photo: abc

Original Air Date: Apr 12, 2012

Karen Belgrad – Senior Editor
karenbelgrad@thetwocentscorp.com

According to Meredith’s voiceover, everything is connected (foot bone connected to the leg bone, etc…). Of course in Grey’s world, it’s more about intrapersonal relationships. After all these years, is that really much of a surprise?

What is interesting is just how many overlapping stories we have tonight. We have our fifth years cramming for the boards, we have our residents working on patients, we have plans for a ladies night, and Cristina and Owen both have the “flu.” And if you believe that excuse, I have a winning Mega Millions ticket that I found at a McDonalds to sell you…

Owen/Cristina: Both have called in sick to work after the epic cereal tossing moment of last episode. What it comes down to is Cristina insisting that Owen tell her every detail of his tryst. He’s determined to fix things, but thinks telling her will only hurt her. She gives him the ultimatum of either spilling the specifics or leaving, so after some hesitation he tells her his sordid tale. The details of the affair weren’t that titillating; Owen went out for drinks after work with a Random Blonde Girl (played by actress Alexis Carra ). And since he can’t recall her name, she’ll be known as henceforth known as RBG. RGB was the friend of a patient he saved. After a few too many drinks, RGB implored Owen to kiss her. Despite protestations of being married and drunk, he quickly gave in to the kiss. From there, we assume one thing led to another. Cristina is openly sobbing at this point, and despite his attempts to comfort her, she locks herself in the bathroom. As he prepares to bust down the door, she opens it, sending him sprawling into the tub. This causes Cristina to burst out laughing at her predicament (dealing with a “boy” instead of studying for her boards) and does open the the lines of communication. It doesn’t take long for Cristina to realize this was his method of hurting her in retribution for the abortion. And, despite learning the details, by hour’s end, Cristina does indeed send Owen packing. Although it clearly spelled doom for the couple, I did enjoy the retrospective of their most Owen-Cristina couple moments flashbacked throughout the episode.

Ladies’ Night: This was the weakest of the stories, so I’m just going to give you the basics. In order to cheer up Teddy, Callie and Arizona opt to take Teddy out for a girls night out. Teddy books a romantic restaurant, so Callie and Arizona implore Bailey to join them so it doesn’t seem like a date. But after they guilt her into it, Ben offers Bailey a night of “salsa dancing” (yes, the new code word for s-e-x). Callie and Arizona think salsa dancing sounds good too, so they try to back out on Teddy as well. But after hearing Teddy’s fears of being viewed as the sad, lonely widow, Arizona tells the others that there will be no salsa-ing for any of them. Teddy arrives with wine and Beaches/Dirty Dancing DVDs. I’ve got to say, Beaches is way too sad for a night of female empowerment. And before Calzona fans jump on me for being anti-our girls, I do love all the females in the story, I just think they needed a little more meat to their story, as this is two weeks in a row that they’ve had the “fluffy” story arc.

Chief Sloan: Yep, you read that right. With Owen out with the “flu”, clean shaven and suited-up Mark takes over Chief duties. He butts heads with Derek over a young, severely arthritic man who is in to have his jaw broken so he can eat solid foods. Mark challenges Derek to “rise” and come up with a solution to keep the patient’s neck from being compressed. Derek and Avery can barely keep their eyes in their heads as they roll them so strenuously at Mark’s power trip. But Derek does indeed “rise”, as he’s inspired in Zola’s daycare to use a flexible bean bag to secure the patient. Derek later finds out the Owen wanted himself or Richard to be the acting chief, not Mark, but Derek does begrudgingly admit that Mark didn’t do a horrible job.

Mark has a harder time with Richard. Richard’s patient, Neil (played by Benson and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Rene Auberjonois), is perhaps the most yellow/jaundice patient we’ve ever seen on the show, down to his eyeballs. Neil is in for a multi-organ (large/small intestine, liver, stomach, pancreas) transplant, his third attempt at the procedure. And while Neil has given up hope, opting not even to call his family, Richard is determined to save his patient. But when the donor organs show a spot on the liver, Mark puts the kibosh on the transplant. But Richard, wise and seasoned, goes with Bailey’s plan of excising and testing what turns out to be a benign tumor. Richard also puts an agitated Mark in his place, advising him that, unlike plastic surgery, general surgery is not pretty and perfect. In the end, the surgery is a success, but Neil is upset, that despite his instructions, none of his family actually showed up. It inspires Meredith to stop giving Cristina space and call her troubled/crying friend. It’s just a phone call, but it does serve to let Cristina know that Meredith is there for her, if she wants her to be.

Lexipedia: Alex, Avery, and April (alliteration much?) are all frantically quizzing each other for their boards exam. Meredith is busy showing off her Torres method skills, but worried about Cristina not being prepared. Alex wants to check out and copy patient records as a study guide, but a clerk reminds him of HIPAA laws (and I did chuckle at patient confidentiality being a bone of contention on this show). So the residents draft Lexie to use her photographic memory to read patient files and later quiz them. But Lexie’s memory hard drive crashes, and Meredith tells them all to stop using her sister as a database. I still get a bit of a twinge every time Meredith acknowledges Lexie as her sister. They’ve come so far! In the end, Meredith introduces the other fifth years (including late arrival Cristina) to the “Grey method”.

With the exception of Neil, the medicine largely took a back seat this episode. It really was all about intrapersonal relationship and the connective tissue that binds our docs. If I have one bone to pick, it’s that Meredith didn’t just high tail it over to Cristina’s. Although I understand giving a friend space, I’ve been in Meredith shoes and I immediately drove over to my friend’s house… in a blizzard! It’s what girls do, surgeons or not!

Well, you’ve got my TwoCents! Now share your TwoCents, comments, and feedback below!