The main of the week is as obvious as a Mack truck rolling through the hospital and is only made better by Eric Stoltz's really creepy good acting. Jackson desperately needs a transplant, and Meredith does a test and finds out Eric is a match. Derek is hell bent on saving Eric's life so that he can meet his death at the hands of the professionals scheduled to do it in a few days, so he performs brain surgery that requires the removal of a piece of Eric's skull for a while. Meanwhile, Bailey and Arizona are fighting about the fact that Bailey keeps looking for something they can do for Jackson while Arizona's course of action is to just wait for organs. While they are fighting about which way is better, Alex gets a page that organs are available. He and Arizona go to harvest them and we learn that Arizona is peppy all the time because it's how she gets through the day without falling apart on account of all the kids that die around her. They get back and do the surgery but SHOCKINGLY, Jackson's body rejects the new organs and he ends up with only 24 hours to live unless they find a new set. Meredith decides to warn Eric very specifically about how he needs to care for his open skull so that he doesn't render himself brain dead; once she leaves the room he starts slamming said open skull against the bed. Voila! Fresh organs!
Derek's mom is in town and hanging about the hospital through all of this. Meredith takes Izzie's advice on how to appear peppy and happy but at the end of the day can't do it anymore. She admits that she's a big old mess who has sympathy for a serial killer, which leads Derek's mom to realize she's The One for Derek since she can help show him that life isn't all in self-righteous black and white. [Insert your own "Grey" joke here.] She also has time to spread her awesomeness to Mark and tells him that he should just be an adult and date Lexie, already. She also figures out after one second that Hunt isn't sleeping after his experiences in Iraq, but he's not ready to hear it. He's asked Cristina out on a date to prove that he's not hot and cold, but unfortunately then shows up late and drunk to pick her up. She is pissed at him and it only gets worse when he goes to take a shower in her apartment. But when she finds him in there fully dressed and babbling about his horrific-sounding "favorite surgery," she realizes that his behavior is all about him, not about her and she helps him.
Finally, Alex keeps continuing his journey towards becoming a good boyfriend. In addition to that, Izzie realizes that she likes having a living boyfriend with whom she can actually go out in public. She breaks up with Denny (at least as well as you can break up with someone whose existence seems to be about following you around 24/7) and seems to commit fully to Alex. Fortunately, Denny sits down and says that he and Alex have to talk, giving me, and every other viewer, hope that maybe this means Alex is going to realize that something is very seriously wrong with his girlfriend.
Take a look at the worst storylines this show has concocted, and there have been plenty. Then come back Wednesday for the full detailed recap of this episode.
We open on nighttime this week. "My mother used to say this about residency. It takes a year to learn how to cut. It takes a lifetime to learn not to." Really, Ellis Grey said that? And to Meredith? I didn't think they had that sort of relationship, but I guess, "Be quiet Meredith, I'm trying to work," wouldn't be so meaningful to lead us into this week's episode. Bailey watches Jackson sleep and then Arizona runs up to answer Bailey's page. Bailey tells her that Jackson's BP is down a bit so they might be able to push for him to be moved up on the transplant list. It's obviously not worth of the 911-page that she used at 2:30 AM. Arizona tells her that they need to let the system do it's job and that they need to both get some sleep, and when Bailey tearily calls that he's running out of time, Arizona says, not unkind but still matter of fact, "They always are. Welcome to peds." VO: "Of all of the tools on the surgical tray, sound judgment is the trickiest one to master. And without it, we're all just toddlers running around with 10-blades."
King of the Toddlers Derek bursts in and hands the guard his briefcase -- is that part of this guy's job, now? Handling Derek's case like he's a secretary? Eric jovially says that he told them not to wake Derek on account of him needing his beauty sleep. I enjoy the sadistic chuckle he gives at that while Derek pouts and looks at his chart. The brain contusions are expanding, so they need to operate. Seriously for only a second, Eric asks if this could kill him and chuckles at the affirmative answer. Given that he's due to be executed in 5 days he wants to just let it roll with the contusions; he figures that the hospital with all the pretty ladies is a nice place to go. Derek comments that he's refusing surgery and Eric points out that he'll die either way. "Might as well do it on your watch." I just love a man who can torture Derek in this way, psycho serial killer or not.
Mark is trying to sneak out of Lexie's room and is not happy that she lives in Meredith's attic and that everyone seems to be awake downstairs. Cleary I missed something along the way because I never remember her moving out of the apartment she shared with George, but here she is living in the attic. I guess when Derek brought her home, it was for good and not just for one night as it totally appeared. Regardless, there she is in the attic and there's Mark with no shirt on (HEL-lo) wondering why the other housemates never sleep. Lexie tells him that they are cleaning the house for Derek's mom, and Mark goes into a weird scary calm freakout about the woman who practically raised him coming to visit while he's sleeping with the 24-year-old banned goods. I think if she knows you that well, Mark, she won't be that surprised to find out that you didn't entirely follow her lessons on right and wrong.
