Happy New Year, everyone! We pick up right where we left off before the holidays with Bailey operating on Adele instead of attending her own wedding. Mere goes to the hospital to see what is going on and winds up helping out with the surgery while Richard watches from the gallery. It's going pretty badly until he has one last-ditch idea and yells it down to them to try it; it works, and when the surgery is over Adele wakes up and actually recognizes him and cries with joy that he stayed. He promises he won't leave her again.
Ben finally shows up at the hospital to see what is going on and Bailey is a mess when they talk, shamefully admitting that for about 20 minutes she forgot that it was their wedding day. Because Ben is the awesomest, he points out that when someone is dying, as a surgeon she in fact should forget about everything else. She then finally articulates her fears, which are that she has lots of ambition and things she wants to do and that's what destroyed her last marriage so she's terrified that it will do the same to this one. He points out that he is the same way and even if they only see each other in tiny spurts because of their careers, it will be enough because they'll make the most of their time together. She admits that she loves him more than anything and so they go back and finally, very happily, get married.
With the wedding postponed, at least for a while, Ben tells the guests to eat and be merry while he tracks down his bride-to-be. Callie is happy to nosh and have a good time, but Arizona decides the time has come for her to be spontaneous and also to finally have some sex with her wife again. She books them a room, much to Callie's delight. But once they go upstairs she's too nervous to go through with it yet. She's also terrified that Callie is going to leave her because she's been so difficult to live with since the crash, but Callie convinces her that after the way Arizona was there for her following her car crash, she won't ever leave. The two decide to just make out like teenagers instead and seem finally to be back on the right track.
Owen and Cristina wound up having sex after we saw them mauling each other in the last episode, but Owen doesn’t want to think about what it means. As he's trying to convince Cristina to go to the wedding, a huge motorcycle gang shows up, escorting some ambulances as there was a huge crash and a number of their members were hurt. Cristina stays to help and most of the docs still at the reception site are paged as well. Jackson, Stephanie, Smash and April all go back, but since Alex and Jo started drinking already, they can't work. They wind up drinking some more and Alex admits that he had as miserable a childhood as Jo did, while she claims that she knows how to cry on cue and that all of the crying she's done so far has been fake so that she can get what she wants. So somehow, she's become an even more unlikable character. The two finally bond and swindle some poor guy out of his room and drink some more while wearing the complimentary bathrobes.
As they work together pulling mangled skin off a biker's arm, Jackson and Stephanie start to get hot for each other. Smash thinks that April is hot for him, but he kind of freaks out about it. One of the bikers, meanwhile, teaches Owen some important lesson about how he's stuck in a box and when he can break out his life will be free and glorious or some such. By the end of the night, Jackson and Stephanie can't control themselves and Do It in the backseat of his car. Smash tells April he can't sleep with her and she's horrified that he thought that she liked him, so the two can then barely look at each other once they head back to the wedding reception. And while Cristina tries to stall, Owen tells her that they need to sign the divorce papers because they've been trying to fit their relationship into a marriage-shaped box and it's been horrible. I think that maybe though, they are going to try and stay together? I can't quite tell, but they make out while they cry, at least.
After the ceremony is over, Bailey is delighted to see that Richard has shown up, but when she tries to ask about Adele's stats he convinces her to just enjoy her wedding and she runs off to dance her first dance with Ben. Mere sees Richard and walks over to him, and it only takes her a moment to realize that there's only one very sad reason why he would have left Adele's side. Though her surgery was a success, it was too much for her heart to handle and she died of a heart attack. As Mere and Richard cry quietly for her, we wrap up watching Richard and Adele dancing in their wedding finery and are given a few moments to think about what a horribly sad end this is to their story.
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Happy New Year, my darlings! We're ushered into the latest episode by... pretty much showing the end of the last episode once again. Bailey's wedding is missing a bride, Bailey is missing her dress while she works on Adele, and Princess and Alex are annoyed. Moving forward a little bit we see that Owen and Cristina have progressed to pulling each other's clothes off. Derek is sleeping and recovering from his surgery, while at the venue Callie tells the other bridesmaids that Bailey was nervous, Ben overhears, and asks Callie just how nervous she was.
Mere VOs that we should answer our doctor's questions because if we don't, they have to run a bunch of tests to try and figure out what's wrong and everyone is left waiting. Like Ben. And his silent phone.
