GREY’S ANATOMY: ‘That’s Me Trying’

Is everyone else as stressed out as I am after this week’s episode of GREY’S ANATOMY? The pressure is on for a lot of our favorite surgeons, and when the going gets tough, we see which of them keep fighting, which of them give up, and which of them need to learn to let go…

The big event this week is Owen’s Academy of Traumatic Arts. That’s right, Owen is finally set up to teach the trauma classes funded by the documentary money. He sets up a fake bus crash scene outside the hospital, populated with a sea of blood-smeared mannequins. Several of the residents, including Alex, April, and Jackson, get thrown onto the scene with no warning and don’t get to leave until Owen is satisfied they can handle a real-life situation. The group is less than enthused about having to spend the day working with plastic patients, especially when it starts to rain, but Owen means business and won’t let them slide on a single oversight. After a while, Jackson decides he’s done with the whole thing and walks away citing the fact that he’s still dealing with the loss of two of his friends. This makes Owen a wee bit upset. “Two friends?” says Owen. “Oh, I’ll see your two friends, and raise you a DOZEN that I lost over in Iraq! And you don’t see me using them as an excuse to quit! So you can run and tell THAT, homeboy.” Or something to that effect.

If Jackson’s response to pressure is quitting, April goes in the opposite direction and gets a little TOO into the exercise. By the end of the day she is frantically tossing dummies into the back of an ambulance and screaming at Owen to get out of the way or she will run him over. Owen gives her a passing grade mainly to prevent her from ending up in the psych ward. Alex, meanwhile, is loving how April took charge of the situation. She may have done it in a slightly psychotic way, but you know how Alex digs the crazy chicks. He lets her know she impressed him and she gives him flirty eyes in return, and these two are clearly going to hook up before the end of the season. Could Alex be the one to take our little April’s V-card? That could be interesting. Not sure Alex deserves it, but it could definitely be interesting.

Back inside the hospital, Bailey is dealing with pressure of a different kind. She goes down to the morgue to help perform the autopsy on Mary, the patient who didn’t wake up from her surgery last week. The poor pathologist has to deal with Bailey hovering over her the whole time, questioning everything she does, and refusing to accept the end result: the autopsy was inconclusive. Bailey just can’t deal with the fact that she may never have an answer on this one.

Meanwhile Cristina is trying to help a patient who’s still alive. It’s the lung transplant guy from two weeks ago – he’s getting lungs today! Teddy goes off to retrieve the donor’s lungs and leaves Cristina in charge of caring for the patient, which becomes a lot more stressful when the guy’s heart starts to fail. For the first time in weeks we get to see Cristina practicing some actual medicine, and while she’s not up to her usual standards, she stays calm and keeps the guy alive. Meredith tries to help but Cristina pushes her away, yelling at her that if it had been anyone else but Meredith’s husband on that operating table during the shooting, she could have walked away and wouldn’t be the wreck she is now. It’s completely unfair, she continues, that Meredith seems to be just fine while Cristina is a shadow of her former self. Meredith takes the hint and leaves, and sadly wonders if she and Cristina can ever get past this issue.

By the end of the episode, the lung guy is on the road to recovery, and Cristina walks out of the hospital…for good. She shockingly informs Owen she quit her residency, despite getting compliments from Chief Webber himself on a good day’s work. She can be a doctor again, she says…she just doesn’t want to anymore. Yep, that decision is bound to stick – it’s not like she’s a series regular or anything.

In yet another tense storyline, Callie is having a very hard time with her decision to move to Africa with Arizona. Not a conversation goes by without her complaining or making passive-aggressive comments, and Arizona gets more and more frustrated. They make it all the way to the airport when Arizona suddenly stops and tells Callie she can’t come. This is the experience of a lifetime for Arizona, and Callie would just ruin it for her by being miserable the whole time. And just like that, they’re broken up. Um…that was sudden. I mean, even the whole “kids or no kids” fight took like four or five episodes to break them up the last time around. Hey, GREY’S writers? It’s not like you just found out Jessica Capshaw was going on maternity leave. Maybe you could have devoted a little more time to this storyline instead of making them squabble over things like how to decorate their apartment. Just my two cents… But whatevs. See you later this season, Arizona.

Rounding out the episode are a couple of minor plot points: Derek is writing a grant proposal for an Alzheimer’s research study and tells Meredith she can’t be part of the study because he’d be too distracted worrying about her. Meanwhile, Mark checks out Lexie’s ass. (There’s more to the storyline but really it boils down to that.) She tells him to quit it but walks away smiling. Yep, it won’t be long before those two reunite.

And that’s it for this week, fellow GREY’S lovers! Allow me to take a brief pause for meditation after all that stress. Breathe in…breathe out…I’m a leaf on the wind… That’s a little better. See you next week when Seattle Grace gets a very important Mystery Patient! (Spoiler alert: it’s not the President or Bono.)

How did you all feel about this weeks’ episode? How long will it be before Cristina is back in action? Do you think Alex and April would be good together? Tells us what you think in the comments section below!

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