Grey’s Anatomy Recap: Damage Control (May 7, 2006)

Ok, let me warn you that it’s late and I’m exhausted.  I wasn’t planning on doing a recap, but I got a bunch of emails today from people without TiVos who asked me to recap the show because they had to miss it for one reason on another.  So if you find any issues, or typos, I’m sorry.  I’ll make sure to check it over in the morning, but right now I honestly can’t keep my eyes open.

Here you go…..

Grey’s Anatomy: Damage Control
Airdate: May 7, 2006 

Meredith is over at McVet’s while he was cooking breakfast.  Finn is trying to call Meredith on her game, and asks her to sit down and try really hard to act like you she isn’t scary or damage. She claims not to be scary OR damaged.  That being said, she doesn’t’ want to talk about her family or the last guy she  slept with. Hmmm.

Speaking of the last guy Meredith slept with, George’s new woman has apparently spent the night.  And while Izzie and Meredith are in the bathroom, dishing about Finn (and the sex that Meredith isn’t having with him), Callie comes walking in, in her undies only (no bra), pees, then leaves without washing her hands. Izzie and Meredith are a little taken back by this and exchange a whole lot of “Oh my gods”.

As the workday begins, Izzie tries to explain to George that Callie crossed the line with her naked, non hand washing bathroom antics, but her point is smacked down by Alex who reminds her she’s the one dating the patient. Score one for Evil Alex.  Christina tries to bring the love back into the room with her gleeful attitude.  Yes, Christina.  Yes, Christina Yang.  Hell, she even does a cheer about the thought of patients on their deathbeds. Christina, you have got to get out more.  During her little rah rah sis boom bah, she bangs into Derek.  Meredith tries to ask him about Doc, the dog, but he throws all kinds of attitude her way. Ouch.

Break time is over for the interns as a car crash brings a family of four southern hicks into the Seattle General ER. Remind me to ask my friend at FatbackandCollards.com if “southern hick” is a derogatory term.  It probably is, and I apologize if I am offending anyone, but I can’t think of an alternative for the stereotypical personalities of these people.  Anyway, Mama and Daddy (Big Jim) were hit by a car going in the wrong direction, and then in turn, they hit the car of their pregnant daughter, Melanie and her husband. There’s a whole lot of gee whiz’s and heck yeah’s, accompanied by that upbeat cheesy music that let’s us know that we are supposed to find this all amusing. All family members appear to be fine – just minor injuries.  Mama even swats Alex away while he tries to examine her.  Mama isn’t wearing and undies, and she doesn’t know Alex well enough to let him see her “good girl”.  Leave it to Shonda and friends to work in yet another euphemism for the female anatomy. You think the writers have an ongoing bet on how many times a vagina-alternative can make its way into the script?

While the southern hicks are getting attended to, the guy that caused the accident is also brought in. Big Jim, the dad, is ready to attack him.  We soon find out that the guy who caused the accident happens to be a surgical intern at a nearby hospital. Oh, it’s Harold, from Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.  I love this guy.  Oh, and I didn’t catch his character’s name the first time around, so I’m just going to call him Harold…deal with it.

A bit later, Harold is checking out his chart trying to figure out why the hell he swerved his car into oncoming traffic.  Maybe you were smoking up with Kumar…huh?  Nope, actually he thinks the accident was caused by a lack of shuteye.  Seems like he’s the ying to Christina’s yang.  He had already worked 30 hours, but a really cool surgery presented itself, so he stayed on, despite the rules. He rhetorically asks Meredith if he actually could have taken a life of a pregnant woman because he was saving another life in the OR?  So sad. Meredith turns her back for just a minute and Harold takes off.

Callie comes into to check on Harold’s arm, but first George asks her if she washed her hands. Ew and Ha.  Derek comes bombing in to get the results of Harold’s CT scan.  Meredith explains that CT was backed up, and he’s lucid now, so it’s all good.  Derek is pissed.  He yells at her and them storms off.  Use your words McDreamy.

