By Lauren S
So let's get this out of the way, shall we? While Bailey and Mere are performing a surgery, their patient WAKES UP. I thank goodness I didn't really connect with the patient in any other way so that I could remove myself from this a little, as it's definitely near the top of my, "No seriously, this is one of the scariest things I could literally ever imagine" list. Anyhow, Bailey and the new anesthesiologist fight a lot about it (and since this is television, I'm sure this will lead to luuuuurve down the line) until they get test results that the woman's body doesn't react like most people's to the anesthesia and as it's something they never could have known beforehand, neither of them is at fault. That turns out to be a good thing as she needs a second surgery, and this time they will be able to keep her under, but she will only agree to it if Meredith does the surgery and Bailey doesn't lay a finger on her. Meredith is terrified -- I guess when she's not covering up the Chief's drinking problem, she has a better perspective of where she is in her medical training -- but Bailey convinces her that she can do it, and all goes well. The anesthesiologist, meanwhile, tries to get Bailey to apologize for blaming him for the debacle, and she finally gives him as close to an apology as Bailey can give.
The whole situation is a bummer for Derek, as it is his first day as Chief of Surgery and now he has a lawsuit looming. The general consensus is that he threw Richard under the bus (though no one actually knows what really happened) and the rumors fly about people potentially losing their jobs when he cleans house. He also has to go through a meeting with Jennings and Richard, in which Jennings offers Richard an early retirement settlement, while Derek offers Richard the option of going to rehab and then working to get his life in order so that he can then take back his job. Richard takes time to think about it, which amounts to moping in the conference room all day, broken up only by a fight with Derek which almost everyone witnesses on account of the phenomenal number of windows throughout Seattle Grace. Bailey finally goes to see Richard to give him a bit of a pep talk, and he admits that he is an alcoholic and that he's not sure he's really ready to give up the sauce. She gets through to him somehow, though, because that night he gives Derek the paperwork to sign himself up for rehab. Derek, also having learned a lesson from Bailey that day about apologizing, tells Richard as he leaves that he is sorry, and though Richard doesn't say anything, he pauses long enough to show that it got to him. Derek then goes to apologize to the patient who woke up earlier, hoping that will help convince her to not sue the hospital.
That is actually the overbearing theme of the entire episode -- saying sorry. Alex is on rotation with Arizona and they have a kid with nebulous abdominal pain whose dad thinks he is faking it to get out of school and who doesn't want to pay for exploratory surgery. Alex convinces them to go through with it and they find nothing, but when the kid is recovering an artery bursts and it turns out he had some horrible heart problem that they are able to fix as he was already in the hospital when it happened. The dad then switches his wrath from his son and the not-actually-faking and turns on Alex, so Alex just yells back things that are all true but that aren't actually appropriate for a doctor to say to a parent. Arizona reads Alex the riot act and sends him off to apologize, but not before getting him to admit that it feels awesome to have saved a life and also that peds is actually a hardcore specialty.
Teddy, still feeling weird about the whole Cristina-offering-Owen thing, picks Avery to be on her service but clearly finds him inferior to her protégé. Cristina is upset to not be working with her, but she's kept distracted for much of the day by Owen, who is making sure they have sex in as many different locations as possible in a single day, one of which actually results in a rather spectacular sex injury. They are busy getting it on when Teddy is working on Arizona's patient, and rather than have Avery help she pages Cristina to the OR. But Hunt convinces Cristina to ignore Teddy's page for some hot loving, and after some inner struggle, Cristina agrees. When she finds out what she missed, she gets super pissed at Owen and storms off. Owen, meanwhile, has heard a bit about Burke and their almost-wedding from Mark. (It's all Mark has to offer as he spends the rest of his time stewing in his own hypocritical juices, ignoring Lexie and getting mad at Callie when Callie points out that Lexie might not be the only one in the wrong in their situation.) When Cristina gets home she finds Owen in her apartment, and he begs her to open up and let him really know her, and asks about Burke. After a little while, Cristina admits that Burke took a lot from her, and she changed who she was for him, and now that she's back to herself she has no plans to do it again, though it happened when Owen convinced her to ignore Teddy's page. These two, however, are awesome, and they are the only couple that actually works through their problems, (as opposed to just pulling out the "Post-It" trump card when it suits them) so it seems like this is something that now they can start to work through. Look, if you can make it through your boyfriend trying to choke you in a PTSD haze, I think you can make it through almost anything.
Watch Cristina's Burke meltdown.
When you take over your former boss' office, you not only take over his job, you take over voiceover duties. Derek is standing in his new office among boxes of his things, and he's trying to decide which tie will look more chiefly. "We ask a lot of our patients. We put them to sleep, cut them open, poke around in their brains and guts with sharp instruments. We ask for their blind trust." Mere walks in with two coffees, which is more welcoming than the actual look on her face, which is still rather wary. She tells him to pick the blue tie that brings out his eyes, though Mere, you're the only resident who is worried about his dreamy eyes anymore. Derek is thinking out loud as he tells her that the staff lovea Richard and will think that Derek stabbed him in the back and be mad just like Meredith. She agrees that she's mad but also tells him she knows he will be a great chief. Derek safely VO's, "Irony is, trust is hard for surgeons. Because we're trained, from day one, that we can't trust anyone but ourselves." Oh, is that the excuse we can use for why all these couples are never able to actually function for an extended period of time? The learned solidarity?
