Where Grey’s Anatomy ended last season was with Meredith standing in a sea of candles on McDreamy’s property that she had positioned like the floor plan of a house, and he was off to go tell Rose that he couldn’t date her any longer. Where we began this season? An icky dream sequence which involved Derek dying. Don’t do this to me, ABC. Those dream sequences trip me up every time.
Back in the daylight world of Seattle Grace, the docs all hovered around the computer, Dr. Bailey helming the mouse, waiting for the updated rankings of teaching hospitals to be posted. Impatient doctors kept urging Bailey to “refresh!” but when the results finally appeared, they weren’t what they were hoping to see. Seattle Grace slid downhill to a #12 ranking and downgraded to a level II trauma center. Not good. This news set off reactions among the chief, residents and interns – all of them were dismayed by the drop in rank, particularly since the downgraded trauma center could indicate more cases being taken to nearby Mercy West rather than SGH.
Meanwhile, it became painfully clear that Rose wasn’t just going to go away quietly after Derek broke up with her (sorry if I go back and forth between McDreamy and Derek – I tend to feel a little ridiculous after awhile referring to him as McDreamy – then I have to change gears).
Erica Hahn and Callie Torres, after the big season ending smooch in the last episode, looked awkward and nervous when running into each other – obviously avoiding each other and the elephant in the room.
On a slow night, Bailey gathered the interns to wait with her outside for a trauma to come in. A cold snowy Seattle day brought in a night with melting snow becoming black ice on the Seattle roads. After repeated protests from the interns, Bailey agreed to let them return to the warmth of the indoors. As they turned to walk away, a limo came sliding up to the entrance of the ER. The limousine was driven by a woman in an evening gown, with two other women in the car – they had gotten into an accident and the limo driver had flown through the windshield. They pulled him from the windshield and drove to the hospital when an ambulance never arrived.
In the midst of the trauma, Erica and Callie finally spoke to each other – both awkward, making excuses about “being busy.” Lexie found out that George once slept with Meredith (ugh! Remember that?). It was sort of obvious at the finale of last season that Lexie was developing a thing for George – and she was quite bothered to find he’d slept with Meredith.
Meredith decided to take a leap and asked Derek to move in with her and he agreed.
The rest of the docs continued to wait for more trauma. When discovered that the husbands of the women in evening gowns were likely also in an accident and needing transport for medical care, Bailey and Yang convinced the wives to insist the hubbies come to Seattle Grace rather than Mercy West.
When the ambulance arrived, they were accompanied by a military guy in uniform who had performed a field trach with a pen (a fact not lost on Yang who was visibly impressed by this). One of the men, unable to feel his legs, required a neuro consult and Yang was dispatched to take care of Army Guy, who sustained a pretty deep gash on his leg in the accident.
Soon after the husbands were brought to SGH, it was revealed that one of the women had been having an affair with the husband of her best friend. On top of that drama, the Chief became determined that they would save the life of a patient near death, one who was “circling the drain”.
When neuro was consulting with the gentleman that couldn’t feel his legs, Army Guy intruded on the consult, telling the doctors about a procedure used by another hospital – a bit of a risky process which involved lowering the patient’s core body temperature down – but one that could increase his likelihood of being able to walk again.
Dr. Yang was once again sent to patch up Major Hunt, but as she was gathering her supplies, he began stapling his own leg shut, without any numbing agent. Yang was obviously loving this. (Me, not so much!).
In the ER with Shepherd, Rose was still visibly mad at him for breaking up with her. In another room, Lexie tried to talk Sloan into being nicer to George- which he said he’d do if she would just tell George how she feels about him. Meanwhile, Alex was trying to help the cheating husband with his health insurance, as insurance was coincidentally going to expire that night at midnight.
Derek finally confronted Rose, telling her that if she was going to behave that way, she couldn’t be in his OR. Her response? She said she was carrying his baby (to which I promptly threw a cushion off the couch not able to believe that they would stoop to such absurd cliché). Turns out, she was kidding. Ha ha, Rose. Funny girl. She said she refused to switch specialties, though, in a scene that just felt very creepy.
