Don't Settle

S09E03

So far, this season has not been bothering with much levity and this episode pretty much sticks to that trend. The lightest -- still not actually much fun, but the lightest -- storyline is Bailey's, who is crabby about the new attendings taking over the lounge. She gets busy trying to implement a lot of rules to try and get them to behave and not treat the lounge like a frat house and when that doesn't work, Richard finally gets her to admit that she's upset because she took Tuck to his first day of kindergarten and he totally happily let go of her hand and had none of the tears she had been expecting. She feels like Tuck, the new attendings and Ben all have new and exciting things in their lives while she's stuck doing the same old boring general surgeries. Richard points out to her that this actually gives her time to try out something new and great for herself -- like inventing a Bailey Method -- and presumably a foundation is laid for a more interesting storyline than Bailey losing her edge and angrily cleaning out microwaves.

April reappears and assumes her old job, which shocks all of her old coworkers since Hunt didn’t bother to mention to anyone (except Cristina) that he hired her back. She's equally surprised to see Jackson since she thought he'd gone to Tulane and the two of them hadn't spoken on account of all of their unresolved sexual tension. April is working on trying to "re-virginize" herself with a lot of prayer so she tells him that they have to just pretend that The Sex never happened since this is her chance to start over with a blank slate. He throws himself a pretty large pity party before deciding that this idea sucks and he's not going to go along with it; unsurprisingly they wind up jumping each other's bones when their love/lust/whatever it will ultimately be called can no longer be denied.

Alex is assigned Princess Catherine as an intern and when Callie warns him not to sleep with this one like he has all the others, he gets mean and doesn't let her scrub in on a cool foot-reattaching surgery. (Because of course he and Callie would get a case like that right now.) Duchess Cathy winds up once again breaking down in tears, but Alex actually softens and while he points out that she is getting crappy work because she's an intern and that is her job, he also offers to let her scrub in on a surgery the day. I strongly suspect we are also supposed to think that love might blossom between them since she makes a point of telling him just how uninterested she is. But this is an instinct I have from watching this show for so many seasons and not from their chemistry, which is about as hot as the connection between me and my coffee table. We'll see.

The big event though, is that the airline comes and meets with the crash victims (with Owen representing Cristina and Callie representing Mark and Arizona) and offers them a settlement -- while the amount is never stated, it's agreed among all of the parties that it is "life-changing." But in order to take it, the decision has to be unanimous among all the victims. Cristina is back to work at Mayo, having promised to be a team player there and since all of her energy is focused there she tells Owen and Mere that she genuinely doesn't care and will go along with whatever they all decide. She spends a lot of the time on the phone with Owen and there seems to be a tiny cautious spark forming again between them but eventually she tells him that they have to stop talking and move on because her life is in Minnesota now. Dr. Parker doesn’t believe that she's really ready to drink the Mayo Kool-Aid so as a test he makes it her job to work solely with Mr. Feeny. She grits her teeth and agrees to it, but she has a really difficult time mustering up a convincing desire to become one of the gang. Eventually, though, she and Feeny start to bond over Feeny's special heart-stitching method and also over the fact that he was in a plane crash too, in Vietnam.

Back in Seattle, the others all ponder the pros and cons of the settlement. Mere and Derek discuss it in the new house, to which they have finally moved. Callie tries to discuss it with Arizona, but Arizona is still sullen and angry and pointedly tells Callie that she should go ahead and make the decision for her since that is what she does best. The day Callie learns some important lessons from dealing with her almost-foot-amputation patient and her parents, so she comes home from work and announces that Arizona has to go along to the settlement meeting that night. But she finds an upset Arizona in the bathroom, having soiled herself after trying to make it to the toilet alone. They have a knock-down, screaming fight as Callie pulls Arizona into the shower and Callie finally pleads that Arizona has to stop treating her like this because Callie's life is pretty hellish now, too. Arizona does stop yelling for the moment, but later on we see that Callie is once again representing her at the meeting.

Everyone sounds like they are about to agree to the settlement when Derek speaks up -- he talked a worker into letting him in to the hanger where he could look at all of the pieces of their plane which have been laid out for the crash investigation and that gave him a lot of food for thought as well as some horrific flashbacks. He also spoke to Richard about an old lawsuit against the hospital and learns that it's pretty standard that, "The bigger the mistake, the bigger the payout." He convinces everyone that they can't let the airline off the hook like that and instead have to force the issue so that they figure out what went wrong and insure that it never happens to anyone else. They all are moved by his words and unanimously decide to reject the offer.

