Storm Surge

S09E23

Seattle is supposedly three days away from being hit by a megastorm, and so the hospital is gearing up by sending away any non-emergent patients and stocking up on supplies. They also have to print out all of the electronic patient records in case the power goes out, and Bailey decides she can help out by doing that since she's still not ready for surgery. She enlists Smash's help and this makes him super insecure since he's convinced that ever since Derek dumped him, people think he's a crappy surgeon.

When Owen needs help on a case Richard tries to get Bailey to help but she refuses, and he finally comes to the conclusion that she needs the figurative Band-Aid ripped off to knock her back into operating again. After the surgery, he comes out and hollers at her that when she's ordered by her boss to go into surgery, she goes, because she's a surgeon and they need her. She gets all, "You're not my boss," but he points out that he owns a piece of the hospital so actually that kind of makes him so. Plus, it was supposedly Owen who had asked for her earlier, and he IS her boss. She is supremely pissed, but as the storm rolls in she puts her and Smash's names on the surgical board so the method seems to have worked.

It's the day of the surgery for little baby Tyler and Lauren continues to charm everyone she works with, especially Arizona. The two of them flirt shamelessly throughout the day, noting that they are both total control freaks. The surgery goes flawlessly and Lauren even convinces Jackson to do part of it that he was going to just watch, so everyone is happy. Arizona then shows Lauren to an on-call room since she wants to stay and monitor the baby overnight, and once inside the storm arrives two days early, the power goes out, and Lauren cheesily tells Arizona that it's okay to lose control once in a while. As the lightning flashes, Arizona locks the door and they start tearing off each others' clothes.

As the staff is prepping, a construction worker in brought to the ER who fell three stories and had his fall cushioned by three pieces of rebar that miraculously missed all of his arteries and major organs. April is stoked for the case since she's about to re-take her Boards and she thinks this will be perfect to show what she can do. When Owen tries to take it over, she stands up for herself in a decidedly un-April way and so he lets her have it after all. Things get complicated when they realize they have to use an actual saw to cut the metal, blah blah sparks oxygen OR danger explosion blah. Ben is still at the hospital supporting Bailey and winds up helping out Owen, April, Mere and Callie come up with a way to do the surgery that hopefully won't kill them all. Owen kicks out Mere because she's 37 weeks pregnant and he doesn't want her in a potentially exploding room, and he kicks out April because someone needs to continue to stock the shelves. April gets super upset and is venting to Jackson when another trauma is brought in only once she's out in the ambulance bay, it turns out to actually be a flash mob proposal from Matthew, which Owen knew all about and that's why he was trying to keep her out of the OR. It's really cute, and she totally says yes and then shares a Meaningful Glance with Jackson that I think says she is ready to move on, but he might not be so ready.

Mere is heading up the stairs, mad because she was kicked out of the surgery, when she slips on a step and falls right on her stomach. She goes to OB to get checked out and happily, everything is totally fine and she keeps insisting to Derek that she wants to work up until she delivers. As they get ready to spend the night in the hospital she's reiterating this to him as her water breaks, and they both happily go to have their baby boy.

Owen is still conflicted by how close he's grown to Ethan, and he blows a fuse when he finds out that Grandma was asking Cristina about withdrawing care. He barely will listen to a word Cristina says, only yelling that it's not time yet. In frustration Cristina runs scans for the millionth time and happens to catch that Paul has a tiny blood clot in his brain that could explain why he hasn't woken up. Derek and Heather operate on it, and then wait to see what happens. Meanwhile, Owen finally has a talk with Meredith about how she knew that she wanted to adopt Zola and admits that he's having the same feelings about Ethan even though he knows that this could be a major issue for his relationship. But just as he comes to the conclusion that he wants to do it, Cristina happily runs in to announce that Paul is awake and fine. When Owen sees Ethan in his dad's arms, he angrily orders him moved to Seattle Pres ASAP under the excuse of the coming storm, but really because his heart is broken and he can't watching father and son together. And poor Cristina is left massively confused and hurt at his attitude towards her.

Picking up right where last week left off, Alex takes care of Princess, puts her to bed, and then runs off into the night ominously saying he's going to handle things. The we see is Alex at the hospital with an unconscious Jason who has been beaten to a pulp. Alex is very cagey about what happened and when Mere and Cristina confront him about it, he claims Jason was already unconscious when he found him. Princess shows up at the hospital just at that moment to admit that she was the one who beat Jason up after he grabbed her arm, and that he then fell and hit his head on the fireplace but was conscious when she left. Alex sends Princess home and tells her to stay quiet, and they all keep the secret for now about what happened.

