-Photos Courtesy of ABC-

Callie is trying to avoid Arizona after a crappy date, and so chooses to spend a day in the ER. She jinxes herself by noting that it's totally quiet, and so is rewarded with a number of about-to-be college graduates who were in a horrific car accident. Callie is also being stalked by Arizona, who wants to know why their date went so weird the night before. Callie won't talk to her girlfriend until Arizona finally confronts her at the end of the day because she is so hurt, and Callie spills that she got stressed out going to an expensive restaurant since she has no money anymore. Arizona of course understands, and they decide that they can spend date nights in bed with pizza instead. George is there all day to help out Hunt, but has a very 007 day as six of his patients die despite his rather awesome levelheadedness and trauma skills. He's totally defeated about what happened but Hunt tells him sincerely that he did a great job, and trauma is a team sport. He assures George that he was a crucial part of the team. The lesson that everyone seems to learn from all of the dying (and the single living) patients is that you shouldn't wait to live your life and instead just go for it. While Hunt and Cristina don't go for it, per se, they are at least talking in more than three-word sentences and clearly yearning for each other. Owen tells Cristina that he and his doctor pinpointed the ceiling fan as the trigger that set off the choking incident, so at the end of the night at home she beats it out of the ceiling.

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Izzie is still making wedding plans, but she's getting weaker and sicker despite her joy at how dapper Derek looks in his morning coat. She then has something even bigger to deal with -- her mother Sharon Lawrence shows up and proves to be a handful, even though she's a well-meaning one. Her mom is convinced the cancer can't be that serious and when Izzie tries to tell her just how serious things are, she winds up comforting her mom and assuring her everything will be okay rather than the other way around. Bailey fesses up to being the one to call her, and then gives her mom false news about Izzie's cancer so that she'll be comfortable going home. Unfortunately, the real cancer update is that more mets have been growing and Izzie needs more aggressive surgery. Alex is stepping up to the plate admirably and hangs out with Izzie being every inch the sweet supportive boyfriend until she is wheeled into surgery. Presumably she makes it out of this one since she's in the next-on talking about possibly having a tumor.

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Callie's father is in town to visit, and he's none too happy to learn that his daughter is now a lesbian. After a whole lot of ranting and arguing in Spanish, he ultimately cuts off Callie's trust fund since she won't quit her job and move home. It makes for a full day for Arizona, who is also dealing with a father who can't face that his 6-year-old daughter is going to die. Bailey has come in on her day off to create more strife in her marriage... I mean, to come see some sort of procedure that Arizona is doing. What she winds up doing, however, is cradling the dying child while her father desperately tries to get her to Mexico for some experimental surgery. She finally manages to convince the dad to do the right thing and be there for his little girl when she dies, but this is after an entire day of choosing to be away from her own baby. I can't help but feel that this isn't going to go well for her, especially with her admitting to Arizona that she hasn't yet told Tucker that she's changing her specialty. Keeping secrets is always good for a marriage on the brink, right?

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I love when shows do things like try to convince us that something has been going on all along that clearly hasn't. So, while Mark hasn't even been a doctor at Seattle Grace for two years, he's somehow been working on setting up a face transplant surgery for the last three. His patient is a really sweet guy who has no family, and friends that he has only met online are arriving to take care of him after it's over. They arrive early and he freaks out since he didn't want them to see his pre-op (lack of) face but manages to be convinced by the doctors that it will be okay. He lets his three friends see him, and of course they are amazing and love him no matter what the state of his face -- something that Izzie takes particular note of since she's trying to hide her cancer from everyone. The face transplant is successful and totally tear-jerking, and afterward it also convinces Lexie to kiss Mark in front of all of the other interns who have been total jerks about their rumored relationship. The interns don't really have any stones to throw, however, given that they have their own dramas going on that totally mirror some of the things our gang went through in their own intern year.