Cristina and Hunt are still trying to buck the trend and function as a couple, and they're currently doing it with some really hot sex as Derek continues, "The only instincts you can count on are your own."
The residents are all heading to hear what New Chief Shepherd has to say, and the newbies are trying to find out what Alex and Lexie know; they don't believe that Lexie doesn't know more than they do. Alex snaps, wondering if they have their own friends to talk to, which I love as a meta comment on how, for the sake of the show, these people are mingling all the time that honestly would still probably be keeping more to their own circles in real life this soon after a merger. Charles is there to yet again do nothing except be a one-man Greek Chorus of sorts, asking questions or giving pointed comments to move us along. He says that he heard Derek is going to clean house, and this starts a bunch of sniping between the Gracers and the Westers about who would be cut. Alex figures he's safe on account of his being Derek's roommate and figures that, since Shepherd hated the merger, he'd cut the Mercy Westers first. Lexie says this isn't true because Derek is loyal and fair but Avery just chuckles and predictably points out, "Tell that to Webber." Derek VO's, "The only skills you can count on are your own.
Until one day you leave the classroom and step into the OR." That's where Bailey is, working with Mere to remove a woman's tumor while the new anesthesiologist reads a magazine. Bailey is happy that they're nearly done and might be able to catch the end of Shepherd's speech. She's sautering something in or around the patient's intestines when alarms go off. Derek: "You're surrounded by others, a team of others, a team you have to rely on. Whether you trust them or not." Neither the surgeon nor the anesthesiologist can figure out what's happening, and Bailey is digging through the intestines looking for a bleeder or other familiar problem. She demands an explanation from the anesthesiologist and then stops and demands to know if she just felt movement. She and Mere stand with their hands in the air and then Mere looks at the patient and says very calmly but quickly that the patient is awake. The woman on the table is shivering and looking around at everyone, clearly in a panic. Bailey yells at the anesthesiologist (the internet tells me that his name is Ben Warren, so I just need to start calling him such now because "anesthesiologist" is far too long to keep typing) (Dr. Hot Anesthesiologist would have worked too, because he is, but again see the length issue) wondering what he did and orders him to get the woman back to sleep. Mere, meanwhile, just tries to calmly assure the woman that she's going to be okay, and just to breathe.
Until one day you leave the classroom and step into the OR." That's where Bailey is, working with Mere to remove a woman's tumor while the new anesthesiologist reads a magazine. Bailey is happy that they're nearly done and might be able to catch the end of Shepherd's speech. She's sautering something in or around the patient's intestines when alarms go off. Derek: "You're surrounded by others, a team of others, a team you have to rely on. Whether you trust them or not." Neither the surgeon nor the anesthesiologist can figure out what's happening, and Bailey is digging through the intestines looking for a bleeder or other familiar problem. She demands an explanation from the anesthesiologist and then stops and demands to know if she just felt movement. She and Mere stand with their hands in the air and then Mere looks at the patient and says very calmly but quickly that the patient is awake. The woman on the table is shivering and looking around at everyone, clearly in a panic. Bailey yells at the anesthesiologist (the internet tells me that his name is Ben Warren, so I just need to start calling him such now because "anesthesiologist" is far too long to keep typing) (Dr. Hot Anesthesiologist would have worked too, because he is, but again see the length issue) wondering what he did and orders him to get the woman back to sleep. Mere, meanwhile, just tries to calmly assure the woman that she's going to be okay, and just to breathe.
Hunt walks up to Teddy, who is in the crowd of people waiting for Derek's speech, but when she starts to talk about what happened the other night he shuts her down and walks away. When Derek appears in front of them, most seem to agree that he looks ridiculous in the shirt and tie. Arizona tells them that she promised Derek they would clap, but Cristina and Hunt aren't so sure about that. Mark looks up, clearly still acting like a petulant child, and when he sees Lexie looking at him gives glares at her angrily.
Derek doesn't look entirely confident as he shuffles notecards nervously in his hands. He then tells the gathered crowd that he'll make it quick, he has been appointed interim chief and he knows that things have been rocky and mistakes have been made, but he's going to right the wrongs and return Seattle Grace to its former glory. It all sounds a little ambitious, and everyone seems a bit skeptical. Well, Alex thinks that righting the wrongs means firing the Mercy Westers, and Reed seems nervous that he's right, but everyone else is focused on Derek himself, including Richard, who came in with Jennings and heard the last comments on his former domain. Derek falters when he sees him and quickly thanks everyone in advance for their support. Arizona claps for him and the others awkwardly join in, while Richard slumps and walks away.
The group then breaks up and heads in different directions: Cristina whispers sexily in Hunt's ear and Teddy watches, downcast, and then goes and grabs Avery to be her spite resident for the day. Arizona grabs Alex to work with her in peds, having heard that he's got a knack for it. Alex is suspicious, clearly not sure if he wants to be that guy yet, and Avery pounces on this and calls him a glorified babysitter. Arizona gets in Avery's face to assure him that it is a hardcore specialty, but while he's uncomfortable when Arizona is there, he still calls Alex a sucker. Lexie makes a tentative approach towards Mark, and tells him she heard Sloan got out of the hospital, but Mark doesn't show any sign of acting like an adult, and instead focuses on his blackberry. When Lexie asks if he's really not even going to look at her, he calls after Callie and walks off, leaving Lexie to yell after him, frustrated, that this is all really mature behavior. Honestly, this is ridiculous.