Back at the hospital, things are still going horribly. Bailey orders Leah to arrange an endoscopy for Adele; Leah says she will and then asks pointedly if Bailey wants her to call anyone else. Bailey has no idea what she's playing at until Leah gives her Look and Bailey gasps in horror. She immediately claims she didn't forget and Leah plays along even before the words are fully out of Bailey's mouth. She tells Leah to call Ben but is incredibly frustrated at herself for having "not" forgotten.
We see Cristina and Owen in a naked post-coital tangle; Cristina asks Owen what it means but he doesn't know. When she starts to talk -- clearly about to suggest that maybe they could make it work -- he tells her not to talk about it now. They kiss again but are interrupted by the familiar bonky bonk of his pager and he sighs at the idea of facing the real world again.
[Reader Tonya emailed me and finally enlightened me about the magic bonky pagers, which are a technology called Vocera. They basically can do anything -- page people, call people, give notice when a patient is calling a nurse, cook a five-course dinner and give you a manicure. Most awesomely, apparently if you tell it to "Call Captain Kirk," you get a recording from William Shatner. AMAZING.]
Leah seems to have called Ben because he gets up in front of his guests and very classily explains that Bailey is stuck in emergency surgery, which the fellow surgeons will understand, and everyone else can go eat and drink on his dime while they wait. When Callie hears this she figures Bailey has fled and she moans that she's the worse (self-appointed) Maid of Honor ever. She decides to go to the hospital but Mere says that she'll be the one to go since she's a general surgeon and might be able to take over for Bailey. Arizona then turns to Callie and asks if she really told Bailey to run; Callie tries to soften her faux pas by pointing out that she said Bailey "could" run, not that she "should." Callie then, well, runs for the bar while Arizona mulls this over, looking like she just tasted something unpleasant.
She then runs after Richard, who thinks that Adele's surgery must be starting, and tells him that she only said that to save him from himself. She pretty quickly realizes this is why Bailey missed her own wedding (Richard seems to have totally forgotten about it too) and so runs off to find her and try to help.
Smash, April, Alex and Jackson are all eating while Smash regales them with a story about a woman who sought medical help because her hair follicles were sprouting nails instead of hair. What's horrifying is that this is a real story which you guys can go ahead and Google if you'd like, because I don't have a burning interest to go look it up again, myself. As I was taking notes I paused it here long enough to realize that April's earrings, which looked like simple gold studs, are actually in the shape of tiny bees and are awesome. Since Smash's story was disgusting, he doesn't get a rousing response from the attendings so he gets up to join his fellow interns at the bar. All of them seem to be drinking water other than Jo, which just smacks of a setup by the writers because seriously, how many wedding guests do you know that would be offered free drinks and would turn them down? Jackson tries to get April to admit that bringing dates was a horrible idea but her pride won't let her admit it. Alex gripes at them that now he's not going to get any easy wedding sex and when Jackson points out the obvious, Alex claims that since he is now a homeowner, he no longer sleeps with interns. He adds that also, they then get sad when he doesn't want to be their boyfriend, so it's not worth it. For the record, I think only Leah has done that and we all agree that other than Princess, Leah is the worst. Interestingly, Jackson and Stephanie share a glance across the room.
Over at the bar, Princess finally realizes that she acted like an idiot and moans about how she got Alex in trouble when he was just trying to be nice to her. Stephanie can only think about Jackson's limpid green (or are they blue? or both?) eyes. I'd mock her but, well, if Jackson Avery was stealing glances at me across a crowded room, I'd probably be unable to string words together too. Princess admonishes her and tells her not to get involved because then she'll be pathetic like Leah. Steph thinks that he's probably not even interested; Smash has been reviewing flashcards, but looks up long enough to tell them, "Interns are like sexual catnip at this hospital." Truer words, my friend, truer words. But then he starts skipping down the road to Fantasyland and moans that he had a great teacher/student relationship with April but now she's all over him. I think that maybe, with all of the pressure of med school, Smash didn't have much time for girls. That's all I can come up with, at least, if he thinks April's slightly stilted polite attention means she's "all over him." He's in a panic because he keeps trying to talk about medicine (hence the flashcards, which have a number of potential topics written on them) while she keeps asking him personal questions.