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Surgeons don't compromise; they do what it takes and defy death all they can. So begins Meredith's voiceover this week as she (presumably on Lexie's behalf as well as her own), Derek, Callie (on behalf of Mark and Arizona) and Owen (representing Cristina) are sitting at a conference table facing a man in a suit, while a woman walks behind them and lists the deaths and devastating injuries from the crash. The man they are facing is the lawyer for the aeronautics company, and I presume he's better at lawyering than enunciating because I finally had to take to Google to learn that the company he is representing is called Bayview Aeronautics and not BlahBlah Aeronautics as I had finally taken to calling it in my notes. He starts to deliver some canned condolences but Mere and Derek interrupt him to find out the status of the crash investigation. He tells them that the investigation could take years, and his client wants to help them put the crash behind them. Their attorney -- the woman who listed all of the tragic outcomes earlier -- rightly points out that his client is probably the one who most wants to put this behind them. He doesn't take the bait but just calmly tells everyone that he is there to offer a one-time settlement which, when the paper with the figure is passed around, raises everyone's eyebrows. The catch is that the decision to accept has to be unanimous.

We never learn the exact amount, but whatever it is, it's enough to make Cristina sit up in bed and gasp. She's on the phone with Owen, who is in his own bed in Seattle, and he tells her that they need an answer in three days. He then asks her how she has been and she's more thoughtful and gentle than we've heard in... well, in I don't know how long. She tells him she'll call when she decides. (Kevin McKidd is directing the episode, so he's not actually doing much this hour since he was presumably preparing for his directorial turn. The director of THIS episode was Debbie Allen, reminding us that she can actually do anything. I love her so very much.)

When I first saw Meredith and Derek cuddling in an unfamiliar bed without the spine tumor drawing on the wall above them, I assumed they were inexplicably at a fancy hotel and it was only later in the episode that I realized they are now living in their new house. They discuss whether or not to take the settlement but then decide to just go to sleep. Derek asks Meredith if she wants the lights on or off and she replies that she wants to leave them on. As the camera pulls back we see that this room has a lot of lights; she's still suffering even if she doesn't have the physical scars that the others do.

By Lauren S

Callie and Arizona are eating at home, and while Arizona has made it out of bed, she's sitting in her wheelchair, pointedly facing the TV and ignoring Callie as she pushes food around on the plate in front of her. Callie is sitting on the sofa, eating, and tries to stay upbeat and have an actual discussion about the settlement. She seems in favor of it since the money would take care of Sofia for years to come and she adds that she thinks it is what Mark would want. She finally asks Arizona what she's thinking and brushes a hair from her wife's face but Arizona turns to her with a stony face and Callie recoils. Finally, Callie gives up and tells Arizona that a new home care nurse is coming, and can she please be nice to this one? She starts to reach out to Arizona again as she says goodbye but quickly pulls her hand back before Arizona notices and gets even angrier.

Now that our surgeons are all grown up they get to use the attendings lounge, much to Bailey's annoyance. Mere asks Alex why an intern complimented her on the crown moldings in her empty house and comes to find out that he's been taking all of his conquests there since he realized they like it better than the on-call room. They're probably worried about the structural integrity of the bed in the on-call room; Alex has so many notches there that it's probably going to buckle like a tree trunk soon. Meredith demands her key back but Alex thinks she shouldn't care since she doesn't live there anymore.

Alex is saved by the surprise arrival of April; she's thrilled to be back while they are all speechless since Hunt neglected to tell them about his little trip to the farm. Even Bailey, who is trying desperately not to get involved in their drama, can't help but gape. When Jackson arrives, he does a huge double-take and the two of them stutter nervously at each other. I will say this -- April looks better than she ever has, with great makeup and bouncy hair. It must be having escaped from the oppressive fog of constant tragedy in Seattle that allowed her hair to flourish to its full potential. She's completely surprised to see him since she thought he had gone Tulane. She forgets just about everything, though, when he pulls off his shirt to change his clothes. Boy howdy. Bailey yells that he's not supposed to use the lounge as a changing room but even she stutters over her words a moment as she gets a sight of that abdomen. Alex notices that April is gawking but then he and Mere are paged and run out. Jackson and April are too awkward to stay in the same room together and they leave as well; Bailey stays and works herself into a right huff about the dirty dishes the gang left all over the place. And look, while this is a completely pathetic storyline for Bailey and I hope it means she's going to get a better one soon, I'm going to have a Monica Geller moment and remind everyone that it's disgusting to leave your dirty dishes lying around in a communal locatin. Richard walks in and she bitches about the young'uns now using the lounge but he just blandly needles her that he's still getting used to her even being allowed in there, which notches up her annoyance even further.

