After the cliffhanger ending of last season's finale, it's a bit of a surprise that this season begins at the hospital, three months or so after the accident. It comes to light at some point that they were in the forest for almost a week before being found, though there are no specifics about their experience out there. The episode takes a while to reveal just what happened to everyone, but the biggest news is that Mark is on life support and has been on it for 30 days. According to his living will, when 30 days are up (which will be at five that evening) they are to unhook him from the machines and let him go.
Meredith and Derek are still in Seattle, working at the hospital. He decides that today is the day he's finally going to operate again; he's been medically cleared for weeks but not able to bring himself to do it. He gets to the OR and is greeted by a ton of the staff giving him a round of applause and Callie makes him announce, "It's a beautiful day to save lives," which he does rather reluctantly. Halfway through the surgery he drops a tool and after a momentary pause, flees and has Callie finish up alone. Afterward, he admits in a fury that his hand went numb. As if that wasn't crappy enough, it's then time to go turn off Mark's ventilator. Callie seems to be holding up fairly well but refuses to talk about Arizona and we're left wondering if Arizona is even alive when a new pediatric attending is hired. At one point, Callie dissolves into sobs in a supply closet but no one has yet actually said Arizona is dead, and both Joe R and I decided we'd believe it only when the words were spoken.
There's a new batch of interns whose names I refuse to memorize until I know they are going to stay for a while, and they are all terrified of one particular attending… Meredith, or "Medusa," as they have christened her. Mere has taken over Bailey's old role of the gruff, no-nonsense, terrifying teacher while Bailey has become the butt of jokes and has a new nickname of her own: "BCB," or "Booty Call Bailey," since Ben has been sneaking up for 12 hour visits when he can and they spend most of their time together giggling in on-call rooms.
Alex has been putting off Hopkins and has been using the time in Seattle to try and sleep with every one of the female interns before he leaves. When he meets the new peds intern he's immediately up in arms when the guy announces that he's sending Alex's African orphan program down to be continued at UCLA since he isn't interested in it himself.
Cristina is the only one who actually went to her new job and she's freezing her ass off at the Mayo in Minnesota. She and Meredith spend all of their free time FaceTiming on their iPads and we learn that Cristina hasn't been able to get herself back on an airplane to come back to Seattle even on this day when Mark is going to die. She is happy to just do her work and be a perfect surgeon but it turns out that all of the surgeons there work as a team, with no egos or superstars, and her boss notices that this isn't really in Cristina's wheelhouse. He orders her to take a few days off to mellow out and obviously knows nothing about her if he thinks that will work. Jackson is handling all of the duties of the Plastics Posse but he still goes in and updates Mark a few times a day on all of "their" cases and has conversations as if Mark is there giving him advice.
Finally, Avery tells Mark quietly that he knows he has things covered and that he will carry on the Posse's work. He goes and waits outside of the room as Richard walks Callie and Derek through the steps and then takes Mark off of life support. Mere eventually joins Avery, Bailey, Ben, and Richard and they all wait for the inevitable until Mere can no longer stand it and she takes off for the airport to go visit Cristina.
At the airport she runs into Alex who didn't even bother to say goodbye and from their argument we learn he's suffering from a whole heap of survivor's guilt. They each leave to go to their respective planes and we see Owen run up and just barely catch a flight as well. Once Mere's plane is pulling away from the gate, however, she can't go through with it and she gets up and demands in a blind panic to be let off. She goes to the airport bar and does shots while FaceTiming with Cristina and then Alex walks up and admits that he couldn't get on his plane either, and he apologizes for being an ass. He also wants to stay in Seattle so that the new peds attending doesn't totally screw everything up. While it was assumed that Owen was running to catch a plane to go see his estranged wife, it turns out he flew to see April on her parents' farm. He apologizes for not being a good teacher to her and for firing her, and begs her to come back to work again.
Throughout the hour there have been various "home videos" of Mark being a great best friend to both Derek and Callie and a great dad to Sofia and a loving member of the Sloan-Torres-Robbins nontraditional family, so that when his heart finally does stop it's all the more tragic. The question still remains, though -- what became of Arizona? We finally learn that she is still alive when Callie gets home, bursts through the door to their bedroom and tells the back of Arizona's head that she needs to suck it up and get out of bed and back into her life because Callie needs her, especially now that Mark is dead. Arizona slowly turns to face her with a look of pure malice as she snarls that it's not that easy to just deal with the fact that Callie… cut her leg off. And with that, she pulls back the blankets to reveal that she lost her leg above the knee as a result of the crash.
