The Painful Truth

S08E19

Now that Teddy is starting to come to grips with her widowhood, she needs to get out of the house with the girls for a fun night, as suggested by Callie, and she wants to go to a fancy restaurant. Callie forgot to mention this to Arizona, but she agrees to go along and has Callie invite Bailey too, so Teddy doesn't feel weird just going out with a couple. Bailey grudgingly agrees until Ben points out that he has a sexy evening in store for them since it's the first evening they've had alone in weeks, and then she cancels with a very lame excuse. Callie sees right through her and just about talks Arizona into bailing for the same reason, and on top of that Mark can't babysit so they can't leave the house anyway. Just as Arizona is about to cancel, Teddy talks about how excited she is and gets worried that maybe they don't want to go, so Teddy runs over and tells the other ladies that they are being horrible friends and they have to do what they originally promised. They wind up doing an evening of wine and movies at the Torres/Robbins apartment and also restore their standing as good people and friends.

The residents are all panicking about the Boards and decide they need to study some real cases and not just hypotheticals off of flash cards. Alex tries to sneak a bunch of charts from the library but he's caught, and told that the files don't leave the room. He gets the brilliant idea to have the Lexipedia read everything and then quiz him and when the others catch wind of this, they bombard her with files too. Everyone, that is, except for Mere who is totally and awesomely prepared because Callie's method really is that good. Lexie basically turns into a pile of mush from info overload so Mere forces everyone to leave her alone, but then calls all of them over to her house to start her own tutoring method; they will all sleep and eat and spend every moment they aren't at the hospital at Mere's house studying as a group.

Cristina and Owen are both out with the "flu" (more on that later) and so Mark is Chief for the day, since Owen asked for him by name to fill in. He takes it crazy seriously and gets very annoying, very fast. Derek and Ben have a very complicated surgery to do that they both think is too dangerous, but Mark just orders Derek to come up with a solution. Derek manages at the last minute to have a genius idea involving the use of a bean bag chair, Mark beams at how he brought out the best in his friend, and the surgery is successful.

Mark also butts heads with Richard but this time it's because Richard wants to proceed with a surgery and Mark orders him not to -- the patient is a man who needs a multi-organ transplant, and isn't going to make it much longer without those new innards. They get the organs for transplant but see that there is a spot on the liver, and Mark declares that this makes the organs unsuitable and they have to reject them and put the guy back on the list. Bailey has the idea to operate on the donor, who is still on life support, and to take out the tumor and see if it's benign or not, which Richard thinks is brilliant, but Mark forbids it and as Chief, his is the final word. ...Except that, as former Chief, Richard is willing to go behind is back and make it work. Mark finds out what is going on and storms into Richard's OR, where he has just removed a completely benign tumor and so all of the organs are now good to go. He points out to Mark that as a plastic surgeon he's used to everything being perfect and pretty but as Chief, sometimes you have to be creative and just figure out what will get the job done. In this case, if the guy didn't get these organs, he would die, so this was the way to make them suitable. Mark grudgingly agrees to it, the patient gets his organs, and all is well.

Oh, and much later, when Derek finds Owen playing a little bit of rooftop golf, it comes out that Owen asked for basically anybody but Mark to fill in for him that day. But Derek admits that Mark did a good job, while swearing Owen to secrecy that he admitted that.

Back to the "flu." Cristina and Owen have both called in sick because they are in the middle of a massive fight at home. Actually, "showdown" might be a better word than fight. Whatever you call it, it's not good -- Cristina is demanding to know the details of Owen's cheating, but he thinks this will just hurt her even more and doesn't want to tell her. She gets him to eventually get out most of the story, which we get in drips and drabs over the episode. The nutshell is that he met the woman when her friend was brought in to the ER.

After saving the friend's life, the two of them were drinking at Joe's, got drunk, he walked her home, she flirted drunkenly, he tried to talk himself out of it at first, but then, obviously, he didn't. He assures Cristina that it was just sex and in fact can't even remember the girl's name, but she thinks this is worse than if he'd been in love with someone else -- she could understand if he just couldn't help himself because he loved another. After lots of sobbing, sitting, locking oneself in the bathroom, and finally some talking, Cristina realizes that Owen did it to hurt her; to pay her back for hurting him. And I don't know if that was his conscious intention when it happened, but he doesn't deny it. And this leads to Owen moving out.

