Deus Ex Debbie

S09E16

It's been a week since the Seattle Grace Five defected, and they're making their big pitch to local bajillionaire Julian Crest to partner with them (i.e. fork up the rest of the $175 million to buy the hospital). They actually pitch first to a serious of his underlings, because he's super busy and important. They clear all the hurdles and manage to score 20 minutes with Crest, before he flies to Dubai (IMPORTANT). He likes their ideas, he likes their passion, but he doesn't like the fact that the closest thing they have to administration material in their group is Derek's disastrous stint as Chief. They decide they need to bring Webber or Hunt (if not both) onboard.

Meanwhile, at sad, emptying Seattle Grace, it's pretty grim. Bailey's openly talking about taking job interviews, Brooks is secretly in communication with a patient she and Bailey are on, and Catherine Avery (YAY!) is un-subtly suggesting that Jackson take a job back in Boston so he can get more involved with the Harper Avery foundation. Owen tells Bailey she can't leave, as she's the heart of the hospital, but she's not sure. Cahill has managed to get Pegasus back to the negotiating table, and it looks like the sale can still go through, much to Owen's relief. Only later, when it's just Cahill and Roberta Thompson, do we learn that Pegasus intends to liquidate the hospital once they buy it. Brooks overhears and tells Meredith, so we've got ourselves a ticking clock.

Brooks can't keep her mouth shut AT ALL, so everybody starts finding out the hospital is about to close. Smash freaks out and makes April tell Owen. Owen freaks out. April ends up freaking out later on. Stephanie freaks out about Avery moving away. Jo freaks out about being separated from Alex. Bailey freaks out that Brooks thinks Meredith cares more about her patients than she does. It's nobody's finest hour. Finally, Meredith approaches Webber, and he's obviously onboard; Cristina tells Owen, clears the air between them, and he then sets out to delay the sale long enough for the group to make their new and improved presentation to Crest.

After all that effort, after getting the sale delayed, getting Webber and Hunt onboard, Derek and Webber taking a helicopter ride with Crest to make their final pitch, Crest still declines. It's over. Derek and Meredith start writing letters of recommendation for the interns; Callie and Arizona start thinking about moving. Webber breaks the bad news to Catherine.

THEN. The morning. Webber and Catherine gather the Five, plus Owen, plus Jackson all together, and Catherine makes the announcement: the Harper Avery foundation would like to step in as investor and majority partner in Seattle Grace. The hospital is saved! Debbie Allen fixes EVERYTHING. Oh, and why is Jackson there? Because his mom just made him the foundation's representative on the Seattle Grace board. Meaning he's in charge. Avery. Fear those baby blues!

Previously: Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Callie, and Arizona all quit their jobs at Seattle Grace, deep-sixed the sale to Pegasus Horizons, left Owen tremendously in the lurch, and began their plan to buy Seattle Grace Mercy West themselves.

Currently, Meredith and Cristina are back to an old standby: studying their asses off. This time, they're prepping their presentation to find an investor who can make up the difference in capital they would need ($175 million) to make the buy. Cristina is particularly freaked since Owen has stopped calling her. If their plan to buy the hospital doesn't work, they are finished as a couple and she knows it. Mere reminds her that when the sale DOES happen and they can tell him the truth, he'll be the happiest of all of them. They have to cut their conversation short because Alex walks in. Look, I don't mean to be like this, but this is what you get for agreeing to live with Alex. No point in sugarcoating it. Alex is like, "Cut the shit and tell me what's going on. It's been a week." He says since they've quit, nurses and lab techs have also resigned, and people are saying without a Pegasus deal, the hospital could be closed within a month. Cristina starts to say something but Meredith shuts her down, then shoots a look to Alex that reads like, "Dude. I'm sorry. Give me a break." Alex storms out.