Cristina is sitting in her living room when Hunt starts yelling excitedly from the shower. She runs in and is annoyed to find that he jumped into the shower fully clothed. But while she nags a bit, he tells her that he remembers his best surgery ever. He describes a soldier who was nearly torn apart by an explosive device, full of holes. He tried to stop the bleeding but nothing was working until he thought to use his own body as pressure, and he lay on top of the soldier for 2 hours until help came, and that saved the guy's life. She watches him as he talks, and his voice returns more to normal as he says that the soldier wrote him a letter thanking him, and then he shot himself. "That was my best surgery," he repeats, as his face starts to crumble. Cristina seems to realize she's dealing with a lot more than a tardy man with a drink problem. She takes off her own shoes and gets into the shower with him to help him take off his tie as Meredith VO's, "We're human. We make mistakes. We mis-estimate, we call it wrong." Cristina puts her hands on Hunt's face and looks at him sympathetically.
"But when a surgeon makes a bad judgment call, it's not as simple." Izzie is at home in her room when Alex comes in. He seems happy and almost proud as he suggests that they use some of their vacation time and take a road trip together and stop in Iowa. Izzie asks if his mom lives in Iowa and Alex says she does and confidently tells her, "I think she'd like to meet you." He sits to Izzie who still hasn't answered and says it was a bad idea, but she kisses him and grins. She then goes to get a bottle of tequila for them to celebrate and heads out. Alex is still on the end of the bed and Denny sits to him and says, "Alex, we gotta talk." Yes! You have to talk about how Izzie is a nutjob! You have to talk about how the viewers have been made to watch a dead principle character for half a season! Please! Talk!
"People get hurt. They bleed." Mere catches Bailey as she comes out of Jackson's room, and tells her she's so sorry for what happened that day, and asks what happens now. A deflated Bailey tells her, "Now we wait for a miracle." Mere watches her go and is clearly troubled by the miracle part of it all. Her VO continues, "So we struggle, over every stitch. We agonize over every suture." Meredith takes off, her mind clearly made up about something.
She walks into Eric's room and takes a deep breath before telling him, as his doctor, that right now there is only dura matter covering part of his brain where the skull is missing. If somehow that were to be damaged, it would result in brain death, so he has to be very, very careful. She asks if he understands what she's saying, and he manages a smile and a small chuckle. She smiles ever so slightly as she turns to go but he calls after her to ask if she is doing this for him or for Jackson. While she thinks about her answer, her VO continues, "Because the snap judgments, the ones that come to us quickly and easily, without hesitation..." She tells Eric, "Whatever helps you sleep at night." He smiles as she goes and her VO finishes, "They're the ones that haunt us forever." And then comes one of the hardest scenes I've ever watched, far worse than anything the special effects department has ever been able to come up with. Eric manages to grab his pillow with his teeth and toss it aside, leaving the headboard of the bed behind him. After a moment, he sits up, and then slams his head back into the board and screams. He then repeats this, surer and surer each time. I have yet to talk to anyone that was actually able to watch it all the way through. I haven't said it often lately, but well done, Grey's. Despite how obvious the setup was about the organs, and despite having to watch yet more of Derek being a pissy-pants, this story has been a really great one. That was one of the most horrifying yet gripping scenes all season. And kudos to Eric Stoltz for being so good at portraying a creepy, charismatic serial killer.
Downstairs, Mere is grasping a bottle of tequila to her chest like a security blanket and staring at the room with unfocused eyes. Alex thinks she's going to blow the meeting but Sadie has confidence in her, and George jumps in to say that Mrs. Shepherd is going to love her. Meredith counters that mothers love happy, bubbly girls like Izzie and they definitely don't love her. Izzie walks in and agrees that mothers do love her, just so we can see Denny comment that he knows his mother would have too. Izzie's done the lion's share of the cleanup and removed the tequila, condoms, and trashy magazines. Man, I always considered it a step above but now it sounds like they really do live in a frat house. Iz then notices that the house smells musty which starts off a whole freakout until someone gives Izzie a problem she can fix -- Alex happily tells her that Ava peed on a particular couch cushion. (One that Sadie has been sleeping on for weeks. Hee!)
Amid all the confusion Mark is able to sneak out with no one noticing... until he runs into Derek outside. Mark asks if he wants to get a drink and when a confused Derek points out that it's 4AM, Mark comments he should have called and then mentions Derek's mom coming to town. "Good times!" I think the only reason Derek didn't figure out immediately what was up is because of his personal angst over the serial killer because even I will give him that he's not THAT dumb.
