This past Sunday's Grey's was aiight. I think they're mostly gearing up for sweeps in February, so the next few episodes should be better than average. Especially next week when there's a "Code Black". I've heard that means there's a bomb in the building! Of course the fact that you have a name for when there's a bomb in the building is quite scary. And we know average for this show is still damn good.
Outside of Seattle Grace the nurses are picketing, asking for fair wages and better work hours. George, Izzie and Christina have to run the gauntlet to get in and of course Christina is first. The crowd ends up throwing food at her. Looks like a ham a cheese sandwich on rye. Ew, with some mustard. Izzie wants George to come with her, but his family is made up of, from what I can remember, jackasses. Apparently all these jackasses are union so he doesn't want to cross. Izzie goes anyway and gets accosted by a crème brule and those little pigs in a blanket thingys.
Meredith is visiting her mother in the nursing home. The woman at the front desk mentions how happy Ellis is when Dr. Webber, i.e., the Chief comes for a visit. She loves being around her Chocolate Honey Bear. Meredith looks in on her mother with the Chief and notices him touching her lovingly on the hand. She doesn't go in but we see the face of confusion. Or maybe it's just gas.
She ain't no Dr. Bailey
Later at the hospital we get introduced to Dr. Bailey's replacement. I didn't quite catch her name since I was waiting for Christina to slug her due to her lovey dovey attitude. She thinks that all you need is love, and that love heals, and love is a battlefield. Wait, she doesn't think love is a battlefield, but I do. Anyway, even after having months of the Nazi, the team can't wait to get away from this nut job. Alex and Christina get a case with a honeymooning couple. How do we find out that they're on their honeymoon? They're doin' it in the small hospital bed in the middle of the emergency room. Wow, romantic. Anyway, the woman has an aggressive rash on her leg and the group examines it. She hasn't done anything out of the ordinary except step on an oyster in the ocean. They realizes something's up when the rash visibly climbs the woman's leg as they stand there and talk. They send her in for surgery.
"I coulda been your daddy"
Meredith is just wondering around the hospital when she comes upon an old lady who's in bed, obviously delusional. She's calling out to her husband and Meredith assumes this means the man has just walked away. The woman starts to have trouble breathing and Meredith calls out to the nurses, but guess what, they ain't there, they're outside wanting more money. Greedy bitches. Eventually she finds a nursing student who helps her get the woman on a breathing tube. Later, Meredith runs into the Chief who asks her about Ellis. Meredith doesn't let him know she saw him there earlier.
She's rethinking her position on birth control
Izzie's patient is a girl who looks like she's about eight who's pregnant. It's Addison's case because the girl's baby apparently has a small tumor on it's neck and they need to operate. Addy tells the girl and her mother that they'll do a c-section and partially deliver the baby to operate, and then deliver her fully once the operation is successful. The girl's mother is concerned about cost and Addy tells her that she and one of the doctors at the clinic the girl was transferred from are old friends, and to not worry about the cost. Addy leaves and Izzie explains to them that it isn't charity, that Seattle Grace will be able to consider it a write off. Izzie notices the girl's reading Shakespeare to the baby and relates to her because they're both from the same area. A little area known as... the other side of the tracks.
Outside at the picket line George is still holding strong with the nurses. They ask him to go in and check on their patients. This is the scene where we realize how important nurses are. Medical dramas like to throw that out every season or so, an episode that demonstrates the usefulness of nurses and the high and mighty attitude of doctors. We forget about it by the next episode, so it's all good.
In the operating room Alex, Christina and Dr. Love are operating on the rash lady. They realize it's the flesh eating bacteria and send all but non essential personnel out of the operating room. Who in there is non essential? Not really the best time to mop the floor and change the light bulbs I'm guessing.
Over with Meredith and the old lady, her girlfriends have shown up and are upset she was put on a respirator since they lady is Do Not Resuscitate. In the nurses' absence her chart was mishandled and wasn't there for Meredith to initially see. She asks the woman's friends about her husband, and where he might be. They tell her that her husband is dead and she was probably seeing him and about to cross over when Meredith stopped her. Unfortunately the lady's only living relative is her daughter who lives in Oregon. She has to make the trip down to Seattle with her lesbian lover.