Fortunately for them, Derek is Derek so the surgery is a success and Jason wakes up but when he does, he asks to talk to the police. Alex goes to see him first and basically blackmails him into not reporting the incident; Derek overhears and then lays into Alex for the blackmail, but he also kind of lets it ride. Alex then goes home and yells at Princess for being an idiot who could have landed in jail, and she yells back that people are horrible and awful but after a few moments realizes that maybe Alex isn't horrible since he was possibly going to kill Jason himself and then was possibly going to take the fall for her. Their touching conversation is interrupted when a giant tree is then blown through the window and while it doesn't kill either of them or start a fire with all of the candles around, it signals that week everything is basically going to be smashed to bits.

After Princess showed up on Alex's doorstep with a beaten face last week, of course he lets her in and he helps her put ice on her black eye while he asks what happened. Princess is crying (one of the few times I'll allow it) and tells Alex that she and Jason were arguing about how he can never trust her again since she lied about who she was. Well, and while I think this is a completely idiotic storyline because dude, tell your live-in boyfriend about your past, she didn't lie so much as omit, I think. Alex concludes that Jason hit her and Princess wails that it, "Just got so bad!" Let's all make a note that she didn't actually say he hit her. Mere's voice tells us that bad things always come without warning. One could argue that good things do, too, but if I said that I might be spoiling some later voiceover, oops! And also, good things coming suddenly doesn't make for the end of a Grey's season, and we're at our penultimate episode where things have to continue to fall to pieces to set up cliffhangers week. Back to Alex, he tucks Princess into bed and assures her he's safe, then tells her to call if she needs him. It seems to have not occurred to her that he'd run out to "fix" this situation and she yells after him, wondering where he's going. He just pulls up his hood and races down the stairs.

The morning, April walks in to work amid a bunch of people bringing in sandbags and other supplies, and looks thoroughly confused at the fuss. Owen has to explain that a massive storm with hurricane-force winds and heavy rain is three days away from hitting Seattle. Seriously, does she live under a rock? Because as someone who went for a long weekend trip to NY three days before Superstorm Sandy hit (and wound up staying a week instead) I can promise that at this point no one would have absolutely no knowledge of this coming storm. I guess Owen needed a way to tell all of us the information, though. He hands her a workbook with their disaster protocols and tells her that they need to stock up on supplies, extra beds, and gurneys since they'll probably bring in about twice as many patients as they are used to.

Owen then gathers the staff to prepare them for the storm, and he tells them to discharge any patients they can and send any long-term or post-op patients to Seattle Pres. He adds that they will be refueling the backup generators, which is one of the first things I thought of when we learned this storm would round out the season. Mere is annoyed at the idea that non-urgent surgeries will be postponed but Derek points out that she could slow down seeing as how she's only three weeks from her due date. Before Mere can bite his head off at the idea, Alex comes up and urgently asks Derek to come with him.

By Lauren S

Callie asks Arizona if the baby we met last week, Tyler, will be postponed but Arizona is quick to say that his brain is on his face, so it's not an elective procedure they can postpone and then touchily adds that they have three days, GAWD. Callie realizes she's touchy but has no idea that it's because Arizona likes handing out with Sexy Lauren. Owen announces that they have to print out all of the electronic patient charts and is shocked when Bailey steps out of the crowd to say that she'll do it. Owen, in what feels kind of like a deliberate misunderstanding, welcomes her back and says he'll put her back on rotation but she corrects that she means she'll print out all the charts. Well, at least she's speaking to people again?

Ben is hanging out there to support her and Richard looks worried and asks how she is doing. Ben is Captain Obvious as he explains that she still feels like she'll kill anyone she touches. He tried to get her to go to LA for a break, but when she heard about the storm she said she had to stay and help. (See, April?) Richard asks if there's anything he can do and Ben carefully starts to answer when Richard finishes that he knows she would take help from anyone but him. Ben does look sympathetic and it's nice to know he's not ganging up on Richard blindly.

Alex leads Derek to a patient, explaining that he brought the guy in a few hours earlier but he wanted to wait for Derek to get in and treat him. The unconscious, beaten patient on the gurney? None other than Jason.

Lauren and Arizona are telling baby Tyler's parents about the surgery and what they can expect, and when Lauren is done with the technical things Arizona tells them that she knows it's useless to tell them not to worry since they will, but that she personally isn't worried at all. The parents thank her heartily.