At the hospital, the interns are bearing a huge chunk of the workload that the departed attendings left unfinished. Smash bumps into the other one and drops a huge stack of charts and binders. I know she probably has a name, but at this point, I'm telling you, there are just too many interns. I know Smash and Stephanie and Jo, and this week I learned that Tina Majorino is Brooks (or "Mousy," I guess, though I failed to catch that last week). And then there's this one. The Other One. She doesn't have a story this week, I really don't like her, so I'm not going to learn her name. How Cristina of me. She's The Other One. You know which one I mean. The Other One hops over to Owen and tells him that the ORs are overbooked. He tells her to find out which surgeries can be pushed back. Bailey then shows up in a sleek business suit -- her old one, she says, from around Y2K, the last time she went on a job interview. The Other One and Brooks are alarmed to hear that Bailey's going on job interviews. She says she's not gonna stick around the sinking ship that is Seattle Grace. Owen says it's not a sinking ship -- he says Cahill has gotten Pegasus to come back to the negotiating table, and they're working out a deal. Further, he says that Bailey can't leave, as she's the "heart" of the hospital. The spirit. I basically said as much last week. Bailey demurs, but Owen insists and prods Brooks (with her cute new short haircut) to agree. Bailey's like, "Fine, but if this place goes belly-up, you're taking it in the nards."

By Joe R

Elsewhere, Avery and Stephanie are turning the corner, Jackson not paying attention to the fact that Dr. Webber and his mother are walking towards them. HI DEBBIE ALLEN! I have missed you! Remember when I made that video compilation of you on So You Think You Can Dance? Remember how we laughed? Anyway, Catherine Avery decided to put on ALL the mascara this week. Webber is trying to signal that Stephanie should make her escape now before it's too late, and Jackson spots his mother just in time to shove his ladyfriend out of the path of this particular oncoming train. Catherine has more pressing matters to discuss anyway. Now that Richard has told her about the state of affairs at Seattle Grace, she thinks it's time for Jackson to return to Boston. She's already been on him to take more of an active role in the Harper Avery foundation. And if the choices in Seattle are stay and work for a shitty Pegasus hospital or have the hospital go under altogether, then ... Richard interjects here, in fact moving to Jackson's side physically, saying that the hospital is NOT going to close. He starts down the road of some kind of "When the going gets tough, men like him and Jackson stay and fight or some such. Jackson, knowing a life preserver when he sees one, says he agrees wholeheartedly with "Richard." Catherine does not appreciate this new show of solidarity one bit.

The Other One is carrying out Owen's orders, asking Jo to postpone a pediatric tumor-removal surgery until tomorrow. Jo then joins Alex, who asks her if she's got such-and-such labs done, which she hasn't yet. He rolls his eyes, and she's smart enough to know right away that he's pissed about her going out on a date last night. Alex denies it and claims he's stressed because of the billion cases Arizona left him with, then grumbles that he should've gone to Johns Hopkins when he had the chance. Okay, awesome. Regular awful Alex is one thing, but I'm SO GLAD we get bratty, self-pitying Alex this week.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Grace Five are sitting in the lobby of a Crest Capital, a very fancy office building, going over last-minute presentation prep. It reminds me, intentionally I'm sure, of the mornings before finals, when you and your friends would convene and try to cram any and all last-minute knowledge into your brains. They're dividing up who does what section -- Callie doesn't want to sweat her way through the closing, so Derek agrees to -- and stressing because this thing was supposed to start a half hour ago. Callie exposits that this Crest guy is a billionaire, "One of his minutes are worth 40 of ours." They congratulate Stan the Money Manager on getting them the meeting in the first place, which is just an excuse for Stan to exposit on Julian Crest, billionaire investor, mobile technology financier, looking to gain a foothold in medical tech. He's very optimistic. Meredith takes a phone call, from Brooks back at Seattle Grace. It looks like this is not the first time. Cristina's like, "Who?" Meredith: "Mousy." Cristina gives her shit for breaking her no-contact rule, but Meredith, as ever, very plainly and calmly explains why the rules don't apply to her. I'm only having fun, obviously Meredith's just being a good doctor and making sure her patients are in good hands, but she does that thing with her tone of voice a lot, and it's pretty funny. Anyway, Crest will see them now, much to Cristina's annoyance, since she just got the bagel she asked for.