His romantic delusions are interrupted by the bonking of pagers and their dates walk over, having gotten paged too. As Princess gets up to leave, though, Alex informs her with a sneer that she can't practice medicine since she's already had a drink and calls her "Hobo Jo." In real life I think anyone hearing that would chalk it up to Alex just being a jerk again and not wonder why he came up with that particular name but this is TV so Stephanie and Smash both look shocked while she gets all shifty and claims she has no idea why Alex would call her that. Also, how convenient is it that everyone else just happened to have water? Amazing! After everyone else leaves, he sits down to her and orders another round for them both. Except... he was also drinking water earlier, or at least it looked like it. You know what? I think I'm asking more questions than anyone intended about this scene. Woo! More booze! This is certain to end well!
As Bailey and Leah scrub in for surgery Leah reports that she told Ben about the surgery but not who the patient was; Bailey is happy about this because if he knew he'd send the guests home and she claims she is still getting married today. Mere then walks in, which send Bailey into a panic that the wedding was called off, but Mere quickly assures her she just came to help. Bailey reports that Adele has the largest aortic aneurysm that she's ever seen.
When the rest of the docs file into the ER, Owen is shocked to hear that Bailey is there. That's what happens during sexy time with your soon-to-be ex-wife -- the wife of your former Chief of Surgery is brought in and another doc skips her wedding to help operate while you wonder if you can go another round before anyone notices you're missing as well as continue to dodge questions about the future of your relationship. The others are all horrified to hear that Bailey's patient is Adele but Owen reminds them to focus on their own patients and to get to work.
Heather calls for help and Owen goes over to find a patient who can only be described as a "tough broad" threatening Heather not to touch her. She appears to be the leader of the club as she turns and barks orders at two gigantic dudes (one of whom was the one to give Owen the rundown when they first rode in, who the internet tells me is named Rage) to give her status updates on all of the patients and to find out what happened. Owen tries to order the guys to the waiting room but the patient, aptly named Gasoline, growls at him not to get in the way of club business; if he screws with one of them, they all will screw with him. Fortunately Owen has dealt with some tough individuals in his life so he walks up closer to have a little chat. He points out that his guys are actually all trying to help her guys, so the two giant lieutenants can check on the others as long as they don't bother the doctors. He also orders her to lie back so that Heather can check her out. Gasoline is wary, but does at least settle back down. I get the impression she's not too used to having to compromise.
The guy who lost most of the outer layers of his arm is named Stuart, and the doctors are surprised when he asks about the others and clearly seems to be part of the gang. He explains that he's not officially in the club but that they let him hang around and it's been the best time of his life. However, he's convinced he's ruined everything because the crash was his fault. There's an odd moment when Stephanie says that she thinks guys on motorcycles are hot, and she and Jackson exchange another Look, but it's actually just weird because I don't think Jackson rides motorcycles so it seems stupidly pointed. Was there no other way to continue showing the sexual tension between them and April's distaste for it? Jackson thinks he can save Stuart's hand and gets ready to go to the OR with him. He takes Stephanie with him while April slaps Shane on the back and says that he's her guy. It's totally obvious that she's doing it to save face with Jackson, but Shane looks awfully uncomfortable on account of his zero experience with any female ever in the history of time.
Arizona and Callie go up to their room, and Callie is grinning like a fool. Both of them are still nervous, though, and after they get the lighting and the window shades just right, they haltingly reach for each other like they are eighth graders going in for the first kiss after the school dance. They finally kiss but then Arizona pulls back and says that she'd like to take off her leg first. Callie offers to help but Arizona think that it's not sexy so she wants to do it herself without Callie watching. Callie can't believe she's serious and chuckles as she asks if Arizona wants her to hide in the bathroom until it's off and Arizona is under the covers. The smile slips right off her face when Arizona sincerely asks if she will do just that.
As Bailey and Mere get ready to open Adele up in the OR, they look up and see a very worried Richard in the gallery. Mere sends Leah up to go sit with him while they work.