At the hospital the morning, Izzie (sporting cute, wavy hair that looks better than it has in months) is coaching Meredith on just giving little chunks of personal info at a time and advises her to smile. Izzie prompts her with a radiant smile of her own, and Meredith counters with a strange, wide, plastic scary grin. Oh yeah, and Denny's been around making comments whenever we've seen Izzie, but nothing worth mentioning other than to say he's there all the freaking time. Izzie then asks Mere if she's sure she wants to wear her hair "like that."
The shot is of a ponytail sitting on the top of Meredith's head, held in place with a pink scrunchie-type-thing. They still make those? Cristina walks in and is stopped dead in her tracks by the look, to the point where it seems like maybe this perky ponytail will be what stops the deadlock between the two. But no, she walks off and Derek walks in, looking just as confused. "You're wearing an alarmingly high ponytail." She just replies that his mother is coming, in a "duh!" voice.
Mere is pushing Eric down the hall and he realizes she's upset and figures it's with him for killing those women. He asks if she would feel differently if she knew about how, as a child, he was beaten every day? For color he adds that he learned how to read by sounding out the letters on the detergent box while he hid under the sink. Mere thinks it over and asks if its true, and he replies, "Did it make you feel better?" He adds, "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Dr. Grey." Of course, Miranda just happens to wheel Jackson up, who thinks the handcuffs on Eric are awesome and asks if he did something bad. Eric deadpans, "Traffic violation," as the elevator arrives, and Bailey hustles Jackson in with a nod from Mere. Eric asks him what's wrong and Jackson tells him he needs a new liver and intestine. With a creepy smile, Eric asks, "Want mine?"
Derek's on the phone with someone who is at the airport when a hand touches his shoulder. He turns around and tells whoever is one the line that he found her, "her" presumably being his mother. And his mother is none other than the always-awesome Tyne Daly! We know she's plucky, because when Derek tells her there is a towncar waiting at the airport she informs him she took the bus and saved him some money. The excuse -- I mean the reason for her being there is that she's going on a cruise and had a layover in Seattle. She claims to want to see the Space Needle but he can't take her on account of his having back-to-back surgeries and nearly no notice of the trip. How handy, then, that she can just hang out at the hospital and meet some of his colleagues! Fortunately Derek isn't entirely dense -- he knows she means Meredith. They're distracted by Mark, who she is delighted to see, but he pretends to have a page and escapes. Then the moment of truth arrives. Derek grabs Mere as she walks by, and as Mama Shepherd says it's so nice to meet her, Izzie pops up behind her to remind Mere to smile. Mere does, which frightens Derek a bit, and Mama S pulls her into a hug and tells her she hopes Mere is free for lunch. "I can't wait to dive in and find out all about you." Mere looks like a trapped animal.
Izzie only says that she looks "weird" to Alex, who comments that she looks like she has to pee. It's true, she's doing a little bit of the pee-pee dance and Izzie laments making her hydrate. Alex then makes a crack about how awful it is to meet the family, and tells Iz he'd never make her do that. Denny (because of course he's there) says that he won't either -- "One of the many perks of dating a dead guy." I think he's supposed to seem kind of happy-go-lucky, but it's coming off like he might be a little bit drunk. The look on Izzie's face clearly says that she might actually want to meet family, but neither of her boyfriends notice. Cristina then joins her and asks who the woman is with Derek and Mere; when she hears it's Derek's mom she has an "a-ha!" moment as that's why Mere looks so weird. Iz tries to say that Mere is fine, but Cristina notices the pee-pee dance too. Hunt comes up and gives Cristina some work, but as he's listing all the things he needs her to do he slips in an invitation to go out on a date. Izzie is immediately excited while Cristina is more stunned, and Hunt explains that she told him not to be hot and cold, so he's asking her out. He then says he'll pick her up at 8, and reminds her to perform an enema. Note to the men out there: maybe leave "date" and "enema" for two different conversations. After he walks away Cristina finally sputters, "Sure," and Izzie teases her a bit that what happened wasn't weird AT ALL. Izzie giggles maniacally as Cristina glares and gathers up her charts, and Denny reappears to tell her that "no awkward dates," is another perk to dating a dead guy. Izzie's face falls a bit, though -- could it be that maybe she is realizing that dating a dead guy ISN'T actually all it's cracked up to be?
Jackson is back in his room with Bailey and asks, "Why can't I have that nice man's organs? He offered!" I refuse to believe that any kid having seen those handcuffs would use the word "nice," but this is just to make sure we totally get the conflict that isn't at all obviously coming up. Bailey tells him that they have to follow the rules or they'll get in big trouble (I'd say that's a big step, someone at Seattle Grace remembering to follow rules) and that what Eric offered is, "definitely against the rules." Jackson then sees his mom yelling on the phone and comments that his mom is fighting with the insurance people again. Bailey tells him he shouldn't worry about that, but, showing us he's wise beyond his years, Jackson says to tell his mom something good that day, even if there isn't actually good news, because she needs to hear something positive. Then a note from the score is turned up so that we really all think about how deep it is that this came from the mouth of a little boy. Subtle.