Out in the hall, Lauren flirts some more with Arizona about how she knew exactly what to say which must be some secret parent mojo. Arizona realizes that Lauren must have learned from the internet that she was a mother, and for a moment seems a little perturbed by it all. Look, we all stalk people on the internet. But I feel like you don't admit to just how deeply you stalked until you're at least on a second date. But Arizona just admits that she also researched Lauren and learned that they studied under the same surgeon. Her discomfort gone, the two laugh about the guy's bad breath and then Lauren tells her that she's going to let Arizona do part of the surgery since she knows she's capable after studying with Dr. Stankbreath. Lauren then asks Arizona if she wants to get coffee but that turns out to be too much for Arizona, and she stutters that she has to get some other stuff done first. As she walks off, Lauren calls that she's probably going to go look up Lauren some more and instead of telling her to calm down with the Googling, already, Arizona just flirts back a little bit as she walks away. Seriously, this makes no sense. After everything they have been through, I'm having a really hard time believing that Arizona would be THIS taken with some new woman.

Ethan and Owen are back at Paul's bedside, and Owen has apparently just explained to Ethan that he might be going into foster care. As Ethan asks questions and appears generally skeptical about the idea, we can see Grandma and Cristina having a conversation in the hall. Ethan is worried that his family will be like the Dursleys in Harry Potter but Owen promises that he won't be shoved into a cupboard under the stairs. Ethan asks if he can stay with Paul if he wakes up and Owen cautiously tells him yes, if Paul wakes up. Grandma then comes in and seems to have no idea what to say, so she fusses that Ethan needs to eat his yogurt. Owen shoots Ethan a sympathetic look and tells him not to worry.

Out in the hall, Cristina tells Owen that she was just discussing withdrawal of care with Grandma. Owen turns an interesting shade of purple while Cristina continues that Grandma was the one who brought it up but Owen won't let her finish talking as he angrily tells her that this is way too soon to consider it. Cristina holds her ground, though, and says that she explained that eight days of no improvement means that the neurological problems are more likely permanent. Owen drops his last shred of maturity as he spits, "Of course you did." It sucks that he is the boss so there's no boss there to remind him again that he's too close to this and needs to at least think like a doctor when having a conversation about care with another doctor. Cristina stays incredibly calm and gentle while she sticks to her guns and tells him that she wasn't going to lie but Owen hollers that it's too soon, and storms off. Cristina turns to Stephanie and in a last-ditch desperate effort to rescue her relationship tells Steph to run all of the tests and scans yet again.

Owen gets on the elevator and finds Meredith there; he keeps opening his mouth to say something but stopping himself, until finally he asks if he can ask her something. She's a little nervous in that way all of us are when we hear that question, since it can often be about something you wanted no part of, but she tells him yes. He then asks how, when they adopted Zola, they really knew it was something they wanted to do. Mere is surprised at the question but when she asks why, he cuts her off, embarrassed, and tells her to forget it.

April is calling instructions to Leah about prepping the ER when a patient is brought in who had the unfortunate luck to be blown off of a building on which he was working, down four stories and onto three pieces of rebar. Leah pleads for his name to be Bob so that she can cleverly dub him "Shishkabob" but Shishkabob speaks up that his name is Leon. Leah tries to melt into the asphalt and disappear as she profusely apologizes. Leon is understandably worried about his skewered condition but April points out that he's not as bad as he could be if he can talk to them. She then calls for Mere and Callie to be paged. Once inside Owen tries to take the case, saying he needs her to keep prepping supplies. But she flips out on him, saying that she's about to retake her oral Boards and this is the perfect case for them to look at. Owen still tries to keep her in the ER but she finally yells that he was the one who said she should be less of an administrator and more of a surgeon, and this is her crazy awesome case. Owen can't really argue with himself, so he allows her to go but warns that he's going to step in if things get bad. She positively skips down the hall, assuring him he won't have to.

By Lauren S

Heather has joined Derek at Jason's bedside and Derek is totally unamused when she says things like, "someone super messed him up," rather than actually using medical terms. She grudgingly uses doctorese to say that Jason has a terrible hemorrhage that needs to be drained immediately, as well as a fractured skull. Derek orders her to book an OR and then turns and asks Alex who did this to him. Alex refuses to answer and just pleads with Derek not to let him die. Derek's understandably alarmed but agrees, just this once, to actually make a full effort not to let his patient perish.