It turns out that Richard is there for a meeting with Derek and Jennings about his future. Jennings hands him an agreement that offers early retirement and pension in exchange for him losing his license and leaving immediately with no strings attached. Derek pompously announces that Richard isn't signing that and hands over his own contract, which says that Richard will voluntarily sign up for rehab, and that afterward once he has sobered up he can come right back to his job. Jennings hurriedly adds that this would be subject board approval, but does seem a bit deferential to Derek in his new position -- I guess we've finally found the person who actually responds to Derek's pompous confidence. Richard won't pick up the pen he is offered and instead just glares at them both and says he needs time to think. Derek is stunned and demands to know what there is to think about, because he knows everything in the entire world and he's spoken, so isn't that good enough to make up Richard's mind? Just then a nurse comes in and calls for the Chief; uncomfortably, both Derek and Richard answer her and she's incredibly embarrassed as she corrects that she needs Dr. Shepherd for a "situation." He leaves while Richard watches him go with sad eyes.
Derek is greeted in the hall by Meredith, Bailey and Dr. Warren all talking over each other at the same time. Either the nurse already briefed him or Derek has remarkable listening skills because he seems to get what happened, and after telling Meredith to check on the patient he calmly tells the other doctors that this is something that does happen and with any luck, the patient won't remember. Warren interprets that what he really means is that with any luck she won't sue, and Derek actually agrees with the blunt assessment.
They then all walk in and immediately start to tell the patient, Leslie, and her husband about how they got her tumor all out and that the surgery was successful. Leslie, however, has a different take on things and asks them how well the part went when she woke up and could smell her own burning flesh. She's shaking and glaring at all of them as she goes on angrily about how she could feel them butchering her insides. So, here's the thing -- this situation is one of my absolute worst nightmares, yet already I'm totally emotionally removed and sick of this woman. Is it her acting or the direction? I'm not sure, but I think it's that and a combo of the writing. She's mad at them for "butchering her insides," but... that's what surgery IS. This woman had a tumor and they got it out, and that's not really a pretty process. She did know that was going on, and yes it's horrifying to imagine waking up during that, but it wasn't like the doctors were sitting around playing Operation for giggles while they were in there, but yet that is the position she now seems to be taking. And yes, she's scared, blah blah blah. Maybe that's where her acting comes in to it. Overall, I just know that something has gone wrong in the telling if I'm already over this woman's angst from the ordeal.
Warren follows Bailey out of the room and immediately takes charge, saying he'll check the woman's cells and Bailey should do x, y and z tests. He's new enough that he doesn't know that you don't give Bailey orders, and she's predictably (for the rest of us that know better) put out. She retorts that the woman is traumatized and they are clearly getting sued, which is all because of him. His good nature finally falters and he snaps back that they have no idea what happened, so she informs him of what she knows: he's new, he's probably got a chip on his shoulder because he's a Mercy Wester, and he makes "buckets of money" working regular hours while reading a magazine as someone else does the real work in surgery. He tries to jump in but she's on a roll, and tells him that here they expect the "gas man" to do his job so that the surgeons can do theirs, and that they stay awake no matter how long and boring it is and pay attention enough to keep the patient unconscious. He's stunned into a very angry silence at the implication that his magazine reading caused the problem.
Alex is with Arizona, and he's checking out the abdomen of a teenager, Brad, while Brad's mom tells the doctors that he has had pain for months. Brad tells them it's bad in the morning, and his dad pipes up to point out that is because that is when he goes to school. Brad immediately says that he feels it at other times too, clearly used to this, but his dad retorts that yes, he feels it when he has a test or presentation. Ah, another candidate for Father of the Year, folks. What do you want to bet Brad really does have a problem and his dad will Learn A Lesson later? Brad's mom looks weary from dealing with this before, and as Alex defends Brad his dad just says not to encourage him since he's only faking symptoms to miss school. Alex tells Arizona in medspeak that everything seems normal, but she wants to make sure they cover everything and orders a CT. Dad then decides to outdo his behavior thus far and informs Brad that this is going to cost thousands of dollars and won't all be covered by insurance. Jeez, if this is in fact just nervous stomach, it's probably from having an asshole for a dad that manages to pin every little thing on his son. Mom just shakes her head at the scene, while the docs look on uncomfortably.
Cristina has heard about Avery's working with Teddy and runs after her to ask about it. She's rewarded with an unconvincing speech from Teddy about how this is a teaching hospital, so other people need to get a chance and so far Cristina has been on every one of her cases. Cristina tells her that she understands but tentatively asks about the following day -- both are tiptoeing around the massive elephant in the hospital -- and Teddy tells her that she doesn't know. She then gives the elephant the tiniest nod of recognition by saying that she just can't do this today. Unfortunately, she has no idea just how good she has it with Cristina being polite and deferential towards her, and only can see the unfortunate offering up of her boyfriend as a bribe.