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Well what do you know, this week got interesting. By far the weakest part was stupid Derek, so we'll start with him. He's been doing nothing but drinking and wallowing since Jen died (and it sounds like he's also now named in a lawsuit over her death) and he finds out that he's had more patients die than live. He takes off to go wallow some more, defying the Chief's ordering him to stay and operate. The Chief, Bailey, Meredith and Crisitina have been working on three siblings who all have a gene for some horrific type of stomach cancer, so the two sisters have their stomachs removed to prevent it. Their brother opts out, and the sister tells Meredith you don't give up on the ones you love and she'll convince him. The Chief then asks Mere to help bring Derek back, and fesses up about him having a ring to convince her that Derek doesn't really want to be left alone. But Derek has moved all of his things back to the trailer, and drunkenly yells at Meredith with some pretty spot-on but cruel comments and then bats the ring off into the grass somewhere to prove he wants to be alone. Mere promises she's not giving up, but I say let him be -- the show was better without all of his whining and posturing this week.

The Chief is acting like a total child -- literally like a little kid who has had a toy taken away -- and keeps sniping at Bailey for going into peds. She winds up calling Adele and telling on him, so Adele shows up to give him the reaming he needed and also to give Bailey some words. Because Adele is awesome and always right, they end up making up.

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Bailey has finally decided to take on Derek in a contest for who has the most luscious wavy hair, and Derek better watch out. This must be her new peds hair -- she's putting together her application and gathering recommendation letters. All of them are glowing, except for the Chief's which is clearly a form letter. When she confronts him about it, he has a bit hissyfit that boils down to the fact that he's mad that she's not going into general surgery to take over his role one day like he had imagined. It doesn't help that he's a little bit on edge from the goings on in the hospital...

Cristina and Hunt get a patient who had a botched surgery performed by Faye Dunaway. She's an old revered surgeon that they keep locked away except for special occasions, and Cristina can't stand her since she uses old techniques and seems to not keep up. While Cristina might have been a little bit harsh about it, telling on Faye to the Chief, it turns out she's right and so Richard is going to have to fire her. At the same time he has a potential lawsuit on his hands from the woman a couple of episodes ago who came into the clinic and was told by Sadie and Izzie that she has cancer. It turns out she's only anemic, and... why, when Izzie got her own blood tests back at the same time, she thought she was only anemic too, didn't she? So Izzie sulks, yells at the interns for being inept morons, gets a mole tested out, and then gives the interns one more chance to try and correctly diagnose a mystery 29-year-old female patient. Still no official diagnosis, but we're getting closer to just finding out what's wrong, already.

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So, as promised at the end of last week's Private Practice, Addison and Naomi arrive at Seattle Grace with Addy's brother Archer and the worms residing in his brain. No, seriously. It's 100% as disgusting as it sounds, especially since they felt compelled to show us the little buggers. Sam winds up joining the gang, so that it can really be a true crossover episode, and he manages to convince Derek to do the surgery and be a god like Addy begged him to be. And because he's Derek, he manages to get all eight of the worms, and there is much rejoicing in the land. He puts off Jen's aneurysm surgery so that he can work on Archer, but when he tells Jen it's going to be another day she manages to convince him to just operate on her that night so that she doesn't have to spend another night worrying that she might suddenly die. He operates, all seems fine, and then she wakes up gasping for breath and Alex screams at someone to page Shepherd. This means she's either going to make an appearance on PP or we have to wait a week to see what happens to her and her unborn baby.

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It seems that Bailey took a few days off after Jackson's case and she comes back to some awesome news -- the Chief wants to make her an Attending as soon as she's done with her residency in July, since he needs someone new in general surgery. She's thrilled beyond all belief and happy to be back as long as she doesn't have to work on a potentially dying child. So she goes to spend the day working with Dr. Dixon... on a young girl with a heart condition. Bailey freaks out and spends the whole day trying to compose herself, but when the surgery doesn't go well she literally walks out. Later, however, she figures out how to treat the child and Arizona points out that she would actually make a great pediatric surgeon, and Bailey is left to contemplate that, along with everything she learned about helping calm down someone with Asperger's. Earlier, Bailey has a joyous outburst when she realizes how to help the child, and all the screaming, heated emotions and hugging causes Dixon to have a meltdown. When Bailey goes to find Dixon to try and help, she winds up hugging Dixon tightly, which she learns helps calm the nervous system. Cristina comes in and participates as well until Dixon is back to normal.