Welcome to season 9, my awesome readers! I kind of can't believe that the show has been on that long, though in other ways it feels even longer -- like, for instance, it seems a million years since Izzie had ghost sex and for that I am eternally grateful. Mere kicks us off on a cheery note, voiceover-ing about how dying changes everything, especially because some other person winds up taking over your life, doing your job, living in your house, etc. The good news for you is that you're dead, so it's not actually your problem.
As she talks, we see a new intern get off the elevator; the only thing I know her from is the Lifetime movie where she played Kate Middleton and even then, I know that from my friend Jessica's hilarious recap of the movie and not my actual viewing of said movie. I can't believe they finally pared down the cast somewhat and decided to then go and add new characters. Kate meets up with another new intern whose name IMDB tells me is Stephanie. They walk and talk as Princess Kate tries to convince Stephanie to take her shift with "Medusa." They are obviously supposed to strike us as Meredith and Cristina 2.0, but I'll honor that only when I really see it. The two round the corner and stare at Medusa, who is either Bailey or Meredith and since Bailey already has her own scary nickname, it's not the surprise I think the show thinks it is that they are referring to Mere.
Bailey sees the girls hovering and orders them to speak; Kate can barely stutter that she has the labs for Dr. Grey. Meredith is utterly no-nonsense and notes pointedly that she's been waiting; when Kate starts to stammer she's told over her mutterings to stop making excuses, stop apologizing, and finally to stop talking. Bailey raises an eyebrow in intern-intimidation-approval as Kate's legs turn to goo. Once Meredith banishes the girl to the pit, Bailey admits she'd have expected this from Cristina rather than Mere. This gives her the opportunity to ask how Cristina likes Minnesota, and Mere unconvincingly says that she loves it.
How could she not love it, when she gets the opportunity to don a parka just to venture outside to the ambulance bay? She looks like an Eskimo ready for surgery with her green paper gown on the outside of her giant fur-trimmed coat. Mr. Feeny is out there with another doctor, Dr. Parker, and is amusing him greatly with some long-winded story about a case he had 10 years ago. Cristina tries to interrupt -- unsurprisingly, she's not at all interested in the jolly yarn that Feeny is weaving -- and she just wants to talk about her recommendations for an upcoming surgery and get inside out of the freezing wind. Parker wants her to hear this gut-busting story so he agrees with her recommendation but then suggests that Feeny scrub in with her so that he can tell her the story as well. She tried to sound positive as she grudgingly agrees and is not overjoyed when Feeny realizes he has a conflict so makes her push her procedure to a later time to accommodate him.
Back in Seattle, Derek is flexing his arm and making a fist, testing out his hand, and we see large scars running down his forearm where he was stitched back together. Richard walks in and tells him that they are all set for tonight, unless Derek has any questions or concerns. We don't yet know what exactly is set, but Derek doesn't have any questions. Once Richard leaves, he sits back and thinks until his phone bonks at him.
Bailey is leading her interns around and I was totally delighted to realize that one of them is Smash. Fine, so I will remember him too, but no other interns until I suss out who is going to stay around and who are warm bodies that will be quickly forgotten as the season goes on. Bailey quizzes them on a patient and when no one has an answer to one of her questions, a voice comes from the doorway that turns out to belong to sexy Dr. Warren. Bailey is delighted and turns super smiley and giggly, and from the smirks of her interns we know her reputation as the "Nazi" is no more. She gets him out in the hallway and finds out he managed 12 hours free so he hopped on a plane to visit. They kiss their way to an on-call room but are foiled as the door is locked. Wait, locked? They must have installed those over the summer! It's a miracle!
Alex is inside, with another unnamed female intern post-coitally wrapped around him with some strategically placed sheets to hide their modesty. He tells her that he wishes he could put off Hopkins for her, but he's already postponed once. She eats it all up, and then after some more flirting they go back at it.