Bailey and Meredith are back in Leslie's room, but when Bailey goes to inspect Leslie's incision site Leslie jumps a mile and practically slaps her hand away, refusing to let the doc touch her. Meredith tries to referee a bit but Leslie absolutely refuses to let Bailey touch her as she can remember Bailey's panicky screaming during surgery. I myself would have called it "yelling" as "screaming" has a sort of screechy, horror-movie connotation to it, but Leslie is sticking to it. Leslie's lip is quivering almost comically, which again takes me out of the actual horror of the situation. As Leslie shakes, alarms start to beep and Bailey notices that her incision site is bleeding through her gown, but when she tries to put an oxygen mask on Leslie she hits it away, screaming. Bailey stays calm this time and talks Meredith through re-dressing the wound while Leslie stares at her with dead, creepy eyes.
Lexie storms in to where Callie is sorting supplies, and when Callie says she doesn't need any help Lexie takes to attacking a roll of gauze and ripping it apart. [Hospital supplies are expensive! I know from my last bill and here she is just wasting them! Ack! -- Angel] She wants to talk about Mark, while Callie just wants her to knock it off with the ripping, but Lexie doesn't even hear her and rants about how Mark won't talk to or look at her, and how even if they broke up they still have to work together. She tries to say she's going to become a plastic surgeon but Callie assures her awesomely that she's clearly not, and Lexie gives in pretty easily. She rants some more before telling Callie she doesn't know what to do, and Callie admits that Mark isn't being fair. When Lexie argues that a one night stand isn't a big deal, Callie agrees that it's true and then lets an unfortunate detail slip -- that Mark didn't just sleep with Addie once. Lexie is appalled and storms out while Callie curses herself.
Alex and Arizona are looking at the scan and no matter how hard they look, they can't find anything wrong with Brad. Alex is baffled and argues that no matter how lame a kid is, he doesn't want to miss class to go to the hospital. Look, I loved school but if I had a chance to miss it during the day and if I wasn't having anything horrible done at the doctor, I was always excited for it. So, actually, was Arizona, who happily tells him about how much she loved the hospital until she catches his look and has him go back over the symptoms. After a bit, Alex thinks that maybe he has crazy stomachsymptomenia, which would fit all the symptoms and nothing showing up on the scans. The problem is that the only way to diagnose it is with exploratory surgery, and Arizona reminds Alex that if Brad's dad had a fit about a CT, he won't go for that.
Hunt has snuck away down to his and Cristina's private vent, and when a downcast Cristina walks in fretting about Teddy blackballing her, Owen grabs her up in a crazy hot, rough kiss. She gets into it, and they agree not to talk about Teddy and instead begin ripping off one another's clothes.
Richard is sitting alone in the conference room, right where they left him, staring at the papers. Derek watches through a window while a ways down the hall, a bunch of the residents are also staring and speculating about what might have happened. Charles pops back into our lives long enough to spread a drug rumor, and Derek finally shoos them away. He then walks in and actually tries to order Richard to sign the paper to go to rehab. It's like he's talking to a petulant child, and while I agree that rehab is the better choice, and I still maintain that he was looking out for Richard when he found out about the drinking, Richard gets rightly pissed at being ordered about by this floppy-haired usurper who seems to believe he does know it all. Richard demands to know who Derek thinks he is, and reminds him that he's not his boss. They start full-on yelling back and forth, Derek saying he was trying to help and Richard saying he stole his job, and that when Derek needed help Richard didn't get him fired. Derek challenges that Richard got himself fired when he went back to drinking. Seriously, how does he still not know that ordering people around and acting haughty won't ever convince anyone to do anything? Richard finally challenges Derek to look him in the eye and try to say he just did what he had to do, so Derek looks him in the eye and admits that he wanted the job, but he didn't want to end Richard's career. That seems to be the heart of the matter; Richard says it's not up to Derek and that this is entirely up to Richard himself, and then he orders Derek out. Derek is drunk on his own power at this point, so incredibly he yells no, and it's all only stopped by Meredith walking in and ordering them both to cut it out. She points out that a bunch of people are all watching through the thousand windows, and Derek storms out and yells at them all to get back to work. He doesn't see Hunt and Mark, who both look very skeptical about Derek's leadership methods. Back in the conference room, Meredith glares at the Chief while he slumps back into looking pathetic.
Dr. Warren, meanwhile, has settled back into his good mood and finds Bailey to tell her that he wants an apology -- he hands her some results that show that Leslie has some deal with her cells that means that she metabolizes anesthesia way faster than most, and that there was no way they could have known this before surgery. Bailey herself seems anesthetizes as she dully comments that this is why Leslie woke up, and Warren agrees and then jokes that Bailey doesn't have to get on her knees, but that he would like something heartfelt. I hope Bailey goes for something heartfelt -- this guy is HOTTTTT. He doesn't seem to be the best at reading a room, though, and doesn't notice that she's not reacting at all to his continued joking. When he says that it's good news that it isn't their fault, she explains that Leslie needs a second surgery since her incision is still bleeding. He assures her that it's fine because now he knows how to keep her under the whole time, but Bailey is inconsolable that Leslie won't let Bailey touch her, and he finally understands why Bailey's not playing along. She's incredibly hurt and confused since patients always trust her, and she can't seem to believe that someone now feels the complete opposite.