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This week we get about 95% heavy, 5% fluff -- though I doubt any males in the audience wouldn't consider having one's, er... member fractured as fluff. But that's what happens to Mark when he and Lexie are having a tryst. Callie and Hunt come to the rescue to fix him up, and when Sadie realizes that Little Grey was involved, she pretends it was her to save the other interns finding out about the relationship.

In far more serious corners of the hospital, Mere tries to let Eric die quietly and pages Bailey instead of Derek when he starts getting bad. However, Bailey is pretty adamant that Mere should call Eric's actual doctor and should save her patient's life. When Cristina arrives and checks Eric out she realizes something is horribly wrong, and it's at that moment that Eric changes his tune and manages to wheeze that he doesn't want to die. They rush him into surgery, but are interrupted by a nearly delirious Bailey. She begs Derek to let Eric die so that she can have the organs for Jackson even though that would be blatantly against the Hippocratic Oath. Derek goes so far as to put the scalpel down and has Bailey make the call as to what he should do, and she comes to her senses enough to allow him to continue.

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The main of the week is as obvious as a Mack truck rolling through the hospital and is only made better by Eric Stoltz's really creepy good acting. Jackson desperately needs a transplant, and Meredith does a test and finds out Eric is a match. Derek is hell bent on saving Eric's life so that he can meet his death at the hands of the professionals scheduled to do it in a few days, so he performs brain surgery that requires the removal of a piece of Eric's skull for a while. Meanwhile, Bailey and Arizona are fighting about the fact that Bailey keeps looking for something they can do for Jackson while Arizona's course of action is to just wait for organs. While they are fighting about which way is better, Alex gets a page that organs are available. He and Arizona go to harvest them and we learn that Arizona is peppy all the time because it's how she gets through the day without falling apart on account of all the kids that die around her. They get back and do the surgery but SHOCKINGLY, Jackson's body rejects the new organs and he ends up with only 24 hours to live unless they find a new set. Meredith decides to warn Eric very specifically about how he needs to care for his open skull so that he doesn't render himself brain dead; once she leaves the room he starts slamming said open skull against the bed. Voila! Fresh organs!

Derek's mom is in town and hanging about the hospital through all of this. Meredith takes Izzie's advice on how to appear peppy and happy but at the end of the day can't do it anymore. She admits that she's a big old mess who has sympathy for a serial killer, which leads Derek's mom to realize she's The One for Derek since she can help show him that life isn't all in self-righteous black and white. [Insert your own "Grey" joke here.] She also has time to spread her awesomeness to Mark and tells him that he should just be an adult and date Lexie, already. She also figures out after one second that Hunt isn't sleeping after his experiences in Iraq, but he's not ready to hear it. He's asked Cristina out on a date to prove that he's not hot and cold, but unfortunately then shows up late and drunk to pick her up. She is pissed at him and it only gets worse when he goes to take a shower in her apartment. But when she finds him in there fully dressed and babbling about his horrific-sounding "favorite surgery," she realizes that his behavior is all about him, not about her and she helps him.

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How best to describe this week's episode? Well, most of it made me want to stab myself with a finely sharpened toothbrush.

That is exactly what has happened to Eric Stoltz, a death row prisoner who has been brought in after being beaten in a prison fight. Mere and Cristina are not happy that both of them are assigned to the same case, on account of them still not speaking to each other. Things are even more awkward because the two attendings on the case are Shepherd and Hunt. Meredith wants to make the guy more comfortable but Cristina and Derek want him to only get the amount of care he needs to survive and kind of relish him being in pain. When the girls are in the room with him alone Cristina asks what he did and he tells them serenely about how he slit the throats of five women in three days and really enjoyed doing it.

