someone asks me that, my shirt's off faster than I can tell them that's not even my name. It doesn't have quite the same effect on Derek, who is literally speechless as she goes on to explain that she loves genealogy. A little ways down the hall, Mark is kicking back and grinning at what's unfolding. As Derek heads over, he calls, "Payback's a bitch!" It turns out he put out word that Derek was lookin'. "Looking?" asks Derek. Mark corrects, "Lookin'. Sounds much dirtier without the 'g.'" Derek can only marvel, "And you wonder why they formed a club." This show is so much more fun when they're friends and Mark can be a loveable sleaze than when the two of them are fighting at every turn. I'm not sure it's an entirely realistic outcome, given the Addison affair, but as this is the magic of television, I'll happily go along for the ride.
Meredith's got a clipboard and is making her way down a checklist. She and Ryan have recruited all of the personnel they need, as well as an OR, and she happily tells him, "Let's call your mom, kid, you're gonna get some ears!" In the same vein as Mark and Derek, this show is that much better when Meredith gets to be a happy person occasionally. I mean, seriously, no one can be as dark and twisty as she was throughout all of Season Three, without ever cracking a single smile about something. I like this Mere.
Meredith is helping a little boy get ears, while Callie and Cristina work at taking off the foot of a crazy man. It's almost as heartwarming, too. Callie is still marveling that someone would cut off their own foot and Norm, who is observing, points out that people do strange things. Callie points out that she had the world's shortest marriage. Actually, I think the "strange thing" part of that was the running off to a quickie wedding in Vegas, as the short marriage and divorce is probably more common. I'm deliberately missing the female-trauma-bonding point, though. Cristina points out, "I was left in a church. While I was literally wearing a wedding dress." I'm curious how she might have been only figuratively wearing a wedding dress in this scenario. But it's set the two women off, and they manically giggle and one-up each other with the husband cheating and the mother who came to say goodbye instead of her son. It seems to all be too much for Norm, who tries to say he doesn't feel well but collapses before he can get the words out.
Ava and Alex seem to have been actually sleeping -- come on, guys; I've already pointed out that's not the point of these rooms -- but are awakened by Alex's pager. This time he jumps out of bed when he sees that something has happened to Norm. Ava protests that they need to talk, and once again, he promises that they will; he'll come back. Weakly, she calls after him, "Don't chicken out!" but he's already gone.
Mark and Mere scrub in for Ryan's surgery, and he tells Mere how impressed he is that she actually pulled it off, admitting he didn't think she could. She admits that she's surprised too, especially since it was her first time trick-or-treating. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that Ellis never had the time or the desire to make Mere a costume and take her out. "Plus she said it was rude to knock on people's doors and beg for food." Even tough guy Mark looks sad at the story, especially that Meredith has taken it all in stride. She asks what, and he tells her, "Just...the apple fell pretty far from the tree, huh?" She looks rather pleased. It's all warm and fuzzy at the Dirty Mistresses Club, much more than Nurses United Against Mark Sloane. (Though I find it rather amusing that both came about from all of Mark's sexual liaisons.)
Norm is in surgery; Derek is working on him when Alex busts in. It turns out Norm had a stroke, and Derek is working on removing the clot from his brain, and also trying to get Alex to calm down. Alex asks if Norm will be okay, but they won't know until the clot is removed. He keeps panicking, and Derek basically tells him to shut up so he can work. At the same time, George watches from the side as Izzie and Hahn work on the heart transplant. Lexie leans over and asks him if his marriage is really over, and when he confirms it, she says she's sorry. She then clarifies a second rumor: "Did Meredith really bring her mom's ashes to work?" George nods. Do you think Lexie might be wondering at this point if she really wants to continue fighting for a relationship with a sister who carries around her mother in a baggie?