Eric is pleading with Mere for them to use his organs, but she says that first they'd have to match Eric's blood to Jackson's. It's the lamest of lame excuses and it's nice that Eric points out that it's handy then that they are all in a hospital. Appearing serious, he tells her to let him save a life before he dies as it's the least he can do. Mere asks if he really expects her to believe he wants to do this for a kid and his slight smile is back as he replies, "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Dr. Grey." She gives the tiniest of smiles back.
Callie and Mark tell Chuck that his infection has spread to deep inside his bones, so they need to take the rods out and clean out all of the infected tissue. Chuck, instead of being happy that they are saving his life, is livid to not get the two inches he was promised. Mark points out that Chuck is lucky they can save his legs but Chuck's not having it from a tall doctor. His brother tries to calm him but Chuck yells at him for being over 6 feet tall. He sheds a little light on his own existence, which involves everyone literally looking down on him and needing to ask teenagers for help getting something from a tall shelf in the grocery store. He's only been on 2 dates in six months with women he met on the internet and who never called back because, "No one wants to date the short guy." He's not going to get any taller with that colossal chip on his shoulder weighing him down either. Gary finally asks what the big difference is between 5'3" and 5'5" and Chuck glumly says that you can say "5'5"" out loud. We're treated to a shot of Callie looking sad and thoughtful.
Bailey runs in to Arizona with a list of the top GI doctors in the country, figuring that they can both make calls and get one of these docs to perform some sort of procedure. Arizona, however, points out that this would be as effective as, "putting a band-aid" on a bullet wound. Bailey asks what her great idea is, then, and Arizona points out that they need to just wait and trust in the system. Bailey's having none of it, and screams that she and everyone else except Arizona is tired of waiting, implying that Arizona also doesn't care. Arizona finally has hit her limit and begins to yell back at Bailey when Alex comes in. After trying to get their attention politely he screams at them both to shut up, "Respectfully." He holds up the pager and tells them that they have organs.
Alex and Arizona have gone to collect the organs, and she's babbling on account of her not liking to fly. She tells Alex she met Izzie and ignores every "stop talking" vibe emanating off of his body to ask if he thinks she's The One. He finally snaps at her but then semi-apologizes by way of explaining that he doesn't make plans, and that it will either work out or it won't and he'll get over it like he always does. She watches him, clearly a bit put out but I think she also feels sorry for him in a way.
Izzie, George and Cristina are sitting at lunch and Izzie says she thinks Cristina's date is a good thing. "I think you and the pig murderer make a really cute couple." She then asks what they're going to talk about, and both Cristina and Denny ask her why she cares. It's because Izzie thinks first dates are fun and sexy and you only get to do it once. Man, I wish I had some of her optimistic excitement before my own first dates -- I tend to think of the time leading up to it and possibly the date itself as a unique form of torture when you worry too much what someone else thinks of every little thing about you. Izzie then suggests she ask good questions, such as what was his best surgery ever? Cristina informs Izzie she knows how to go on a date, but they're interrupted by George asking why Meredith (still in the high ponytail) is eating pot roast? Cristina says it's a "show lunch for the mommy" and guesses that the ponytail is going to blow, while Izzie just watches with a vexed look.
Mere is smiling, but it's slightly less psychotic-looking than before. Maybe the ponytail is falling a bit and not pulling so tightly at her cheeks. Mama S asks about her parents, who Mere says are dead and Derek warningly tells his mom that Mere's mom died the year before. She then asks about Mere's dad, at which point Mere jumps up to go check on their serial killer. One tip for anyone meeting someone's mother -- letting them know you'd prefer to spend your time with a mass murderer probably isn't going to get you started on the right foot. Once she's gone, Derek says defensively that family isn't Mere's favorite topic, and when his mom points out that she didn't say anything, he tells her he knows what she's thinking. It's nice to see him actually stand up for his girlfriend here, even though I don't think she's actually made any outward, "I'm not sure about this girl," indications yet. She tells him that she was actually thinking it must be hard for him to treat a murderer but after chewing his pot roast for quite a while, he stonily tells her he's fine.
Elsewhere in the lunchroom, Lexie sits down to Mark and says breezily that she made a new rule: "You sleep with me, you lunch with me." The other interns see this and exclaim over how cool it is that he lets interns sit with him while they all join the table and exclaim over exciting happenings like tater tots. Look, tater tots are awesome, but I do think you choose your audience because maybe not everyone shares the tiny potato-bite excitement that you do. Mark then takes his leave which clearly Lexie understands.