By Lauren S

Cristina goes back to her own hospital to meet with Parker and convince him that she is ready to be a team player after some time off as ordered. He asks her what she did and she excitingly reports that she rode the roller coaster at the Mall of America and then bought jeggings. Thank goodness he realizes right away that she's lying and just read the Wikipedia page about the Mall because she and I would have to have a serious talk about the state of our relationship if she really had purchased some of those elasticized nightmares. He's the only one surprised that she didn't really go on a shopping spree, but he finally allows her to get back to work. She's excited and starts to ask him about a procedure he's doing but Parker cuts her off to say she's going to work with Feeny for a while. She fights to keep her face calm while he tells her cheerfully -- but with just a whisper of an edge -- that he'll believe she's a team player when he sees it.

Callie and Alex head to the ambulance bay to meet a 16-year-old who was in a boating accident and Alex such a mess that he honestly has no clue why Princess Kate is following him around and she has to tell him she's his intern that day. He immediately starts to flirt a little while they wait for the ambulance and Callie's intern Smash starts to chuckle. Callie notes this and immediately warns Alex to stop sleeping with all of the interns. Alex shoots back that he slept with Callie but she brilliantly throws up her hands and announces, "And now I no longer sleep with men!" The ambulance arrives and cuts off their banter but seriously, Alex would have had no comeback to match the awesomeness of her face and delivery of that punchline.

Jackson and his intern NotCristina are visiting with their patient, Roxie, who is having excess skin removed after losing 100 pounds. Roxie's fiancée Frank is there -- he's totally adorable and proud of her and the two are completely smitten with each other. At the same time as the skin removal she's also having a hernia repaired and Jackson almost falls over when April walks in the room as the designated general surgeon for the job. They manage to keep things only marginally weird in front of the patient. When the time comes to take a look at the skin Roxie sends a protesting Frank out of the room and once he's gone she calls him a saint for staying with her for two years without having sex. She still gets self-conscious when they cuddle and he squeezes her midsection. Roxie is looking forward to truly feeling pretty but she's looking even more forward to finally doing the deed and she asks them how long she'll has to wait after the surgery before they can go for it. Jackson tells her she'll have to give the site two weeks to heal, but then are good to go, and Roxie grins and giggles that she just got butterflies. Naturally, Jackson and April exchange a super awkward glance at the idea of people looking forward to sleeping with each other.

Callie and Alex's patient is named Emery, and her boat, Pickle, capsized while she was trying a solo sail from Mexico to Alaska when the mast broke and crushed her leg. I am all for giving silly and cute names to things but... she shouldn't have even been allowed out on the boat until she could have given it a name not meant for a puppy. The takeaway is that she might be an amazing sailor but she's still immature. When the interns pull the covering back they both gasp in horror -- no one has taught them the art of the poker face yet. Emery starts to panic but when Smash reports that her parents are on their way she is still able to cop an attitude and snark that she's doing this sail alone so they don't have to wait for her parents now. Callie warns her that she might not be able to save the foot and that's when Emery catches a glance and sees that her ankle is basically a puddle of goo. She starts to scream while, amid the chaos, the Duchess yelps because she notices that against all odds, Emery's toes are wiggling.

Kate is beside herself with excitement that Callie might be able to save the foot and they talk details as the foursome wheels a now-sedated Emery to the elevator. Smash reports that her parents will be in late that night and as a reward for that info she offers for him to scrub in. It's a big contrast and slap in the face Alex gives Kate by not even letting her on the elevator and ordering her to go monitor his other patients instead. When the elevator closes Callie lightly chides him for raining on Kate's parade and comments that she likes someone who still finds joy and excitement in things. I give that joy and excitement a year, max. Probably more like six months given Seattle's history. Poor Smash is standing in the corner and starts to squirm a little when he has to listen to Callie ribbing Alex for being a disgusting manwhore.