Leon turns out to be the luckiest man in the history of construction accidents since his scans show that the bars missed his major arteries and his liver (though it does appear to have sliced right through a bone). The problem is that the bars are wrought metal, and Mere points out that they could shred all of his vessels when they try to pull it out. April instructs them to cut the bars as close to his body as possible to minimize the damage but the problem is that even bone cutters won't begin to touch the metal. Poor Leon, still awake, advises them that they need some particular grinder and Callie thanks him. They then send Leah running out to go find whatever it is.

Both of them run in holding masks over their mouths and holler at the doctors that they can't grind metal in a room that's full of oxygen since it will spark and blow them all up. Everyone is pretty freaked out that this almost just happened, and Mere points out that she's been through a similar situation before. Ben asked how it worked out that time and she admits, "Not great." Poor, hot, pink misted Coach Taylor.

Arizona arrives to scrub in for her surgery and is surprised to see Lauren already there. What a coincidence that both of them like to get in early and oversee prep because they are control freaks! I would assume that control freakery was a trait of more surgeons than not, but they take it as another sign that they are totally have some sort of psychic connection. Because Lauren isn't just a predatory monster, she explains to Arizona that she wants her to do the reconstruction because the more people that can do the procedure, the safer the world will be for kids everywhere with their brains growing outside their skulls. But then she adds that this is also something for Arizona to remember her by. The two share a flirty, giggly, loaded glance before Jackson walks in and interrupts.

April, Owen, and the others try to figure out how they might cut down the rebar without blowing them all to pink mist, and Ben stays to help figure it out. Eventually, they come up with a plan that Ben will stay and manually ventilate Leon so that they can turn off the oxygen and run the grinder. When his levels start to get too low, they'll stop grinding, pump him back up with oxygen, and then cut it off and grind again. They agree this is their best shot but Owen orders everyone else out of the OR because it's still incredibly dangerous. Callie points out that someone needs to hold the bars steady, while April points out that someone will have to irrigate the grinder so it doesn't get too hot and melt Leon's blood vessels. Owen has to grudgingly admit that these are very good points, but orders Mere out. She gets totally offended since it's because she is pregnant, and she tries to argue that Callie is a mom too. But Ben points out that Callie didn't bring her child to the OR that day. Hee, I miss Ben. Callie agrees that this is a good point, and Owen orders Mere out.

She runs into Derek in the hallway, who is upset that he just got kicked out of his OR. I'm guessing that this is to get them away from the potential oxygen explosion. Mere gripes about being kicked out of the OR but grudgingly admits it's because Owen didn't want her to blow up, so Derek supports his Chief's decision. He then tells Mere that she should check in with Alex since he just brought in a friend with a brain bleed. When she hears who the patient is, though, she runs off to find Alex and yells to Derek that Jason is definitely not Alex's friend.

By Lauren S

The rebar cutting is still going on, and sparks are still flying. Owen goes on longer than he should since he thinks he's almost through, and the sparks set a box of gauze aflame. Everyone freaks out and the girls throw themselves over Leon's body as Owen finishes cutting through the bar, grabs an extinguisher, and puts out the fire. Since all of the bars are cut, he tells Callie to go scrub in (again?) and orders April back to the ER. She's offended and incredibly hurt and the two of them get into a screaming match about if he'll need another set of hands. Richard has been watching from the gallery, apparently not too worried about the room below him erupting in a fireball. He calls down that he'll find someone to fill in. April is completely aghast but Owen finally hollers at her that he needs her in the ER more than he needs her here, and he's not going to ask again. April storms out but once she leaves, Callie good-naturedly compliments Owen on the yelling. It seemed mildly confusing at the time, but I just thought Callie must have some beef with April and appreciated Owen taking a firm hand with her.

Lauren, Arizona and Jackson are in surgery, and Lauren wants Jackson to take the reconstruction portion. He tells her he's happy to watch her work -- and that seems sincere -- but Arizona can't help but tease him for being chicken, adding that he can run a hospital but he's still a bay. Lauren looks up, in awe, and comments, "You're part of the Grey Sloan Seven!" Jackson has no idea what she's talking about but she assures them that they are legends for buying the hospital and saving the staff. So hang on a second, you're telling me the internet whiz who learned every personal detail about Arizona (fine, it's not hard with that name, but still) also knew about the "Grey Sloan Seven" but somehow didn't realize that the Dr. Avery she was working with was the very same Dr. Avery who now runs the joint? I don't believe it for a second. This is just super clumsy exposition. Arizona makes another joke about control freaks but Lauren is genuine when she tells them how impressed she is, and Arizona suddenly gets uncomfortable at the sincerity of it all. Fortunately, it's her turn to get in there and work so she can focus on something else other than the sexual tension.