Cristina appears to have sustained an injury since we last saw her panting and pulling Hunt's top off -- she's limping down the hall and when Alex asks what's up she mumbles that she has a burn and tries to shoo him away. He won't be moved and tells her they are all doctors and she doesn't have to be embarrassed and then reminds her that she took care of his tick. She tells him it's not a tick, and then is saved by Lexie throwing herself onto a gurney and dramatically moaning that the day and Mark both suck. Alex announces that Cristina has a burn on her girl parts, and that pulls Lexie out of her little dark cloud and into the situation at hand... or rather, at butt, which is where it turns out the burn is actually located. Lexie asks how it happened but Mere arrives and Cristina grabs her, heads to a bed and pulls the curtain only to have Mere exclaim loud enough for the entire clinic to hear.
Cristina tries to shut Mere up but Mere just asks incredulously how she wound up with grate marks burned into her behind. Cristina tells her that they are vent marks, and then because Mere didn't see the hotness that we did, explains that she and Owen were getting it on before telling Mere just to dress the wound and be done with it. She then muses that Hunt has been acting like a caveman which has been hot, but a little bit disturbing, and she guesses it's probably on account of her offering him to Teddy. I think it's a sign of growth that Cristina can recognize this kind of emotional turmoil given how robotic she generally can be. Just then, Alex pulls the curtain back and when he sees what is going on, exclaims about her "hot cross buns." Lexie points out that it's going to blister. When Mere gets a page, she asks Lexie to finish and then pulls Alex away; once they are alone Lexie asks if it's a sex injury and then gets wistful at what good sex injuries she used to get with Mark. She starts to cry but Cristina asks her to please stop while she's working on her ass. Fair enough.
An uninjured Hunt is walking down the hall and when Teddy calls after him, just says he's busy and keeps going. Avery picks this unfortunate moment to bring all the charts up to Teddy, and when he happily announces that he put them in room number Teddy snaps at him that Cristina usually puts them in order of priority. She is completely miffed but snaps that it's fine and orders him to follow her on rounds.
Avery may have thought he was hardcore and Alex was just babysitting, but while Avery is trailing after Teddy, Alex is facing down a red-faced father who is yelling that they absolutely aren't performing surgery on his son without any evidence of something being wrong. He yells about the money it will cost, and about his son needing to go to school without complaint the way his parents go to work. He's practically frothing at the mouth and storms off with his wife running after him, leaving Alex, Arizona and Brad to discuss. Arizona asks Alex if he thinks it is right to take Brad home, and after shushing Brad so that she can teach, Alex says he'd like to push Dad's face into a wall. He adds that he means no offense, but Brad is STOKED to hear the comment and happily assures him none was taken, probably glad to know he's not the only one that wants to do it. Arizona asks him what he could do that doesn't involve violence, and explains that tin pediatrics, the patients can't advocate for themselves so they need someone else to do it for them. She then asks him if he can do it.
He can, and he does. He explains pretty passionately that if Brad does have this condition and they take him home, that he could get super sick and go into such intense shock that an ambulance probably couldn't get him back to the hospital in time to save his life. Brad's dad has resorted to actually glaring with pursed lips, but Alex forges ahead and says that he understands why they would think Brad is faking, but he then challenges the dad to say just how sure he is. Arizona looks pretty worried, which is probably a combination of being worried the parents won't agree and worried that Alex is getting a little bit too demanding in his sales pitch.
Bailey is back in the war zone that is Leslie's room, and rather desperately tries to tell her that while she understands Leslie's hesitation, she really needs this surgery. Her husband just turns and asks if they haven't put Leslie through enough already, and their lawyer has joined them and says that he can make calls about getting her transferred to a new hospital. Bailey tells them that if they take the time to get her transferred she could have a greater risk of infection. Leslie rolls her eyes, which I think was supposed to make her look scared but instead made her look bored and fed up. Mere jumps in to reiterate that while she knows Leslie is scared, the dressing she did is only a temporary fix. Leslie just reminds them that it was like being in a coffin, not able to talk or move, and adds that the thought of Bailey's hand inside her... she can't finish because her husband rushes to convince her she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to. On the one hand, I get it, but on the other hand that knee-jerk response seems just a tad irresponsible, too, since this is a surgery she needs and not one they want to do just to relieve how fun the first surgery was. Leslie's gaze travels to Meredith, who she seems to see for the first time, and she tells Meredith that she can do it because Leslie remembers her being calm and kind in the last surgery. Meredith tries to convince her that Bailey is more experienced but Leslie shuts her down and makes her promise that Bailey won't lay a finger on (or rather in) her.
Derek is shooting some mini hoops in his new office and I was about to comment that he's getting awfully comfortable awfully fast in there, but he tells Mark that it was a present from Hunt. Mark takes the opportunity to sit in Derek's chair so that he can feel powerful for a few and also to more nicely lay out the shot of the three men having a conversation. Having seen the fight earlier, Mark wants to know what happened but Derek insists it isn't his story to tell and instead frets about his possible lawsuit on his first day. Mark then asks if he knew Lexie slept with Alex and even prissypants Derek reminds Mark that he was partaking in some of his own extracurricular activity. Mark pouts like a teenager about how she dumped him, so Derek asks if this is why Mark went and slept with Derek's ex. Hunt is stunned to hear about this, having missed all of that drama way back when. Derek tells Mark he thinks the Alex thing is a forgivable offense but Mark insists that it's not to him. The subject is mercifully changed when Hunt turns to shoot the ball and the guys notice that he has a hickey; he admits, embarrassed, that he and Cristina are getting along. Mark tells him that they are good together, better than he and Lexie or Cristina and Burke. It's a rather abrupt segue since we almost never hear that name uttered, but Mark just forges ahead and he and Derek talk about the wedding that wasn't. Hunt is totally confused as he's never heard anything about this, but when Mark calls it a good story Derek reminds him that this isn't Mark's story to tell.