Mere had called Cristina earlier in the day to make sure she was okay and calls again after work, which is after Owen has left. Cristina can barely talk; she just sits on the phone while Mere assures her she'll stay on the line as long as she needs until her. Cristina can't take it and hangs up fairly soon thereafter, but winds up showing up at Meredith's house later, admitting that she's possibly going to fail her boards (because with all of her personal drama, she hasn't been studying) and she joins the gang as another study buddy. She may be brokenhearted but in the ten seconds we see of her, she looks more like herself than we've seen in weeks.

Aw, remember the moment when Owen found Cristina impaled by an icicle? Or when he told her he thought she was beautiful? Or when she introduced him to the fan that blows up your pants and make you laugh? We're treated to a montage of their sweet moments together as Mere reminds us of, a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dem_Bones" target="_blank">"Dem Bones," you know: "The foot bone's connected to the leg bone..." and so on but says that in med school, you learn it is more complicated than that. One would hope that whoever is in med school actually learned that lesson long before they applied, actually. Regardless, no matter how well you know anatomy, you know that everything is connected. So that means all of the horrible fighting moments Owen and Cristina have had are connected, too: Cristina yelling at him that she's not having a baby, him telling her it hurts to love her, and the cereal throwing incident just from last week being three prime examples.

And then we see what led to (this round of) fighting which then led to the cereal throwing: Owen is at Joe's (I miss Joe actually being there) and he's having drinks with a woman who looks like Nancy Travis' younger sister. She's flirting that she can't believe he does this every day, and then when their drinks arrive she downs hers in one gulp. Owen is nervous, but certainly not uninterested. He tries to leave but it's a pretty weak effort and she asks him to stay for one more; it's the least she can do. They share a long look and then the shot freezes...

...because this is Owen recounting the evening to Cristina, and he has no desire to continue. She demands that he keep going but he doesn't want to, because he knows this will hurt her and he wants to try and fix their relationship without causing her even more pain. She is not moved by this and insists that she wants to know every gory detail. She informs him that if he really wants to fix things, she has to know what happened. Now, I don't want to let Owen off the hook and I'm not saying I wouldn't be tempted to act just the same way if I were in her shoes but there's no way that this will end well.

We're treated to a crazy gorgeous shot of Seattle in the morning and then join Meredith and Callie on a walk through the park. Callie is pushing Sofia in her stroller while she quizzes Mere with a hypothetical medical case. Mere tells her how she would treat the patient and Callie dings her, telling her that she actually just killed the guy. Mere argues and they go back and forth until Callie stops, turns to face Mere, and proudly tells her that she's absolutely right and ready for the Boards -- she knows her stuff so well that she won't second-guess herself even when Callie tries to throw her off her game. Callie happily tells Mere she's free and to go off and do whatever it is she does.

By Lauren S

That would be making out lustily with Derek in an on-call room. But while Derek certainly enjoys the interlude, he realizes that this is usually her drink-coffee-and-bitch time with Cristina and knows that something must be wrong if Mere is with him instead. Goodness, there are some well-earned Husband Points to Derek, right there. She insists everything is fine and tries to distract him with kisses; ultimately, she is saved from the conversation by the weird bonky tone of the new hospital pagers when Derek gets a message. He reads whatever it is and swears.

At first glance it's unclear why he is swearing since he arrives at the daily staff meeting to find a spread of amazing fruit and baked goods that are making me kind of want to lick the television since I have not had breakfast yet. I'm nothing if not a sucker for a delicious baked good. Avery is passing out sheets with inspirational quotes on there and everyone is thoroughly confused about the occasion until Mark sweeps in wearing a suit, with a Bluetooth in one ear and he is -- gasp

-- clean-shaven. There was also something else and it took my friend Jessica to point out that he's lost weight recently and neither of us are fans of how skinny he's gotten. I like my man-whore with a little more bulk on his frame and scruff on his face. (Though I wonder if the weight loss is due to Eric Dane's recent-ish stint in rehab for painkiller addiction and if that's the case, I applaud him for taking control of that.) (But if it's just from, like, a lot of extra cardio I say pack on some more muscle, McSteamy!) He pompously announces his thoughts on baked goods being important for a good meeting and then explains that Owen and Cristina are both home with the flu, so Owen asked him to fill in as Chief for the day. Everyone is skeptical that this really happened but when Bailey asks, he claims Owen asked for him by name.