Then, because it was only a matter of time, Meredith started questioning her decision to ask Derek to move in with her. She was getting all Meredith-y about it, to which Yang finally responded by telling Meredith to shut up – that she’s heard it all before, that she doesn’t think Meredith and Derek will work. Yang then slipped on the ice, fell and clunked her head on the sidewalk and got impaled in the stomach by a falling icicle. Guess that’s what you get for trying to make Meredith see the light.
Meredith ran in to get help, but Major Hunt saw Christina and carried her into the hospital himself. On the gurney, Yang was giving the interns her vitals and after debate, it was determined that they would leave the icicle in, despite the fact that it was likely leaking dirty roof water into her.
In the OR, Rose continued her creepy streak by handing McDreamy the scalpel blade first when he requested a scalpel. Yikes! The blade cut Derek’s hand so he had to leave the OR to get cleaned up.
Dr. Torres convinced the Chief to try the risky patient-freezing procedure, but in the midst of the procedure, she froze. She started panicking and wasn’t sure what to do next, what to say or what was supposed to happen. Erica Hahn was able to calm Callie – to get her to stop panicking and to start thinking, and the doctors were able to figure out a course of action to successfully complete the procedure.
Determined that her interns are useless, Yang sent them out. This goes along with the whole teaching hospital concept – Yang never gave the interns an opportunity to do anything on their own, and they were pretty useless to help her. Major Hunt came back in and removed the icicle.
No longer circling the drain, a patient died and it was left to Meredith to share the news with the chief. Upset both by the hospital’s ranking and the presence of Meredith, a constant reminder of Ellis Grey, the chief went off on Meredith, blaming her as well as the other interns for the problems around the hospital.
Rose came around – telling Derek she didn’t want to be the crazy “Fatal Attraction” nurse – and that she would be transferring to Peds service the next day (whew).
Well after midnight and the expiration of the insurance, Bailey has Alex turn the clock back so that the paperwork would reflect that time and the surgery would be covered. The Chief ended up offering Hunt a job, but Hunt declined so that he could finish his tour in the army, though not leaving without first planting a big smooch on Christina.
The frozen patient woke up and could wiggle his toes – Victory!
Lexie tried telling George she had more than “just roommate” feelings for him – and he said she was one of his best friends. Be interesting to see where that one goes over the season.
Torres and Hahn finally discussed the elephant in the room, both saying it was all very new to them, that neither of them had kissed a girl before.
Meredith helped Yang home, telling her that she’s “her person” and that she needed Christina to believe that she could make it work with Derek. In the end, the episode closed with Meredith and Derek packing his things.
Did you watch last night’s episode? What did you think? Was two hours about an hour too long for you (It was for me – I think they could have cut out the whole best friend husband cheating storyline and still been alright)?
When Sarah is not bombarding herself with medical soapy drama, she can be found at The Mom Chronicles.
(Image source: ABC)
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Great recap! I was completely glued to the tube the entire two hours.
Luckily, I had already heard that Derek dying was a dream sequence. But, even with that, I thought it was pretty gut wrenching the way that Meredith was crying.
We (hubby and I) thought that the episode was pretty good. Some of the parts seemed to drag a bit, but overall, pretty good.
I was mad to see Alex with another woman at the end, and thought the whole Denny/Izzy thing was weird that followed after she saw Alex with that woman.
Thank you for this recap!! My DVR was being funky and I missed whole chunks of the storyline. Love the Army guy/Yang kiss. We have McDreamy and McSteamy and now maybe Mc -what?? GIJoe?
Well, I think Sergeant BadA$$ is a suitable nickname should Hunt come back around (and I think he might – I mean, Christina really needs someone like that!). My husband – a national guard guy – was quite disturbed though that Hunt wasn't clean shaven – wanted me to point out in my recap that he was out of regulation. On the other hand, I find it perfectly reasonable that he would be stubbly by the end of that day…
I think the Izzie/Denny dream sequence came because she was comparing the Alex/Eva (I forgot her real name already! LOL) situation to losing Denny… Probably dredged it up in her mind… but it was kind of a gratuitous scene for me, i guess.