Callie is working on a computer in the ER when she looks up and notices a nurse staring at her. Exasperated, Callie tells her she's fine and reminds her (and the room in general) that she told everyone to stop staring. The nurse apologizes and shuffles away which gives Callie a clear view of Avery, who has been staring too. Obviously, the question is, why are they staring with worry on their faces? What has happened to Arizona? We don't know yet, because Derek comes up to do a consult on a spine x-ray. He tells her that "we" need to book an OR and she's thrilled to realize he's actually going to operate with her for the first time since the crash. Derek reminds her that he's been cleared for weeks, but she knows already since she's the one who did it. He hadn't been ready yet to go back but says that he is ready today, and he wants no fuss because it's no big deal. She tries to control herself, but she can't hide her joy.
thing we hear is Meredith arguing with him that this is actually a big deal and she worries that he's putting too much pressure on himself. Derek assures her he'll be done by the mysterious 5:00 appointment; when she asks if he really needs today to be his first day back he tells her that he especially needs it to be today. They smooch, so we know they are doing okay.
Callie is sitting to someone's hospital bed, telling them about how Derek is now ready. But when the camera pulls back, what we see is pretty much completely horrible -- she's talking to Mark, who is unconscious and on a ventilator. Callie seems a little bit unsure about Derek's decision but she shuts up when he enters the room and changes the subject, telling him she keeps hoping that if she says something big enough, Mark will open his eyes. She's hoping against hope because it turns out that Mark had a very clear directive that if he was out for 30 days with no signs of recovery, he wanted to be let go. Five o'clock that evening will be 30 days, and they have to honor his wish and turn off the machines. Callie knows this intellectually, but it's understandable that she still hopes he'll come back to them. She leans in and breathily starts to talk about how hot it is, so she has to take off her shirt and doesn't it feel better now with her boobs out? It's kind of hilariously bittersweet since it's what Mark would have loved to hear, but he's gone. Derek notes that if that won't wake him, he doesn't know what will. Once Callie leaves, Derek looks at his friend's form and sadly chides him for always having to be first.
Onscreen, a card rewinds from 2012 to 1994, and we see what appears to be a home video taken of the guys while they get ready for Derek's wedding. Derek jokes that Mark is a terrible best man. Dude, just wait until he sleeps with your wife in a few years. Mark keeps teasing Derek that guys that look like them were meant to be with tons of women, not just one for the rest of time. They seem not to know this video is being taken, which gives it a creepy whiff of Eau de Voyeur. After Mark comments that Derek will never find a friend as good as him, he notices whoever it is filming, and the camera drops as Mark goes after him. This year, the title card and "created by" card are, like AC/DC, back in black. Even though I always hated the white, the black feels very somber right now.
The thing we see is a home video from 2007, with Callie waiting in bed while Mark fiddles with the camera. She's very against the idea of filming whatever magic is about to take place, no matter how much Mark sexily protests that she'll want to relive it. They start to kiss and then she pauses just a moment so that she can throw a pillow at the camera and knock the power off.
Back in 2012, Meredith is writing a surgery up on the board and Richard and Owen realize it's the infamous Intern Appendectomy. It doesn't feel like Kate and Smash's first day, but maybe now they just do this near their first day and not right ON it. Whatever their time there, she gives Owen and Richard the same reason Derek gave her for doing it today -- best to keep her mind off things. When Bailey comes up trying to find someone to take her surgery so that she can get bi-ZAY with Ben, she mentions Meredith's nickname and Meredith is intrigued to learn what the interns are calling her. Bailey is vibrating with pride that one of her chicks grew up to be a monster with snake hair who can turn people to stone, though it's also probably with about-to-have-sex excitement. She tells Mere it's good to have a scary nickname since it keeps interns in line. "Take it from the Nazi." Richard, however, informs Bailey that particular nickname has been retired and she now has a new one. However, no one will actually tell her what it is.
Back in freezing Minnesota, Cristina pops her head in to the OR to ask Parker a question. But unlike Seattle Grace, where doctors will have conversations, fights, or deliver dissertations on their relationships, Parker calls out to all of the other surgeons and everyone simultaneously lifts up their hands and turns to stare at her. She's taken aback and stutters that she didn't mean for them to stop, but Parker cheerfully tells her that they have found multitasking leads to errors in both hearing and healing. This guy is a caricature of a caricature. Cristina tries to shake it off and asks Parker if he can somehow get Feeny off of her surgery. Parker makes it hard for her, though, asking her why and then when she says he talks too much, going into a long stupid story of his own about Feeny's long stupid stories. He seems to be intentionally missing her point, and just wishes her good luck.