As Smash prints out files he asks Bailey why she picked him when he's a surgical intern. She's not amused by the question but he confesses that ever since Derek kicked him to the curb he's been worried that everyone thinks he's inept. Bailey has no time for this pity party and just asks if he wants to be responsible for killing a patient. She then lays out a scenario: the power goes out, they lose access to the electronic charts, a printed chart is not available, and the patient dies. Smash still has enough of his wits about him to point out how extremely hypothetical this is but Bailey won't hear it and just demands to know how he'd feel. He's finally saved when Richard comes up and tells her that Owen needs her to scrub in and help on a surgery. She visibly tenses and mutters that she can't because she's already printing, and Richard is completely appalled. She seems to be growing a bit embarrassed but sticks to her guns and says that if she stops, she'll lose her place. Smash offers his services but much to his disappointment, Richard spits that he'll do it himself. He glares at Bailey but she refuses to look at him.

By Lauren S

Heather and Derek do the surgery with Cristina looking in through the window. Do I even need to say that Heather is acting weird and Derek is annoyed? Unfortunately, something seems to be going wrong with the procedure.

Princess is running down the stairs when Mere catches up with her. Princess tells her that she didn't mean to hurt Jason, but she was trying to get away and she lost it. Mere isn't really interested in excuses and just warns her that while she likes her, but she loves Alex, and she's worried that he might be enough of an idiot to try and take the fall for Princess. She insists she would never let him do that but... her leaving for the time being feels like maybe a part of her would in fact let that happen. Because come on, what else would Alex be thinking? Princess then continues on her way, and Mere turns to go back upstairs. When she passes the construction worker with his grinder in hand and learns that the rebar removal is over, she gets frustrated that they didn't call and starts to jog up the stairs. And then, in a TV soap opera overused, clichéd scene we've all seen millions of times before, she slips on the stairs and lands on her stomach before falling down to the landing. She is super shaky and tries to whisper, "Help!" and begins to cry, frightened, as she tries to hoist herself up. Why can no one think of anything else to happen to pregnant ladies on television? I have known a whole lot of pregnant ladies in my life, and falling down stairs is not a rampant problem as TV dramas and movies would lead you to believe.

Cristina is still watching Paul's surgery as Derek gets the stent into place and advises that he's teaching Heather confidence. A nurse then comes in with the message that Mere fell down the stairs and is fine but is still going to OB to get checked out. I am amazed that they actually gave him the message and that Mere didn't try to be some sort of hero and brush off an exam, that's for sure. Heather immediately tells him, weirdness gone, that she can finish the surgery and he can go. He says that she can't, but she proceeds to tell him in perfect doctorese how she will finish up. He listens to her and after going through it all in his own head, agrees to it and leaves. On the other side of the window, Cristina starts to panic, yelling at Heather to get her hands off of Paul.

Richard, Owen, Callie and Ben are talking about Bailey's refusal while they operate. Richard admits that she might have just said no because he was the one asking, but I think it was for sure more than that. Owen finally remembers that he had PTSD once and says that he totally understands what she's going through. Callie adds that Arizona also went through the same thing -- seriously, I hope they offer mental health benefits to anyone thinking of working at Grey Sloan -- and that they can't rush Bailey back to work. Ben has stayed silent this whole time, listening to the others, but Richard answers her. He begs Ben's forgiveness and then says that with someone like Bailey, sometimes you need to rip off the Band-Aid. He then majestically reaches in and pulls out the last piece of rebar from Leon's body.

Arizona, Lauren and Jackson are finishing up Tyler's surgery, and Jackson thanks Lauren for pushing him to do the procedure. She's gracious, and then leaves to go relieve her tiny bladder. Once she's gone Jackson gushes about how she is "one of those people," like Mark, who makes you feel capable of anything. He continues on about how he took that for granted in Mark, not realizing that Arizona is thinking about how she might be capable of stepping outside of her marriage to the wife she adores so much. Jackson adds that he wishes Lauren would stay longer, since he hasn't felt like this in a long time. I am so disgusted that Arizona's response is a slightly wistful, "Yeah." Wait, so she and Callie fight to get the passion back after EVERYTHING they have been through, and the passion issue was much more Arizona's, and they only JUST got their mojo back, but now Arizona's all aflutter to feel that passion for someone else? I seriously am not buying it. This is out of left field.

Mere is having an ultrasound and the doc tells her and Derek that the baby is totally fine. They insist she talk in doctorese and so she does, explaining how everything is as it should be and Fetus is just great. She adds that Mere is lucky, and Mere answers that she is just sore. On first viewing I thought she was lying and covering up something bad, but on second viewing I think she's more embarrassed than anything. Especially when Derek can't help but point out that he wanted her to slow down. Mere is still bitter about getting thrown out of the exploding OR and points out that if she'd been there, this never would have happened.

April is angrily throwing supplies on a shelf when Jackson comes by, still on a surgical high. He finally asks her what's wrong and she tells him that Owen has been actively keeping her off surgeries, and she doesn't know why that is but fears he has no confidence in her abilities any more. Jackson immediately offers to talk to him but April tells him she doesn't want him fighting for her. They are interrupted when a nurse comes in to tell her they have a trauma arriving.

In a very sweet scene that speaks to all the three have been through together, even more so than their powwow about Jason's condition, Alex and Cristina help Meredith to sit down while they worriedly quiz her about her fall. She insists that she's fine, and the only reason she fell is because she now has a cow's center of gravity with her giant belly. As they talk the staff all starts running down the hall, and one nurse finally stops and tells them, "It's time. It's happening." They seem totally confused, and I thought this was a very odd way for them to announce that Not-Sandy had arrived.

April runs into the ambulance bay where Nicole and another paramedic pull out a patient with tightness in his chest, like his "heart is going to burst." I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) starts playing and April really confusedly asks where it's coming from as she tries to check on the patient. Nicole and the other guy start swinging the gurney around in a circle to April's annoyance, but then the patient jumps up and as April shrieks he and the two paramedics start dancing to the song. Nicole especially looks ridiculously cute as she beams with glee. Other people start pouring out of other ambulances and April seems thoroughly confused when she recognizes some of them, and they all join in the dance. Clearly she has been too busy working and hasn't been watching a lot of flash mobs on the internets. Of our regular doctors, I think Callie might be the only one who had any idea of what was going to happen; she and Arizona both grin while Cristina looks appalled at the spectacle. Matthew runs down the stairs and joins in the dance which includes picking April up and spinning her around while she keeps asking what's going on. Alex and Cristina can't believe April actually found someone as dorky as she is. Cristina looks absolutely horrified at the spectacle, and her disgust is one of the best things in the whole scene. Lauren is of course out there flashing looks at Arizona, who is still aflutter. Finally, Matthew gets down on one knee, Nicole hands him a ring box, and he proposes to April. I find him about as compelling as a loaf of bread, but it's actually all extremely cute. When he finally asks the question, a crying April says yes and the dancers all throw confetti and/or rose petals in the air over them. As Matthew wraps her up in a hug, she looks over his shoulder and sees Jackson, who gives her a smile and a tiny nod as if to give his blessing and she buries her head in Matthew's neck with a smile.

As night falls, rain begins to fall. Alex bitches to Mere about how April gets a flash mob proposal while he gets crazy, cancer, and psycho maniac girls. He declares that he's walking away, but Mere won't let him wallow and asks what he would have done if he got to Jason first, knowing they wouldn't have sat down to a rational conversation. She knows Jason would probably be in even worse shape right now if Alex had gotten to him first. But then she loses me completely when she suggests, "Maybe her crazy fits your crazy." Wait, what? "Don't give up on her yet." Why not? So the two of them can beat up people together? This girl has been nothing but an unsympathetic pain in the ass since she arrived here. I really do think we were supposed to like Princess, or see that she has tragedy to explain her behavior and be sympathetic and learn to love her hidden inner goodness or some such bull. But the informal poll I've conducted of every friend I have who watches this show tells me that this is 100% not the case. Heather then walks in to tell them that Jason is awake, and fine, but he's asking for the police.

By Lauren S

Out in the hallway, Derek asks what he said and Alex is shocked that he heard that. For one moment he thinks Derek must be on his side but Derek instead lays into him for blackmailing and threatening people. Alex tries to defend his actions by pointing out that Jason now won't press charges, so no one else will get hurt. But Derek is just disgusted at it and walks off as ominous lightning flashes. Of course, he doesn't run in and convince Jason that Alex made a mistake and he should go ahead talking to the cops either.

Richard storms up to Bailey, and gets to Band-Aid ripping. He hollers that when the Chief orders her to scrub in, she scrubs in. Bailey acidly points out that he's no longer Chief, which come ON. Even for Bailey, that's a dumb comeback because she knows the situation full well. I can't help but feel like there was some serious senioritis in the writers' room by this point. Richard just calmly points out that he's part owner of the hospital which DOES make him her boss after all, and then reminds her that she's a surgeon and not a file clerk. He then tells her that they need surgeons, not file clerks, and if she's not a surgeon she's to get out because they don't need her. He then turns and walks away, while Smash shoots a terrified glance at Bailey's face for her reaction, which so far is blank.

Leon is awake, and Owen goes in and gives him a piece of the rebar as a souvenir. Mere waits outside for him and then once he comes out, she lectures him that he had no right to kick her out of the OR but admits that she knows he was protecting her and thanks him for that. She then brings the conversation back around to his question from earlier and tells him that when they adopted Zola, she just... knew. She admits that she was scared but that once she picked her up, she knew it was meant to be, even if that's kind of vague and unhelpful. Owen tells her that Ethan needs someone and they really like each other. That's not a super ringing adoption endorsement but then he goes on to say that Ethan needs help and Owen knows how to help and could totally do it. He keeps talking himself of it because Ethan isn't his kid and also because it's a major decision that would pretty much uproot everything else in his life, but says that each time he sees Ethan he then can't imagine not doing this. Mere pauses and then tells him that everything he's saying is exactly how she felt. What Owen is most worried about is that Cristina won't understand. But Mere just smiles at him, a rather Mona Lisa smile that I don't quite get - is she saying she thinks Cristina would come around? Or that this decision might be worth more than his relationship? I don't know, and regardless, Cristina comes running around the corner and tells Owen something is up with Paul, and he needs to come now.

By Lauren S

Paul is still unconscious when Derek goes to check on him, and we can tell through the windows that the storm is arriving. Derek admits that he's worried about the complications during surgery, and Cristina beats herself up for missing it before. Derek assures her that she didn't miss it -- that's why he was able to take it out. He tries to assure her that she did everything she could, but she can't ease up on herself and frets about Paul's still being unconscious.

Tyler's parents are back at his bedside, and sincerely thank Arizona and Lauren for their work. Afterwards, the two walk down the hall and talk wistfully about what an amazing day it was. Arizona asks Lauren if there's anything else she can do, and Lauren says that Arizona can show her to an on-call room. She has to know the implications of this because I refuse to believe that Grey Sloan is the only sex den hospital around, but it's the most straightforward she's said anything all day. Arizona almost chokes as she asks why, and Lauren tells her it's because she likes to stay close for the first night after surgery to make sure there are no complications. Arizona again comments on the control freak trait, and they share a moment about how much Arizona gets Lauren. No matter how hard they try to bludgeon me over the head with us, I can't believe that she feels more of a connection with this woman than she does with Callie, even if she does have the coolest name around.

Lightning is beginning to flash, which makes Jason's waking up all the more dramatic. As he comes to, he sees Alex sitting by his bed but just asks if the cops have arrived yet. Alex, though, wants to have a conversation first. Jason tells him that Princess is a lunatic, disturbed, and a liar. Alex doesn't respond to this, but instead calmly reminds him what a good job and life he has here. He then starts casually talking about all of his friends and how they own the hospital and don't like guys who hit girls. Jason is indignant, protesting that Princess hit him first, "What was I supposed to do?" This whole time I never actually thought Jason was an asshole, I just thought Alex classified him as such because he was a love rival. But with that statement, Jason is now wholly being painted as the bad seed. Alex points out that when a girl hits you, you either take it or you walk away. And I'm not trying to excuse a girl's behavior, because I think it's ridiculous that they should get a pass to hit people, but seriously. Hitting her back is never going to win any points with anyone ever. He points out that no one will ever care about Jason's side of the story once they know he hit his girlfriend, and threatens that the story could follow him around for the rest of his life. Jason points out that this is blackmail, but its effective blackmail, so he really doesn't have anything to come back with. Alex asks him what he wants to do , and when Jason is silent, Alex walks out.

Meanwhile, Arizona has just taken Lauren into the on-call room. The two of them have a very nervous and giggly conversation as they try to figure out how to say goodbye. Arizona admits that she's sorry it's over, and after a bit more flirting they share a long look. She finally sticks out her hand, but Lauren laughs and the two wind up sharing a hug. Shockingly, the power then cuts out while they are in an embrace, and lightning flashes show us that the two started kissing feverishly at that same moment, and one of them managed to slam the door so at least Callie's heart won't be shattered RIGHT away with this inexplicable turn of events. As some low lights turn back on Arizona tries to leave, aghast at what she has done. But Lauren calls to her and tells her she's allowed to lose a little bit of control. And that's all well and good when, say, you decide to try skydiving. But it usually doesn't apply to MARRIAGE. But Arizona reaches back and locks the door, and the two just get to ripping each other's clothes off.

Alex gets home, where Princess has found dozens of pillar candles and lit them all over the living room since the power is out there too. In TV Land, there are candle stores on every corner and people make sure that, even if they don't have enough money to eat, they happen to have enough candles for dramatic, romantic mood lighting. Alex lays into her for nearly killing Jason, pointing out the ramifications that Mere and Cristina pointed out to him: jail, firing. He then points out that she says she's trying to be a new person, but then she goes and does this. WORD. WORDY MCWORD. THIS IS WORDTOWN AND I AM THE MAYOR. (Though I still maintain that she hasn't tried really hard to be anything other than a pain in the ass who feels sorry for herself. But STILL.) He tells her that Jason isn't pressing charges but then warns her to grow up, already. Her response? She shoves him.

[We pause for one moment while your recapper seeks medical attention for the injury she just sustained rolling her eyes too hard.]

Honey, you just nearly accidentally murdered someone. Maybe try to find some other way to deal with your anger than physical assault? She then proceeds to cry that people aren't like Alex; people are horrible. Yes, like you. She alludes to the fact that the last time someone grabbed her like that, she was assaulted. And of course that is horrific and should be dealt with, but living her life like this isn't the answer. After moaning about how horrible people are, she stares at Alex a minute and it dawns on her that now he thinks she's horrible too. Well, he'd just be joining the rest of us over here but inexplicably, he admits that he doesn't and that if he'd gotten to Jason first, he'd probably have killed him. Princess then has the gall to act all surprised and ask why he'd do that for her. I echo Alex's response: SHUT UP. I do not echo his follow-up: Why wouldn't I? And then, as they stare at each other will all sorts of feeeeelings, a giant tree blows through the window. Its aim is bad so neither of them is trapped. Mere VOs a super subtle line that bad things come out of nowhere.

By Lauren S

What's up is that Paul is finally awake, and doing totally fine. Owen sees Ethan in his dad's arms and the happiness of the family as Cristina explains that all of his tests have come back good and he's fine. At first Owen is smiling, but then it seems to hit him that he's not going to be in Ethan's life after all. Gruffly, he orders Cristina to transfer him to Seattle Pres as soon as possible since the storm is moving in and they need the room. Poor Cristina is utterly baffled by his attitude, since she finally accomplished the one thing Owen kept begging her to do.

Sure enough, the storm is getting crazy. Heather bounds up to Derek and tells him she did rounds on all of his patients, and he thanks her for stepping up when he needed her to. But of course she can't be totally un-weird, so she puts up her hands for a high five. Since she came through, though, Derek now seems inclined to accept her and tells her happily to stay weird. What they didn't know is that Smash was sitting behind a pile of charts listening to the whole thing, and he seems jealous and upset as usual. But then Bailey walks by and grabs him, much to his dismay.

Jackson is putting surgeon names up on the board when a giddy Matthew comes up looking for Owen, to thank him for keeping April out of surgery all day. He's so excited that everything went off without a hitch, and Jackson tells him congratulations. When he turns back to the board, though, he's blinking a lot which I'm interpreting to mean he's sad. Yes, that could mean he's fighting back tears but those limpid green eyes are dry as a bone. Before he knows what is happening, Bailey marches up, pulls the marker out of his hands, and writes her name and Smash's on the board. She then turns and demands to know if Smash is still awake, which he is, and now he's delighted. Jackson just blinks some more. Is this the new "smell the fart" acting?

By Lauren S

[We pause for one moment while your recapper seeks medical attention for the injury she just sustained rolling her eyes too hard.]

Callie, Derek and Mere are setting up cots in the lounge as they prepare to hunker down for the storm; the daycare is staying open 24 hours to keep the kids. Callie seems a little worried that she can't find Arizona, but just busies herself getting ready. Derek is still worried about Meredith but she tells him she wants to work until... she stops short, and Derek freaks out, but then she smiles and announces that her water just broke. Her voice reminds us that good things can come suddenly out of nowhere, too.

Lauren S is a writer who lives and works in Atlanta and has a tendency to pick delicately at Band-Aids for a while before ripping them off. 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."