Ava's gotten up and dressed, and is pacing the room and checking her watch. At the same moment, Mark gets Ryan's ears on just right, and in the other OR Hahn shocks Erin's heart to see if it will beat in Jack's chest. After a moment, the positive beeping returns and she announces, "There it is." After a moment, George sighs and whispers the same thing. Alex is looking at Norm, pleading with him, when his eyes pop open and he asks what happened. Derek and Alex let out huge sighs of relief.
Norm is recovering, and Alex comes in and apologizes for not listening to him or answering a page. Norm answers by telling him about how he chose to go into surgery when he was nearing 60 and queasy at the sight of blood. He'd originally planned on psych because he likes to talk, and ALex agrees, smiling. But Norm had a voice in his head telling him to go into surgery, "as if my Mary Beth was whispering in my ear." Of course his wife's name was Mary Beth. Because he's not actually 60; his mannerisms show that he is from another century entirely, time-warped into 2007 for our amusement. He concludes that in hindsight, "I think I was about to have a massive stroke, and my Mary Beth wanted me to be surrounded by world-class surgeons when it happened." Alex asks him what he's going to do now, and as if it's a crazy question Norm replies he's going into psych, because the surgeons, "You're all just a bunch of little children running around in your scalpels and your severed feet and your inappropriate sex in inappropriate places. You all need a good shrink!" Alex has the good grace to nod as he laughs; he knows it's true. Bye, Norm. I will definitely miss you and your comic old-timey ways.
Mere is working on Ryan's chart after surgery, and tenderly greets him when he wakes up. Ryan skips all greetings and instead tells Meredith that he had a goldfish and that when it died, he flushed it down the toilet and back to sea. She's amused and not sure where he's going withthis, but he calls her closer and whispers to her, "Back to the sea is better than your cubby," and nods at her knowingly. I just hope she doesn't take this too literally and send her mother down the toilet -- just imagine how disturbing her dreams would become after that.
Richard's hanging out in the lobby, and when Derek asks if he's okay, he admits he can't take the hotel any longer. Derek slumps into the chair to him, so Richard asks what's up and he admits, "I have to start dating." How this came about from just telling Meredith he'd wait for her unless someone showed up in his life, I'm not entirely sure. But then again, I'm also not entirely opposed to it, especially if it makes her hustle towards fixing herself up to be able to be happy with him.
The end of the ep is near, for Meredith's VO announces, "It isn't just surgeons. The truth is, I don't know anyone who's not haunted by something. Or someone." Alex busts back into the now-empty on-call room and finds only Ava's shirt. He picks it up, buries his face in it, and inhales deeply. Yeah, yeah, it's sweet and all, but I cannot stop wondering just what she wore to leave the hospital if she decided to leave the only shirt she was wearing on the bed. Meredith continues, "And whether we try to slice the pain away with a scalpel or shove it in the back of a closet, our efforts usually fail."
George walks out of the hospital and finds Izzie sitting outside. She smiles at him and says they made it through the day, which he repeats. She takes his hand and they smile at each other, in what can only be described as the most strictly platonic smile in the history of television. They just are not good enough actors to get past the fact that there's actually negative chemistry between them.
"So, the only way we can clear out the cobwebs is to turn a new page," Meredith's VOs to show that Callie's new page is in Cristina's filthy apartment. Cristina shows her around, and Callie seems quite happy and grateful. Her first question, however, is if Cristina would mind if she picked up a bit. Cristina sternly tells her that she minds quite a lot. While it's nice continuity that Cristina has gone back to being a complete slob, my inner neatnik is crying at the crap all over that gorgeous apartment.
Meredith finishes, "Or, put an old story to rest." In the scrub room, she takes a handful of her mother's ashes and slowly rinses them down the drain in the sink. Richard comes in, rather distressed that she's got a bag of ashes in a sterile environment, until she tells him that they are her mother. "And I think this is where she'd want to be." He walks up and quietly takes his own handful, then she takes another. They look at each other, and he asks if they should say a prayer. Meredith tells him Ellis didn't have faith in anything, so he simply whispers, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," as together they both put their hands in the water and put the woman who so affected both of them "Finally, finally to rest."