Mere and Cristina have made up for not living in the same city and spending all their waking moments together by getting iPads and FaceTiming each other multiple times a day. As Mere works at the computer she props "Cristina" up against the monitor and brags about her nickname. Cristina tells her that she had to push her flight but insists to a disappointed Meredith that this isn't like the other times. And while Mere is disappointed she's obviously understanding and gently tells Cristina that it's okay if she's not able to fly. She points out that she won't get there by five anyway, so there's no need to push herself. Cristina insists that she'll be fine, compliments the nickname, and they hang up. Owen walked up in time to hear the tail end of the conversation and is overly casual as he asks if she is coming. Meredith says that she is but after a pause, Owen asks if she's really going to get on the plane. Meredith tells him that they are working on it but then admits that it's probably not going to happen. There's not much to say, either by them or by me, because it's about the most understandable thing in the world that they all would be put off of air travel. I have to assume Cristina drove herself to Minnesota.
At lunch, Mere, Avery and Alex are talking about Alex's working his way through all of the interns; Alex tells Avery he'll have to step up and comfort them when he leaves for Hopkins but Avery has no interest in sloppy seconds. Without realizing what he's saying, Alex needles him that he has to enjoy the perks of being a surgical fellow and besides, he hasn't slept with anyone since Lexie. It's insensitive even for Alex, but I guess on the flip side at least he's not walking on eggshells like I'm sure most of the other people at the hospital are doing with Meredith and the others. It's a silver lining thinner than razor wire, but I'm trying, here. He immediately apologizes while the others just gape at him and then Avery defensively mumbles that he has too "banged" other people.
All of the interns are at another table and immediately tense when Medusa starts to make her way over. She informs them that they have a tradition of having the intern with the most promise scrub in for the first surgery. Despite Kate having just groused that Mere hates her and will never let her see the inside of an OR, she's rewarded the surgery and nearly snorts soda out her nose at the news. She looks terrified, while all of the other interns look supremely pissed.
As Callie and Derek look over the scans for their surgery she suddenly takes his hand and checks it over, making sure he's had no numbness or tingling. He assures her that he's fine and she did a very good job fixing him up. Owen then comes by showing a new surgeon around. Things get mighty uncomfortable when it turns out the guy, Dr. Barnett, is the new peds attending. Derek introduces himself to give Callie a moment and then she sticks out her hand as well. When he hears her name there's a very uncomfortable moment and Barnett tells her he's so sorry about her wife. She cuts him off and Owen quickly ushers him out; she then cuts off Derek and tells him not to make a big deal. But a big deal of what?? It certainly sounds like Arizona didn't make it, but I've watched enough TV in my day to notice from the get-go that no one has actually yet said the words "Arizona" and "dead" together.
However, dead or not, something is obviously very wrong because the we see of Callie she's sobbing her heart out in a supply closet. Alex comes in with a different intern than we saw him with that morning and she tries to hide while he gives this poor girl exactly the same line he gave the other intern that morning. After a moment they realize she's there and Intern #2 flees with an embarrassed yelp. Callie screams at Alex to get out and won't let him talk to her, but instead of leaving he shuts the door and just crouches down, letting her cry but staying near her just in case. He's clearly sad too, despite trying to push the sadness away with nubile intern bodies.
I've also watched enough TV to realize that all of these loving "old" home videos of Mark mean he is probably not going to have a miraculous reawakening at 5:00. We see him in 2010 doing some stitches and bragging about his plastics prowess while Avery tapes the procedure so that he can watch and learn. Avery is shocked when Mark tells him to put down the camera so that he can take over and finish things up. In the present day, Avery sits to Mark's bed and goes over all of their patients and everything he's been doing. He pauses and listens as if he can really hear Mark's side of the conversation, and that includes letting Mark push him to do better and possibly try out reconstruction on one of their patients. Avery tells him that he is right, and they can do better.