He runs into Mama S at the soda fountain who calls him on avoiding her, and when he denies it she tells him he's got the same look on his face that he did when he was 10 and put Derek's favorite frog in the microwave. My mental image of that is worse than a lot of what the special effects team can pull off. Ew. She asks him what's up and he admits, "I'm sleeping with her." She's horrified, and demands how could he do this again? Realizing what she thinks, he tells her, "God, NO," he's not sleeping with Meredith (hee) but that he's sleeping with her sister. When Mama S asks which one she is, he admits in a squeaky voice, "The one with the juice box." Mama S sees this, and then gives Mark a stern look.
Jackson asks Bailey if his organs are there yet and she happily explains that they aren't, but she's going to get him all ready so they can put them right in when they do arrive. There's relief and smiles all around between Bailey, Richard, and Mrs. P which of course means that something is probably going to go terribly wrong somewhere during this process.
Meanwhile, Alex and Arizona have landed and while walking in to the hospital, they see the patient whose organs they are harvesting. Alex is upset to see that the patient is just a kid himself, but Arizona just agrees, "Yup. Let's go get his organs." I wonder if we'll learn something later about her seemingly flippant attitude towards children's deaths? That would be a big surprise.
Mere is checking on Eric who asks, "Am I hallucinating, or is that a really high ponytail?" You know you've made a bad hairstyle choice when the serial killer is making comments. He realizes he really is dying and once again says that they should take his organs, but Mere tells him excitedly that they did find organs, so Jackson will be fine. Eric knows that he's really gotten under Meredith's skin, so after a moment he tells her that he gets to pick the way he's going to die, hanging or lethal injection. He asks her medically, which one is better? She hesitates a second but then explains that with hanging his neck breaks and he loses consciousness, but doesn't die for several minutes. But with injection he first gets an anesthetic that puts him to sleep, and then the lethal injection to stop his lungs and then his heart. Thinking that over, he asks quietly if he was a match for Jackson, and Meredith tells him that he was. This is the kind of story that I liked from early GA and has been missing so long. This guy is clearly a sociopath but yet you do feel something for him, and speaking for myself I can see why Meredith is reacting to him the way she does and also why Cristina and Derek react the way that they do. (Don't get me wrong, I still think Derek is a whiny, self-righteous prat, but I do have to admit that in this case I understand his feelings.)
Mama Shepherd notices Lexie working on a chart and walks up, staring at her. Lexie turns to ask if she needs anything but before she can finish, Mama S takes Lexie's face in her hands and asks if she is a good girl -- not perfect, but good. Lexie manages to squeak out a "yes," and then Mama S asks her how many sexual partners she has had. I love that she's so intense that Lexie just answers the questions, clearly terrified, without stopping to wonder why. Her answer is somewhere between six and seven, and then she also has to admit she got a speeding ticket once. Mama S then asks where the gift shop is but before leaving she takes one last loooong look at Lexie's sweet, scared face.
Callie and Mark are taking all of the rods and whatnot out of Chuck's legs, and Mark describes the situation as looking like "pudding." That's a disgustingly good description there. Callie points out that this is why she doesn't do this surgery -- you live with broken legs for months, in all sorts of pain, for a couple of inches. But Mark being Mark points out, "Pain and agony for a little bit of pleasure? I get it." She asks him, "If it's that bad, why don't you just stop sl..." at this she notices that there are other people in the room (might be a Seattle Grace first) and amends what she was about to say to, "doing what you're doing?" Mark tells her he doesn't stop because it's great, and adds that if she won't scared of getting burned she might feel the same way. Then, back to acting like there's no one else listening, she tells Mark about how she used to walk tall until George and Erica both took a couple inches off of her so now she's afraid to get burned. It's a little bit clunky, her trying to force her situation to match Chuck's pudding legs, but I get the point. She tells him the humiliation made her shorter and that one more personal disaster would cut her off at the knees, and he looks at her sympathetically while a sad piano sounds in the background.
The sad piano then takes us to Alex in the plane with Arizona, headed back to Seattle. While he glares out the window, she brings up the subject of Valentine's Day and offers to suggest some local jewelers for a gift, but he cuts her off by yelling, "What's wrong with you?" She's completely caught off-guard and he goes on to remind her that they just took organs out of a dead child, yet she wants to talk about, "rainbows, and relationships and crap. What the hell is wrong with you?" At that, she looks like she was literally slapped in the face. Measured, she asks if he thinks she doesn't know they just pulled the plug on a kid. "You don't think I know about the tiny, tiny coffin they're going to stick him in?" She knows the coffins, and they show up even in her dreams, so the way she deals with it is to talk about relationships and rainbows and to make plans for tomorrow. "That's what you do, Karev. You make plans. You have to. You turn your back on the tiny coffins and you face forward, to the kid." She composes herself while Alex mulls over what she just said. How unexpected that we should learn that her good cheer and emotional detachment are how she gets through the day!