When you assume you make an ass out of u and me
Christina's not having any better luck. Since the flesh eating bacteria is happening so quickly, she thinks they should just amputate the woman's leg. Dr. Love doesn't think this is a good idea. Christina points out that if she was a 50 year old man she wouldn't think twice about it, but because the woman is young and in love she shouldn't get the best treatment. Dr. Love is impressed with Alex's compassion, who also wants to keep the leg and try to save as much of it as possible. Of course as soon as Dr. Love is out of ear range he admits to it just being a much cooler surgery. He's a tool. A cute tool, but a tool no less. Christina goes to Burke and tells him how she thinks this chick is screwing up. Burke goes into the operating room with Dr. Love and tries to be cordial, saying they don't get to see many flesh eating bacteria cases at Seattle Grace. Dr. Love, who I'm going to call Dr. Bitch from now on, says that she didn't think they saw them at all. She pretty much puts Burke in his place and he is forced to walk out with his tail between his legs and Christina feels like even more of an a**hole.
George refuses to be a scab. He likes being a festering wound
George comes in and out of the hospital a few times, seeing the Chief and Burke. He says he's supporting the nurses so they let him not work. At one point he even yells "Fair wages!" to Dr. Burke who shots him a look that says, "Oh no you di'int". George runs off.
"Shut up ho, I'll break this bottle over your head"
At Joe's later the girls are all sitting at the bar talking about their days. Izzie excuses herself and leaves. A nurse walks by Christina and pours a drink in her lap. Not really sure why she did it. Because she's a doctor maybe? Maybe Christina voted no and proposition 15 or doesn't signal when she makes right turns. I really have no idea, it's quite confusing why they'd be mad at the surgical interns, but it doesn't sit well with Christina. She wants to cut the bitch but Meredith holds her back.
"Here's a picture of my great-grandmother, Rose Dawson, she was on the Titanic"
Izzie goes back to the hospital and checks on the pregnant girl. Izzie tells her that there's more out there then working at some diner, trying to make ends meet. She shows the girl a picture of a little girl and tells her that this is her DAUGHTER. Yes! Izzie has a daughter! Didn't see that one coming. She tells the girl that she gave her up when she was young and that she doesn't regret it. She also pointed out that while she read the baby Shakespeare to her while she was pregnant, in a few years she won't be reading Shakespeare to her anymore. She says she'll be smoking Pall Malls making the little girl rub the corns on her swollen feet. The mom tracks Izzie down a bit later and is pissed she told her daughter to give the baby up. The daughter hasn't told the mom about Izzie's success story, so the mom just thinks Izzie's being a stuck up bitch and doesn't know what she's talking about. Izzie tells her that she knows she wants the best for her daughter, and to just get over whatever it is she thinks of Izzie and consider it. Later, Addison gets Derek to help out with the case and they operate and deliver the baby, and when they do, she looks healthy. Izzie visits the girl afterwards and she asks her if she regrets giving the baby up. Izzie says she doesn't, but you can see the pain in her eyes.
Christina arrives home, where Burke is playing with his instrument. Oh, and he's also playing the trumpet. He says that he never saw a problem with attendings dating interns until what happened that day. Christina thinks about it, but doesn't say anything. When they're both back at the hospital she goes to him and says that she's not used to being wrong. He insists she go to Dr. Bitch and apologize. She grudgingly does, with Dr. Bitch being completely smug about it. Bailey would kick her ass.
THIS is why they call him McDreamy
A bit later Meredith finds the Chief in the hall and tells him she saw him with her mother earlier. She asks him if he thinks her mother is lonely. He says yes, he does. Since the old lady's daugther has arrived they finally pull the breathing tube and turn off the machines. Her friends and family stand around her, waiting for her to die. When the old lady finally dies, Meredith runs out of the room and into the supply closet and breaks down, sobbing. McDreamy has seen her go in and comforts her. They share a few tender moments and I'm screaming at the TV for them to kiss, but she's too fragile. I hate that in movies when the woman is crying so hard that all she can think to do is kiss the guy. I mean I get it, but kinda corny. Meredith says that she doesn't want her mother to be lonely when she dies. She finds the Chief and tells him that he should continue visiting her mother, and that anytime he wants to hit that, he's more than welcome to also.
What baffles me is he's still playing his game
In the end the Chief works out a plan with the nurses and they agree to come back to work. We also see McDreamy and Addy cuddled up in bed together. His mind seems to be elsewhere. I think he wishes he was where George is right now. George is also in bed, playing with his toy. Nah, it's just a handheld, I mean a Gameboy or something. Izzie comes in and gets in bed with him, followed by Meredith. How these three people fit in this tiny bed I don't know, but they do. George asks if Meredith and Izzie want to make out, with each other.