And over to someone who should be more careful of his words, Karev is still Addison’s bitch and she has put him Captain of the Vagina Squad (his words not mine).  Today, el Capitan has to hang with the pregnant lady, Melanie, all day and make sure she’s taken care of.

Oh damn, I never usually feel the need to give you the play by play of the commercials, but it seems that Katherine Heigel (Izzy) was in some really cheesy D-list movie, and now the people behind it have bought Grey’s Anatomy air time to pimp it.  Classic.  I’m thinking Katherine didn’t have much say on this one. Ha!

Back at Seattle Grace, a still way too cheery Christina runs into Burke in the hall.  He doesn’t feel like chatting right now. It seems Christina fell asleep “during” and Burke is pissed.  I mean really pissed.

Over at the other side of the hospital, Dying Denny is, well, dying.  Actually he only collapsed in the hallway, but c’mon, that’s almost the same thing. Looks like half-naked Callie pissed in Denny’s cheerios this morning, because he is demanding that he go home.  Burke tells him that it’s not an option, because he’ll die.  When Izzie asks Preston what they should do, he tells her to back off Denny a bit and give him some time to grieve. 

Completely disregarding the advice of her superior, Izzie tries to cheer up Dying Denny with chocolate and tabloids.  Izzie, he didn’t just break up with his boyfriend, he’s dying.  Denny is having none of it, and lays into Izzie.  He basically tells her that his life is awful and if it weren’t for her, he would have just died rather than continue living his life in this way.

During a routine CT scan, Bailey and team realize that Melanie, has some MAJOR issues with her internal organs.  I mean MAJOR.  If Code Black wasn’t the keyword for a bomb in the hospital, then I would have thought Bailey would have called a Code Black.  She summons every available surgeon for an emergency surgery.

George informs the family that Melanie’s injuries are catastrophic.  The adrenaline in her system after the car crash kept her conscious and unable to feel the pain.  Having to lie still for the Cat Scan, Melanie’s body relaxed and her injuries took over.  She was in emergency surgery right now, but things aren’t looking good.

After seeing the full extent of her injuries, the Chief polls all of the surgeons as to what the next steps should be.  “Damage Control” is reiterated throughout the room.  From what I can tell, “Damage Control” means that they move rapidly and they don’t worry about being pretty about it, but I don’t think that’s the whole picture. The Chief informs the surgeons that they are to stop when Melanie hits the triangle, which we learn means that her blood stops clotting, her muscles produce acid, and her organs get cold…the triangle of death.

Ok, I’ll admit, I only finished 2 years of med school before becoming a TV blogger, so I’m not sure what this is all about, BUT, when Melanie reaches the “triangle”, the Chief orders everyone to stop working on her.  They then cover her in plastic…nope not the morgue plastic, more like Saran Wrap, but for Dr’s.  They are not going to finish their procedures, or even sow her up.  They are just going to cover her in plastic, bring her to the ICU and see if she lives or not.  Yeah, you lost me there.  Someone who wasn’t lost was Harold, who since eluding Meredith has been watching Melanie’s surgery from the observation deck.  Oooohhhh, Meredith is so dead

Yup. just a predicted McDreamy goes all McNasty on Meredith and screams at her losing Harold.  In his berating of her, Derek throws out perhaps the most poignant of all lines…”This is your fault. You had him and you lost him.  You’ve got to take responsibilities for your actions for once in you life.”  Um, just wondering who we are talking about here Derek.

Bailey explains to Melanie’s parents (and me) that basically they are waiting to see if Melanie’s body tries to repair itself.  But, it’s a balancing act.  If they wait to long before going in for another surgery, she’ll die.  But if they bring her into surgery too soon, that will kill her too. It’s what Michael Scott would call a lose-lose-lose situation. 

Izzie, Mer, and Christina are having a little girl talk when George comes by to tell Izzie that Callie was pissed that she took off since she was supposed to be assigned to Callie today.  Izzie brings up the washing hands thing again, and the girls have a chuckle.  George is pissed.  George eventually finds Callie and tells her that Izzie only left her because she had a patient.  Now it’s Callie’s turn to be pissed.  She tells George that she knew that he would take Izzie’s side.

