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“Grey’s Anatomy” recap (10.1-2): “I Don’t Dance in My Underwear Anymore”

It’s that time of year again, where the leaves start to change, everything is flavored with pumpkin spice, and Shonda Rhimes reaches inside our chests to rip out our still beating hearts. Yea fall! I’m thrilled to be joining you for the first time as your Grey’s Anatomy recapper. The lovely and talented Bridget McManus has kindly handed over the reigns to me this year and I hope to do her proud. So, on with the show!

The season premiere picks up pretty much were Grey’s left off. Richard’s voice narrates us through the opening. (When anyone other than Meredith narrates the opening, we know that something serious and life altering is bound to happen.) But for now, Derek, Meredith and Zola are welcoming new addition Bailey to their beautiful family. Owen, sighing in his Owen way, surveys the damage of the super storm. The interns are exhausted and Bailey is looking for Richard. Arizona and Callie stand facing off, but now there is nothing more to say, so Callie picks up her white coat and walks away. April stares teary eyed and longingly at Jackson, who just re-ignited her flame of confusion by pulling that child from the overturned bus. Richard, poor Richard, is lying on the floor in the basement. He’s been electrocuted so severely that smoke rises from his body, a deep puddle of electrified water blocking access to him.

Back in Meredith’s room, the board members and Bailey Sr. gather to discuss the current state of the emergency room, and also, babies! Bailey Sr. takes her namesake to a comfy chair to coo and cuddle. Callie can barely even look at Arizona, who is trying to act as if her whole world hasn’t just been dismantled by a fingerbang. Owen fills everyone in on their dwindling resources and recommendation to close the ER to anymore incoming patients. Meredith despite just having a little human and a splenectomy, is ready to jump into action. Derek puts the kibosh on that however. When Jackson comes in, dislocated shoulder and all, to let them know that Dr. Homewrecker Boswell is on a plane back to wherever she came from, Cristina nonchalantly asks who the hell she is. Callie takes that opportunity to let everyone know that Arizona is a big ol’ cheater. The air is suddenly sucked out of the room, and Arizona’s lungs.

It turns out that Owen doesn’t even have the chance to close the ER when a group of firefighters and rescue workers are rushed there after a mudslide on a mountain. Alex and Jo, apparently super horny from watching that tree crash through the living room window, are attempting to get it on in the on call room. At first Alex says he’s mature now and not doing it in an on call room, but Jo is standing there all chest heaving and breast having, so he thinks better of it. Jo is having her own crisis however, asking it Alex slept with other interns in the same room. Of course he did. Still they get past that hurdle until their pagers ultimately break the mood.

Lenny, the chief of the ladder company caught in the mudslide and collapse comes in. He’s in pretty bad shape. They get to work on him, and Owen observes the overworked ER as he is wheeled away. Heavy is the head, Owen.

Cristina Yang and her person, Meredith, lie together on Meredith’s hospital bed. Cristina is wiped out from saving lives all night, but what she really wants is a little comfort from her best friend. She confesses to Meredith that she broke up with Owen. Meredith is like, sure, until next week when you get back together. Yang says no, that this time it’s different. This time it has to stick. She attempts to get some shut eye, but duty calls.

Intern Ross rolls up all smiles and a full day of Shepherd ass kissing planned for himself. Derek, observing a patient who was rescued from the mudslide, tells Ross to go find Brooks and have her run some tests. When Ross suggests that he can handle it, Derek tells him no, he wants Brooks. Bailey, still looking for Richard, instructs Ross to go find him. He runs into Yang who tells him that Weber was last seen heading to the generator. When Ross finds Brooks, he lies and tells her that Shepherd wants her to go find Richard. Confused, she shrugs and follows orders.

One of the rescue workers from the mudslide is a young policewoman with some nasty lacerations. Jackson tends to her wounds, including a very large, angry looking one on her neck. She’s thinking about her fiancé who is also a first responder, who has not been seen for some time. Not even Jackson’s mesmerizing blue eyes can calm her fears.

Brooks finds her way to the basement, where she calls out for Richard Webber. She sees him on the ground, and not knowing the water is electrified, steps right in the puddle. Richard opens his eyes but cannot speak to warn her. As the volts course through her body, she is paralyzed. She falls to the ground, but not before slamming her pixie cut against a metal locker.