When the meeting is over, Teddy runs up to Callie and Arizona in the hall and maniacally babbles about how she made reservations for all of them at a pretty restaurant with twinkly lights -- she knows it might be too romantic but she wants her first night back out in the world to be somewhere pretty. Dude, I have twinkly lights on my balcony year-round. Twinkly lights make every environment better, romance or no. Teddy is high on coffee but buzzes, "Ladies' night, yay!!" and then runs off. Callie explains to a confused Arizona that she said they would go out with Teddy for a ladies' night and Arizona is even more confused, thinking they are going to a girl bar. Is this a thing? Is that what ladies' night really means? Because if so I've been using it all wrong when my girlfriends and I get together for wine and cheese and maybe -- just maybe -- a viewing of She's the Man. Callie tells her no, they are just getting Teddy out of the house for a night with the girls. Arizona points out that they probably need at least one other lady so that Teddy doesn't feel like a third fifth wheel. Callie tries to get Bailey to go but is only able to convince her once Arizona tells her they are buying.

Bailey then joins Richard and Mere to meet their patient o'the day whose show name I already don't remember because I saw his name in the credits and realized with joy that he is the actor who voiced Chef Louis in The Little Mermaid, who sings one of my target ="_blank">very favorite songs in the movie. Don't mind me, I'll just be humming this in the background while I write the rest of this recap. Here in Seattle, Louis is much less French and much more yellow on account of his failing liver, which is one of about five organs that are failing him. He needs a multi-organ transplant and Richard happily tells him that they have a donor. Louis isn't overly excited because he's been told this twice before and both times it has fallen through, so he tells Richard he'll believe it when he sees it. Once the other docs leave Mere stays to get him ready and asks if there is any family she should call. Louis tells her that they already said their goodbyes twice before and he told them not to bother this time. She tells him to let her know if he changes his mind but he teases that he knows he won't.

The residents who didn't learn via the Torres Method are all freaking out about the Boards, and are trying to quiz each other with flashcards that have hypothetical medical situations. When April throws one out to Alex and Avery they both have tentative guesses but their brains are mush and they can't remember what to do. Mere walks up and calmly tells them the answer, and then gloats just a little bit that she's so ready for the exam because of The Method. Avery panics that he can't even remember any real cases anymore but Alex tries to make him feel better by telling him that Cristina is by far the most screwed of the group since no one has seen her do an ounce of studying yet. Mere insists she's fine and refuses to let them say anything negative about her friend's chances, but once they leave she worriedly takes out her phone to call her friend.

At the firehouse, the fighting is still going on. Owen can't see what the point is of telling Cristina every detail especially since he knows it will only hurt her. She thinks that she has a right to know and tells him that if he's not going to tell her, he can get out. The phone rings and he's absolutely appalled that she goes to answer it but Cristina yells back that Meredith has called five times and if Cristina doesn't answer Mere will just come over to make sure they aren't dead from the flu. Mere asks how she is feeling and Cristina manages to mumble that she's fine, but tears are streaming down her face. Mere guesses that Owen is there and Cristina makes a comment that he is sick too; Mere can't help herself sniping, "Oh, I bet he is." If Cristina didn't think Mere knew about the affair before, she must know now that she does. Mere tries to talk to her but Cristina cuts her off and hangs up. He then asks if he's staying or going but she tells him that is up to him. He sighs, puts down his coat, and picks the story back up again, telling her that it was the day after they quit therapy that he met Nancy at the hospital. I'm just calling her Nancy to avoid pronoun hell, though -- Owen is All Pronouns, All The Time.