Seattle Grace. Brooks can't answer Meredith's call because she's walk-and-talking with Bailey, who's currently grousing about how she's not the heart of the hospital, she's the dummy who didn't quit when she had the chance. Brooks runs down the specs on this patient, one of Meredith's leftovers: Melissa Keyser, 28-year-old mother in kidney failure. Dialysis has exhausted all available veins, and now she's septic. Which means she's dying. Bailey rolls her eyes that Meredith Grey left her a hopeless patient. "Might as well have left me a pillow to smother her with," she grouses. But of course, when she gets to the room and looks into the sad faces of Melissa's daughter and husband, all flippant thoughts go out the window.

Owen's lurking outside the conference room where Cahill is working with the Pegasus people. She comes out and calls him on it, but she says she pulled it off. Pegasus is back in. The deal closes at 8 am tomorrow. He's so happy. More relieved than anything. Speaking of relieved, I was so worried he was going to kiss her here, and I'm so glad it doesn't happen. Instead, he just thanks her.

Back at Crest, Derek is closing the group's presentation, a rousing call to invest in an institution, a reputation, a legacy. His speech is inspiring and forward-thinking and confident. And it's very well-received by the nineteen-year-old interns who are taking the meeting. The music goes all goofy when the camera cuts to them, and outside the board room, everybody gets on Stan's case because the meeting was with Crest's junior execs and not Crest. Stan tries to explain that this is how it's done. They impressed the junior execs, who will recommend a meeting with the business development guys, who will then approve a meeting with Crest. He holds up his phone and predicts it will ring any second. ANY SECOND. There is waiting. There are skeptical looks. There's a moment where it looks like everybody's going to shrug shoulders and move on. There's even a whiteout/title card. But then, there's a ring.

After the credits, the Five cannot shut up for five seconds while Stan takes the call from Crest's people. But it's good news: they got the meeting. Rejoice! Mere gets a call from Brooks, who's cowering in an x-ray room because she can't let Bailey know that Meredith's helping her. Besides the fact that Bailey is righteously pissed off at Meredith, it's also fairly illegal or unethical or something. Mere advises her to check out an article she read about creating artificial blood vessels for patients whose own vessels have been tapped out, but Bailey busts in, and Brooks is like, "BYE, MOM, GOTTA GO" into the phone. She does manage to bring up the article idea to Bailey, so that's something.

Stephanie finds Avery looking at slides in the lab and flirts with him about how he has his "Angry Avery" face on. He admits he's annoyed that his mom is on him about returning to Boston in the wake of all this turmoil at Seattle Grace. Stephanie also informs him that Hunt has pushed his rhinoplasty surgery off today's schedule, which gets Avery really mad. And kind of snappish with Stephanie, which is both not that cool and evidence of why personal workplace relationships are not great. Not that nine seasons of this show isn't enough of an example. Anyway, Avery grumbles that his mom might actually have a point.

Ah, once again, The Interminable Adventures of Alex and Jo. This week, they'll be removing a tumor from a kid's abdomen. The family is holding a pre-surgery celebration for the kid, Bobby, complete with a banner that says "ADIOS, PHIL." Alex is playing things up, talking about how he's going to take Phil, put him in a plastic bag, yank him out, and grind him into unrecognizable pieces. Bobby is super psyched at the grossness of all this. The mom pulls Jo aside and explains that they found the mass when Bobby was six, and he misheard and thought there was a "man" inside him, so they anthropomorphized the tumor and named it Phil and now Bobby, in all his pre-adolescent boyness, is really excited for Alex to murder the tiny tumor man inside him. It's all very psychologically fraught if you think about it for more than two seconds, so don't. The whole point here is: Alex is cute with kids. You know, apparently.