Back at the bar, Alex is still harassing Princess so she yells back at him angrily that she had no parents and lived in her car so of course she has trust issues blah blah blah martyrcakes. Alex speaks for us all when he replies, "You need to stop acting like you're the only person who had a crappy childhood." She self-righteously challenges him, asking how many foster homes he lived in, and when he gives her an actual answer (17) and adds that he went to juvie instead of living in his car she thinks he's just mocking her. Once she realizes he isn't, though, she's interested, and she and Alex try to out-horrible-childhood each other. Finally she asks if he ever had to sleep with 19 other foster kids in a basement where their parents locked the doors and forced them to use buckets as toilets... it goes on, and Alex is horrified until she cackles that she didn't go through this either, she just saw it in a movie on cable. Alex is somehow amused rather than fed up and laughs, asking how she got cable in her car; she reminds him that she doesn't STILL live in a car these days. Goody. Now the ice is broken between them so that they have a more straightforward path to dysfunctional love. (Or at least lust.)
Rage has apparently made the rounds and he reports back to Gasoline that Stuart was in fact the first one to crash, and everyone else followed. They're interrupted by Cristina and Heather, and Cristina very quickly learns not to call Gasoline by the name her parents gave her. Truth be told, Gasoline really is kind of badass and awesome. Cristina reports that Gasoline has fluid around her heart and they need to drain it, but Gasoline refuses since she has to take care of some business. She's unmoved when Cristina points out that she could die from this and instead asks if they have seen Stuart. Gasoline tells them that if they can find him and take her to him, then they can do whatever they want to her. Rage and the other large gentlemen then glare at the docs so they back carefully away.
Smash is busy doing a totally ham-fisted suture job on one of the other bikers, so the guy demands he get some help from April and won't listen to Smash's excuses and tells him he thinks Smash is trying to avoid his "old lady." He claims with a saucy eyebrow raise that he noticed how April looked Smash, which just makes Smash more determined to do the job on his own until the patient's tortured yelps cause April to come over and make sure Smash isn't killing the guy. She calmly reminds him that this is a teaching hospital and then leans in to show Smash how to do it right; as she does, she leans right into his chest to get the right angle. The dude gives Smash a knowing smile, and April rubs his shoulder and tells him he's doing good work. The patient just chuckles at Smash's face as he fights to keep his composure. I still am not convinced at all that April has any feelings for Smash, conscious or unconscious, so I'm not sure if this biker is as deluded as Smash is or if he was just stirring up shit for amusement while the intern stabbed away at his leg.
Things sound like they are going pretty badly in Adele's surgery, and up in the gallery Richard tries to send Leah back down so that she can observe. He explains that in cases like Adele's, most people would notice a mass and go to the hospital, where it would be caught, but someone with Alzheimer's can't remember if they told anyone or not and so medical issues can really easily go unchecked. He adds that someone should have been paying attention, and his tone implies that he's taking 100% of the blame despite almost punching out the guy from Rose Ridge. After he tries to send Leah away one more time she tells him that, respectfully, she's not going to leave so he should stop asking. This week is seriously the first time that Leah has acted like an actual human being -- a CAPABLE human being -- in the ten episodes she's had so far this season. She then asks Richard to explain what the surgeons are doing down below but the unfortunate answer is "not much" since they have pretty much run out of options and are terrified. Mere and Bailey both look up at him, worried.
Mere is at a total loss, but Bailey stops to think for a moment. Richard has his head in his hands, worrying Leah, but then he jumps up with an idea. He goes to the intercom and shouts it down to the doctors; Bailey is unsure if his plan will work but he hollers at them to just try it.
Back at the bar, Princess is sobbing into a napkin while Alex freaks out about upsetting her. He apologizes for calling her a "garbage eater," (Alex, you're better than that, you can come up with a more creative insult...) but as soon as he does, she starts laughing at him that she got him. He's totally confused so she tells him, "Tears, baby. The number one rule of a street kid." She claims that tears will get you out of anything and then tells a disbelieving Alex that they already helped her get three surgeries out of him. Wait, so she's not a pathetic, self-pitying crybaby -- she's a conniving, jerky, egotistical pain in the ass? While I don't dispute the latter, I still don't entirely believe that all of her freakouts were fake. Because if she's really trying to get ahead by making people think she needs coddling, that's just ridiculous. Alex is just mad because he claims girls can get away with crying while guys can't. She disputes this, and so Alex asks her to show him how to do it and then orders them yet another round while she gives him a sly smile.
It's amazing how fast I forgot about Derek completely, which is probably why they stuck in this scene. Callie, wearing a hotel bathrobe, calls him from the bathroom phone to ask him about his vitals. He groggily points out that a nurse could give her this info and then asks why she is whispering -- when she whispers excitedly that she's about to have sex, he grows alarmed and announces that he's hanging up. Callie then stands up, slides the robe off of her shoulders, gives herself a sexy grin in the mirror, and opens the door to go to her wife.