Meredith walks back into Richard's cave and tells him that Bailey is letting her operate by himself, then asks if he thinks she can handle it. Obviously it's a ploy to get him to speak since this is the guy that was going to let her perform a whipple just last week. He refuses to look at or answer her so she says she heard he's thinking about quitting. When she's met with more silence she informs him that if her mom were there, "She would kick your ass for even considering it." Even mention of Ellis doesn't seem to affect Richard, so Mere gets up and leaves, but he then blinks to show that he hasn't yet changed fully into a wax statue.
Alex obviously convinced Brad's dad to go through with the surgery, but after that sales pitch it turns out they find absolutely nothing wrong. He's pretty upset that it turned out to be unnecessary, but Arizona tries to stay cheerful and convince him this just helps them rule things out while they figure out what is wrong. She adds that at least that is what he'll tell the parents, and when Alex expresses surprise that he has to do it, she points out that since he was the one that bullied them in to this, he is the one who gets to take the heat afterward. Brad then starts to get a bit unstable, so they get ready to close him up.
Meredith and Bailey are scrubbing in and Meredith hopefully tells Bailey that she could operate once Leslie was under and she would never know, but Bailey refuses, adding a bit bitterly that if Leslie wants a resident she'll get a resident. She then assures Meredith, though, that she wouldn't allow her to operate if she didn't think she was ready, which Meredith should already know from Bailey stopping her from doing that aforementioned whipple. She reminds Meredith that Richard was mentoring her and that Bailey could do the same, but Mere comments bitterly that he wasn't doing it because of her immense talent. Bailey defends them both, pointing out that Richard didn't waste his time on people, and that the last person he mentored was Bailey. She asks if Mere thinks she doesn't have talent, and Mere chews on the thought while they finish scrubbing in.
Alex, meanwhile, has Brad out of surgery and is taping him up when Reed comes in to demand to know if he really thinks the Mercy Westers are really going to all be cut. He can't answer her, though, because right then Brad's parents rush in and demand to know why he is in ICU. They notice that he has a chest tube, and when Alex begins to explain about Brad's becoming briefly unstable, Reed notices blood start to flow through Brad's chest tube. Alex doesn't see it because Brad's dad is hollering at him for doing the surgery and leaving him in this state, but Alex doesn't answer because Reed finally gets his attention. He yells for Teddy and Arizona to be paged but realizes he doesn't have enough time, and while Dad is screaming at him and demanding that he stop, Alex cuts into Brad's chest and shoves his hand inside.
They have finally gotten his parents out of the room, and Teddy rushes in as Alex exclaims that he found whatever he was looking for, presumably a bleed of some kind. Teddy tells him to hop on and hold on as they go to the OR, and as they leave she yells for someone to page Cristina.
Cristina's busy, once again, in the on-call room with Hunt. Her pager goes off and she makes to go answer it when she sees that it is Teddy, but Hunt begs her not to go and points out that she has another resident. She looks torn while he continues to plead with her not to go and strokes her cheek. She looks like she's about to protest but doesn't let it cross her lips, and instead after a moment of hesitation she kisses him and drops the pager for some more sexy time.
Meanwhile, Teddy is frantically operating when Arizona comes in, and she explains that it's an aortic arch dissection, which just sounds incredibly bad even though I don't know exactly what that is. She explains that doctors can almost never catch them but that Alex may have done just that, which would be a miracle. She then wonders angrily where Cristina is, and Avery pipes up to remind her that he is available. She says nothing, and Reed comments that she's waiting for Cristina, as if he needed reminding. He tells Teddy that she's made it very clear he's not Cristina but that he is in fact there right now, and has good hands and can help. After a tense pause, Teddy sighs and has him come over since they only have 30 minutes before Brad croaks.
Meredith is operating under Bailey's close supervision, and Bailey then asks Dr. Warren how things are going. He says that it's fine and reminds her that everything is the same as it was two minutes earlier when she asked. Bailey looks at him, and you can see in his eyes that he is smiling as he says it. He then adds that he doesn't read Architectural Digest like she supposed, and instead was reading an anesthesiology journal. When Bailey doesn't snap his head off, he forges ahead and tells her he doesn't actually like the sitting part of his job, and that he likes to keep in shape, "so I can lift my big buckets of money." He's making a point while also flirting up a storm, and Bailey finally softens. She tells him that she yells when she's scared, and that when Leslie woke up it was one of the scariest moments of her life and she yelled a lot because it's just what she does. He asks her coyly if this is an apology and she informs him, "Closest thing you're gonna get!"