Remember how horrible it was to watch these two in therapy? Well we get to do it again for a couple of moments, specifically, we see Cristina yelling at Owen to be her Person and then see Owen reply sadly to be his Person. Owen is then at work when a trauma patient is brought in and when he calls out asking if anyone is with the patient, Nancy runs in and says she is. Again, we freeze the shot.

Cristina and Owen are trying to do normal things: he's doing the dishes, and she is making tea while he tells the story. Cristina interrupts to ask what the woman's name was and after he thinks a moment, he admits he can't remember. Duh, Owen, she's called Nancy -- you could have just asked me that.

Avery, who is now the Chief's Bitch for the day, gives Mark his schedule and then has to put up with Mark's bitching that Avery didn't call lunch -- when he has a sort of "open house" to talk to any docs who are interested -- "Beef With the Chief." Avery thought he wasn't serious about the name. As a member of the Plastics Posse, he should know that Mark is never kidding about these things. Mark insists that he wants to do things right, and thinks that giving the docs a way to get things off of their chest before they become big problems is the way to start. He's not wrong about that, but he is wrong to think that naming it "Beef With the Chief" is going to get people there.

He then goes in to see a patient with Derek and Ben. The poor guy in the bed has his head turned to the side, away from the docs, but that's because his jaw and spine have fused that way as a result of juvenile arthritis. He's been on a feeding tube and is dreaming of a cheeseburger. I should probably go get one for dinner to show that I don't take my working jaw for granted, no? I don't want to miss any potential life lessons from this show, so a cheeseburger it is. What? I'm just being conscientious! Mark tells the guy, Jason, that he'll be eating burgers in no time after they fix him up in surgery. But Derek and Ben exchange a pointed look and ask to talk to Mark outside.

They tell Mark they don't think they should do the surgery since there are too many possible complications from them not being able to move his head -- things could go wrong with anesthesia or the surgery itself and there isn't anything they could do. But Mark doesn't want to accept this and has Avery recite why they have to do surgery today -- Jason has an abscess in his mouth which could lead to various -itises. Over Derek's protests, Mark tells him to just figure it out. "Rise," he orders. He then reminds Derek that his whole Big Thing this year has been helping lost causes, so he really should want to figure out a solution to this supposed lost cause. Ben can barely contain his amusement as again, Mark gives Derek the order to, "Rise."

Alex thinks he's come up with a way to find them some real cases to study with, and that's by going to the [library/records center/reading room/I never quite figured out exactly but it's where all of the patient charts seem to live] and sneaking out with some of them to use as study aids. He's caught by the librarian/keeper of the records who tells him in no uncertain terms that he's not allowed to borrow nor photocopy the charts since they are, in fact, confidential. Alex tries to gain her sympathy, telling her he has to study for his Boards, but it's a role he's not used to playing and his Bambi-eyes face actually looks more like a grimace. She is unmoved and tells him he's allowed to read all he likes, but the only way the info leaves the room is in his brain. This actually gives him a little idea in that brain of his. He searches Lexie and asks her if she's busy -- she's all excited, thinking she might be able to assist on a surgery of his later, but he really just wants to find out how her photographic memory works.

That established, he and April sit her down in the library with two giant stacks of files in front of them. She is aghast to see just how much stuff they want her to memorize but they whine that they need someone to quiz them on real cases. When Lexie points out that she has actual work to do April very sweetly threatens that year, when they are attendings, they will be assigning surgeries and making recommendations for Chief Resident, and Lexie wouldn't want to get off on the wrong foot, would she? Suitably intimidated, Lexie tentatively sits down and April goes back to her normal squeaky giddiness that they will be studying together. Well, "together."

Bailey finds Ben and pouts that he's going to get to watch the game since she's going to be at ladies' night, but as it turns out, he wasn't planning on watching the game -- with them both home at the same time for the first time in two weeks, and Tuck at his dad's house, he had a very different idea of how their evening was going to go. Bailey is kind of slow on the uptake and so he tells her that while he can't say what he had in mind as it's inappropriate in the workplace (seriously, when did that ever stop anyone at this hospital?) he's going to just think it. He gives her a sexy smirk and a raised eyebrow, and she gets a dreamy look on her face and begins to giggle and ooh and aah. After a few moments of telepathic hanky-panky, she declares that she's getting out of ladies' night.