Hunt meets up with Derek in the hallway to ask about their prisoner patient. Derek admits that he's pissed off since Eric is refusing surgery, and Hunt wonders if he thinks that will get him a stay of execution. Derek says no, he just wants to die at the hospital. "He wants control. He wants to choose." He says this last word with an actual sneer and for the forty billionth time I'll say it: It doesn't matter if he's right or wrong, it's just that he says these things so sure of himself, so self-righteously, that it makes me absolutely hate him. Anyone who can go around at all times with no sense of humility or ever possibly being wrong or understanding others who are different is someone who (I hope) is destined for a big fall back to earth one of these days. Mama S gets back having actually gone to the gift shop, when I just thought that was an excuse to get away and think about Lexie's past sexual partners. Derek introduces her to Hunt and she greets him warmly, explaining she was a Navy nurse for 25 years. She asks where he was stationed and he clearly already wants to escape the conversation when he tells her he was in Iraq. She tells him, "Welcome home. You must have stories." He drops his head and replies that none are worth telling and shuffles away.
Cristina then runs up to him having finished his post-ops. He thanks her, and there's a cute moment where the each give a rare genuine smile to the other. But then the moment lasts just a tad too long, and after a pause Cristina bubbly asks, "So what was your best surgery ever?" Hunt does a double take, Cristina immediately brushes off her moment of girlyness and they both take off.
The organs procured, Bailey, Arizona and a team are working to transfer them to Jackson's body. Things seem to have gone well and there's an emotional moment for Bailey when all that is left is to remove the clamps. Arizona tells her sincerely that Bailey should do the honors since he is her patient, and Bailey takes a deep breath and thanks her. There's a close-up of all of the innards and something has a big black spot on it -- big enough for even me to notice, and I don't even know what should be there and what shouldn't. But amazingly enough, no one else seems bothered and they keep working as Sadie raises her hand. Bailey doesn't notice her so she whispers and then yells, "Call on me!" Once called, she points out the spot. I don't know how she's the only one who picked that out but woo, oh boy, Sadie saved the day. Well, as much as you can save the day when your recipient's body is rejecting its new organs.
Alarms are also blaring in Eric's room, where he's muttering that he doesn't feel well. It seems the moment of truth has arrived for his growing brain contusions, and Mere and her ponytail order him into surgery. Eric tries to say no and tells her he's not scared of dying but he doesn't want to do it strapped onto a table. I guess that means he chose lethal injection, then? Tasteless, I know. But I'm heavy on cold medication and just got the mental image of him hanging with a table strapped to his back. Yes, I have a problem, it's fine. Anyhow, he pleads with Mere to let him just die, and she's not unaffected. He then passes out as Derek and Cristina run in and she stands and looks troubled as Derek signs the surgery consent form and tells her to do the same. Derek screams at her to sign the form until Cristina finally grabs it out of his hands and gives the needed second signature. Derek tells her he's scrubbing in and shoots a murderous (hee) glance at his girlfriend before storming out of the room.
Bailey is panicking and trying to find a solution while the others look on, and finally Richard sternly tells her that the organs are dead and that leaving them in will make Jackson sicker. There's a classic TV moment where he yells, "He will die if you leave them in!" And Bailey yells back, "He'll die if we take them out, sir!" Dum dum duuum. Arizona suggests they do a thingamajig but Bailey desperately says that's just a temporary fix. As most of the doctors do in this hospital, she does seem a little too personally involved at this point given that she's been making questionable judgment calls the whole way with this kid. I think she absolutely has his best interests in mind, but I think this is an example of why you have someone there who doesn't have a relationship with the patient. Fortunately Richard is there to be the voice of reason and tells Bailey they have no other choice. They've now got 24 hours to find him new organs.
Derek and Cristina have started work on Eric; Derek removes a piece of his skull and puts it in Eric's abdomen for safekeeping. He has Cristina explain that the circulation in the abdomen will preserve the bone marrow while the swelling in the brain goes down. She thanks Derek for letting her scrub in and he concedes, "I guess we finally see eye-to-eye on something." Cristina gives him a look that I can't interpret on account of her mask, but I'm not sure she enjoys that seeing eye-to-eye with Derek is why she got a surgery.
Bailey and Sadie are scrubbing out, and Sadie asks if they'll ever know why the organs didn't take. Bailey answers that sometimes the pieces just break, and a morose Sadie tries to make the situation all about her by saying she is like that. Bailey's incredulous response is what mine would be: "Yeah? You dying for no good reason?" Sadie doesn't know how to pick her guests for her pity party, that's for sure. Sadie corrects that her life is in pieces, and that each time she fixes one piece, another breaks. If we'd ever been given a reason to feel invested in this character, maybe I would care right now. Sadie tells Bailey she's not trying to piss her off by being there, she's just trying to keep it together.