Hunt and April are dealing with a particularly ornery patient who is back for his umpteenth surgery due to complications from earlier ones. He's pissed that it keeps coming to this. Owen tries to explain that this surgery will be the one that fixes everything. Smash shows up late, because he's been swamped with all this work, which doesn't do a ton to make Pissy Pete any happier. April finally is like, "Look, either you have the surgery, or else the blockages caused by your scar tissue remain blocked and then you die." That seems to be sufficient.

Dr. Webber is in the middle of surgery when Jackson joins him. He conspiratorially whispers to Webber, asking him what he knows that he's not saying. He figures a guy doesn't just go talking about "winds of change" and "standing firm" like Richard did in front of Catherine unless he knows something. Dropping his voice low, Richard tells Jackson about how he walked in on the Five plotting something last week, shortly before they all quit. When he asked what they were up to, "They slammed the door in my face like I was Diane Keaton at the end of The Godfather." Jackson takes it in, but you can tell he doesn't want to get too far-fetched. He guesses that Richard is the type who used to watch a lot of Unsolved Mysteries. Richard: "I solved three of them."

Arizona and Derek are taking the lead in the presentation to Crest's Biz Dev people. They're talking about medical breakthroughs and such, but these people just want to look at the financials. All five doctors look kind of stricken when asks to talk numbers, but luckily Stan is armed with everything they need. Stan/Eddie Jemison may project a squirrelly air, but he seems like exactly the kind of guy you want backing you up. The Biz Dev folks are stone-faced as they check the handouts, but ultimately one of them gives a nod and texts something to Crest. And then they wait, and it is ENDLESS. Callie coughs one of those coughs that is only there to emphasize the silence. Finally, her phone chimes and it's Crest: he says he's sorry, but he's leaving this evening for Dubai. Kind of the ultimate good news/bad news, because he obviously liked it, but they can't wait for him to get back from Dubai. Fortunately, Crest beeps back again and says he can give them 15 minutes this afternoon.

Outside Seattle Grace, Cahill meets with Roberta Thompson, and things are very serious. Roberta talks obliquely about how she didn't think it would happen this way. She's going to convene a meeting of the board this afternoon, and she'd like Cahill to be there to break the news. Uh oh. She asks if Cahill's told Dr. Hunt. Cahill: "What? That Pegasus is buying his hospital for parts, liquidating its assets, and shutting it down? No, not yet." I appreciate the thoroughness of the exposition, Cahill, I really do. She's clearly not happy about it, but as Roberta reminds her, it's a deal and they desperately needed a deal. They walk into the hospital, and we see none other than Brooks has been on the other side of a pillar this whole time. How very Rome, hiding behind pillars and such to eavesdrop on the plans! On top of that, she's got Meredith on the phone.

After the break, Meredith has already broken the news to the Five. Callie is despondent that her bright idea is now going to cost everyone their jobs. Derek and Arizona try to talk her down, but Meredith says that IS actually what's happening, from Cahill's own mouth. Derek says their meeting with Crest is their only hope, and the group decides that they really have to nail the presentation. Which means, says Callie, not just handing him a packet filled with "Stan's boring crap." She makes sure Stan knows she meant no offense. "None taken," Stan says amiably. "It's interesting to me!" STAN! I love Stan. I also love that these five teachers-pet doctors have all come up with a plan to save the day, and that plan is to study their asses off, internalize every facet of the pitch, and blow Crest away with their smarts.

By Joe R

Back at the hospital, Brooks just told Bailey, and Bailey is floored. She tells Brooks she can't tell anybody else, lest she cause a panic. Brooks is confused by the reaction, since just this morning, Bailey called Seattle Grace a sinking ship. Obviously Bailey's like, "I didn't think it would actually sink." Like, obviously, Brooks. Did you expect Bailey to start doing the Grace Adler "Told You So" dance? Bailey once again tells Brooks to keep her mouth shut.