Jo, Alex and Owen are working on a first responder and notice that he has been triaged, old school with a sharpie. Owen is impressed, because he is Owen. He announced to the doctors and nurses to check for sharpie vitals taken at the scene, as they may very well save some lives. Arizona gets the memo, and she and Intern Leah attempt to stabilize a first responder’s pelvis. Leah whines and doesn’t put her back into it. Why send a girl to do a women’s job, Arizona? Callie’s ortho senses must have been tingling, or perhaps it was just rage. Either way, she comes to the rescue and helps Arizona set the guys pelvis. Callie decides that the man needs surgery for a liver laceration, and asks for Bailey. Arizona acts wounded because she’s a general surgeon and can do it, but Callie wants none of her and her face, and her bouncy hair, and betrayal.

The woman who was pulled from the mountain mudslide keeps asking anyone who will listen about her house. For this, she gets the nickname, Crown Molding. In another room, the fire chief is struggling to breathe. April Kepner inserts a chest tube and what comes out surprises everyone. Intern Stephanie gets sprayed with poop water, and we find out the chief’s colon has been pushed into his chest. (I didn’t even know that could happen!) He needs to be rushed to surgery. Owen sends Stephanie to find Bailey so she can take over the ER. Bailey can’t help Owen though because she’s about to go into surgery with Callie. Richard is still missing so Ross is sent to find him. When Ross gets to the generator room, he finds Heather Brooks and Richard unconscious and in serious condition. They are wheeled through the ER as everyone looks on, horrified. Brooks begins to have massive seizures and Derek takes over her care, while Cristina and Bailey work on Richard.

Callie preps for surgery and Leah is there to assist. Callie recognizes that Brooks was her fellow intern and offers her more time, but Leah insists it’s not needed. Arizona then arrives, much to Callie’s chagrin. Bailey is working on Richard so they are stuck together. Arizona tries to speak but Callie cuts her off reminding her of the mess she has made. Arizona wants to put it all aside for the time being, but apparently she hasn’t figured out how Callie ticks even after years of being together.

While Cristina and Bailey are working on Richard, Alex delivers his labs. Bailey doesn’t like Richard’s lactic levels, and sends Alex to re-run them. Neck laceration policewoman finds another first responder and thinks she recognizes what she believes is her fiancé’s handwriting on his leg. Alex rushes into Meredith’s room to tell her they need blood and fast. She insists that he pick up her baby. When he does, he calms down and tells her what’s really happening with Richard and Brooks.

In surgery, Owen and April are working on the fire chief but he is far worse off than they thought. They get a call letting Owen know that Cristina is threading a balloon into Richard’s heart. In the ER, Cristina asks Bailey to talk to her as she performs the delicate procedure. Bailey gives her words of encouragement and it’s a success. They manage to buy him more time. Bailey is in tears and insists that Yang give her a hug, which she reluctantly reciprocates.

Stephanie is checking on Crown Molding, who keeps interrupting her exam to ask about her house. Stephanie has just about enough, and puts the smack down on all of this house talk. How’s your vision now, lady!? Alex returns with Richard’s labs and Bailey decides to book an ER for Richard so she can explore his abdomen. Cristina says that his heart can’t take the surgery and they go into a little power play about who is who’s boss. It’s kinda sexy. In non-sexy news, Derek and Ross prepare to operate on Brooks, who has a massive brain bleed. Ross is in a silent spiral of guilt and Derek tells him to buck up if he wants to do the surgery. He does. Alex finds neck laceration policewoman’s fiancé, muddy but not too worse for wear. Lenny the fire chief is however, and despite Owen’s attempts to resuscitate him, dies on the table. The firemen are notified and many tears are shed.

Arizona is doing a bang up job….too soon? Anyway, she’s sewing up that liver like nobody’s business, which impresses Leah. Callie rolls her eyes but decides to clarify that yes, Arizona is indeed an excellent general surgeon even if she is a terrible wife at the moment.

Yang and Bailey are still arguing about what to do for Richard when Owen steps in. He suggests they find his healthcare paperwork and see what he would want them to do. It turns out that Richard made Meredith his power of attorney after Adele died. He failed to mention it to her however.

Derek and Ross are tending to Brooks whose brain is bleeding all over the place. The interns, who I will affectionately refer to as, THE WORST when they are in a gaggle, watch from the observation room. They are being snarky and overall terrible and I’m over them. Brooks, you were the best one. Why?!!!!