What she sees, though, is Arizona sitting on the side of the bed, fully dressed, with her prosthetic still in place. Arizona apologizes and with a desperate edge to her voice says that she wanted to be spontaneous but it was all too much. She says she is sorry, and pleads with Callie to not be mad. Callie just picks up the phone and smiles at her, saying that they are going to need a bottle of champagne to go with their mac and cheese cupcakes. She pretty much just described my dream meal. Anything I eat for the few days is now going to be disappointing because I'm pretty sure it won't be that. Arizona gives Callie a relieved smile back.
Stephanie and Jackson continue to exchange sexy glances and who can blame them, in a romantic setting such as this, where Jackson is systematically peeling layers of skin off of Stuart's mangled arm? He offers to let her try but when she takes the instruments her hands are trembling and he reaches over to gently take them back, feeling the electricity as their hands touch over the red goo that is Stuart's forearm. Owen comes in for an update and finds them flustered, but Jackson recovers enough to report that Stuart's limb is viable and once he's done with this, Stuart can come back once he's healed for a skin graft. Once Owen leaves Jackson tells Stephanie that he can finish up, so she goes to scrub out. Once alone, he orders himself to get a grip. He reminds himself that he's not gross... he's not Karev. In other words, he doesn't sleep with interns.
Cristina finds Owen and asks him about Stuart; they joke for a few moments about crazy Gasoline but then it dawns on Owen that this could be very bad. He orders another doc to call security to meet them in the ER but when they arrive, Gasoline is already gone. Owen explains to a very confused Cristina that Stuart caused the crash; Gasoline's motto about them screwing with anyone who screws with them could spell disaster for the poor guy.
Up in the gallery, Richard explains to Leah everything they are doing down below. Adele's vitals look good, and finally the two surgeons look up at him and he collapses into a chair. Leah is worried but Richard finally tells her through his tears that the graft seems to be working. She tears up too, and then reaches over and gives his hand a happy squeeze.
Owen and his security guards march purposefully towards one of the elevators where they can hear Gasoline hollering at people. Now that they both have posses, it feels like a big musical number would break out a la West Side Story. Owen screams at her for not honoring their deal, but she doesn't give a crap because one of her boys is hurt and could die and she needs to see him. It certainly doesn't sound like she's heading off to beat Stuart to even more of a pulp than he already is. But before she can do anything, she collapses to the ground, struggling for breath.
Alex and Princess have moved their act to the lobby of the hotel, where they have an ugly, screaming fight about her losing the room key. She is, of course, crying, and the manager and other guests can't help but glance over nervously. After screaming at her, Alex begins to cry too and goes up to the manager, admitting that it's been a long day and they are both very drunk. The manager quickly asks for their room number and then hands them the key once Alex confirms that he is absolutely someone named Jordan who is actually registered there. They don't get ten steps away before they begin giggling. Kids, wait until you are out of eye- and earshot first, mmmkay?
Arizona and Callie are lounging in bed, discussing the brilliance of food in cupcake form, when Arizona takes her wife by surprise and asks her quietly not to run. Callie is shocked and Arizona goes on, admitting that she's been awful but that she's starting to feel like herself again; she also doesn't want everything to be about her leg all the time but right now it still is. Man, do I wish she had articulated all of this before! But better late than never. Callie grows super serious and reminds Arizona that she never left Callie after the car accident, so there's no way she'd leave her now. Arizona beams at her, and then suggests they have a good, old-fashioned junior high makeout session.
Richard is sitting by Adele's bed in the ICU, talking to Mere and Bailey -- she gives him credit for saving Adele's life with his idea. But Richard can't be consoled that easily and he tells them that he was the one who almost got her killed in the first place. When Mere reminds him that he did his best, he counters that he did what he was told, which he never thought was best. That's actually a point not to be overlooked here: in life, and especially in medical situations, you have to find a balance between listening to your doctor and/or those in charge as well as to your gut. Trust my own medical adventures on this one. He vows that it won't happen again, and then reminds Bailey that she has a wedding to get to. She must be wearing magic lipstick because it and the rest of her makeup is still flawless as she leaves. Adele then wakes up and happily has a lucid moment where she recognizes Richard and cries with happiness that he is there. She asks him to stay with her, and he promises he's not leaving. Mere smiles and then leaves to give them some time alone.