Callie seeks out Mark and finds him working on a skin graft, which she compliments, and of which he is fairly proud. His happiness is short-lived, though, when she tells him she was talking to Lexie -- he immediately starts whining that she is his friend and not allowed to take sides. Callie tries to calm him down and says she's not, but that Lexie had some good points, but Mark doesn't want to hear it and thinks Lex isn't allowed to make any points. Callie finally gets a bit fed up and asks if he doesn't think he's acting... he supplies indignantly, "mad," "offended" and "disgusted." She shoots back, "Hypocritical, sexist, immature?" It's high time someone just laid that out for him. Mark is so riled up by this, though, that he just yells indignantly that Lexie dumped him. Ah, so there we have the problem. He says that he's mad because Lexie dumped him for doing the right thing, and says Callie knows what a big step that was for him and how much he wanted to take that step with Lexie. I don't know, I still personally see this as a pretty no-fault breakup because yes, he did a good thing, but he also knew that Lexie was skittish and never once actually discussed anything with her about sharing their home and their lives -- which she was skittish about from the beginning, as well as being totally open and honest about that skittishness. The least he could have done would be to try to discuss it, and not just after the fact. And unfortunately for Mark, he finishes up his talk with Callie by having a mini-tantrum and yelling, "I'm not the one who's immature!... And you made me wreck my skin graft!" Arizona's peds patients could recognize just how immature he's acting, and Callie gives up and leaves with her hands aloft.
Derek is gazing down from the bridge when Bailey comes to report that Leslie is out of surgery, and that all went well and Meredith did a good job. He's glad, but is more concerned about the lawyer and Bailey reports that he's still hanging around, "drooling." She then asks if this was a tough first day, and when he says yes she advises him gently that most of the time one can make a lawsuit go away by simply apologizing. She reminds him that people want to feel heard and respected (and his brand of patronizing and demanding doesn't really accomplish that) and that if Richard were there the first thing he would do would be apologize as soon as Leslie was out of recovery. Derek smiles at her, seeming to take it to heart.
Cristina runs after Teddy, who has just gotten out of surgery, and before she can say anything Teddy rips into her about not answering her page. Cristina apologizes but Teddy, still clearly with some pent-up nervousness from the surgery, tells her what procedure they had and says that she thought that she could rely on Cristina to act professionally. Cristina was both excited and dismayed to hear what she missed but before she can reply, Hunt comes up and asks what is going on. Cristina cuts in and apologizes sincerely but Hunt immediately jumps to her defense and says that he detained her for a "trauma thing." Teddy clearly knows that nothing was being traumatized, maybe other than Cristina's burn, and asks incredulously if now Hunt finally has something to say to her. She then tells him to forget it and leaves, and then Cristina turns and glares at him as well, demanding to know what he's trying to do to her. She cuts off whatever answer he might have, and leaves him totally baffled by women in general.
After surgery, Brad's mom is aghast to learn that her heart's son ruptured. Her husband is clearly on the way to a heart attack of his own because he is one of those people who is always mad about something and blaming everyone around him for whatever that might be. Though he was the biggest skeptic of all, he demands to know how the doctors didn't find this earlier, and Arizona calmly explains that it showed up as abdominal pain, which is extremely rare and almost impossible to diagnose. She then points out happily that the important thing is that Brad is fine, but his dad blows up at the very idea that they would call him hooked up to tubes in the ICU "fine." Alex's every button has been pushed, and he can't keep quiet any more -- he explodes and asked if the dad didn't hear about Brad's heart rupturing. I'm sorry to say that my buttons were being pushed just as hard and I would have reacted just the same way. Arizona tries to stop the torrent but Alex hollers that if Dad had gotten his way, they would have been at home when this happened and Brad would be dead, and how much school would he be missing then? Arizona finally cuts in and demands angrily that Alex follow her, now. On the plus side, Brad's dad is finally quiet and while his wife looks stern, she doesn't look particularly upset about what just happened.
Having worked her wise magic with Derek, Bailey heads in to talk to Richard, who is still sitting in the dark conference room. He tries to send her away by saying he doesn't want her to see him like this, but she points out that everyone has already seen him like this given that he's been sitting in front of a bunch of windows all day. Well, that last part was unspoken. She says that while she doesn't know the details, he can't sit there anymore, and he finally admits that he doesn't want to give Derek and Jennings the satisfaction of signing the paperwork because it means they were right. Well, he'd only be giving one or the other real satisfaction as each of them wants something different, but I get the gist. When Bailey asks what they would be right about, he says coyly that they want him to admit he's an alcoholic. Bailey is shocked but manages to control herself and asks if he is; he admits yes. He admits that if he signs the rehab papers he'll have to stop drinking and he's not sure he's ready for that yet, since it feels like all he has left. That degenerated into a full-fledged self-pity party of one extremely quickly, and Bailey isn't going to let him get away with it. She tells him that he's better than this and the way to win is to stop fighting them, get better, and come back and be the Chief, the one that she knows. She's almost pleading as she repeats, "Be the Chief!" But while he doesn't say anything, he looks at her, and she's the first one all day who has gotten him to do at least that.
