Cristina comes home to Dr. Burke's, where he's up late playing the trumpet—who knew? Though the flesh-eaten leg patient is apparently okay, Dr. Burke is mad at himself for questioning Dr. Heron in her own O.R. He says he never saw the problem of an intern dating an attending surgeon until today—since he realizes he intervened as Cristina's man-friend rather than in his professional capacity as a surgeon.

The next day at the hospital, Dr. Burke asks George to do something, but he refuses, citing the picket line. It's pretty unrealistic that George would be able to get away with this—but then again I don't think we value Grey's Anatomy for its realism, because after all it stars PATRICK DEMPSEY AS A NEUROSURGEON.

"As you've no doubt noted from my partner's glasses, we're raging bulldykes"

Two women approach Meredith. They turn out to be the old terminal woman's daughter—a L*E*S*B*I*A*N, mind you—and her partner. They look like power lesbians from the Manhattan publishing world, only with more tweed. The mother of Izzie's patient, meanwhile, comes back to the hospital and is angry that Izzie advised the girl to give the baby up for adoption. Izzie says the girl is smart and should be given every opportunity to break out of the trailer-park upbringing and succeed. Because others are within earshot, Izzie doesn't admit her own backstory; instead, she plays the uppity waspy angle and says she knows what's best for the girl. The mother is angry and resentful but knows that Izzie is right.

Dr. Heron tells her leg patient that the surgery was a success and that the leg likely will be functional. Alex fawns like, well, a fawn, while Cristina stands there like, well, an idiot. Dr. Heron continues to prove ballsy and says she'll take Cristina's apology anytime. The terminal old woman's daughter, who is a dead ringer for Judy Woodruff—hell maybe it IS Judy Woodruff, since we all know TV news is going nowhere fast—signs the consent form to authorize Meredith to remove the breathing tube. After the daughter says her last goodbyes, Meredith administers a sedative, then pulls the plug.

Cristina remains too proud to apologize to Dr. Heron. Dr. Burke says she crossed the line and made him cross the line as well by dragging him into the situation. Cristina admits that she's not used to being wrong; he reminds her that she's still only an intern, so second-guessing her superiors isn't her job.

Meredith agonizes because her old lady patient is still hanging on more than two hours after the plug is pulled. To distract herself, she confronts Dr. Webber about his visits to the nursing home—the staff told her he's been stopping by a couple times a week. He asks whether Meredith would like him to stop going, but she doesn't answer. He says he thinks Ellis is lonely.

Over the next couple minutes, we cut between scenes of Izzie and Dr. She-Shepherd delivering the teen mother's baby and scenes of Meredith's old lady patient finally passing through the pearly gates (or the lake of fire, if she happened to be, you know, NON-CHRISTIAN). This scene is very moving, and yes, the parallelism might be cheesy—one patient is born as another dies—but it still really works. We haven't had a disarming moment like this in a few episodes, and it's nice to see it back.

After calling the patient's time of death, Meredith gets emotional and has to flee into that most comfy of refuges, the supply closet. Of course Dr. He-Shepherd is walking by at JUST THAT MOMENT and comes in to offer her the support of his brawny male bosom. Meredith starts hyperventilating but finally spits out that she doesn't want her mother to die alone. This scene is quite moving until Meredith's bulimia gets the best of her and she barfs prolifically into the hyperventilation bag Dr. He-Shepherd offers her. After thus unloading her bowel, she crosses the line and puts her head on Dr. He-Shepherd's shoulder. Finally, she says she's okay, while he does the McDreamy O'Soulfuleyes look. There's a moment of suspense that has me shouting OH NO DON'T KISS THE BITCH, but Meredith manages to escape before any "relations" occur. Dr. He-Shepherd is left in the artistically lit solitude of the supply closet.

Quit with the bedroom eyes and hold her hair back, buster

Izzie's patient asks her whether she's ever regretted giving her baby up for adoption, and Izzie responds with an honest no. Nonetheless, she reminisces a bit, and it's clear she's still very emotional about the subject. This scene also is really well done.

After her breakdown, Meredith tells Dr. Webber she wants him to keep visiting her mother. Yeah, way to make the black man fill in for you when you're too lazy to do it yourself, Scarlett. Cristina, meanwhile, is forced to suck it up and apologize to Dr. Heron in front of Alex. Dr. Burke, cocky as always, pulls rank and says he's an attending and doesn't have to apologize to underlings. Cristina mutters out the apology, and Dr. Heron wants to "hug it out." Cristina flees.

At long last, it's time for la montage finale. Dr. Webber apparently reaches some sort of settlement with the nurses, because there's all manner of syphilitic celebration outside at the picket line. We then see Dr. He-Shepherd in bed petting Dr. She-Shepherd but clearly with his mind elsewhere. We then see George in bed playing video games and petting, well, something else. Izzie and Meredith both suddenly jump into bed with him, and he asks each if she's okay. They both keep their lips sealed. As we fade to black, George has a nice throwaway line&mdash"Anybody wanna have sex?" Oh GREAT, somebody finally filled George in about the birds and the bees.

George—clearly not gay

Posted by m_ruv on February 1, 2006 10:45 AM