She goes in to Derek's room and climbs into bed to him, making him promise that if she gets Alzheimer's, he won't put her in a home. Derek's a little worried about her since this is rather out of the blue, but he promises and then holds her with his good arm.
Cristina and Heather are at work on Gasoline, and Cristina walks Heather through the procedure to get that fluid out of her chest after all. Owen and Rage are standing together at the window, watching. Owen chastises him for taking Gasoline all over the hospital when she wasn't well but Rage just shrugs and points out that Owen can imagine what would happen if Rage tried to say no to her. Owen then asks him to explain the deal with Stuart. It turns out he is their accountant and has helped them out with modern-day biker club issues such as getting a group health plan and holding a Christmas toy drive. They thought it was amusing to let him hang out and ride with them but then he became so much like family that Gasoline got him his own giant club patch like they have on the back of their jackets. That patch means he's one of them for life, and Gasoline and her fluid-encased heart of gold wanted him to see it first in case he died in surgery. Owen points out that after this, Stuart might not ride again, so Rage asks him what he drives. He then gives him a speech about his pickup truck and how Owen is a "cager" stuck in a box on the road. Once Owen gets out of his cage and says goodbye to whatever is holding him back -- his job, his marriage (oooooh, coincidence) -- and boxing him in, he'll never give it up. Owen ponders this deep motorcycle advice as he gazes at Cristina.
Bailey is frantically running through the halls when Ben runs in, still looking dashing in his tux. She babbles about needing to find her dress but he tells her to take a moment and manages to calm her down. As soon as he hears that her patient was Adele, he also calms down since he completely understands now why she bailed. Bailey then takes a moment to compose herself, and admits that for a wee 20 minutes or so, she forgot about Ben and the wedding. Because he is almost too good to be true, he reminds her that when a patient is dying that is what they as doctors are supposed to do. He also reminds her that she wasn't really into the wedding to begin with, but that the important thing is that she's into HIM. She doesn't give him the confirmation he's looking for, though, and finally he starts to really worry for the first time. Bailey is shaking, she's so nervous, and admits that her ambition killed her first marriage and she's afraid that it will do the same thing this time. Ah yes, but this time she's marrying Super Ben, who reminds her that he has ambitions of his own and is in fact in LA following his dream to become a surgeon. He adds that they may only see each other for a few moments every couple of months, but that it's okay because they will then savor those moments. It's exactly what Bailey needed to hear, and probably something she should have brought up before, but the important thing is that when he asks if she loves him she tells him honestly, "More than I can hold in my heart." He then asks if she wants to spend the rest of her life with him, and she answers, "I do."
He grins, and we're swept over to that exact moment in their wedding ceremony where they are pronounced husband and wife. Both are grinning and giddy, and Bailey's mom looks hilariously relieved and like she now needs a long nap, or a stiff drink, or both, after holding her breath for the entire day. Bailey winks at Tuck, dapper in his tuxedo, and then she and Ben hold hands and jump the broom, to the delight of the crowd. Bailey finally looks truly, utterly happy.
Stuart, on the other hand, looks like he's about to crap himself as someone wheels him through a sea of bikers to Gasoline's bedside. He immediately begins to apologize but she shuts him right up and tells him that the accident was caused by a minivan and any one of them could have crashed. He's thoroughly confused since he thought he was going to get a thrashing, and he can't believe what he's seeing when she hands over a large, rolled up patch. Crying, he asks shakily if this means he gets a road name. Rage suggests "Road Rash," and Stuart proclaims it, "freaking hardcore." Almost as hardcore as using the word "freaking" when you're in a crowd of bikers. Everyone applauds, including Owen.
When Callie and Arizona make it back to the reception, they realize that they missed the whole ceremony and hope that Bailey doesn't notice. But after kissing her new husband, Bailey catches sight of them and chastises Callie for being a terrible Maid of Honor. Mere rejoins them, back in her amazing red dress, and Callie ignores the "terrible" part and reports triumphantly that she won the MOH title. Arizona reaches over and takes Callie's hand, and they have a nice little moment where they and everyone around them are happy.