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The big news is that today is the solo surgery, which will be an amputation. The attendings all voted and unanimously chose Cristina as the winner, but as she was taken out of the running by the Chief, she instead has to choose which of her peers will do the surgery instead. As if that's not enough, Dr. Dixon has agreed to come back to Seattle Grace for one more day, and Richard tells Cristina it's her responsibility to ensure that Dixon wants to be the head of cardio by the end of the day. Interestingly enough, she seems to have an easier time of it with Dixon, who advises Cristina to rank everyone against the same standards and pick the best, no emotions involved. The other residents, meanwhile, all take turns kissing her butt or manipulating her in some way -- that is, except for Alex, who fails at the ass-kissing and instead lays out why he's the most qualified to do the surgery. Because of that, Cristina ends up picking him. But when Mere comes to talk about the fight the two are in and how Cristina's picking Alex was personal, Cristina loses it. She again reminds everyone else that all of their interns were involved too and that she should be the one operating, along with pointing out that she chose Alex because he was qualified and that Mere was the one who just made it personal. Hunt takes Cristina somewhere private so that she doesn't just break down in the hallway, and it turns out to be the basement where she stands on top of an air vent and has all of her troubles blown away a la Marilyn Monroe. I have to think the passionate making out that followed also had something to do with her resulting good mood. Rowr.

Alex is stoked to get the surgery, and immediately runs off to ask Izzie to assist him. She's been busy shunning all of her work to have sex with Denny (It kills me that I'm writing that sentence yet again) but Alex thinks she's just being aloof because she's scared of loving him. He tells her that he loves her, but unfortunately that sends him into a panic spiral right as he's scrubbing in for the amputation. He pages Mere, who talks him off the ledge, and then Izzie shows up at the last minute to grin away and help him out. George is the only one who has managed to see beyond his own life and realize that something is wrong with Izzie, but he's either yelled at or brushed off when he tries to bring it up with her friends.

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Take the worst decision you've ever made. Got it in mind? Now multiply it by a thousand, and you've got the idea just how bad a decision Lexie and Sadie make this week. They decide to up the stakes of the secret intern society and take out Sadie's appendix. It's not a surprise that this goes horribly wrong, and they call Meredith and Cristina to help them out of it, who in turn call Bailey and the Chief. Mere and Cristina, with some coaching from Bailey, save Sadie's life and then all of the residents get together to put all of the interns on probation -- seriously, it seems like you can get away with absolutely anything at Seattle Grace without losing your job. When Lexie tries to take some of the blame with the Chief, she lets it slip that Cristina knew that the interns were up to no good, and Mere is so surprised she turns on Cristina in front of Richard. Cristina is mighty pissed that her best friend didn't stand up for her and have her back, and it kind of seems like the tension might last a while between those two. Fortunately, Cristina at least has a super hot surgeon who thinks she's beautiful -- it's all Hunt is able to finally say after spending the entire episode tongue-tied around her.

The attendings, meanwhile, are treating a man who jumped out a window while sleepwalking. Sloane shows his sensitive side and bonds with the man's 13-year-old daughter, which leads to him figuring out that this happens all the time and the girl barely sleeps. They figure out the problem and while Dad is in surgery, Sloane sits with the girl so that she can finally take a nap with her head resting on his shoulder. He's allowed to relax -- he did his own surgery earlier, on none other than Callie. When the sleepwalking dad was brought in, he woke up and started thrashing so much that he hit Callie in the face and broke her nose. Mark fixes her up, and later that night when Callie is in recovery, Bailey visits and the women both admit they're kind of tired of surgery and adrift at the moment.

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After the sudden departure of her unenthusiastically semi-lesbian heart surgeon girlfriend, Dr. Torres is not holding it together as well as she thinks. She works out her sadness by attempting to construct a faux-but-expensive titanium replacement leg for an unappreciative homeless man who rudely dies before she can see if her metalsmithy will cut it on the mean streets of Seattle.

Speaking of long lost Dr. Hahn, Cristina was glad to see she was gone until she got a gander of the replacement. The new hotshot heart surgeon is so robotic she just might be a Cylon! Banish the thought! It's not robotics, it's Asperger's! And when a patient's deep-seated religious beliefs don't jive with the robot doctor's love of rules, Bailey makes an end run to the Chief. While the patient gets to live with the heart of his choosing, Seattle Grace will have to live without the heart surgeon of their dreams.