Yang and Bailey continue to argue about the best course of treatment and Meredith makes a call. If his lactic levels go up any further, then Bailey needs to take him into surgery. Alex, knowing that they need more blood makes an announcement to the first responders that they are having an impromptu blood drive. It’s a hit. Not only will it get them some much needed blood, it may stop them all from putting themselves in harms way again. A fireman approaches Stephanie offering to give blood, and she asks him about Crown Molding’s house. He informs her that Crown Molding was the one who was triaging all the injured first responders. Crown Molding is now Sharpie Lady, and a hero! Stephanie feels like a total ass. Good.

In Meredith’s room, Callie is tenderly holding little Bailey. She tells Meredith the story of when Richard caught her dancing in her underwear. I recall that moment fondly as well. They laugh but Callie’s face falls as a wave of revelation washes over her. She doesn’t dance in her underwear anymore. It’s one of the most telling things Callie has ever said. Somewhere along the road in Callie’s journey, she lost that piece of her. The piece that makes her uniquely Callie. It’s a hard pill for all of us to swallow.

Right then, Bailey comes in to tell Meredith the Richard’s labs are back and his levels are rising. Meredith tells them to go get him into an ER.

While the other interns are tending to patients, Leah lagged behind to watch Derek work on Brooks. She comes to let them know that things are bad and that if Brooks survives, it will be with major motor deficits. For once, the interns take a moment to think about someone other than themselves.

Jo and Alex decide to give it a go because nothing amps up a libido like unspeakable tragedy. Jo can’t go through with it though and leaves. They bump into Arizona on the way out who confides her feelings in the one person she can. Alex Karev. She’s mortified by Callie’s announcement of her infidelity but has been working on a little speech to explain herself. It even has a cute little ortho analogy. Alex suggests that perhaps she should just admit she was wrong and beg for forgiveness. Arizona agrees that might be the best course of action.

Stephanie goes to check on Sharpie Lady who is now in distress. Also in distress is the policewoman with the neck wound. Jackson comes to her with news that her laceration is infected with flesh eating bacteria. Her wound is all green now and they rush her to surgery. See this is why I don’t like to swim in lakes, wear flip-flops through puddles, or leave my house.

Chief Lenny’s wife arrives at the hospital and April greets her, along with his whole fire company. They stand by and honor her as she walks in to see her husband one last time. Owen and Bailey take Richard into surgery, hoping to find the source of his rising lactic levels.

Cristina stands looking out the window of Meredith’s room. Meredith asks her if she made the right decision and Cristina says yes. Meredith is unconvinced so she asks her again. Cristina looks her best friend in the eye and says she made the right decision. Now, because of that decision, Owen and Bailey begin to cut into Richard.

Part Two

Meredith, Cristina and Alex stand around Meredith’s room, waiting for news on Richard and Brooks. They are the only three left from their original group of interns and the bond between the three of them is palpable. They are doing what they always do to cope with tragedy. They joke. Cristina and Alex tease Meredith that maybe Richard really is her real father after all, a fact she disputes. Meanwhile, Jackson waits for his mother and Richard’s girlfriend, Catherine Avery, to arrive. He fills her in on Richard’s condition and she flies into a rage that he has been taken in for an exploratory surgery. Catherine busts into the operating room as Owen and Bailey meticulously comb through Richards organs searching for necrosis. Catherine bangs on the glass like some kind of Benjamin Braddock, trying to stop the surgery. It works because now Bailey is too distracted and upset to proceed.

Unfortunately, in the midst of everything, Brooks dies on Shepherd’s table. Ross is overcome with guilt and grief and takes off running. Leah watches as they cover Brooks’ body. Now that she has passed, they have begun calling her by her first name, Heather.

Everyone is in shock and mourning Heather, even the residents. Derek looks distraught, eyes red with tears as he stops by to see Meredith. Callie sits, twisting her wedding ring as Arizona tries to start a conversation about Heather. What Arizona really wants to do however, is process. Callie is having none of it and tells her, not now.

April has a run in with her mortified fiancé, Matthew. He tries to give her an out, saying he knows it’s hard to turn down a guy in front of a hundred people. April, as usual, has her head and her feelings planted firmly up her ass. Now that’s a diagnosis I can get behind.

