Addison delays her return to Los Angeles to help with Derek's pregnant
patient, Jen, who's suffering mini-strokes and needs another surgery.
The husband tells them, "If it comes down to a choice, save my wife,"
and not the baby. The first surgery goes well but then Jen crashes
again and Derek insists that he can save her, even if it means taking
out her temporal lobe and eventually her frontal lobe. He can't control
the bleeding, however and Addison announces she has no choice but to
deliver the baby. "I can save her," he tells Addison, ordering her to
wait.
"This has gone too far," Addison insists, "Even if she does live, you
are creating a monster. You don't get to play God here." She picks up
her scalpel to begin the C-section and Derek shouts at her to put it
down. The rest of the O.R. watches the tense standoff in disbelief.
Addison tells Alex to go get the Chief and Derek orders, "Do not touch
my patient, Addison." Addison appeals to Meredith, who has been
assisting Derek. She tells him that it's too late to save Jen, but they
can still save the baby. When Richard arrives, he gently tells Derek
it's over.
Alex, Addison and Derek break the news of Jen's death to her husband
and he wants to know the details. All a guilt-stricken Derek can say
is, "I'm sorry." "You killed her, you're a murderer," the man yells at
Derek.
When Callie and Cristina examine a patient's recent stitches, they see
evidence of a botched surgery, thanks to Dr. Campbell, the legendary
first female surgeon at Seattle Grace. Owen wants to page Dr. Campbell,
as it's her patient, but Cristina says, "What? And have her maim the
guy again? We page someone who actually knows how to operate instead of
some dinosaur who refuses to put down her scalpel and go join her
friends in Boca." Unfortunately, Campbell is standing right behind her
at the time and announces, "The dinosaur is here. No need to page me."
Owen thinks Cristina's too hard on people, but she insists that
Campbell is "old and out of touch." In examining the patient's X-rays,
Cristina sees evidence of a major error, and presents it to the Chief.
Richard informs Campbell's patient that a complication during surgery
-- his bowel was nicked -- requires a second surgery. Richard advises
the patient that he can request a different surgeon, but he wants to
stick with Campbell.
Cristina insists that the patient doesn't understand the situation but
Richard barks at her to "Back down." However, he makes a point to watch
the operation. While she's operating, Campbell criticizes Richard, her
former pupil, for his soft teaching methods and Cristina for her lack
respect. When Cristina calmly states that the current surgery was only
due to Campbell's mistake, Campbell orders her out of her O.R.
After the surgery, Campbell admits to Richard that she made a mistake,
but it's not until Owen tells her of his discharge from the Army that
she decides to give up surgery. "They knew it was my time, even if I
didn't. I'm grateful to them for that," he says.
Owen tells Cristina that today she was in the right, but that she was
also a "bully to someone who needed compassion." He says she's a lot
like Dr. Campbell. "Forty years from now, I'm going to have to pry that
scalpel out of your hand, too," she agrees she won't want to give it
up, but he says she's missing the point: He still wants to be there for
her forty years from now.
An angry patient confronts Izzie: She'd been told she has cancer. In
reality, she's only anemic, and she's convinced that someone at the
clinic mislabeled her blood sample. "Don't apologize to me, I'm just
anemic," says the woman, "You apologize to that dying person." Izzie
realizes "that dying person" must be her.
She takes out the paperwork on her own blood test: It reads "anemic."
She does a self exam and finds a suspicious-looking spot on her back.
Izzie makes an appointment with dermatology, where the doctor insists
that it's probably nothing.
Callie asks Arizona out on a date, but Arizona turns her down when she
realizes that Callie's only dated one other woman before her. "I spend
my entire day around newborns, so I try not to in my personal life,"
she explains. Callie approaches Arizona at Joe's and insists she has
lots of experience in other areas, but she makes the announcement in
front of Arizona's date for the evening.
Miranda needs a letter of recommendation from the Chief so she can
specialize in pediatrics, but when he finally hands it to her, it's
just a form letter, with words such as "serviceable" and "fine." "I am
better than fine," she storms. Miranda confronts Richard about his
less-than-glowing letter and he snaps that he's wasted his time
grooming her to become "the next me," if she wants to "leave him" and
become a pediatric surgeon. "I am not your son or daughter. You don't
get to pin all your hopes and dreams on me, sir," she protests.
Mark picks the absolute wrong time to tell a shattered Derek he's
sleeping with Lexie and Derek hauls off and punches him. The two get
into a violent free-for-all and Owen has to pry them apart. Lexie
arrives to comfort Mark and he tells her, "It was worth it."
Izzie chews out her interns for the labeling mix-up, but tells them
they're lucky because they get to save lives. She presents them with a
case of a "29-year-old female who we misdiagnosed with anemia. Let's
not make the same mistake again," she says.