Meanwhile, the surgical interns' cutting is starting to get noticed. After Lexie is complimented in surgery for her self-inflicted masterly stitchery, Cristina catches on and bans the practice. Sorry interns you'll have to find a new storyline!

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Let's start with the smaller -- totally gut-wrenching, but smaller -- storyline this week. Bailey and Derek are working together on a woman with a brain tumor. She has had surgeries before, and though Derek assures her she could live with her tumor for at least a few months, she opts to go forward with her surgery and also to sign DNR papers. Her husband is totally supportive, and they clearly have had long, happy lives together and seem to have the perfect marriage. (This is as opposed to Derek's divorce, etc. and Bailey's trying marriage counseling.) The surgery isn't successful, however, and when she flatlines, her husband crumbles and tries to literally keep her heart beating by himself. Derek has to step in when both the man and Bailey are too affected to let the woman die, and quietly and heartbreakingly, she goes.

Derek's annoyed with Meredith because she and Cristina are reading Ellis' diaries and talking about them late into the night, causing him to not get enough sleep. He enlists Sloane's, er... services, in that Mark will flirt with Cristina and hook up with her to keep her busy enough at night so that Mere will be quiet and Derek can then sleep. Cristina, however, is too busy competing to take part in a cool surgery. An unidentified patient comes in with a million things wrong, and she spends the day only trying to be the best for surgery. Alex and the interns are trying to get in practice so that they can show off as well, and they wind up working on unclaimed cadavers while George works on a weirdly realistic dummy that is presumably the one Izzie mentioned last week. Hunt is disgusted to see a) how personally involved with each other all the doctors are and b) how uncaring they seem to be about the patient, especially Cristina. But when he finally confronts her about it and basically calls her a heartless vulture, she explains what it was like to be with her dad when he died in a car accident and explains that's why she became a surgeon. He realizes he's totally wrong, and after earlier thinking he might quit, totally decides to stay on at Seattle Grace for a while.

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Woooooo! Hot Major Hunt is BACK! Hooray for hot new men on my Thursday nights. Wait, what's that you say? There were 40-something other minutes of this episode too? Okay, fine, here you go.

The Big Surgery of the Week is a project Bailey has been working on -- a six-way kidney transplant. Guest stars galore abound at Seattle Grace, and it seems only Bailey and Lexie can really remember who is getting whose kidney. (No matter, everyone is color-coded during surgery.) One of the donors is a girl who seems to be donating out of the goodness of her heart, but who bristles every time someone tells her what a good deed she is doing. She finally loses it and begins yelling at the recipient of her kidney, who happens to be the married man she's been seeing for the last three years. His wife, who is one of the donors, gets so angry that she pulls out of the surgery, which means the entire thing falls apart. Bailey, not allowed to coerce anyone into donating, instead just has a talk with the woman in her awesome Bailey way, and so she decides to do the right thing and participate after all. Everything is going like clockwork until Meredith drops one of the donor kidneys on the floor. It's pretty bad timing for her, since she's been really angry at Derek for getting all of the credit from their brain tumor clinical trial of last season. Fortunately, the kidney ends up working fine after all, the Chief tells her to forgive herself, and Bailey convinces an righteously indignant Derek (who thinks that, as the attending, he has a right to all of the credit) to just thank his girlfriend for coming up with the trial in the first place and helping him... so he gives Mere a glowing kidney in a jar for her bedside table -- that means true love.

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Meredith is all stupid because her hot, naked boyfriend discovered her mother's super-secret diary while he was looking for a place to stash his clothes. Instead of behaving like a normal person, she gets all pissy and refuses to talk to him, or look at what the diary says, until she finally realizes she's being a moron and he's the most understanding boyfriend of all time. This is actually by far the most annoying part of the entire episode, and no one else really irks me. Something strange is definitely going on here.