Cristina walks into the locker room where Mere is studying books. As Cristina goes to her locker, Mere watches here and fiddles with her pencil, and after getting her stuff Cristina turns back to her one-time best friend. They both clearly want to talk to each other but don't want to be the first one to reach out, but Cristina finally says the thing foremost on her mind. "That ponytail? Looks ridiculous." They then gaze at each other for a few moments before Cristina leaves and Mere pulls her hair down.
Mama S is giving Mark a talking-to, telling him that Lexie is a nice girl. When he counters that Lexie's off-limits, she yells, "Baloney!" She tells him that she's not the problem, he is because he has low expectations for himself, but that it's time to raise them. Mark is standing slumped like a petulant little kid right now, in a nice nod to the fact that this woman is like a mom to him. He reiterates that Lexie is 24, and she counters, "You have the emotional maturity of a horny 15-year-old. You need young." They both chuckle, and it's a really sweet moment for a character who doesn't usually get the "sweet" scenes.
I keep totally forgetting about the storyline with Short Chuck -- every time one of these scenes comes on I'm surprised anew. Callie tells Chuck that they needed to shave about a quarter inch of leg bone during the surgery, and Chuck is apoplectic when he realizes that he came out of the surgery even shorter than before. His brother tries to tell him it's not a big deal, but Chuck just bitches back at him until Gary can't take it any more and yells back. He's spent his life watching what he does and says to not make Chuck feel worse about himself, and couldn't even show he was depressed when his wife left, "Because you don't have a girlfriend, and you're SHORT!" He then announces that the reason Chuck doesn't have a girlfriend is because all he ever talks about is being short, and that no one cares other than him. Chuck reflects a moment and asks, "I'm an ass, aren't I?" Gary agrees. "And you're short." Goodbye, brothers -- by the end of this recap I'm sure I will have forgotten you once again.
Hunt leaves for the evening and wishes Mama S a good night but she jumps out of her chair to ask him if he's sleeping. He's confused and stutters as he tries to get out of the conversation but she just plows ahead to suggest valerian root since it helps her when she has trouble sleeping. She's been there less than a day, but she's the only one who has figured out that Hunt might have some post-war problems. She then asks again if he's been sleeping since he came back, but he unconvincingly tells her he's fine and takes off.
Derek is checking out a half-awake Eric, who is asking why he won't just let him die. Derek will only growl, "You aren't dying here," and Eric asks if what he's afraid of is losing control. Derek ignores him and gives Cristina and Mere various labs to take care of, but when they leave Eric continues to nag at him. He muses that maybe it's because deep down, "You know you're no better than I am. You decide who lives and dies all the time but for you they call it medicine, not a capital offense." And while this isn't true, because Derek doesn't decide whose life he's going to save that day (well, with the exception of this one) he's so worked up that he lets Eric push every one of his buttons. He spits back that no one gets to choose, especially not the women he killed, "So when I say you're not going to die in this hospital, I mean there is no way in hell I will let you die in this hospital. You don't get off that easy. I'm nothing like you." He's a modern-day insecure vigilante, really.
Mama S walks up to Mere and tells her that she was looking for Derek and thought maybe she'd be with him? Mere looks at her, unsmiling, and contemplates how best to live up to her own low expectations and prove herself to be a dark and stormy person. Mere tells Mama S that she's been kind and given Mere a chance and even seems to want to like her, so it's fair that she should show off her completely inability to interact socially with someone who has a happy family. Except she puts that as saying the pink ponytail and the smiling are fake, and she's not a girl that mothers like. She's not happy, she's dark (blah blah blah you know this drill) and she's the kind of person who feels bad for serial killers. Mama S furrows her brow at this and after a moment, says it was very nice to meet her and leaves. Izzie walked in and saw the exchange, and just shakes her head at Mere in disappointment like Mere did something to Izzie personally.
Izzie goes to sulk in a darkened on-call room and for the first time isn't up for ghost nookie. She tells him sadly all the normal human things she wants to do with him -- meet his mom, hold his hand, talk to him without looking like a head case babbling to herself. "I want you alive." Denny, with his perpetual half-smile asks her tearfully if she's breaking up with him. "I think I am."
Callie and Mark are in the elevator together. She asks him if he wants to get a drink but he's got plans; just then the elevator doors open to show Lexie waiting for him. Callie smiles and as Mark leaves, he tells her to walk tall. "All you can do is be brave enough to get out there. You fought, you loved, you lost. Walk tall, Torres." She mulls this over and nods to herself as the doors close. If Shonda and company decide to break up this friendship, then that will be the last straw for me. I adore their relationship.
Cristina opens the door to Hunt and announces that he's late. Too bad for him, because she looks amazing in a grey sweater and belt. He hands her flowers and then literally stumbles through the door, and she realizes he's drunk as he slurs that he didn't want her to think he stood her up. He gives her puppy-dog eyes and says that he hasn't been on a date in 5 years, since before he even joined the military and he just wanted to take the edge off, but she can only repeat that he's late and drunk. He repeats a few times that this is not what she deserves, and he'll make it up to her, but she cuts him off to say he needs a shower. She turns to open her front door but he's already headed to her bathroom and despite her cries that she meant he needed to shower at his own home, he hops into her shower.