By Lauren S

Bailey finds Arizona and Callie and really unconvincingly lies that she can't make it to ladies' night because she and Ben have a salsa lesson to attend. They of course don't believe her and Callie guesses immediately that "salsa" is code for "sex" but Bailey refuses to admit that and insists that they are on their own with Teddy for the evening.

Lexie looks a little dazed already as the others all fight with each other about which charts they want her to read . Avery joins the fray and asks if she can read some for him but when he sees how her eyes are glazed over he immediately backs off, though she tells him that it's fine. Mere then runs up with a stack of charts on behalf of Cristina and more bickering ensues until the librarian shushes them all like they are naughty high schoolers. Lexie just looks like her brain is about to leak out of her ears.

And now we get yet another mini-montage of Owen and Cristina's selfish marital hell. She yells that you can't compromise about a baby. He yells that she always gets what she wants. Cut back to Owen and Nancy walking together and starting to do the dance of will-they-or-won't-they: he lamely says he didn't realize how late it got and then, after some awkward pausing, he tells her good night. They shake hands but she holds on and thanks him for saving her friend's life. Then, as they stand there, she tells him to kiss her. He says he can't, he's drunk, he's married, etc. Lather, rinse, grab the guy by the tie, repeat. He finally leans in...

And after the shot freezes, we cut to Cristina, sobbing like she's never sobbed before. She's on the bed, and Owen doesn't seem sure of what to do. As she cries, he finally goes to the bed and lies down behind her, trying to hold her in his arms. She fights him and screams but eventually gives up and seems to find at least a little bit of comfort as she takes a shaky breath. But then, after a moment, she jumps up and locks herself in the bathroom.

Meredith and Derek are sitting in bean bags at the hospital daycare, watching Zola sit at a kid-sized table with her friends, kicking her legs and ignoring her parents. It's almost like she's a teenager already! Derek earns even more husband points (!!) by telling Mere he knows something must be really wrong because Cristina has never taken a sick day in her life. Of course, he wants her to fix it so that Sloan can go back to not being Chief, but still. Mere tells him she can't fix it and then tells him that Owen cheated on Cristina. He's amazed in a kind of hilariously gossipy "tell me more" kind of way. He gets Mere's best friend shorthand explanation that Owen told her he cheated but he didn't know he was telling her, and she knows Cristina knows she knows even if Cristina doesn't know that yet. On the one hand it sounds a little insane but on the other hand, having a best friend, I totally get it. Derek asks if they have talked and Mere basically says she can't say anything because they can't talk about it in a normal, straightforward way, it's not their style. (I might be paraphrasing.) He says rather genuinely that he hopes they work it out, and not just because he can't handle Mark as Chief. He then goes and grabs Zola and swings her around before putting her in her own beanbag chair; doing that seems to cause a flash of brilliance to strike.

By Lauren S

But when we come back from commercial, they are both on the bed and at least they are finally talking. She thinks it would have been easier if Owen had been in love with someone else because then it would be a clean break, and she'd understand that he couldn't help himself having sex with someone because the feelings were too strong. He totally disagrees with her and finally she asks him if it was really just sex, and he tells her that it was, and just once. They almost have a moment but then she whips her head around and once again says she doesn't understand. He's at a loss of what to say but tries to explain it: he was lonely because of the fighting, afraid, and just got drunk and did something stupid. He adds that both of them make mistakes, but this was the wrong thing to say to her because she thinks he's pointedly bringing up the abortion again. I'm not sure if he was -- or rather, I'm not sure if he was doing it consciously -- but it causes Cristina to blow up at him. He finally yells back that he had sex because he was hurt, and Cristina has realized something: he did it because he wanted to hurt her back. I wasn't sure if this was (again, at least consciously) true, but then he just keeps a guilty silence as her heart breaks again over this new realization.

Arizona reports to Callie that Mark can't take Sofia, and the women try to decide what to do, griping all the while. Arizona thinks they could have it at their place and Callie takes this and runs, figuring they could then just ditch Teddy all together and do some "salsa dancing." Arizona at first thinks that is horrible but lets Callie kind of talk her around to the idea by saying they could just reschedule. Arizona asks if they are bad ladies, but Callie just gets all flirty. Okay, Arizona, let me answer this for you -- YES. You two are HORRIBLE FRIENDS right now. Your friend's husband DIED and this is her FIRST NIGHT OUT. Ugh. Come on, all of these women are more thoughtful than this, and it's not even funny, it's just mean.