Cristina is in with her patient when the man's whole family files into the room in one happy, noisy bunch, one of them carrying a "tater tot hotdish." A quick Google has taught me that this is a Midwestern variety of casserole, and I am intrigued as I am a fan of both casseroles AND tater tots. Cristina is not as intrigued as I am; she rains on their parade by telling them that "Pop Pop" can't have any hotdish since he's got an enlarged heart and is about to have surgery. One of the youngest family members pleads that this is his last meal but Cristina points out -- in a very upbeat way, for her -- that this is not a "last meal" as they are not planning to kill him today. Feeny then calls for her to join him in the hall, and when a couple of what I assume are Pop Pop's daughters see him they squeal "Hi Dr. [Feeny]!" with delight. Cristina is so far out of her depth here with these nice, warm Midwestern folks.

He warns her good-naturedly to just stay clear of Pop Pop's room during visiting hours and then they discuss the surgery -- he wants to do a procedure called a ventricular reduction while she thinks an LVAD is in order. I swear, they will never be able to mention an LVAD on this show without me thinking that surely the use of one is going to end in tragedy. She thinks Feeny's method is risky and that they are cutting away good heart muscle while he thinks an LVAD is nothing more than a band-aid. She argues that people die during ventricular reductions but he informs her that they don't when he performs them and then walks away to punctuate his statement.

Obviously, Meredith was going to win the Seattle/Boston argument since they can't follow yet more characters at other far-flung hospitals on this show, but it must have been settled awfully quickly to give them time to be completely moved in to their stunning and gigantic new house already. She and Derek are cleaning up Zola's toys and discussing the settlement offer. Mere sort of argues on both sides to show they have a lot of things to consider but ultimately, quitting their jobs and traveling the world for a while does sound like more fun than slogging through years of litigation and thousands of dollars spent trying to find some answers -- especially because no answers they get will bring Lexie and Mark back. The conversation ends when Meredith realizes they've been spending precious sleeping-Zola moments just talking when they could be getting down to sexy funtime.

April heads in to the lounge and grabs her toothbrush -- she appears to actually be living there right now which must frost Bailey's cookies. Jackson is in there going over stuff for Roxie's surgery and they discuss logistics to prepare for it. After they establish her temporary accomodations they lapse into awkward silence. Jackson finally starts to make an excuse for not having called her when she interrupts him to explain in a rush that she is doing something called "revirginizing" that is an actual Thing (I'm afraid to Google the word since I imagine one might get a variety of search results that one might not want, so I'm taking her word for it) and it involves a lot of prayer. She apparently prayed a lot while in her old room, looking at her N'Sync posters... why, on TV, do people not take their teenage posters down off of their bedroom walls? It's like the only options on television are to have your old room be a time capsule or to have your mom make it into a gift-wrapping room or something. If I moved home and thought I would be living there for a while (which, for the record, I briefly did) I'd try to make it a comfortable, non-teenybopper bedroom. The byproduct of April praying under those posters is that now she pictures Jesus to look like Justin Timberlake. Jackson is appropriately weirded out but finally April makes her point, which is that Owen coming and offering her job back was the second (third) chance she had been praying for and was a sign that she was reconnecting with God and could accept his forgiveness. Jackson sees things a little more simply -- he thinks she's saying that she wants to pretend it never happened. She denies this, but he just turns on his heel and leaves and then she flees through a separate door. What neither of them notice is that Bailey was curled up in a chair, trying to relax and read a book when this drama erupted.

By Lauren S

Cristina tries to sneak past Dr. Parker in the hall but he catches her and when she tries to tell him how well she's doing he boasts that he can read faces and hers says... well, a blind man could see that she's struggling but Cristina finally just answers that she came to Mayo to do cutting edge cardiothoracic surgery with Parker and not to do piddly stuff with Feeny. I thought Parker was genuinely fond of Feeny so I don't know if I'm wrong or if he's weirdly trying to get on Cristina's good side when he tells her that everyone has to chip in and "baby-sit the old man" sometimes. He tempts her with the promise of an upcoming fancy surgery and she excitedly asks him if he's serious to which he responds, "As a heart attack!" He's shocked she doesn't dissolve into giggles at this cardio humor and finally asks her to give him just one smile. He wants to see, "The great Dr. Yang turn her frown upside down!" She wants that surgery so badly that she manages to eventually force her face into a half-smile and Parker uses the opportunity to tell her it's a nice one. Oh no... Show, you are not putting these two together... PLEASE tell me I am reading this wrong. Please??

