EXPLORE All The Shades of Grey

With Meredith and Derek's relationship a known commodity among the interns (not to mention Bailey), Derek has been spending almost every night at Meredith's, and everyone seems pretty comfortable with that - except for Meredith. She realizes she knows precious little about Derek. But Derek isn't in a very telling mood.

Izzie makes some brownies, but despite George's adoration, they just don't taste right to her. But she refuses to call the person who gave her the recipe to find out what's missing, because that person is her mom.

Cristina is pregnant, but doesn't want to be for much longer. She schedules an appointment at a clinic to terminate the pregnancy.

At the hospital, Alex and Burke work on a case of a teenaged girl in need of a new heart valve. Standard procedure is to install a porcine valve. But this girl's interpretation of her own religious beliefs preclude any pig products from entering her body in any way. She refuses the valve.

Cristina is assigned to work on a case of a man with seizures he believes are really psychic visions. He predicts that a patient will die on the fourth floor. Moments later, one does. But fourth floor is the ICU, and our interns aren't that impressed, as patients die all the time on that floor. Cristina skepticism is put to the limits, though, when the psychic makes a comment about her being "on the mommy track." Cristina requests to be moved off the case, but Bailey doesn't do switches. Izzie, though, really wants on the psychic case - to prove he's a fraud. So they do wind up switching, and Cristina winds up on Izzie's case - a woman with breast cancer. But the treatment for the cancer is complicated by the fact that she's pregnant (there's no way the fetus can survive the cancer treatments). Cristina just can't escape the issue of pregnancy...

Meredith works with Derek on a rock climber with paralysis that's spreading up his body. All tests show nothing physical as the cause though. So Meredith believes it may be psychosomatic.

Alex does some research on his own and finds that a bovine valve is not only an alternative to a porcine valve, but also better in the long run. But he suggests this option to his patient and her family without consulting with Burke first. Burke isn't happy about that. He's never implanted a bovine valve, as it's a much newer, vastly more complicated surgery. He kicks Alex off another case.

Izzie challenges the psychic's "gift." And when she discovers that he has an embolism that could pop during his next seizure and kill him, she's all too eager to sign him up for surgery. The psychic doesn't want the surgery, though. He's worried it could take away his gift. Izzie isn't sympathetic. Her mother, it turns out, blew Izzie's entire savings (for college) on psychics, hence the their non-existent relationship today.

The rock climber's paralysis is worsening, so Derek decides to go with his instinct and open up the man's spine and look for a clot. Meredith strongly disagrees - it's all in his head, any surgery on the spine could make things worse, even kill him. But it's Derek's call and they're doing it anyway.

George has issues doing a relatively simple intubation in front of Alex and Burke. His confidence is shot. Cristina suggests he ask out a cute nurse that's been eyeing him.

Burke admits to Cristina that he's unsure of what to do about the bovine transplant. The family wants it, but he's never done one before. She's not sympathetic, telling him that "your problem has a solution. Some don't."

After some tense moments, Derek finds the clot that he believed was there, but Meredith didn't. Burke asks Alex back on the case to assist with the bovine valve transplant that he's going to perform. Against Cristina's advice, her cancer patient with pregnancy decides to forgo any treatment for the breast cancer so that her baby can go full term. George finally nails an intubation - in front of the nurse, Olivia, that's been eyeing him. He asks her out. The psychic tells Izzie some things no one could know but her, and she too becomes worried that the surgery might change him. But when he comes out, he tells her something that proves he's still got whatever gift he had: her missing ingredient. After making another batch of brownies that taste just right, she gives her estranged mother a call...