In the OR, Richard is holding a giant bowl of what looks like sausage and other assorted uncooked delicacies. Bailey and Mere reach into Louis' abdomen and pull out some sick, dark organs, and then Richard brings over his pink, happy organs and they put them inside. All of them are kind of giddy as they work, which is awfully endearing.

In another OR, Derek is explaining to Mark how they will use the beanbag behind Jason's head to stabilize his spine, but how it will allow them adjustments if they need to make any during surgery. He then brags that inspiration can come from anywhere, even daycare. Mark is thrilled, not just because the surgery can go on but because he thinks this is a great example of how he can inspire his underlings to greatness. He walks out, basking in his own greatness, and Ben asks Derek when Owen is coming back. Not soon enough, is his answer.

By Lauren S

Mark then Marches into Richard's OR to confront him about what happened but as he does, Richard holds up something that looks like a large jawbreaker and declares that it's a benign tumor, he'd bet his job on it. Mark just yells at him about how they are compromised donor organs, so Richard has to impart some old-timer Chief knowledge to him. He tells Mark that while he might make a great Chief one day, right now he's in plastics which means that he's a perfectionist who wants everything to be perfectly by the rules so that it's pretty. Richard, on the other hand, just needs to figure out what will work for his patient and in this case, it's taking out the tumor and the plopping the liver and other organs inside his own patient because while it's not pretty, it will keep Louis alive. "Stand down, Chief Sloan." Mark thinks a moment, and then turns and leaves.

Owen is desperate, begging Cristina to open the door or to at least tell him if she's okay. She's unmoved, basically numb on the other side of the door and doesn't answer even when he asks for confirmation that she's not hurting herself. Finally, he threatens that if she doesn't answer him, he'll knock the door down and on the other side she rolls her teary eyes. He keeps telling her he's about to break the door down and starts to slowly count; on the count of three he runs at the door just as she finally opens it and he comes crashing down on the floor by the tub. This seems to give her the release she needed and she actually giggles. Tentatively, he does too as he admits that he must have looked lame, but his smile soon fades as she begins to laugh harder and crazier. He tries to calm her down but she only laughs harder and then announces that she's got both an MD and a PhD, she's a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon and is supposed to be studying for her boards, but now she's locked in a bathroom crying over a boy. He's hit pretty hard by this and doesn't smile back at her, which seems to finally bring her back down. She takes a deep breath, and they just sit there in the bathroom, not speaking, pretty much in the exact opposite scenario from the last time they were similarly situated on the tiles.

When Louis wakes up from surgery, he's surprised to see that only Meredith is there in his room, asking where everyone is. She reminds him that he didn't tell anyone to come but he's kind of devastated that they didn't call, and insists that they should have known not to listen to him, since he could have died. He's genuinely distressed and Mere thinks for a moment before suggesting that they can call them right away. This calms him down and he agrees, looking much more person-colored and less yellow now that he's got his just-like-new liver.

At the apartment, the bad ladies are getting food set up for Teddy's arrival for ladies' night. Bailey insists that she's just doing a quick glass of wine and some munchies before leaving and admits that she told Ben she'd only be 45 minutes. Bailey, you are a better person than this, come on. When Teddy arrives, she's still wired and giddy and babbles that she wasn't sure what wine they would want so she just brought white, red, and rosé and figured they could drink them all while watching Beaches and Dirty Dancing. The others all agree a little too heartily but fortunately she doesn't notice and she happily settles in with her friends.

The phone rings, and a numb, swollen-faced Cristina answers but doesn't say anything. It's Mere calling, and she can hear Cristina breathing. She asks if she is okay and Cristina mumbles that she's feeling better but really, she sounds like death and then crumbles into tears again. Mere sits down and assures Cristina that she's there, and that while she knows she doesn't want to talk, she'll just sit on the other end of the phone until Cristina wants to hang up. She repeats soothingly that she's there but after a couple of moments, Cristina hangs up and tosses the phone down.