Arizona returns home, hoping to talk to finally talk to Callie. What she finds is a ransacked apartment. She races from room to room in a panic as the realization sets in that Callie has taken her clothes and Sophia and left her alone. She screams Callie’s name, and it’s all so terribly sad.

Owen and Catherine fight in the hallway about Bailey and the surgery. He stands by Bailey but Catherine lays into her nonetheless. Bailey shrinks under her torrent and uncertainty sets in. Derek asks one of the interns to stay with Heather’s mother when she arrives, and tells her stories about her daughter until he gets back to deliver the bad news. Because they are all THE WORST, none of them want to. Jo makes the executive decision that all of them will stay to torture us throughout the episode. At the same time, Callie comes in to Meredith’s room with her packed bag and Sophia. She tells that that she’ll be staying at a hotel, but Meredith has other plans.

Derek arrives home with Zola to find a sobbing Callie on his couch. She apologizes and fumbles about, and he laments not reading the recent text messages from his wife.

While Bailey and Meredith discuss turning over power of attorney to Catherine, Owen and Cristina discuss their last sexy times. Owen doesn’t think it was on par with their previous exploits and it’s a real shame to let it end that way. Never wanting to be anything less that A+, Cristina takes him into the on call room for a do me over.

Callie is drunk and pouring her heart out to Derek. Everyone she loves cheats on her or dies…or cheats on her AND dies…or walks off into the parking lot, never to be seen again. Derek listens with equal parts empathy and bewilderment. Callie drinks right from the bottle because, well, fuck it.

Arizona on the other hand is in full on Bette Porter mode. She’s screaming at nurses to break protocol and 911 Callie. Alex tries to calm her to no avail. Cristina brings the gossip to Meredith’s room, and snickers at Arizona’s plight. A mother herself, Meredith doesn’t think it’s right to keep Sophia away from her mother, so she tells Arizona where Callie and the little girl are. Arizona storms off, leaving Meredith to regret her decision to disclose.

The WORST interns sit around; desperately trying to fins anything nice to say about Heather to her mother. They all come up empty.

Jackson is trying to find a priest, rabbi, a wiccan shaman, anyone to marry the policewoman and fireman, since the bacteria in her wound may cause all her organs to fail. The two are in love and don’t want to wait another moment. Jackson also does some major damage control with his mother, scolding and comforting her at the same time. Owen tells Cristina how pleased he is with this new and improved last sexy times memory. Cristina then remembers that there was some sort of secret, special sex act that they forgot to perform. She whispers in his ear and they head off to the on call room again.

The WORST interns sans Ross, turn to Meredith for advice. Since they are miserable, selfish jerks, they need her advice in coming up with something nice to say about Heather. Meredith gives an example of when George passed and she told his mother about when he was trying to be sweet by stealing Jello, then spilling it everywhere. It doesn’t have to be much, Meredith says, just come up with something simple. These are doctors she is talking to. People who will be cutting into other people. They can’t even come up with one decent story between them.

Owen and Cristina’s post-coital bliss is to be a short-lived one. Cristina opens her heart and tells him that even though she was the one to break it off, she’s still broken-hearted inside. He holds her tight because he knows she did the right thing.

Meredith, finally in a wheelchair after requesting one numerous times, sits in Richard’s room with Bailey. Bailey trusted her gut and now doubts herself. Meredith tells her that when you know, you know. She trusts Bailey, so she calls and books an ER to resume the exploratory surgery.

Cristina, Alex and Meredith discuss medical proxies. Cristina and Meredith are each other’s and Alex is in need of one. Cristina suggests Meredith even though she disagrees with her decision regarding Richard. She can do that because she’s super mature, which Meredith calls her out on. Alex decides it should be Cristina.

Jo comes in to check on Alex and the ER. He’s shoving a sandwich in his mouth, so naturally, irresistible. Jo asks to tag along with him, but in reality she’s just trying to avoid coming up with a nice story about Heather. He’s rather surprised that none of them are friends or have bonded in anyway. What happens when he dumps her, he asks. She laughs that off because she’d be the dumper anyway. This sounds like a healthy conversation.

Jackson and April perform the marriage ceremony for the first responders, and of course, April is positively quivering. They couple holds hands and kisses, knowing their love could be fleeting.