So obviously, time we see Brooks, she's already told all the other interns, and freaking out is happening. Well, some of them are. The Other One is being pissy and refusing to believe Brooks "just because you got a kicky little haircut." Hi, The Other One, we already covered the haircut. Catch up, please. Smash is, not surprisingly, the most emotionally fragile. Second-most fragile -- and this IS a surprise -- is Stephanie, who brings up how Jackson might go to Boston. Jo snaps at her to not be that girl who goes and follows her not-even-boyfriend across the country. Don't be Felicity, basically. Jo is, of course, projecting, because she's freaking out just as much about Alex. Stephanie protests that she's not that girl but her eye goes right to Jackson across the room. He's conferencing with Webber and Alex, having just told Alex their theory about the Five. Well, Webber's theory. Avery thinks it makes every bit of sense that they won their big settlement and then quit. Webber says they're not that kind of people. Alex brats that they're exactly those kinds of people, only out for themselves. This because they're keeping a secret of him. He's a total prince, you guys. I TOTALLY get what everybody sees in him. He once again whines about not going to Hopkins. Webber's like, "Well, yeah, THAT was a mistake." The guys head over to the interns' table in time to hear Brooks order the others not to say anything. Webber's like, "About what?"

April and Smash are prepping for surgery, and he's just told her about the liquidation. She harshly smacks it down as a rumor, and when he's like, "But I heard it from Brooks who heard it from ..." she reminds him that that's basically exactly what a rumor is. She tells him to just ask Hunt, but Smash doesn't think he'd ever admit that, not to an intern. Owen shows up, and both Smash and April look at each other, like, "YOU ask him."

Crest is hearing the Five's pitch, though his attention is also being pulled in about five directions. When Derek gets to the part about them being the management group, Crest finally focuses on them. He was under the impression this would be an outright buyout. The doctors all take turns saying how they know the place best, but it's Meredith who makes the argument Crest latches onto: "We're invested." He likes that. Likes that they're fully invested. He then shows that he's been paying attention by running down their resumes for them -- he's awfully impressed by their surgical credentials. But he also knows "there's not a manager in the bunch. Meredith reminds him that Derek was once chief of surgery, but Crest knows what we know: that he stepped down voluntarily after about ten minutes, indicating that he didn't like the job. He tells them that he likes them and respects their passion, but he's just "not feeling it." He tells them to get someone on their team with actual management experience and they can talk.

After the break, our Gang of Five is undeterred. Meredith says if Crest wants experience, they can get Webber. Cristina suggests getting the guy who's actually doing the job now. Meredith reminds her that they can't tell Owen, but Cristina rightly observes that it doesn't really matter now. She goes off to find him, while Meredith volunteers to go back to Seattle Grace and procure Richard. They're going to have to pull this off before Crest leaves for Dubai in three hours.

Webber and Bailey are performing the vascular surgery together when a call comes into the room: Meredith Grey is in the lobby for Webber. Bailey is shocked that Webber is taking the meeting, and after he leaves, she fumes to Brooks about everything Meredith Grey is taking from her today. Brooks finally pipes up that Meredith gave them this fix their performing. "She doesn't even work here anymore and she's still out there trying to help her patients." Bailey (rightly) upbraids Brooks for sharing details of a patient with a non-employee. Brooks: "She cares." Ohhh, does Bailey take umbrage with that. "I'm the heart of this damn hospital!" she fumes.