Richard finds Bailey looking at the board, grumbling about April landing a hernia surgery her first day back. Richard is not as interested as Bailey wants him to be and as she starts to rant, he blandly asks if she's going to pull April from the surgery. Bailey tells him not to be silly; she'll get a babysitter instead.

I miss Cristina and Mere being in the same room. It's Facetime time again, and they talk about April being back; when Cristina mentions that she heard it from Owen, Meredith is surprised and interested to hear that they are talking but asks questions very nonchalantly so as not to scare Cristina off of the subject. My guess is that Mere's disgust in Owen is quickly paling in the light of her desire to have her best friend home again. Cristina brushes it off, saying they were just discussing the settlement. As they talk and the others periodically pop by and say hello, Bailey starts angrily slapping up post-its that lay down rules about things cleaning up and respecting that the lounge a public space. Avery picks up his bag from the table and as he does, collides with April and her fresh cup of coffee which then spills all over her. He's immediately apologetic but then catches himself and tells her that they can just pretend this never happened. At that point, Bailey sticks a post-it over Cristina's face that deems Mere April's Surgery Babysitter. Once everyone is gone Mere asks Cristina about the settlement and Cristina again says that she'll go along with what everyone else decides. She gives a cheesy grin and a thumbs-up as she adds that she's a team player now, and Mere laughs at her delivery as well as the very idea.

He finds Richard in one of the scrub rooms and asks him about a lawsuit the hospital had a few years previously (from before our gang's time there). Whatever happened, it was the hospital's fault and the settlement that they paid out was massive. He tells Derek that is standard -- the bigger the mistake, the bigger the payout. He knows just where Derek is going with this and asks if they are being offered a big settlement. Derek says pointedly that they are, and then he leaves.

Owen is stitching up a girl's arm while talking to Cristina via his Bluetooth. The girl is awake, doing what I do when people are sticking me with needles, which is to look the other way. But I am not sure I'd just be sitting there waiting to have a wound closed while my doctor was on the phone, even if he is mostly just listening. If talking on the phone is distracting while driving a car, what of it when someone is literally stitching a piece of you back together? In fairness, though, he really is saying almost nothing. Cristina tells him to go to the meeting on her behalf and that she will go along with whatever they all decide to do. After that, they both sit there, silent, but neither wanting to hang up. Cristina grabs at a new subject and tells him about a woman with a crazy nasal voice, and then tells him if they wait a second he can hear it. She sits, looking hopeful but a little bit sad, while he allows himself a slight smile that he's having a friendly conversation with his wife and she's not trying to end it.

After Roxie's surgery, April finishes scrubbing out first and flees, leaving Meredith and Jackson a chance to talk. First, though, Meredith hits him repeatedly in the head with a towel to reprimand him for defiling a virgin. He argues right back that he did nothing of the sort, they were both grown adults and she gave him her virginity; he didn't take it. He asserts that it's something they did together but now she can't handle it so she's praying and he's mad about it all, so Mere needs to stop hitting him. Mere does and then smiles as she muses that she missed a whole lot with that plane crash -- now Alex is a "diseased manwhore" again and April is no longer a virgin. Jackson thinks about this and adds another juicy tidbit: the Chief banged his mom. Mere can't speak, she is so horrified, and she finally manages to squeak, "Owen?" Before she can finish his name Jackson, equally aghast quickly corrects that it was Richard that did the banging. Once the relief sets in, she allows herself the moment of shock from the actual news. She ponders it and then says, "Well, if it makes you feel any better he banged my mom too." There was not much to be happy about this hour but that line made me burst out laughing on my sofa -- just the good-natured way she threw it out there and the look nausea that washed over his face as he countered it actually makes him feel worse.

