No one, including Meredith, has heard from Derek. She tells the Chief
she won't go back out to talk to him. Miranda bullies Callie and then
Owen into talking to Derek, but they both start drinking along with him
after dredging up memories of patients they've lost.
Mark is undertaking a rare surgery, a face transplant on a man unkindly
nicknamed "blowhole," after losing most of his face to a car accident.
The interns all murmur when Mark chooses Lexie to scrub in. Due to the
drain on services, Cristina is awarded her first solo surgery, a hernia
patient, but is more intent on lining up an appointment with a highly
regarded specialist for Izzie.
A patient can't help wondering why one of the interns has a shiner,
another is crying, and one has a bleeding arm, but Meredith insists the
residents shouldn't get involved. George tells Meredith he's sure
something is wrong with Izzie, but she's too preoccupied with the
intern drama to follow up. She finally learns the three interns are
involved in a love triangle and orders them to never act this
irresponsibly at the hospital again. Izzie chews out the interns for
being insensitive to the face transplant patient and Mark takes her off
his case.
Miranda admits that she sent Owen and Callie to talk to Derek and that
now she's lost them all, so Richard drives out and finds them all
drinking on Derek's front porch. Derek takes Richard to task for
sending Meredith out to see him, expecting a ring. "Why in God's name
would you do that? You destroyed me," he says, and goes into the
trailer.
Richard follows him inside and says, 'I've destroyed lives before and
you're not one of them. I sent the woman who loves you out here to
bring you back to your life. If you ruin it with her, that's on you."
Richard continues, "I've been where you are. You've been drunk for a
few days, I was drunk for years. And I know you're going to need at
least one friend when you get out of that hole you're digging."
"I don't think I can get her back," Derek admits. "What am I going to
say?" Richard tells him how Adele took him back even after his
years-long affair. "You can make your way back from anything," he says.
Cristina is furious when Izzie blows off her appointment, but Izzie
insists she doesn't want to be a patient, citing everyone's
insensitivity to "blowhole." "I will not be a piece of meat in this
hospital while you all argue over who gets to slice me up and then
laugh while you do it."
Cristina urges her to talk to Meredith or George, but Izzie refuses to
tell anyone else. "If you don't tell anybody, I will," Cristina
threatens.
"I don't even know if I want treatment," Izzie says. "Why should I put
myself through hell if it's not going to work anyway?"
Cristina demands, "Why did you tell me if you don't want my help?" and
Izzie snaps at her to keep her mouth shut.
Cristina pauses before beginning her solo surgery and then tells Alex,
who's assisting her, "Izzie has stage four metatastic melanoma that has
spread to her brain, liver and skin. She may only have months to live
and she's resisting treatment. She needs help." She then asks for the
scalpel.
Cristina tells Izzie, "I told Alex and Bailey, and they're telling
Meredith and George. I think you came to me for help, and that's what I
did. Sometimes we win, Izzie. And I want you to fight." Izzie can only
say, "Thank you."
Lexie is tired of all the interns' speculation and decides to kiss Mark
in front of them. "They think you're taking advantage of me, they think
I'm using you, but they don't know us," she says.
Meredith goes to the trailer after Derek calls. "I love you," he says
before asking her "Would you still love me if I weren't a surgeon?" She
says, "No," and tells him Izzie has skin cancer that's spread to her
brain and Derek is "one of about 20 people in the world who can save
her. And I don't know if I could respect somebody who could walk away
from a gift like that. So please don't."
She shows him Izzie's scans. "It's pretty bad," she says, and drives
away.
Izzie's friends help her into her gown as she goes from being a doctor
to being a patient.