The WORST interns have turned to drink to come up with nice stories about Heather. They instead end up telling stories about themselves. All except Ross, because he is being torn apart inside. He does however, want a drink.

Speaking of needing a drink, Arizona and Callie are having it out at Meredith and Derek’s. There are emotional punches flying. Callie calls Dr. Boswell a whore and reminds Arizona she had to convince her to want to have a baby in the first place. Arizona counters with the fact that she had to convince Callie to marry her. Callie says yes, she hesitated because she knew it would be a huge mistake. Really, the only winner here is Derek, who has taken the children outside to look at the stars. Even my ovaries exploded at his adorableness.

The drunken interns (still the worst) are now laughing and watching Stephanie perform her scholarship winning cheerleading routine. Just as she slides into the splits, Heather’s mother comes in looking for her daughter.

Bailey and Owen are elbow deep in Richard’s abdomen, when they finally find the necrotic tissue. Bailey is over the moon that her gut was right.

April tries to talk to Jackson about looooove and stuff, but he snaps at her. He then proceeds to lay it all out on the table. April is indecisive and selfish, wanting only what she can’t have. She threw his love away and he doesn’t want to be part of this merry-go-round anymore. She cries that he is unfair, but in his anger is a healthy dose of the truth.

The interns keep Mrs. Brooks company, talking and engaging her while they wait for Derek to deliver the news. When he does, they stay by her side. Stephanie checks on Sharpie Lady who tells her about her house. She will have to rebuild it now that it is destroyed. Stephanie asks why she just doesn’t move, but Sharpie Lady has found her place there among the other misfits on the mountain. It hits close to home for Stephanie, who realizes that she and her fellow interns are misfits who need to stick together too.

As Mrs. Brooks empties out her daughter’s locker, the interns tell her stories. They substitute Heather for other people like George, and themselves, hoping to give her mother some sense that Heather was loved. Ross can barely contain his sorrow and Mrs. Brooks embraces him as tears roll down his face.

April finds Matthew and pulls him into the chapel. She launches into the most convoluted explanation of her feelings, then asks him to marry her. He inexplicable picks her up and sweeps her off her feet. I’m so confused.

Arizona and Callie meet up in private, where Arizona apologizes for calling Callie a baby snatcher. Callie lets Arizona know that she and Sophia will not be returning home and that they will have to work out a temporary custody situation until a more permanent one can be arranged. Arizona looks like she’s been tossed out of heaven as Callie walks away.

Bailey finally has a moment to breathe and calls her darling husband Ben to speak to his voicemail. Derek tells the interns to go home and rest but Ross rushes toward to rig to help at the pile. The other interns call to him, but Stephanie leaps up because they are each other ‘s people. They all walk toward the ambulance together.

Cristina runs into Owen on her way out to relieve Derek of Zola and Callie duty. He offers to help, but she tells him goodnight. At the MerDer mansion, Cristina empties the dishwasher but reminds Derek and Callie that she doesn’t cook. The doorbell rings and Cristina opens the door to crying Arizona. She wants to see Sophia for a few minutes, but Callie tells her that she can see her child tomorrow. Arizona begs, but Callie is resolute and angry. Cristina steps in to diffuse the situation, and show a little mercy toward Arizona. She takes Sophia and puts her in Arizona’s arms. Arizona takes her daughter onto the porch to say goodnight. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.

We never realize the true toll that our decisions will have. There are two reasons why people cheat. They are looking for a way out, or a way in. A way out of their heads, out of stagnant or hurtful relationships, out of pain and resentment. Into passion, into a piece of themselves they had locked away, into chaos. Arizona, who has lost so much through no fault of her own, now faces losing everything because of one bad decision. Callie, through this heartbreak, is realizing how much of her own self has been lost along the way. What do you do when one day you wake up to realize that your life is just in pieces, right there in the palm of your hand. This will not be an easy road to recovery for either of them as individuals or as a couple. It won’t be easy for fans either. Stock up on wine.

In Richard’s room, Catherine, Bailey, Cristina and Meredith sit vigil. Catherine wants to bring in a specialist from another hospital but Meredith tells Catherine to chill out. For the first time, Meredith refers to Richard as family, and his eyes begin to flutter and open. He tells us via voiceover, that in spite of many mistake and wrong calls in his life, he was right about Meredith.

What did you think of the premiere of Grey’s Anatomy?

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