By Lauren S

There is no way to write this sentence without sounding dirty. I tried. Ready? Derek is sitting at a table, rolling his balls in his hand. Look, I warned you. Fortunately for all of us (especially the ABC censors) they are two rubber physical therapy balls he's using to do exercises. It's way too on the nose when a melancholy song starts up and the singer warbles, "What could you do with these hands my love?" Derek seems to have an idea, though, and jumps up from the table.

Later, Callie and Arizona are again eating a meal from TV trays -- Callie on the sofa, and Arizona in her wheelchair still facing away from her wife. Callie remind her about the meeting the evening and gently asks if she wants to go, but when Arizona finally musters up a response it's that Callie is going so she doesn't have to. Callie points out that she's going for Mark since he can't speak for himself, and since Arizona can speak for herself she should be there. Unfortunately she walks right into a trap when she says that it's not a decision she should be making for her. Arizona sneers that Callie wasn't shy about making other decisions for her and starts screaming at her to say it again. And yet again, I say to my living room that Arizona was unconscious, convulsing, and in fact crashing, so at that moment she couldn't speak for herself and in "death versus amputation," amputation seems the better choice. Callie gets up and throws her dishes in the sink while Arizona rolls after her, screaming about how it was easy for her to decide to hack off Arizona's leg. Unsurprisingly, this ruckus wakes Sofia and she starts crying. Callie finally yells that fine, she'll go and she's voting to take the money since she thinks that's what Mark would want. Arizona snidely replies that she thinks Mark would want her to go get her crying daughter, but he'll just have to learn to live with disappointment like the rest of them. Well no, he's dead, so he doesn't have to learn to live with anything. And to be honest, I think Mark would have given Arizona what for about her treatment of Callie long before this.

I will not even pretend to have any idea what it's like to lose a limb, but it's hard to watch Arizona handle it so gracelessly and to see her lash out at Callie when, as I've said now quite a few times, the options were 1) amputation or 2) DEATH. And she's got a daughter who already lost one parent, too. I want to take her by the shoulders and make her read about Aimee Copeland or Nick Ekbatani (go Bruins!), two recent amputees (and, in Aimee's case, she lost at least a piece of all four limbs) who are making the most of what life has dealt them and becoming even more awesome people in the process. Because while Arizona has always been stubborn to the point of not always handling tough situations very well, this is increasingly hard to watch.

By Lauren S

Back at Mayo, as they operate Feeny announces to Cristina that though he's old, he knows how Google works and he looked her up and learned that she was in a plane crash. Again, I ask -- how could this have been something that didn't get around the hospital before she arrived? It rings about as true as the Boise Chief only calling Owen's phone all day when the doctors never showed up. Regardless, it's good for Cristina because she really doesn't want to talk about it, especially with Feeny. She tells him she'd rather focus on the medicine and so he goes along with that and points out some fancy stitch he's doing on Pop Pop's heart. Cristina marvels at his technique, and Feeny tells her that he's the only one who can do it because he dedicated his life to learning the method and didn't bother with silly distractions like family. I can't tell if her awe is sincere but I think it is supposed to be because she seems embarrassed that she doesn't have a signature move when he asks her. He tells her that life is short so she'd better get on it, and I wonder if this is going to point her focus back to her work and away from Owen, Mere and Seattle. As he wraps up the job he takes the chance to remind her that "Po Po" now has an actual chance at life rather than dying while hooked up to an LVAD, waiting for a transplant.

When Callie comes out of Emery's room she runs into her mom and happily reports that Emery has promised to take it easy. However, her mom informs her that Emery is lying, she just had a new sailboat donated and she's going to go back out as soon as she is released from the hospital. Callie is angry and almost insulted when she hears this and tells her in no uncertain terms that Emery will lose her foot if she does that. Her mom knows this, so she asks Callie if she can make up an excuse to keep her in the hospital for a while. She pleads with Callie that if Emery has to stop sailing she'll hate her parents. Aaaaand there we have a very large problem with the world today as these two certainly aren't the first parents who only want to be their kids' friends. Callie has no time for this and bluntly tells Mrs. Emery's Mom that Emery is a teenager who named a boat "Pickle" and as she's still a kid, her parents need to act like parents. She tells Mrs. E.M. that Emery needs her to be the bad guy. Mrs. E.M. nods unconvincingly but Callie is off in her own world, thinking now about her own advice.