Callie’s patient, the husband of Melanie, asks George what he did to piss of Callie so much.  George apologizes, because he didn’t realize the guy was awake. George asks if he knew what was going on with Melanie.  He does, but he gives this heartbreaking speech about how he loves this big-haired southern girl, and how he can’t quite wrap his head around what’s happening to her and their baby, so really, he just needs George to talk to him about pissing off Callie.

Derek comes to check in on Harold, who seems fine.  Harold wants to apologize to Melanie’s family.  Derek suggests he just rest for now.  After he leaves, Meredith follows Derek into the stairwell and tells him that she never should have told him about George.  Derek says he’s glad she told him about George and the Vet, and he says she really gets around. He goes on to ask her if she is going to sleep with Alex next because he hears that Alex likes to sleep around,  so that should be great for Meredith.  Ouch.  The rest of the conversation went a little something like this:

MEREDITH: “You don’t get to call me a whore.  When I met you, I thought I found the person that I was going to spend the rest of my life with.  I was done.  So all the  boys, and all the bars, and all the obvious daddy issues…who cared? Because I was done. You left me.  You chose Addison.  I’m all glued back together now.   I make no apologies about how I chose to repair what you broke. You don’t get to call me a whore.”

DEREK:”This thing with us is finished. It’s over.”

MEREDITH: “Finally!”

DEREK: “It’s done.”

MEREDITH: “It is done.”

Yeah, something tells me it’s not quite over you crazy kids. 

After respectfully consulting with her mother, the Chief and team decide that they need to bring Melanie back into surgery. The timing isn’t perfect, but they aren’t sure if it’s going to get any better.  Cut to the OR where Melanie is crashing.  Alex keeps reminding everyone about saving the baby.  He goes to find Addison but she’s in the middle of a surgery that she can’t leave. He rushes back in and tells everyone that he has to do an emergency C-section. He asks Bailey for her help.  The baby is out, but it’s not looking good.  They lose Melanie on the table just as Addison rushes in to save the baby.  Looks like Alex beat her to it.

Meanwhile, George sits with Melanie’s husband and her parents as they wait for news. Meredith comes by and tells George that despite the timing, Harold would like the chance to apologize to Melanie’s family.  Just minutes after he hears of his daughter’s death, Big Jim comes into Harold’s hospital room.  Harold tells him how sorry he is.  Meredith, Harold, and anyone watching with a beating heart starts to cry (which of course means Denny might not be sheding a tear, technically a battery is beating his heart).  Damn you Grey’s Anatomy, I thought I was going to go one week without crying.  With a look of a madman, Big Jim approached Harold, who braces for the worst.  But instead, Big Jim puts his hand on Harold’s shoulder to comfort him. Jesus this is sad.

Izzie is back in Denny’s room.  Denny says he isn’t going to cheer up for her.  She lays down in bed with her. Dying Denny wants to feel her up.  Gotta love this guy.

Back in their apartment, Burke tells Christina that he’s tired.  Something tells me that it’s not about the bad sex.  Spill it Burke.

In the locker room, George finally talks to Meredith. He simply says “See you at home?”, but those 4 words mean so much.  Later, he finds Callie in her apartment (also known as the basement hospital).  She finally explains that she did wash her hands, downstairs in the kitchen. She wanted to get out of there because Izzie and Meredith were staring at her like she was a rodent. She forget they were even there. She tells George that he has to stand up for her.  Be a man George. 

Meredith is back over at Finn’s house.  She tries to break things off with him, explaining that she’s damaged, and maybe more damaged that he can handle.   Finn explains that he is damaged too.  His mother died after a lengthy battle with cancer when he was 10 years old.  His father’s spirit died along with his mother’s body.  The last woman he slept with was his wife.  But she died too, but in a car crash. So yeah, he’s scary and damaged too…but very, very hot.  They finally kiss.  Hey Shonda…why are we only getting Chris O’Donnell at the beginning and end of every episode??  I’d like to see a bit more please.

Next week:  The first part of the 2 hour season finale.