Christina is irritated that she's been stuck in the clinic treating patients who have rashes instead of major injuries. But her journey leads her to the mythical land of dermatology, a previously unexplored part of the hospital where residents get constant massages and there is fresh fruit. The rest of the surgical residents come to marvel at this place for what seems like hours on end and no one seems to mind or care where they are... except for Christina's dying, rashy patient and George, who has been left to pick up Meredith's slack. But George works it out, showing a freaked-out kid the scariest thing ever and convinces the reluctant, pint-sized patient to stop terrorizing the hospital and go through with the surgery. And he gets the news that he's passed his exam, at which point he starts ignoring his lowly-but-loyal intern pal Lexie.

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The impossible has happened -- Derek has actually moved in! However, he assumes that this means that Meredith is kicking out Izzie and Alex, which Izzie learns when she finds Derek measuring her bedroom to become his office. For someone who just came from living in a trailer, I'd think he'd appreciate just having a living room where he couldn't touch the opposite walls at the same time, at least for a little while. But this sends Izzie down into the dumps, which isn't helped by the fact that Alex is still being mean to her. Derek even tries to get Cristina on his side, but though she admits she would kick the other two out, she gets mad at him for the little ploy. She goes and talks to Dr. Amy (Meredith earlier announced that she was all better and finished with therapy) and begs Dr. Amy to tell Meredith she still needs help. Mere and Dr. A then meet in the elevator for some touching words about how she's doing better but she isn't finished with needing therapy. Amen!

Callie and Hahn are apparently still a secret to everyone but Mark. This freaks Hahn out, even more so when she realizes that Callie told him all about it because she and Mark are buddies. Callie finally convinces Hahn that she's friends with Mark, she's the kind of person who likes discussing her life with a friend, and she's not going to stop being herself in this relationship, which Hahn actually takes quite well. I may still feel like this is a forced storyline, but it might just be the healthiest relationship that this show has ever seen thus far. When he's not teasing the happy new couple, Mark is still giving Lexie crap for mooning around after George. She diagnoses a really rare condition in a patient but when Mark offers her the chance to scrub in on the surgery, she declines because she's helping out George. He was supposed to take his intern test, but ended up offering to help the Chief when disaster struck.

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*WARNING:  Two Hour epsiode = EXTRA long recap

Okay.  First, I’d like to say thanks for all your comments last week…even Claire who seriously hates my personal issues with Meredith.  I love a fresh perspective.  And we each have our bias so though this is our last blog this season…please keep it up.  Tell me what you love, tell me what you hate…just put it on the boards people!

Rock Bottom


Meredith and Derek keep losing patients with their trial…and they continue opening the fridge with the unopened champagne bottle.  The one Derek bought for their future celebration.  Now it’s a shining reminder of their failures.  Champagne should never equate failure.  EVER!

At her therapy session, Meredith opens up about her mother’s attempted suicide.  Meredith’s mother sliced her wrists with a scalpel and Meredith did not call 911 until she passed out…so her mother wouldn’t get mad.  Dr. Wyatt asked whom Meredith is angry at, if she’s not angry with her mother.  Meredith doesn’t know (because therapy is about learning) and Dr. Wyatt isn’t telling her (again…therapy = learning).

Later, Meredith and Cristina lay in bed together.  Meredith wants to cheer Cristina up, but none of their normal antics work.  Mocking.  Self-loathing.  Instead, Meredith gives over the sparkle pager…because she knows Cristina is in her deepest depressive state yet.  This really is Cristina’s rock bottom.  I’m glad she finally is getting out of her “blahness.”  Yay to fun/competitive Cristina.

Sloane, Shephered and the Chief are at the top Derek’s land discussing their rights to be a man.  Sorry guys…personal issue with men talking about “their rights.”   I tend to tune out.  But the bottom line is that Derek is going to sell his land.  He doesn’t think he needs it anymore.  He’s no longer building a house.  Poor Derek.  His chutzpah is gone too.  

Crazy in Love

Meredith wants to quit therapy.  Provoking her, the therapist calls her a quitter.  So Meredith fires her. Typical Mer.  Why can’t she be strong enough to accept her faults?  She’s so hard on everyone.  It’s a little frustrating.  Week after week our title character mentally and emotionally destroys herself. 

In big Seattle Grace News, Walter Tappley, the “god” of surgery, has come for a visit.  He even trained the Chief.  The Chief’s excitement is palpable, and he runs to Hahn to have Tappley scrub in with her.   Man, the guy even has Hahn’s knickers all bunched up.  