Derek and his mom are sitting outside the hospital on a bench when she hands him a ring and tells him that his dad wanted Derek to have that for the right girl, and that clearly Addison wasn't the right one. Derek, in the ringing endorsement every girl hopes she can get from the man she loves, incredulously points out that his mom spent less than an hour with Meredith. It's really rather insulting for the guy who supposedly thinks Mere is the right girl to question his mom's agreeing with that notion. He points out that his mom barely knows her, but she says she knows enough, such as it's easier to have compassion for a good person than a murderer. She also knows that Derek is still angry about what happened to his dad, and Derek agrees and asks, "Aren't you?" She thinks a moment, but says that despite the fact that she still can't sleep on his side of the bed, she's not angry anymore. He looks really sad to be left alone with the anger, and she puts her hand on his cheek and gently tells him, "You see things in black and white. Meredith doesn't. You need a spoonful of that." It would be way too cheap and easy if I were to put in a joke here about Meredith being able to see shades of GREY, har har. She tells him, "You need her. She's the one." Close to tears, he smiles and agrees, but I don't get the genuine sense of him being happy about it.
Cristina is sitting in her living room when Hunt starts yelling excitedly from the shower. She runs in and is annoyed to find that he jumped into the shower fully clothed. But while she nags a bit, he tells her that he remembers his best surgery ever. He describes a soldier who was nearly torn apart by an explosive device, full of holes. He tried to stop the bleeding but nothing was working until he thought to use his own body as pressure, and he lay on top of the soldier for 2 hours until help came, and that saved the guy's life. She watches him as he talks, and his voice returns more to normal as he says that the soldier wrote him a letter thanking him, and then he shot himself. "That was my best surgery," he repeats, as his face starts to crumble. Cristina seems to realize she's dealing with a lot more than a tardy man with a drink problem. She takes off her own shoes and gets into the shower with him to help him take off his tie as Meredith VO's, "We're human. We make mistakes. We mis-estimate, we call it wrong." Cristina puts her hands on Hunt's face and looks at him sympathetically.
"But when a surgeon makes a bad judgment call, it's not as simple." Izzie is at home in her room when Alex comes in. He seems happy and almost proud as he suggests that they use some of their vacation time and take a road trip together and stop in Iowa. Izzie asks if his mom lives in Iowa and Alex says she does and confidently tells her, "I think she'd like to meet you." He sits to Izzie who still hasn't answered and says it was a bad idea, but she kisses him and grins. She then goes to get a bottle of tequila for them to celebrate and heads out. Alex is still on the end of the bed and Denny sits to him and says, "Alex, we gotta talk." Yes! You have to talk about how Izzie is a nutjob! You have to talk about how the viewers have been made to watch a dead principle character for half a season! Please! Talk!
"People get hurt. They bleed." Mere catches Bailey as she comes out of Jackson's room, and tells her she's so sorry for what happened that day, and asks what happens now. A deflated Bailey tells her, "Now we wait for a miracle." Mere watches her go and is clearly troubled by the miracle part of it all. Her VO continues, "So we struggle, over every stitch. We agonize over every suture." Meredith takes off, her mind clearly made up about something.
She walks into Eric's room and takes a deep breath before telling him, as his doctor, that right now there is only dura matter covering part of his brain where the skull is missing. If somehow that were to be damaged, it would result in brain death, so he has to be very, very careful. She asks if he understands what she's saying, and he manages a smile and a small chuckle. She smiles ever so slightly as she turns to go but he calls after her to ask if she is doing this for him or for Jackson. While she thinks about her answer, her VO continues, "Because the snap judgments, the ones that come to us quickly and easily, without hesitation..." She tells Eric, "Whatever helps you sleep at night." He smiles as she goes and her VO finishes, "They're the ones that haunt us forever." And then comes one of the hardest scenes I've ever watched, far worse than anything the special effects department has ever been able to come up with. Eric manages to grab his pillow with his teeth and toss it aside, leaving the headboard of the bed behind him. After a moment, he sits up, and then slams his head back into the board and screams. He then repeats this, surer and surer each time. I have yet to talk to anyone that was actually able to watch it all the way through. I haven't said it often lately, but well done, Grey's. Despite how obvious the setup was about the organs, and despite having to watch yet more of Derek being a pissy-pants, this story has been a really great one. That was one of the most horrifying yet gripping scenes all season. And kudos to Eric Stoltz for being so good at portraying a creepy, charismatic serial killer.
Really, Grey's Anatomy? You're going there? Share our rage at the show's most insane plotlines with our Grey's Anatomy: Dramatic Malpractice gallery.