Owen, April, and Smash are performing their very awkward surgery. Smash is being incredibly immature and pissy, pivoting off of the uncertainty of Hunt's non-guarantee that this surgery will work into uncertainty of any of Hunt's claims being true. Smash is basically being like, "You're a LIAR and you made Daddy leave us!" Finally, when Owen says if it doesn't work, they'll try again in six months. "BUT WE WON'T BE HERE IN SIX MONTHS," Smash practically cries. Owen initially brushes off the rumor, once April tells him, but when he assures the room that Pegasus IS buying the hospital and nobody's going anywhere, Smash straight up says, "You're lying!" Smash thinks Hunt is whitewashing, ultimately unveiling the part about Pegasus liquidating the hospital. Owen is stunned, particularly when Smash said this came from Cahill's own mouth. Owen excuses him from surgery -- April seems to get the severity of the situation and offers to take over -- and heads out to find Cahill. Smash snots that Owen lied and then ran away. "He didn't lie," April says, omitting the "you idiot" part. "He didn't know."

Alex and Jo are performing the tumor removal, and the thing where they bag the tumor inside the body and then suck out the bag through a tube IS pretty cool. Joe suggests recording the live feed for Bobby so he can witness the carnage, but Alex says he'd see that it wasn't an actual person, thus shattering his weird little illusion. Jo agrees, saying she's a grown adult and even she was hoping to see arms and eyeballs. This poor kid. All he ever wanted was an absorbed twin.

Avery is on the phone with the chief of plastic surgery in Boston. It seems like he's going to turn down the deal, but apparently the terms are quite attractive. Across the room, Stephanie watches him and dismays. When The Other One approaches with news of surgical scheduling, she notes the staring and remarks that Jo was right: she IS that girl. Stephanie knows it, too. Everybody else is worried about losing their jobs, and all she can think of is that she's going to have to stop sleeping with THAT. The Other One scoffs that the sex can't be that good. Stephanie orders her to LOOK at Jackson. Seriously, The Other One. You are a ridiculous person. Get out. TOO the tries to pin the history of feminism on Stephanie for her regressive behavior. Stephanie says TOO is one to talk, since she was hung up on Alex for weeks. TOO is like, "Yeah, but you don't want to be like me. You hate me." Stephanie is like, "Thanks. And I don't hate you." The Other One assures her that she does. She's not alone.

By Joe R

Owen stomps around the halls, looking for Cahill, but he runs right unto Cristina. He has no time for her, but she begs him to listen. She asks if it's true about the liquidation -- THIS is the deal he made. "It's the deal YOU made," he says, when she and Derek and the rest of them all fucked him over. Cristina finally admits to him: "We're trying to buy the hospital." Owen is, to say the least, intrigued.

Meanwhile, Meredith is in the middle of making her pitch to Webber. He tells her he's good for $3 million -- it's everything he has, but he is IN. Aw, Richard. Meredith tells him it's not his money they need (though, seriously, they'll take it if they need to). They need his expertise. When she finally tells him that they're short $175 million, he just starts laughing. So does she. He stops. "It's not really funny, is it?" No, she says, not really. You know, I rag on this show for a lot of its tropes, but the fact that they have brought Meredith Grey from being my least favorite character on this show to my most favorite character is really something.

Cahill and Roberta and the board are in a conference room, going over the division of assets language when Owen barges in with the news that he has another buyer.

Cut to Crest, where the five -- plus Richard -- are ready to make one last pitch. Derek introduces Richard as the management experience he was asking for. Crest is open to hearing this new pitch, in the helicopter on the way to the airfield. He's only got room for two, though, so Derek and Richard it is. As they take off, Callie grouses "NOT FAIR!" Whatever, I'm too busy checking the roof for any signs of Dr. Romano. I no longer trust that helicopters within Seattle Grace's vicinity will not crash. Arizona wonders what they do now. Meredith suggests they head to the airfield to pick the boys up.

Owen is running down the details of the proposed deal, including the doctors backing it. He only asks for one more day. Cahill downplays this group of "disgruntled ex-employees," and she urges the Board to accept the Pegasus deal. If it falls through, they won't be able to cover their debts or make payroll. They'll be broke within a week.