Jackson and Stephanie get back in the car in their wedding finery but he gets a text letting him know that they missed it too. He offers to take her home, and she sits silently for a moment and then blurts out that she can't sleep with him. Jackson denies that this is what he meant (which, at this moment, I believe to be true) and tells her he doesn't sleep with interns. They stutter back and forth some more about how this is something they totally aren't going to do, which gives me a moment to study Jackson's good looks and to offer up a short silent wish that he shave his neck if he's going to let himself keep that sort of stubbly beard he's got going on. After all of their denials and excuses die down, they gaze at each other a moment and then start making out.
Owen is staring at his divorce papers when Cristina comes in and joins him. She suggests that they take a moment and think about it before they rush to sign but he declares that he's done thinking about it, and they never should have gotten married in the first place. He tells her that they took something beautiful and put it in a box, just as Rage described, and then proceeded to beat against the walls of the box and tear each other apart. He thinks that signing will get them out of that box and then they won't hurt each other anymore. You know that they are still in the box this very moment, though, because boy is he hurting her now. With tears in her eyes, she picks up the pen and signs. He then signs as well, quickly as if the pen was on fire. Both of them finally look at each other with tears streaming down their faces, and kiss. Okay, so I can't conclusively figure out what this means. I could interpret this as a breakup kiss or as a "We have broken free and now our love can soar as if on a motorcycle" kiss; I guess we'll see how it plays out week. I think Cristina is pretty sure this is a breakup kiss, though.
April and Smash are back at the reception and she brings him a drink and tells him happily that this is what a great night in the ER looks like. She wants to celebrate by getting "stupid drunk" and dancing, which Smash seems to think means, "Make sweet love to my subordinate." He cuts her off to try and gently let her down because he doesn't want to sleep with her and endanger his spot in this prestigious medical program. April is absolutely horrified that the thought of her coming on to him ever crossed his mind and points out that all of those things he took as flirting were just her being nice. I mean, come on, Smash. She's worried that he feels sexually harassed, and he immediately assures her that it's not that at all. Now that this is the most uncomfortable wedding not-date ever, April drains her glass of wine in an effort to get over that awkward conversation.
Things are rather less awkward between Jackson and Stephanie, who have moved to the backseat and fogged up the windows. When he pulls his shirt off, Stephanie can't help but exclaim at his God-like physique and he thinks maybe she wants him to put it back on. She assures him that, actually, he should never put it back on. I second that.
Alex is having a grand time raiding the minibar in their stolen hotel room while Princess tries on the hotel bathrobe and declares it to be as soft as a polar bear. That makes me think it's really thick and a little bit scratchy, but maybe she's had the chance to nuzzle one and knows more than I do. The door opens and a guy sticks his head in, telling them he's pretty sure this is his room. But Princess grabs something from the table and throws it at him so he runs away and the two of them crack up. I maintain fully that she is THE WORST. And she's totally dragging Alex down with her. And also, shouldn't they get out of there since it's going to take exactly two minutes for Jordan Whoever to prove that it really is his room?
Bailey is, rightly, saddened to find that no one left any mac and cheese cupcakes for her while her mom is a mom and pointedly reminds her that she kept her guests waiting for five hours so what did she expect? As they sweetly bicker, Richard arrives and Bailey goes to him and gives him a bear hug. She's still on a wedding high but she urgently asks him about Adele's vitals. The DJ calls her to the floor, however, and Richard sends her away. As the happy couple dances, Meredith sees Richard and walks over. She's surprised to see him there and then the horrible truth hits her and she realizes there is only one reason he would have left Adele's bedside. "No... when?" she asks. Richard fights back tears as he tells Mere that while the surgery was a success, Adele's heart couldn't take it and she died of a heart attack a short while ago. Meredith is horrified and starts to chastise herself for leaving but Richard cuts her off and forcefully tells her she did everything she could. In silence, they stand together and then she leans into him and they both cry while they watch the happy couple on the floor.
Mere reminds us to tell our doctors everything, including the small details which make the story. We see April and Smash, totally awkward with each other, and Callie and Arizona, finally at ease and happy with each other.
And then we see Richard and Adele, smiling and laughing, dancing alone in the empty venue to "My Funny Valentine." Back in the real world, Richard's tears fall unchecked as he remembers his beautiful bride.
Lauren S is a writer who lives and works in Atlanta and stays clear of motorcycles lest doctors start to get hot for each other over her mangled limbs. 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."