Derek, meanwhile, visits airline hanger where a worker tells him that he could get in a lot of trouble for what he's about to do; the guy then slides open the door to reveal all of the broken pieces of their plane. (I spent this whole scene fretting that someone was going to bust them and this poor guy was going to lose his job so I'll tell y'all now that that doesn't happen.) The pieces of the fuselage have been laid out to resemble the shape of the plane as it started while all of the various pieces -- shards of metal, seats, and other debris -- have been placed on a grid made out of tape so that they can be cataloged. It shows the utter devastation of their wreck and as he walks around, Derek is haunted by flashbacks to all of the horrors they went through. The man explains that the tail and the back of the cabin broke off and landed in one spot while other pieces were found a half mile away. Derek turns and asks what happens if they settle, but the guy can only shrug.

Back at the hospital, Jackson and April find themselves alone in the lounge and after a moment, he tells her he's not going to pretend It didn't happen. April understands because the more she tries to forget about It, the more she thinks about It. She won't look him in the eye so he finally walks up to her and in a big fake-out line from the week's commercials, asks if she wants to get married. She's horrified but he continues to make his point, which is that presumably the person she sleeps with will be her husband but she doesn't seem ready yet to be a wife. She gives her head a tiny shake in agreement but now can't stop staring at him with a good amount of pure, animal lust in her eyes. Jackson is still trying to be responsible and tells her that they need to remember that It did happen and not let It happen again, "Unless we are... ready." She struggles to form words enough to tell him she can't be near him, but he agrees and they say they will stay away from each other for a little while. That lasts approximately three seconds before she lunges at him and they start making out and tearing at each other's clothes.

By Lauren S

Princess Kate is going over all of the work she has done for Alex but he still manages to find something to snap at her about and she starts crying again, moaning about how this is the first time in her life she's failed at anything after being Superwoman in school. She calls herself a loser and cries that she failed at the appendectomy with Mere and now obviously has pissed Alex off too because he's giving her such crappy stuff to do blah blah blah self pitycakes. Honestly, I'd think this was completely fake crying trying to try to get sympathy if we hadn't already seen her sob in front of Owen. If there's one thing Alex doesn't handle well, it's a crying female, and he does soften up a wee bit as he tells her that she's getting scut because she's an intern and that's her job. But rather than leave it at that, he goes on to admit that Callie told him not to work with her because he's maybe, well, possibly, dated a couple of the other interns. Dude, she told you not to sleep with this one, not to not WORK with this one. Kate lists off six other names and tells him not to worry, she's got zero interest since he's already slept with all of her friends. This setup is about as subtle as a baseball bat to the face. She goes full Eeyore when Alex turns to leave but to her amazement and delight he barks at her that she can scrub in with him the morning.

Having decided that she needs to be the parent even if it means Arizona hates her, Callie goes home and announces that she's there to take Arizona to the meeting which starts in 20 minutes. Arizona's wheelchair is sitting empty in the living room and Callie is thoroughly confused and starts to look for her. (I hadn't noticed this in the first episode but there is a hospital bed now set up in their bedroom, which is just another sad reminder of the changes in their lives these days.) She finally finds Arizona sitting on the floor of the bathroom. Arizona mumbles that she didn't like the nurse, so she fired her and then thought she could make it to the bathroom herself but couldn't and fell. Callie asks worriedly if she is okay and Arizona snaps back, "Do I look okay? I'm sitting in a pool of my own urine." That's enough for Callie, who drops being nice and announces that she's putting Arizona in the shower. She grabs her wife and hauls her up off the floor but Arizona starts screaming at her to get out. Callie holds her ground and wrestles her into the shower while Arizona screams at the top of her lungs that Callie is the one who did this to her. As Callie wrestles her under the water Arizona screams like a banshee to let her go. Finally Callie loses it and screams back that she has nowhere else to go because this is her life now too. She completely breaks down in sobs, and finally Arizona stops and actually looks at her for what might be the first time since the amputation. It feels like a bit of a breakthrough, but we'll see if it holds.