Meanwhile, Derek gets positive about the clinical trial.  Meredith seems jaded, and Derek offers her to opt out of this surgery.  The woman getting the surgery, Greta, wants to wait for her new love, Andre, before she goes through with this.  Derek and Meredith agree to give him a few hours to show up.  

Therapy

So, whenever Meredith thinks about Derek, she thinks about his tongue... in her mouth. And, since they're apparently on their fourth clinical trial together (no successful ones yet), she can't be thinking about tongues. Makes perfect sense, I'd say.

Boring therapist lady tells Meredith that in order to fix these fantasies, she has to think of the reality... aka that Derek is now with Rose. Boo reality!

Clinical Trial

Meredith and Derek meet with the next clinical trial victim, a member of the VA. More on that later, I'm sure.

Meanwhile...

Ahhhh, Dr. Sloane and Callie are totally having sex on the job. Why why why are they back to that? (Side note: we've learned that Bailey has brought her son to work.

There's all this chatter going around the hospital asking if Cristina has seen "it." Though we're supposed to not know what they're talking about, if you've seen the promos, it's obvious. It's a flier of Dr. Burke, saying he won some prestigious award. (In real life, Isaiah Washington is not too pleased that they're using his likeness in a show that fired him.)

Alex wants to move in with Rebecca. Remember, she's married... and it's not to Alex.

Welcome Back

Opening of the episode and everyone is napping except Meredith…of course. She’s in therapy. Apparently we are eavesdropping on her third session. Clearly, her therapist wants to know what’s going on in Meredith’s life…thoughts…feelings…ya know, things therapists use to analyze you. And Meredith, of course, is closed off saying that even attending therapy without saying a word is beneficial. Her therapist is less than amused. Meredith’s needed therapy for years…so this is just what the doctor ordered…literally.

In another part of town, George isn’t sleeping either. He’s violently killing roaches in his and Lexie’s new apartment. Lexie wants him to accept it as their home, but George seems to be having a rough time. Lexie says they just need to fix it up. I don’t know if homeless people would live in this dump. For doctors, it is some pretty sad digs.

According to TMZ, Justin Chambers, aka Dr. Alex Karev of Grey's Anatomy, voluntarily checked into the UCLA Psych Ward this week. His rep said he checked in on Monday and checked out yesterday.

The rep told TMZ that the doc was "exhausted and suffers from a sleeping disorder and went in voluntarily to get some help."

Exhausted? But he hasn't had to work in months! Then again, he does have five kids at home -- maybe that did it :)

Or perhaps he just wanted to visit Britney.

Welcome Back to a New Year and Grey’s Anatomy!!

And we’re back. With Bailey narrating? She talks about God’s creation of the world. When she gets to the point where man is created, she says “God created man and it’s been downhill ever since.”

Sloane and Shepherd are out hiking. They are talking about Sloane’s thing for Hahn. And Shepherd’s kiss with Rose. But Shepherd has brought Sloane to the top of this mountain to show him where his new house will be. They look out over a beautiful valley.

Back at the post party Grey house, Shepherd talks to Meredith while she makes an omelet. He wants her to say how she feels about the house because it will be her house too. CUE Meredith dropping egg. That seems pretty sudden. Then again, maybe not. She committed to him the day before. Wait no, I don’t remember them talking about co-habitating.

After last season's depressing Grey's Anatomy streak, many people thought the show was losing its stride.

I think this last episode put them back on top. While Seth Green's neck exploding made me keep my eyes closed for half the episode (maybe that's why I liked it?), I think the last few scenes - especially the dance party - showed that Grey's isn't going away any time soon. The "Crash Into Me" two-parter reminded me why I care about the characters. Heck, I even like Meredith again.

What do you think? Has Grey's Anatomy once again knocked it out of the park? Or is there no hope left for this doc drama?

P.S. What do you think of McDreamy and Rose? Do you wish he would stay with Meredith (especially now that she admitted she doesn't want him seeing other people)? Or do you want McDreamy and Meredith to be McOver?