Back at Mayo, Cristina is watching a surgery from their gallery while she's got Mere back on FaceTime and she's gabbing away, insulting Feeny's choices, while everyone else is silently watching the procedure. Mere says it's going to be weird not having her there at 5:00 and asks if she wants to Skype or FaceTime but Cristina responds by turning the iPad around so that Mere can see the surgery that Cristina is mocking. Finally, one of the docs turns and asks Cristina to be quiet so that he can take notes. Cristina just informs him that there's nothing to learn here, and Mere can't help but laugh. She may be having problems of her own, but the crash didn't even make a dent in her ego. Cristina tells Mere that Owen emailed to make sure that she had people around come 5 PM, but she insists that it's no big deal and that Mark will still be gorked no matter when her plane lands. The other doc turns around again and glares at her but doesn't seem to have the guts to actually speak up again.
Ben and Bailey have found an on-call room and can barely get inside before they start to tear off each others' clothes. When there's a knock at the door she threatens that it had better be important, but she's not commanding much authority since she can barely get the words out for all of her panting. She has an intern slide some scans under the door, then slides them back with instructions to monitor the patient. They crash down on to the bed but Bailey is distracted when she hears giggling and commentary from outside that, "She's at it again." She gets up and throws open the door; after freezing momentarily the interns all scatter like mice.
Up in peds, Barnett introduces himself to Alex and they chitchat about his leaving for Hopkins that night. Alex asks proudly if he'd been told yet about their exchange program that brings over the kids over from Africa. Barnett tells him that it's admirable work but that it "doesn't fit with [his] agenda." For once, Alex's lack of tact is completely warranted as he asks incredulously how operating on sick orphans doesn't fit a person's agenda. I mean, honestly. Barnett either ignores or doesn't get the implied insult and just tells Alex cheerfully that he talked to UCLA and they are going to move the program down there so that it can continue under someone else. He then gets a call and excuses himself so he can talk to his realtor about his new house. Alex can only stare after him, appalled.
Derek walks in to the OR to find a huge crowd assembled that bursts into applause for him. Callie has her mask on but you can hear the grin in her voice as she admits she did have something to do with organizing this. Derek keeps trying to convince everyone it's no big deal, but everyone just goes silent and stares at him. Finally, Callie tells him he has to say "it." He chuckles and then says quickly, "It's a beautiful day to save lives." He still seems unsure, but everyone else there just sighs happily now that all is right in the world with McDreamy back in the OR.
The interns minus Kate are all up in the gallery, taking bets on how she'll do in her surgery with Mere. They then begin to muse about how Medusa became Medusa and someone mentions that they heard Mere's mom was even worse. What none of them realize is that the intercom is on so Mere and Kate can hear everything that is being said. Mere shoots them a look, and they all freeze in fear before one of Alex's conquests nervously says that it's like she can hear them. Owen, who walked in to observe for a moment, blandly comments that the red light glowing on the intercom means that she in fact can hear everything. Duly terrified, they all sit up straight at his order and shut up to watch. Down below, Kate grovels that she doesn't think Mere is a monster but Mere just orders her to focus on what she is doing.
In another OR, her husband is working away and Callie is totally delighted that they are operating together again. Her happiness is short-lived, though, because when Derek picks up an instrument it slips from his hand and clatters to the ground. He wiggles his fingers, and then over Callie's protests to give himself a moment he tells her he'll meet her afterward and flees.
The heart-tugging home video is supposedly from 2009 when Mark is toasting Arizona and Callie at their wedding -- if that is true, then this show has continued to monkey with dates like no other since that episode aired in May of 2011 and we seemed to be fairly on a consistent timeline by that point. Regardless, it shows Mark telling a story about a wedding he attended where two sets of grandparents in attendance had been married over 60 years. He raises a glass to the mothers of his child and tells them that will be them at their granddaughter's wedding. The videographer then asks Mark if he'll be dancing at that wedding, and Mark sad-sacks that you need a partner for that. In a completely inappropriate and contrived moment, the guy then asks Mark if he did have a partner, who would it be? Come on, who asks that? I wish someone asked me that in the wedding I was in this summer so that I could have answered, "Ewan McGregor." But this is TV, and so Mark says the answer is an easy one: Lexie Grey. Which isn't awkward at all with her attending this same wedding with another man. I mean, come on. No one asks a single wedding attendee that question.