Mr. Feeny finds Cristina sitting outside on a bench, alone in the cold, with tear tracks on her cheeks. Silently he hands over a handkerchief and after a moment she accepts it. It's then that he tells her that he was in a plane crash too, in Vietnam, and everyone except for him was killed. He says that he's never talked about it at the hospital, "You know..." and she does. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes and offers one to her, but when she says she doesn't smoke he tells her that he doesn't either, not anymore. He then announces, "These things can kill you!" Cristina is so confused, but so grateful for a friend and a moment of genuine levity that she laughs out loud. He puts them back in his pocket and muses that it seems like everything can kill you these days, and she gives him a smile that would make Dr. Parker jealous as she agrees and laughs at the sheer randomness of the conversation.

In Seattle, it's time for the meeting and Derek is the last one to arrive. As soon as he sits down Meredith starts to announce that they have all agreed on the settlement but Derek interrupts and says that they can't, that he went to the hanger and saw the plane. (And now my fears for that poor dude's job are renewed. I think Derek could have made his point without giving that up in front of the lawyers, but it's done now.) Derek's point is that if they settle, then whenever the investigation is over they can never do anything with the results. BlahBlah Aeronautics' attorney jumps in to say that the company will use the results but Derek cuts him off with a curt reply that seems to be about the company's self-preservation. Callie then interrupts him. Arizona is not there and Callie seems utterly drained and so ready to put this to rest as she reminds him that accidents happen and they know that very well themselves, given their profession and how they can make mistakes that cost lives. But Derek has a good point that if that happens there is extensive follow-up, including an M&M, so that they can make sure the same thing never happens again. Owen nods as Derek continues that they have to do something to try and make this right so it doesn't happen to anybody else. He's definitely passionate but the nice thing is that he's saying everything with the utmost respect for all of his fellow victims in the room and there's no nasty fighting -- it's nice to see them working together. Their attorney is less excited about this moving speech and she keeps trying to advise them but she's repeatedly interrupted and finally all four of them tell her simultaneously to shut up. Callie starts to cry again as she tells the woman that she has no real idea what they have been through. She then takes a moment to pull herself back together and tells her friends that Derek is right, they shouldn't take the money. Meredith voiceover-muses that when you follow your heart and don't settle, you feel like a weight has been lifted and find at least some momentary peace. With that, all four of them slide the paperwork back across the table to the very unhappy BlahBlah Aeronautics lawyer.

By Lauren S

I guess they went somewhere else to do the deed because we then see Bailey angrily scrubbing out the dirty microwave. I cannot believe that Miranda Bailey's storyline has been reduced to her being angry about the cleanliness of the lounge. Richard comes in and realizes something else must be going on so he asks her what's really up. Bailey's voice gets all wavery as she tells him that she took Tuck to his first day of kindergarten and while she was expecting a big, teary goodbye he just let go of her hand and ran off to play with a toy without a second glance. She tried to call Tuck's dad to commiserate but he's busy planning his wedding (though she admits she likes the woman), and when she called Ben he was busy studying to observe his first laparoscopic surgery. She's sad that everyone else has new and exciting things going on while she's stuck doing appendectomies and the like. She knows this is her choice, but... the hand-letting-go made her feel totally left behind. She starts to cry, so Richard offers up another way of looking at things, which is that she now has her hand back. And while she feels like Ben, Tuck, and her former interns have moved on he reminds her they are all still there and still love her, but she now has time to go do something cool like invent a "Bailey Method" or something. His advice is for her to do something great and don't look back. From his lips to the writers ears; I'm glad Bailey is in lurve and all that but she deserves far more than being called BCB or angrily scrubbing microwaves.

Owen and Cristina are on the phone an hour before the settlement meeting and she repeats that she just wants to go with what the rest of the group decides. He tells her that he'll call her and let her know what happens but she interrupts and tells him not to call, just send the check, or maybe she'll get the lawyers to call. Wait, does she mean have the hospital's attorney call her? Or does she mean she has a divorce attorney now? I think it's the former, but I'm not 100% sure. Owen is also shocked, having no idea that she took Feeny's words to heart about honing his craft instead of spending time with family. She tells him that they can't keep doing this and he agrees, but he's devastated. She continues defiantly that she is in Minnesota now, but she's arguing with herself since Owen isn't doing anything but agreeing with her. She has tears in her eyes and waits until Owen says bye; she says it back and then quickly hangs up and tries not to cry.

By Lauren S

Lauren S is a writer who lives and works in Atlanta and totally wants someone to bring her a tater tot hotdish. 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."