Meredith, Cristina, Callie, and Arizona arrive at the airfield in time to watch Derek and Richard disembark. They attempt to read body language and facial expressions, but those men are inscrutable. As they approach, Derek gives the slightest hint of the shake of his head. Uh-oh.

After the final break, Cristina meets Owen at the bar. Owen is SO proud of himself for getting the board to wait a day. It's pretty crushing for him when Cristina tells him the deal didn't go through. Once again, Crest liked all of them. Once again, he just wasn't feeling it. "So it's over?" he asks. "It's over," she says. They take each other's hand for comfort, at least.

Speaking of comfort, April could use some. Smash comes out to tell her that their patient is asking for her. "Can I ask you something?" he asks her. April's like, "What? How something like this could happen?" She then goes into an extended breakdown about how fucked up it is that the place is closing, how her life has gone over the past year, how the hospital you work at can just shut down, "just when you feel you've gotten your life together." April can be a very annoying character, but Sarah Drew can bring it, you guys. Smash, of course, is awful and says he was only going to ask for a recommendation. I can't blame April when she starts crying. She says asking someone else might be a better idea.

Bailey watches from outside the room as Brooks gives the artificial-veins woman and her family some private time. Everybody is just so happy and relieved. Bailey tells Brooks to go home for the night, but Brooks would rather stick around, which obviously impresses Bailey. I think they both just want to watch the family for a bit. Brooks smiles at Bailey and says she IS the heart of the hospital. Bailey just sadly says, "I was."

Elsewhere, Callie and Arizona sit with Sofia and talk future plans. Should they buy a house? Where? They could move just about anywhere. Arizona suggests building a house, which seems a bit too Derek. Callie briefly brings up selling Mark's apartment, but that's a smidge more future talk than she wants to deal with right now.

Back at home, Cristina and Hunt are rifling through Alex's liquor and settle on some vermouth when Alex busts them and flips out on Cristina for helping ruin Seattle Grace. Cristina finally tells him that they were trying to buy the hospital and they screwed up. She says she's sorry, which is probably the most New Cristina thing I have ever heard. Alex busts out the good scotch and demands that Cristina and Owen tell him the whole story.

At the Shepherd-Grey Crystal Cathedral, Derek is writing Smash that letter of recommendation. He's writing one for each of the interns, in fact. Meredith asks if she can do the one for Brooks.

Elsewhere, Richard and Catherine are in bed, him telling her the story of the attempted buy-out. He's really melancholy about it. She asks him about future plans, and he brings up Boston. She didn't want to bring it up, but she's not sad about it. "I poured so much of myself into Seattle Grace," Richard says. "Always seemed like a foregone conclusion that I would end my career there." He says he's not ready to retire yet, and that he never thought the hospital would be gone before he was. Catherine suddenly is curious: "How much more money did they need?" A-HA!

The morning, the Five, plus Owen, plus Jackson all arrive at a hotel at the behest of Richard. He beckons the latecomers into the ballroom, where Catherine is waiting. And she is absolutely wearing her dance clothes right now, so I approve. Catherine takes the long way to announce it, but we're all there, right? Catherine says that the Harper-Avery would be pleased to invest in Seattle Grace Mercy West. Only one condition: since the Foundation will be putting up the majority of the funds, they request a representative of their choosing to sit on the board of directors. Everybody is delighted ... except for Jackson, who wonders why his mom dragged him to this meeting. So she could tell him she's moving to Seattle to be his boss? Oh no! Catherine won't be the one sitting on the board. The Foundation is electing HIM to sit on the Board. As majority shareholder. Jackson Avery is IN CHARGE, you guys. EVERYBODY is freaked out.

By Joe R

At the Shepherd-Grey Crystal Cathedral, Derek is writing Smash that letter of recommendation. He's writing one for each of the interns, in fact. Meredith asks if she can do the one for Brooks.

Joe R, for one, welcomes our new smoking hot overlord. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.