Alex finds Callie in the hospital and wants to talk to her about the new peds attending; Callie warns him repeatedly that it's not a good time but he forges ahead anyway to tell her that the dude is shipping off the orphan program and he knows Arizona wouldn't have wanted that. He starts to suggest Callie could do something but she cuts him off and announces that she's got too much going on and the program doesn't mean anything to her. "Sometimes things die and there's nothing you can do about it." He's finally silent, while we are left to continue to ponder Arizona's fate.
Duchess Catherine manages to remove the appendix and her fellow interns cheer from the gallery, but Mere reminds her that she's not finished and she freezes and can't remember the step. The patient shows signs of distress so finally Mere shoves her out of the way and takes over the rest of the procedure. Owen watches from above while the other interns file out, dejected by their colleague's failure.
Feeny and Cristina are getting ready for their own surgery both sporting forest-green scrubs, so we know that this is totally a different operating room than the ones we usually see. He disagrees with the method she wants to use on her infant patient and drones on and on and on about her generation liking everything the quick and dirty way. She finally cuts him off and agrees to use his method but points out that since it is a baby there's only room for one headlamp, which equals only one surgeon. He agrees and then smoothly moves to steal the surgery out from under her -- under the guise of it being a favor -- until she yells at him to stop and then as courteously as possible tells him to back the fuck off. She demands that the nurse give her the headlight, and Feeny just gives her a doddering nod in reply.
Callie finds Derek putting on a wrist brace and she immediately tries to tell him that he just tried too much, too soon, and that things were too emotional. He cuts off her excuses, though, and tells her angrily that his hand went numb before kicking over a tray of instruments in frustration. Richard walks in and acts like he didn't see that, because it's almost 5:00 and it's time to go to Mark. Both Callie and Derek look stricken that it's really here.
Avery is currently up in Mark's room, going over some more patients with him. He tells Mark that he decided against the reconstruction they discussed earlier but says that Mark taught him a lot, and he thinks he knows what he's doing now. His voice breaks as he adds that the Plastics Posse will live on, "'cause I can take it from here." He walks out as Richard and the others walk in, and a sad song starts playing to punctuate the tragedy of the moment.
Richard explains what they are about to do as if Callie and Derek are just regular, non-doctor loved ones, and Callie tries to stop him since they are in fact doctors and they know. But Richard calmly explains that even if they think they are prepared, they aren't, and their brains can't fully absorb what they are about to do. Talking them through it gives their brains a little bit of time to try and catch up. As he then goes through the steps, Callie starts to crumble a little bit. Richard explains that Mark's living will dictated that if medical procedures would only prolong his death, he wanted them discontinued. Everything about this is horrible and sad.
Cristina looks up at the clock in her OR and notices it is 7 PM. Feeny asks her pointedly if she has somewhere to be but she keeps it to herself and just remarks that it is five in Seattle. Feeny has no idea why this is pertinent and could care less -- he also seems a little bit snippy after the dressing down she delivered earlier, and the two of them just get back to work, silently.
Richard continues explaining that Sloan's wishes were that if he was unable to make a decision, his chosen proxy do it for him. I don't know if that was Derek or Callie, but they seem to be sharing the burden. Avery watches from the hallway as Richard explains that he'll be sedated so he won't be in any pain, and that once the breathing tube is removed it could be moments or hours until the end. Callie starts to cry as the tube is removed, and Mark's raspy breathing is gut-wrenching. Richard leaves them and they sit down on either side of their friend; Callie takes his hand.
A little while later, Meredith has joined Richard and a teary Avery and as they sit and watch, she frowns and finally says to the room that they tried so hard to keep him alive in the woods, figuring that if they got him back to the hospital everything would be okay. She seems to be talking to herself more than anything. Finally, she can't take it anymore and she jumps up, asking Richard to tell Derek she was here but left to go visit Cristina.
Owen finds Princess Kate crying in hallway; his body language says he wishes he hadn't even seen her but finally, he grudgingly asks her what is wrong. She unconvincingly apologizes and says she was leaving but Owen calls out that the surgery was designed for her to fail and to make her an example for the others. She's more interested, though, in finding out why Meredith is such a big old meanie. When Owen says she's not mean, she's just being a teacher, Kate asks again while stressing that in fact, she means this totally personally. If this is supposed to endear me to this character, it's not working. Especially when she asks Owen if it was the plane crash -- see, she heard that Mere was in a crash with some other doctors (not even seeming to realize it was other doctors here, just some other peeps somewhere out in the world) where they were stranded in the woods for a week (!!) and, "People died, or almost died, or something."
Okay, I call bullshit on this. This is almost as bullshit-deserving as the Boise hospital only calling Owen's phone number for a full day when the plane DISAPPEARED OFF THE MAP. If a plane of surgeons on their way to a conjoined-twin separation surgery crashed and then wasn't found for a week, and then was found with at least one person dead and most of the others near death, this would be the top news story in the country for quite a while. And even if it wasn't the TOP (which, I live in America and have seen the news, so...) Kate would definitely have been aware of events as she is not only a surgeon but a surgeon AT THE SAME HOSPITAL THAT EMPLOYED ALL THOSE SURGEONS IN THE CRASH. UGH. To his credit, Owen is extremely unimpressed by her reaction as he repeats her words, sarcastically stressing, "Or something," to himself. He informs her that Mere isn't going easy on her because that would be a disservice, and that if she can't handle the job she should leave. Otherwise, start crying somewhere else where he can't see her.
Back in Minnesota, Cristina has been called to the principal's office. Dr. Parker greets her and asks how her surgery went with Feeny. She's on her best Cristina behavior but is still herself enough to add that while she's happy to take one for the team, she'd like it if Parker sent Feeny off to bother someone else. Parker and his weirdly peppy demeanor tell her that he's not sure that will work, since he asked Feeny to help Cristina learn her way around, and he's not talking about the layout of the hospital. Cristina is confused since her record is perfect but Parker informs her that at Mayo, there are no egos, nor are there superstars other than the hospital and her patients. He sounds like a bad motivational speaker and Cristina can basically only stare incredulously. Parker tells her that she's not fitting in and he thinks she should take a few days off to go see the Mall of America and, "Soften up those sharp Seattle edges. Doctor's orders." Cristina is totally offended, and it's a sign that she has matured over the years that she doesn't send a sharp Seattle edge immediately into his ass. She asks if this is a suggestion and he gets serious as he tells her these are mandatory orders. And so we see how it is that Cristina will work her way back to Seattle Grace sooner than later.
The crowd outside Mark's room has grown to include Bailey and Alex, who has a bag slung over his should and is about to leave for Baltimore. Bailey takes the quiet moment to ask about her nickname -- does it command respect or strike fear in the hearts of residents? Richard admits that it does neither and finally says that the residents have noticed how "happy" she gets whenever Ben rolls into town. He then crosses his arms and refuses to divulge any more. After some pouting, Alex finally says that since he's about to actually walk out the door never to return, he's going to spill the beans. Richard and Avery furiously try to stop him but Alex declares that her nickname is "BCB" -- "Booty Call Bailey." She chokes but finally manages to thank him, though she refuses to look at him as he wishes them all goodbye.
Mere is waiting at the airport, nervously fidgeting with a book, when she sees Alex walk up the stairs and she runs over to confront him. She's rightfully offended that he wasn't even going to say goodbye to her, and won't let him change the subject when he asks why she is even there. He tells Mere that they will still be able to talk but Mere yells back at him that Cristina said the same thing but that it's not at all the same. More crucially, everything is different now, Mark is dying, and Mere seems barely able to handle everything. Alex, though, turns out to have his own issue in his massive survivor guilt. He tells Mere he can't hang around and keep being known as the guy who should have been on the plane. The fight escalates, and he finally yells that he's not going to stay just because Mere doesn't want to be alone and softens it only a little bit by adding that Hopkins won't wait for him forever. She glares at him and storms off and while he's standing there, someone bumps into him in their rush to another gate. Interestingly, that person is Owen though Owen seems to not realize that he just literally ran into Alex. Owen runs up to his gate and just barely makes it on his flight. So the question we are to ask is, where is he going? And the answer we are to assume is, to go see Cristina.
Derek and Callie are still waiting with Mark and finally, his vitals begin to drop. Outside, Ben has joined Bailey and as an alarm starts to ring he takes her hand. Mark is still while Derek sadly shakes his head and he and Callie each reach out and put one hand on each of Mark's shoulders, crying.