Her estranged husband has escaped to the roof of the hospital to hit golf balls. I will never, ever understand how they have not killed anyone yet, or at least maimed them and treated us to an episode of a patient who came in with a mysterious golf ball injury sustained out of the blue in the middle of town. Derek finds him there and asks if he can join, and then asks Hunt how he is feeling. Hunt has no idea what Derek is talking about and to his credit, Derek just gently reminds him that he's supposed to have the flu. The lady attendings may be kind of jerky, but at least everyone else keeps up the fiction of the flu for Owen and Cristina. Derek tells Owen that Mark did a good job and Owen is taken completely by surprise, since he had specifically requested Derek, Richard, or anyone but Mark to fill in for him. Derek has a laugh about this but admits that Mark was actually pretty good at it, and then makes Owen promise never to admit to Mark that Derek said that. Meanwhile, inside, Jason seems to be doing well after his surgery while Louis sits surrounded by family, just smiling contentedly.

By Lauren S

Arizona finds Teddy who does appear to have dozed off standing up. She wakes her up and tells her that if she's too tired, they can always postpone their plans. Her transparency combined with Teddy's delicate emotional state make Teddy immediately worry that Arizona doesn't want to hang out and that she's freaking out people in general. She basically pleads with Arizona, telling her she doesn't want to be the sad widow who ruin's everyone's fun. Arizona quickly backtracks and assures her she just thought she might be tired, but that everyone is really excited. Teddy is giddy, and runs off to find some more coffee.

Arizona then finds her wife and Bailey and yells at them that they are all bad, selfish people. This would be funnier if it wasn't so plain from the first that, well, they totally are. She tells them that Teddy is feeling vulnerable and needs them, and they are being shitty friends who want to have sex instead of hanging out. Bailey is still so caught up in her own plans that she actually chastises Callie for this until Callie points out where she got the idea in the first place. Arizona just yells at them that they are doing ladies' night, no excuses. And because they are all kind of selfish jerks, they all pout at the prospect of spending a single evening with their widowed friend.

Mere finds Lexie in the hall, mumbling about all of the charts she read and how the info all just seemed to fall out of her brain at one time. April sees them and demands to know why Lexie isn't in the library but Mere puts her foot down and tells April that they broke her.

Owen is finally, really leaving the firehouse apartment. He has his jacket on and picks up his bag, telling Cristina that he'll come back for the rest of his things another time. She just sits, not looking at him, and nods. He's terribly sad but finally tells her goodbye, and she whispers it back still without turning towards him. He then tells her that he'll always be in love with her, that she's the love of his life and he'll never love anyone else. It's unfortunate that he didn't think this out beforehand, but these two are just such a mess that even I can't justify their staying together at this point. Cristina finally looks at him and tells him, disappointed, that he didn't even remember the woman's name. I don't know if that's really that horrible a thing given everything else that has transpired but she obviously can't handle it; he also seems to have run out of comebacks and just tells her to take care of herself, and then leaves.

By Lauren S

Mere's VO repeats that everything is connected, and if you take out one piece it all falls apart. And sometimes it's just when your support systems look like they might fail that you realize how much you depend on them after all. All together now: Awwwww. She has gathered Alex, April and Jackson at the house, and all three look tired and skeptical at whatever she's about to say. She's tacked butcher paper up onto a blank wall and has each of their names at the top, and announces that though they take their Boards alone, they will all be able to pass if they work together. She hands out markers to each and declares that they will spend all of their non-work hours at the house, with no distractions or breaks, and will study using the Grey Method. As she finishes her introduction, the doorbell rings and she finds Cristina on the other side. Cristina announces that she's going to fail her Boards and she has to study, and though she seems sad, she also seems more at peace than she has at weeks. Mere just smiles at her and hands her a marker, and Cristina gives her a half-smile back and walks in.

Lauren S is a writer and gal-about-town who lives and works in Atlanta, and believes that quality baked goods are essential for a good meeting. She wants everyone to know: "The views expressed in my recaps and anything else I might write on TWoP are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer."