Picking up almost immediately where we left off in December, we learn that April and Jackson ran out of her beautiful wedding hand in hand, grins on their faces. Once in the car, however, April starts to panic. She pulls herself back together and is sure that she wants to be with Jackson, but later freaks out again and gets out of the car on the side of the road to have an anxiety attack.
At the same time, we see that James isn't dead, but he's in a really bad way, and the docs piece together that Smash was hallucinating that James was Heather because he hadn't gotten any sleep. Alex isn't going to forgive this, though, and also fully blames Cristina for turning Smash into a surgical monster. Other pertinent post-wedding happenings: Mere is incensed to learn that Derek told the president that he'd continue his research, and Arizona finally snaps and yells at Callie that she doesn't want to be fixed because she's not broken, but she's pretty sure their relationship is.
Cut to three weeks later -- James is dying, and Alex lies to his wife, telling her James is dead so that she'll come to Seattle to pick up his things. When she arrives Alex introduces Jo as his fiancée, which Jo finds awfully confusing since she doesn't remember him asking her to marry him. Alex takes Mrs. James to his room, and she's furious to realize that James is still alive. All she then wants to do is take back his guitar, which was her father's and which James stole. When James wakes up, he's desperate to see the family and tells Alex he wants to give back the guitar, so Alex lies that they haven't arrived yet and then sits vigil by James' bedside. Smash goes to him and tries to apologize, and Alex loses it and starts to beat him to a pulp. Fortunately, Cristina and Mere (who finally are doing a surgery together and mending their friendship!) find him and pull him off; Mere holds Alex in a hug, in a surprisingly touching moment, while Cristina goes and stitches up Smash's face. He's had a hard day with Owen trying to humiliate him in the name of teaching, and is convinced he's a mess. Cristina acknowledges that he's made mistakes, but reminds him that he helped save Baby Nathan's life so he should remember that he's not a complete waste. Sadly, James does end up dying, but only after Alex assures him that his family is on the way and that Alex told Mrs. James about how badly James wanted to return the guitar.
During another fight, Ben admits to Bailey that he didn't quit surgery because he wanted to do so and that he still loves it. Someone seems to finally remember that there's an opening in the program in Seattle since Heather died, so he joins as the newest resident and he and Bailey seem to finally be getting along better even if she does embarrass him by packing his lunch every day like his mom. She was hoping he'd provide some gossip, especially about what is going on with Jackson and April, since no one knows what happened between them after they ran out on the wedding, but he knows nothing.
Somehow, Callie and Arizona go from Arizona saying that their relationship isn't working to buying a house together three weeks later. Callie is nervous about it, but Arizona assures her that this house is a new start, without all of the memories of hospital beds and emotional meltdowns in the shower. She basically admits that she still doesn't know what's going to happen, but that she wants to make the best go if it that they can and this house is the way to do it.
Stephanie is understandably gutted about her boyfriend running off with the bride at the wedding they were attending. She hides out for a couple of weeks and avoids him, but when she winds up with a patient who could use some serious pro bono surgery to help undo his turning himself into a cat (yep) she finally approaches him to ask him to do the surgery and also tells him to not even try to apologize. Leah tries to comfort her and as she does, she works herself into a lather over the failed resident/attending hookups and declares that she, Stephanie and Smash were all taken advantage of by their bosses who used them and threw them away. Not long after this, Owen is called into a meeting with HR and then calls an emergency board meeting to announce that one of the residents filed three official complaints, and as a result they are putting a policy into place that bans any workplace relationships other than existing marriages.
And this is how we find out what happened after April got out of the car: she can't believe that they've just destroyed Matthew and Stephanie's lives just so that she and Jackson can date. While she's panicking, Jackson breaks in to point out that she's right, he doesn't want to date her -- he wants to marry her. They run off and get secretly married, but he comes home from the board meeting and admits they may have to finally admit what they did given the changes that are about to go into effect. The other couple this is bound to affect is Jo and Alex; she finally realized that his desperate, pre-wedding declaration of love was a proposal, and freaks out because she doesn't want to get married. He seems to forgive this when his dad dies and she goes to comfort him, but it's going to become a very big issue very soon.
The second half of the season is kicked off with an excruciatingly slow version of Total Eclipse of the Heart which only has the effect of making me go to watch this version, which is possibly one of the best things the Internet has ever given us. No, seriously, I'll wait for you to check it out. Done? Excellent, though it's going to make this hour seem awfully boring by comparison. Anyhow, we see a slow-motion shot of the barn doors opening and a giddy Jackson and April running out, hand in hand, her veil flying. The two get into his car and we see that her excited, "Oh my God!" begins to turn into a horrified, "OH MY GOD," when she starts to really think about what they've done. In real time, Jackson asks if she's sure and after a moment, she takes a breath, mauls him with kisses, and tells him to drive. Mere VO's that it's often hard to tell the difference between very good and very bad decisions when we are making them.
And after all of the drama of Mere and Cristina having their dresses altered, Mere shoves hers unceremoniously into her bag while she packs up to leave. Derek has told her about his phone call from Mr. President, and she's livid that he's now going to continue his research, which means that he's also not going to be able to give her all of the time in the world to work on her own. And while Derek has a valid point, which is that you can't really say no to the leader of the free world, Mere isn't really in the mood to hear it. Cristina comes in and reports that April's sisters have wept their way through every tissue in the building; she loves this drama even more than that at the bridal shower and she's a full-on fan of crazy April now. Mere storms out, and Cristina is relieved when Derek reports that this time she's mad at him and not her hopefully soon-to-be-again bestie. She's also in awe to hear that the President actually called Derek personally.
Back at the hospital, Alex is hollering at Owen that he wants Smash fired and/or arrested while Jo, Leah and Richard look on. James is still alive and stable, but barely. Owen asks Richard what the hell happened, and after Richard reports that Smash was hallucinating that James was Heather, Leah realizes this is probably related that time Smash showed her how to fudge one's hours so that they could work without that pesky, mandatory sleep. Owen literally smacks his palm to his head over the ridiculous mess that is unfolding while Leah runs to try and find her exhausted friend. Owen assures Alex that Cristina is on her way but Alex says he doesn't want her touching James since she's the one who turned Smash into a monster in the first place. When Owen tells him to wait until they have all the facts, Alex hollers back that Cristina is screwing Smash, and Owen looks rather like Alex just punched him in the face.
Arizona and Callie somehow wound up with the task of getting all of the wedding gifts home, and Arizona -- who was already kind of an emotional mess before all of this started -- is panicking about having mixed up the cards because that will make trying to return all of these presents even more awkward than just a regular, "Thanks for the can opener, sorry I sprinted out on my big day with another man although you have to admit he's really hot, right?" Callie assures her in an overly calm voice that they will fix it, and Arizona just snaps and cries that Callie's been killing her by trying to fix both Arizona and their marriage. Callie is stunned when Arizona yells that she doesn't want to be fixed and that their relationship isn't working and Callie knows it. Callie -- rather like she's talking Arizona off of a ledge -- suggests they go home and talk but Arizona sadly tells her that it's not her home anymore.
Ben and Bailey made it home but they are also having a screaming fight, with Ben taking offense to the implication that his quitting his residency and moving back to Seattle caused Bailey's OCD along with every other problem the earth has ever known. She yells back, and we finally learn a little more about what's really bothering her: she's terrified that this marriage will become like her first one, with a husband expecting her to be home every night to greet him. She basically says that this is going to happen if he's not a surgeon to which I'd like to point out that he was still a very successful anesthesiologist before all this, and therefore already had a really good idea what her career entailed. But basically all of this is a way to get him to admit that he was the star of the program at UCLA and he loved surgery more than anything, and the decision to quit was a really hard one. Bailey is finally stunned into silence.
Stephanie has made it back to the hospital and is just sitting silently, as blue as her dress, when Jo sits down to her and takes her hands. Jo asks Leah to take her home since she had a hard day and apparently now we're pretending that gossip doesn't travel like wildfire in Malibu in October through this hospital because Leah gets all snide about how she can't have had that hard a time at a wedding. Hospital crisis or not, that's just a dumb setup for us to be able to see Steph mumble that her boyfriend ran away with the bride. Leah is appropriately horrified, and Jo promises that as soon as things settle down for Alex she'll join Stephanie and they can drink until they pass out. Stephanie waits alone for a moment, but then gets up and literally runs away. The camera pans back to show that Smash has passed out in the alley, still covered in James' blood.
Jackson and April are still driving but she finally hollers at him to pull over and then gets out of the car and starts to yell at him, wondering what they are actually doing. Jackson points out that he didn't intend to ruin her wedding when he got up that morning, so no, he's not yet got a plan. April stutters a few times, "I can't," and then walks away in her big white dress.
Three weeks later, Brenda Strong's long-lost sister and Arizona are standing in front of a little house that Arizona is about to buy, and NotBrenda comments that she's rarely seen a deal go through this fast and Arizona must be really ready to move. Arizona comments that she needs a fresh start, but it's kind of a fake-out because Callie walks out of the house and, inexplicably, three weeks after Arizona cried that they both knew their relationship wasn't working they are buying a house together. Callie's worried about a blood/rust stain in one of the rooms but apparently that's going to be fixed, and Arizona tries to calm her down and they share a sweet kiss. I have no idea what is going on given all of the groundwork they've been setting about these two falling apart for the past year.
Derek's dressed in an extremely dapper suit when Ben finds him and comments that he's got a big day ahead doing rounds with Webber and working in the ER, so he is rooting for a big trauma somewhere -- guess he's working in Seattle now so Bailey gets a surgeon husband after all and not some measly anesthesiologist who wants his woman in the kitchen. Derek also has a big day ahead of him, being vetted by the White House and all.
Jo and Leah are getting ready in the locker room and we learn that Stephanie has been hiding out, and they all have no details or even really any idea about what is going on now with all of the players in the Great Wedding Scandal. Ben is there, now in the awkward position of straddling two different worlds between his work and personal life, and insists he has no info and even if he did he doesn't like to gossip. Steph finally shows back up and when she notices Shane's stuff in his locker they all helpfully tell us that the board voted to let him come back to work. Ben agrees with this approach, opining that he's a good kid who did a bad thing, but the residents write Ben off as an old man with strange opinions. When Bailey comes in and brings him his brown bag lunch that he forgot at home (explaining that he's going to get heartburn if he eats junk from the cafeteria) they snicker and mock him for being treated like a little kid.
Jo finds Alex and is shocked to learn that he lied to James' estranged wife Naomi, telling her that James was already dead since he realized that was the only way to get her to come to Seattle. When Naomi arrives she notes that Alex looks just like his dad, and Alex just introduces himself and his fiancée Jo. Her eyes widen in shock and confusion but he doesn't notice.
Ben gets his wish -- there's been a huge multi-car accident and loads of victims are being brought to the ER. As the doctors pick their patients, Smash meekly wanders in and Owen calls to him to come get to work. There's some "hilarity" as Owen tries to figure out how to assign the residents, given all of the former romantic entanglements and the fact that Ben and Richard don't want to be separated. Disgusted, Leah volunteers to work with Jackson. One of the patients is talking about how the accident was caused by a really big cat and at that moment, Steph finds that her patient is a man who has been tattooed and implanted to turn himself into a feline.
Derek arrives at lunch to find that Charles (Why did I think his name was Tommy? With whom am I mistaking him? I have no idea.) from target="_blank">Swingers is now working for the President, doing super invasive background checks with his coworker Rita. They tease Derek that they've been tracking his phone (they haven't) but assure him that they'll get nice and personal with this interview. To kick things off, he asks to confirm if Mere was Derek's student when they first met. Derek reluctantly admits she was, and seems in for a long lunch.
Mere, meanwhile, is stewing and looking at slides when Cristina comes in and offers to have her assist on an aortic aneurysm repair. The exchange is still a little bit awkward between the two as evidenced by the fact that everything they say comes off as a question? Is Cristina sure? She is? So Mere happily agrees to help?
Stephanie and Callie are examining Cat Man's injured arm as he explains that he was walking down the street, and when a woman saw him she ran a red light and started a whole chain reaction accident. He's really worried about a little girl that was hurt, and Steph says she can check for him but Callie seems intent on keeping him isolated and suggests they just get him fixed with all nine of his lives in tact. It's obviously not the first time he's heard that one. The guy does look crazy, with veneers that give him cat teeth, piercings on which he attaches whiskers, and cat-eye contact lenses.
Smash, at work on his first patient since his meltdown, is having trouble intubating and Owen doesn't hesitate to insult and embarrass him before handing the job over to Ben. Afterward, Richard suggests that maybe Owen was a little too hard on Smash, since presumably they want to help him out and see him ultimately succeed rather than crush his will to live. Owen is livid since he voted to kick Smash out of the program, and informs Richard that he'll deal with the kid as he sees fit.
Alex walks Naomi down the hall and comments about Nicky not being there, but she figures there was no point in him coming since she just wants to get James' guitar. When she turns the corner and sees James (somewhat) still alive in the hospital bed, she hits the roof, and Alex at least has the good grace to look a tiny bit ashamed about his lie.
Both Cristina and Mere are happy to be doing surgery together again, but Mere admits she's about to ruin the mood with a question and Cristina tells her to spit it out. Mere asks about Shane's whereabouts, since apparently Cristina went to bat for him to stay in the program. I guess between her doing that and now, she changed her mind about him and admits she should have seen this coming. She also points out that Alex just started speaking to her again and she doesn't want to jeopardize that. Mere gives her some parenting book advice, which is that she should put her anger aside when she talks to Shane, and claims this is how she's dealing with Derek, because the nicer she is, the guiltier he feels. I don't think she's actually coming off as nice as she thinks she is, given that every time we see her she has a face like thunder, but whatever helps her get through the day… Cristina starts to defend Derek for not just shutting down Mr. President, but Mere asks if she really wants to go down that path now that they are getting along. Cristina immediately denounces Derek's actions, and Mere thanks her. I am so relieved that these two are getting along again I can't even tell you. Maybe Cristina will have a dignified send-off after all. (Please please please please…)
The lady residents are all gathered in the CT room and Jo is insensitively freaking out about her mystery engagement, which earns her a deserved rebuke from Stephanie. Even Leah thinks she's being harsh, and when you've crossed her line, that has to be bad. Jo somehow still insists that this is bad and not inappropriate conversation, and while it's true that it's not good, she needs to shut up about it in front of her jilted friend. She finally has a realization that Alex's desperate pleas before the wedding were, in his mind, a proposal. Leah yells at her, but then they all fall silent when April walks in to request the CT. When she sees the three of them glaring at her she immediately backtracks and tells them to take all the time they need, "I want you to have it." She flees, and it's no clearer yet what happened after she stormed away from the car three weeks earlier. Leah calls her a bitch, and Jo suggests that Stephanie actually talk to Jackson to get some closure. Stephanie just counters that maybe Jo should talk to her fiancé. Both of them then sulk out, glaring at each other.
Naomi is still freaking out that her estranged husband is in fact still alive, but Alex pleads with her that James' organs are failing, he only has a few days to live, and he knows that she is coming and wants to see her. Naomi is unmoved, and tells Alex how her father left her three guitars when she died of which James pawned two and took off with the third. Alex pleads with her that James got clean for her and Nicky, and begs her not to bail. But she's tired of the games and just grabs the guitar and leaves. As she does, she comments that Alex is just like his father with all of the crap that he's spewing.
While Stephanie and Callie put the Cat Man's arm (paw?) in traction, he tells them that it took 15 surgeries to achieve his look. He's replaced the whiskers with silver balls, which does make it easier for them to look him in the eye when he's talking. He gets defensive as he tells them he didn't like who he was, but he had the balls to become who he wanted to be. Callie supports his commitment to his vision, but Stephanie wonders how the ladies like it. He makes a disgusting boast about how the Cat Man gets plenty of tail, but then softens and seems to become his real self as he asks again about the little girl. When Callie tells him that the info is confidential, he frets that it means she's not doing well.
Leah and Jackson are operating together and she continues to be the consummate professional, angrily throwing instruments into a tray. Jackson finally bites and asks if she has anything to say, and she lays into him for what he did to Stephanie especially since she had been worried about April and asked him point-blank about his feelings. The other docs in the room grow silent, obviously curious to see what he has to say for himself; he tells her he's been trying to apologize but that Stephanie is avoiding him like the plague. He then insists that he didn't know he was going to make a scene like that until it happened. Leah just spits that now he, Stephanie and April are all alone, so good on him. I'm not entirely convinced yet that this is true, and Jackson neither confirms nor denies this state of affairs and instead icily informs her that he's going to get back to work.
April, meanwhile, is complaining to Arizona about how the residents were all staring at her horribly, the same way they used to stare at Arizona when she was outed as a cheater. Arizona commiserates while nearby, Bailey tries to eavesdrop. Callie walks up to give her wife a House Update and it's clear that Arizona is beside herself with joy while Callie is looking for any excuse to delay signing the paperwork. This all bodes super well for them buying something together, truly. April is excited for them and promises an ice cream maker as a housewarming gift, since that's one of the gifts that lost its card and she therefore can't return it to the gift giver. Once she leaves, Bailey scurries up and asks if Callie or Arizona has any intel on what happened between April and Jackson but neither knows anything. Bailey is stunned that there is no existing gossip and, well, for this hospital that is actually pretty much unheard of. They are interrupted when Stephanie runs up in a panic and reports that the Cat Man is missing.
In the cafeteria, Richard invites Smash to come over and join him and Ben for a little while. Smash has been reduced to a quivering mass of nerves by Owen and frets that he has to do some work but Richard insists that he'll be fine for a few minutes. Ben unpacks his lunch only to find a sandwich awesomely shaped like a dinosaur and a note from Bailey for her "special boy." He's beyond mortified and when Richard teases him he points out that clearly this is Tuck's lunch. He gathers up what's left of his pride and decides to go get himself a hamburger like a man. Smash then gets a page from Owen and sprints away, and Richard puts on his Concerned Face.
The Cat Man didn't flee the hospital, but rather just went in search of the little girl. He finds her sleeping and watches her for a little while, offering a really heartfelt apology and a wish that she get better. It's all very sweet until she wakes up and finds him hovering over her bed, and screams bloody murder. He tries to back out of the room, but elicits the same response when he bumps into Arizona.
Jo finds Alex and graciously blurts out, "It happened before the wedding, didn't it?" Alex is first confused, and then angry and offended when he realizes that she didn't understand his proposal, but she points out rather fairly that proposals usually end in someone asking the other explicitly if they want to get married. I do think that is one situation where one would always want to be as unambiguous as possible, really. Jo admits that if she knew he was proposing she wouldn't have agreed, and Alex of course turns all Sad Clown and figures great, now she's walking out on him. She grows on me a little bit when she calls him on this bullshit and points out that she's not leaving him, she just doesn't want to marry him, especially when the proposal only stemmed from Alex's screwed-up situation with his dad. He denies it, she maintains it, and finally he very maturely yells, "I'm not grieving!" and runs away. She equally maturely turns and hits the vending machine, and I will never believe that a little thing like her with those tiny hands could actually break the glass like she does, even when she's filled with Extra Botched Proposal Strength.
So, it feels like those last two scenes took place at night, but maybe the hospital is just conserving energy again and leaving all the lights off because Derek is still at his Personally Invasive Lunch. Charles is happy to report that Derek's sister's drug problem is under control, and he's got no undocumented workers in his employ nor outstanding debt. He lulls Derek into a bit of a false sense of security before asking out of the blue what Derek can tell them about Michael Betcher. Whoever he is, Derek doesn't think he's relevant, but they just ask him why he's been sending Michael's mom $3,500 a month.
James is in a really bad way, but he manages to croak to Alex how much it means that Alex got Naomi and Nicky to come see him. He asks how he did it, and when Alex admits the lie James laughs uproariously. He then notices that his guitar is gone and panics a little, but Alex quickly lies that he put some of James' things in storage. Of course James now wants to give the guitar back when Naomi arrives, and admits that stealing it was one of the lowest things he ever did. He's desperate to stay awake and see them when they arrive.
Callie and Stephanie report to the Cat Man that his hand is okay, but his spirit has been broken by everything that happened and he laments how many people got hurt because of his idiot plastic surgery. We learn his sad story – he started the transformation when he was 19, and insisted that he'd still like it 20 years later, and his girlfriend at the time did actually like it. But then they broke up, and he realized it caused a scene when he left the house, so he works a sad data entry job at home and can't date because the women who like Cat Men are terrifying. He's tired of getting laughed at and/or punched, but decided that morning that he couldn't live like a hermit so he went out and took a walk that unfortunately for him, this then caused a horrific chain of accidents. There's an absurdly long shot of Stephanie Really Getting It, and the Cat Man then sadly asks them to finish up quickly so he can go back home.
Alex goes to the ER to report to Cristina that James is declining, and they realize this is The End. Mere asks if he's okay, and he snaps at her because she should understand the complicated emotions one has when a shitty parent is dying. It's true, but also, she very purposefully didn't ask with any sort of simpering voice or pity and just kept her tone very matter-of-fact so I think it was quite an acceptable question. When Alex leaves, Cristina helpfully tells all of us James has a DNR so there's nothing more to be done.
In another OR, Owen tells Smash to try out a particular procedure but then he starts asking all sorts of med school questions and Smash gets so flustered he can't continue. Richard tries to get Owen to lay off, but Owen is feeling his oats and insists that any surgeon should know all this stuff and mocks Smash for not knowing the anatomy. When Smash apologizes, Owen humiliates him further by yelling that he should be apologizing to James, and also to the poor girl on their table right now because he doesn't know how to perform a basic procedure. Actually, he knew the procedure but just didn't know the answer to the pop anatomy quiz, but Owen is beyond any rational teaching at this point. Instead, he orders Smash out of the OR.
The thing about Stephanie Really Getting It is that she finally builds up the courage to go see Jackson. He wants to talk, but she insists that any apology would only make him feel better, not her. She is merely there to ask him to fix the Cat Man pro bono, and she doesn't want to hear anything else.
Smash, unfortunately, thinks that he should go and apologize to Alex but Alex isn't really in the mood when he's sitting there literally watching his crappy father die. He leaps up out of his chair and throws Smash to the ground, pummeling his face. Cristina and Mere arrive and pull Alex off; Cristina orders Smash to leave with her while Mere grabs Alex in a hug and holds him there until Alex slumps and finally hugs her back. This show is so uneven, especially now, but the friendship between these two is one thing that is generally really well done.
Cristina is stitching up her one-time protégé and booty call, and he's the saddest of the clowns, lamenting that he doesn't deserve to feel better, he deserves this beating. He's a little bit surprised when Cristina agrees with him but it's not like his mood could have gotten much lower. Cristina then pulls out her phone and shows a picture of Baby Nathan that his mom sent over, and while Cristina doesn't normally go for pics of babies slathered in food she kept it and calls it a miracle. She reminds Smash that he was the one who had the idea to 3-D print the conduit and pushed her until she got on board, and that what he did was revolutionary. She adds that while he's made bad (that's being polite) choices, that was a good one and he should continue trying to make other good ones.
A guy has brought he house papers to the hospital so that Callie and Arizona can sign, and Callie finally stops Arizona before she puts pen to paper to admit what's really on her mind: namely, that three weeks earlier her wife was quite certain their relationship wasn't going to survive. As points go, it's about as valid as one can get. One could argue that they should have had this conversation earlier, since honesty is a good policy and all that, but at least they are doing it before signing. Arizona tells her that this house is a fresh start, where they won't be reminded of a hospital bed in the bedroom and that time Callie had to literally drag Arizona into the shower. She sees the house as a fresh start, and that maybe it won't work out, but if it does it would just be the best. Callie finally comes around, and the two kiss a while before actually signing their names.
Leah finds Stephanie crying on the stairs, and while yes, she's all brokenhearted, this really is kind of a rite of passage at this hospital and she should now consider herself a true member of the club. She beats herself up for getting involved with Jackson against her good judgment, and says that she should just transfer because it's too hard to be around him. Leah isn't having any of that, and instead insists that Jackson took advantage of her and chose to humiliate her in front of her co-workers. Which is not exactly true, but I suppose she's being a good friend though probably hearing that out loud is making Steph feel worse. Leah insists that Arizona did the same thing to her, and Cristina to Smash. Okay look, yes, they were in positions of power, and never should have gotten involved, but can we also for one second just have the residents take a tiny little bit of personal responsibility since Leah and especially Smash actively pursued their respective partners? No? That wouldn't be good for the upcoming, years-overdue storyline? Okay. Leah announces that they were their bosses, and the residents were expendable to them. She then has an idea, and tells Stephanie she could and should do something about it.
Richard seeks out Owen after his OR smackdown of Smash and yells at him that he was enjoying watching Smash struggle, and then challenges Owen that maybe that's because Smash was hooking up with Cristina. Owen acts completely insulted and like he'd never stoop to that level, but Richard just growls that he wouldn't have thought so before, but now he's not so sure. A nurse then pops her head in to say that someone from HR is looking for Owen.
James, whose skin has now turned the color of ash, is struggling but clearly fighting death with everything he's got left. Alex tries to calm him down and tells him that Naomi and Nicky's plane was delayed, but they are on their way, and he told them about the guitar and that James loves them. James asks a few times and Alex repeats this, and then finally tells James, "You can go." With the notion that his family loved him after all, James finally lets go. Alex stares at him, and finally just croaks, "You son of a bitch."
Bailey finds Ben in the lounge and rather than asking about his day, demands to know if he got any gossip. She's beside herself since she didn't see any of the recent wedding-ruining, house-buying, estranged-father craziness coming (did she hit her head and forget where she works?) and wants to know what's going on. Ben maintains that he has no info and wouldn't tell her anyway if he did, since he needs the "kids" to trust him and figures that it's a little weird for them that the only reason there was an open spot in the program is because their friend died. Bailey reluctantly lets it go, but at least gets to relish an "I told you so" moment when Ben has heartburn and shamefully admits that he ate a burger.
Derek walks in to Mere's lab and very carefully sets his phone down on the table in front of her in such a weird, deliberate way as to make it seem like we're suddenly watching Alias and Mere is going to answer the phone and pull some elaborate switcheroo to obtain some state secrets. She's actually going to learn one secret, but that's because Derek tells her about Michael Betcher: he was a high school hockey teammate of Derek's, and Derek checked him hard into the boards during practice one day. Michael had a brain bleed that night and never came back to school because from then on the only movement he was capable of was blinking. Derek has been sending Michael's mom money every month to help diffuse the cost of his long-term care. Meredith can be overly sensitive, touchy, and a generally bitchy pain in the ass, but I'm so with her when she mocks that his deep dark secret is that he's been secretly helping someone for 30 years after an accident as a teenager, and that on top of that he then became a hero neurosurgeon who was hand-picked by the President to do research. I mean, they should just have him walk into the room with an actual halo illuminating his luscious locks. It only makes her angrier, and with that I stand by my earlier assessment that there's no way she has been able to actually act sweet and supportive at any time over the past three weeks. Derek starts to point out again that he couldn't say no, but Mere cuts him off and orders him to admit that he wants to do the research. He does, and Mere is further infuriated. The phone rings and she grabs it before he can and pretends to be talking to the White House about their fight. He freaks out but she points out that even she is not that horrible and that it was actually Owen calling an emergency board meeting.
Once the board is gathered, Mere asks if this is about what happened between Smash and Alex but it turns out Owen knows nothing about it and she and Cristina play it off. Owen is in such a fog that he doesn't question this super fishy conversation and instead just jumps in and announces that one of the residents lodged three complaints with HR: directed sexual harassment, quid pro quo harassment, and hostile work environment. Jackson assumes this is directed at him and he could talk his way out of it but it's far too late for that, and Owen gets annoyed that everyone is focused on who might have complained rather than on the larger issue of the sexual harassment and possible abuse of power. He lectures all of them that they are letting their personal issues disrupt their work, and finally admits that he is guilty of it too. And this is all well and good, but approximately TEN YEARS LATE. I think that the writers truly have officially run out of material this time. The solution is a proposed zero-tolerance policy that HR drafted, and the only exception is already married couples. The policy is that relationships of a sexual or romantic nature between superiors and subordinates is not allowed, so it sounds like the other exception is that people on the same job level can still see each other, but I'm not totally sure of that yet. Owen points out that it's very restrictive and unambiguous, and he urges them all to vote in favor of it.