Arizona is laying into Alex, letting him know that he can't get emotional if he's going to work in peds; she's emotional right now but I guess she specifically means with the patients and their families. He points out that she told him it was part of the job, and she corrects that there is a difference between "advocating for tiny humans" and berating their terrified parents. I will always love how she thinks of kids as tiny people and not just stupid kids. She assures him that he's great with kids, and has great skills and is an amazing advocate but that until he's been a parent he can't judge parents. For a moment she got so passionate I wondered if we were going to have a second secret baby backstory, but I think after watching it again that she's probably just telling him what she herself knows regarding the job. He tells her that he's clear on all this and she orders him to go and apologize, and turns away. After a second though, she turns back and plays good cop, asking how it felt to save a life. He grins and tells her that it felt good, and she happily has him admit that peds is, in fact, hardcore. She then welcomes him to peds and rolls away on her wheelie shoes.
There are more residents in the locker room at the same time than we've ever seen before, as if suddenly this is a job with set hours or something. But it makes it all very convenient for Derek, who walks in and clears his throat to offer his first apology of the night. He admits that he thinks they got off on the wrong foot, and even if they don't trust him yet he trusts them, so he wanted to apologize.
on his list is Leslie, and he walks in to her room and sits down on the bed. I wish he'd use a chair -- given my own surgical experience, I was far too sore to have someone jostling my bed a few hours afterward -- but at least he's doing something.
His closing voiceover is now the apologetic speech he is giving to the residents. "I want to clear some things up." Back in his office, his apologies are to Megan and April, and he offers them both their jobs back. He explains that there will be more cuts but that they both deserve a second chance, and both are thrilled and thankful. In the case of Megan, it's a smooth move to get rid of yet another lawsuit as last we heard she was suing.
"I am neither pro- nor anti- merger. From this point on, everyone has a clean slate." At that, Mark gets into the elevator before he realizes that the only person there is an incredibly startled Lexie. He makes a really slow attempt to get out of the elevator, and it was I think unfortunate timing on Eric Dane's part as he made the attempt to leave too early, so the doors were still totally open and he could have just walked out easily if he wanted to. But this calls for them to get stuck there together. Lexie looks at the numbers as the elevator moves and begins to crumble, but keeps her hair covering enough of her cheek that Mark can't tell until the doors open, and with half a sob she rushes out as he seems to finally grow up a bit and makes a move towards her retreating figure. Derek VO's, "I am not focused on the past." See? Because Mark totally is? Ah, so deep. Fortunately, Mark finally has the good grace to look ashamed.
Cristina gets home and finds Hunt wringing his hands in her apartment. She's still incredibly pissed, and goes straight to the fridge to pour herself a beer as he tells her that he's trying to understand her. Cristina counters that he's trying to screw her into submission, which he denies, but she says that it's true and that she let him because it was really good sex and his ego was bruised. He replies that he's just trying to understand, know, and love her but that he doesn't know how because she doesn't give him anything. Uh oh, wrong approach -- she yells at him about her burn, which is like a brand. He finally yells that he's trying, and repeats that she doesn't give him anything to which she growls angrily that she gives him everything. What this really comes down to is Burke, and she's stunned to hear him ask about her former fiancée. She tries to shut him down but he persists insisting that with everything that he's done he's just trying to connect to her, and that she has to give him a little something. This goes back and forth some more, and she tries to convince him that Burke is irrelevant to the conversation, but he's not buying it, and after he pleads with her to let him love her, she gives the tiniest of bits.
After thinking a moment, she tells him that Burke took something from her -- little pieces over time, that were so small she didn't notice until one day she had made herself into something she wasn't. She admits that she was lying for him, jeopardized her career, and then agreed to be married and then found herself, "in a wedding dress with no eyebrows," and she wasn't herself anymore. She's breaking down, and Sandra Oh just knocks this out of the park, finally facing and reliving the Burke stuff that all felt sort of shoved under the carpet after Isaiah Washington left the show. Tearfully she admits that even then she would have married Burke, and it's unspoken that he was the one to stop the wedding. She admits haltingly that after losing herself like that and then finally getting back to being herself again, she can't do it again. She admits that she loves him even more than she did Burke, but that when he asked her to ignore the page he took a little piece of her and she let him. With horrible resolve she promises, "And that will never happen again." She finally totally crumbles, but Hunt stands there and holds her hand while she cries, and for the millionth time I'll exclaim over how these two seem to want to actually work through problems and be a functional couple and I absolutely love them together. Fine, I also love that he's searingly hot.
Derek tells the group, "I am looking to the future," while Mark seems to be realizing that he might have helped screw up his own future. He's in bed staring at the ceiling while to him, Callie asks if he feels better. She then lays down and we see that Arizona is on the other side of her, incredibly skeptical of this whole situation. She tells Callie that this isn't going to work for her, but Callie takes her hand while Mark just stares up, morosely.
Having completed his Apology Parade, Derek is working in his office while Meredith reads a magazine in one of his chairs. Richard walks in and Derek does a double take, then watches as Richard walks towards him and hands him the signed rehab papers. Derek thanks him and then, as Richard walks out, calls after him, "I'm sorry." Richard pauses in the doorway and gives an infinitesimal nod of recognition before leaving. Phew -- I'm just relieved to not listen to these two fight like little schoolgirls anymore. Derek finishes up his speech: "To all the promise this hospital has to offer. I plan to honor Richard Webber and his legacy, not undo it. Which is why I'm both humbled and honored to be your new Chief of Surgery." Derek then looks at Meredith and she gives him a bit of a smile; he then leans back, shoots his mini basketball and makes a self-satisfied score. Seriously? That was obvious. Good grief.