A totally touching home movie shows Mark rocking a teensy baby Sofia to sleep, grinning with pride as he snuggles her. He looks at the camera, smiles, and puts his finger to his lips. Dammit, show. You got something in my eye.
Meredith is also on her plane, and I totally expected her to see Owen run on and down the aisle. But no, it's just her, and as the plane starts to pull away from the gate she starts to panic. She turns on her air and finally begins to whisper to herself that she has to go. She gets up out of her seat and the flight attendant orders her to sit back down. But she walks up and confronts him, her voice rising to a yell, demanding that he let her off the plane or she'll pull the emergency exit. As a nervous flier who has not ever been in an actual plane crash, I can't mock this scene, readers.
Her voice reminds us once again that death is hardest on the living. Cristina is lying on her bed in her apartment; interestingly she has a number of flight-size tiny liquor bottles by her bed which seem to indicate that at some point she at least was in the vicinity of an airplane after the crash. She tells Mere via iPad that she had her boarding pass in hand but couldn't get herself actually on the plane. Meredith is sitting in an airport bar and downs a shot before replying, "time." Alex then shows up and sits down to her, and at Cristina's demand Mere turns the screen so that Ms. Minnesota can see them both. He and Mere apologize to each other for earlier. Alex tells her that he can't just let Barnett screw up his and Arizona's program at this hospital and besides, he doesn't even like Baltimore. Mere interprets correctly that this is code for he couldn't get on the plane either. Cristina and Mere tease him good-naturedly and he tells Cristina to pass along to Hunt that he is staying after all. Cristina is thoroughly confused and Alex tells them he saw Owen in the airport and assumed he was Minnesota bound.
Of course, if that was the case, Owen would have witnessed Mere have a panic attack and I like to think he wouldn't have just hidden his face and kept silent during the commotion. Sure enough, it turns out that he wasn't on that plane at all. Instead, he finds himself on a sunny farm somewhere and after a moment we see April, wearing a dorky kerchief, lead a giant pig out of a barn on a rope. This scene would only be more clichéd if Owen told her that her brother John-Boy had said where to find her. Instead, he says her mom directed him out to the barn. She's shocked but he just tells her that Mark died, nothing is the same, and he wants her to come back and work at the hospital again. This has alarming undertones of his Having Secret Feelings and I pray that's just an accident; it's hard enough watching him and Cristina try to figure things out without making their sad story a triangle. Owen despairs that he keeps trying to figure out what he could have done differently -- if he realized they were missing sooner, told Cristina how much... he trails off, but we get the gist. He thinks that this is the only thing that he can actually fix; he should have helped her rather than kicking her when she was down and taking away her job. He then asks her to come home to Seattle where she belongs.
Callie is home, her makeup cried off, and she stares at her closed bedroom door. And finally, we learn just what Kate's "or something" was alluding to -- she finally opens the door and we see the back of Arizona's head where she is sitting huddled in bed. Callie tells her that she can't keep doing this alone and then, when there is no reaction, demands that Arizona snap out of it and get out of bed. She announces that Sofia lost a parent, Callie lost her best friend and she'll be damned if she loses Arizona too. But when Arizona turns around her face is filled with rage and she demands, "Snap out of this?" as she pulls the covers away to show that she is missing one leg from the thigh down. Let this be a lesson, boys and girls -- never assume a TV character is dead until you actually hear the words. (And, in the case of soap operas, maybe hold off that assumption for a few extra moments too.) She demands how she is supposed to snap out of it when Callie cut off her leg? OH. That could put a strain on a relationship, I suppose. Both of them are livid and Callie finally turns and slams the door as she leaves.
But before we go, we get one last home video -- Arizona is behind the camera trying to take a shot of Callie, Mark and Sofia but as they freeze with smiles they realize it's on video and she doesn't know how to turn it off. Mark finally takes the camera and Arizona uses the moment to go take his place in the shot with a cheeky grin. As Meredith reminds us that you never stop feeling the loss because people leave little bits of themselves behind, Mark turns the camera towards his face and grins widely as he figures it out. A snapshot is taken, and then the screen fades to black and we see, "Mark Sloan 1968-2012." And though I've now watched this episode twice, my eyes start to prickle AGAIN. Dammit, show.
Lauren S is a writer who lives and works in Atlanta and already misses McSteamy and his gross-yet-charming ways. 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."