As the episodes tick down to Cristina’s exit, Meredith reminds us via voicemail that surgery is a solo act. Sure you have other doctors and nurses assisting you, but when it comes down to it, it’s about your own mind, your own hands, your own will. How apropos since Owen stands by as Cristina preps her bags to fly out to the Harper Avery awards, alone. He wants to be there, but she tells him no. She’ll just be in and out, so what’s the point. That night she and Meredith are going to drink tequila and write her acceptance speech. She’s got this all under control.
Jo and Alex walk the halls at the hospital discussing Alex’s moonlighting at Dr. Butthole’s office. He hasn’t told Arizona yet, whom he’s actually filling in for that evening. They run into Callie and Arizona looking all kinds of hot, because it’s date night. Callie reminds the unmarrieds that when you are hitched, you have to spend quality romantic time together, otherwise it’s all dishes, and laundry and wanting to kill each other. This is excellent advice. As Arizona leaves she tells Alex how amazing he is. Man, she’s going to be so upset when he leaves.
Jackson and April are called in to see a little girl with a dog bite on her face. The little girl and her mother are both deaf, and Jackson brings up the fact that the girl is a perfect candidate for a Cochlear implant. This greatly offends the parents, and causes the mother to yell at him in sign. April is also surprised at Jackson’s assumption that an implant would be the obvious choice.
Richard and Meredith have a patient recovering surgery to repair a gastric bypass gone wrong. He is at high risk for post op complications, so Richard volunteers Meredith to pull an all-nighter. So much for drunken speech writing. Meredith asks a nurse to track down Derek and have him pick up the kids.
Derek is tugging at that lustrous hair of his, trying to makes sense of one of his White House project conference calls. Owen comes in to talk to Derek about the fact that he keeps referring patients to other hospitals for surgeries that he doesn’t have time to perform. Derek has also been slacking off on his teaching responsibilities, and Owen wants it to stop. Derek assures Owen that he has it handled. The nurse stops by to remind Derek to pick up the kids from day-care.
Bailey stops in to check on Brayden and explain the gene therapy treatment to his parents. They are concerned that this means Brayden will be infected with the HIV virus, but Bailey explains that she has disabled the virus and is simply using its traveling mechanism. She understands that it must sound pretty scary, but the parents trust her and ok the procedure.
Cristina finds Meredith to sweep her away for tequila times, but Meredith apologizes that she’s stuck working the overnight shift. Her advice is to be thankful and funny. Cristina zeros in on Alex next, but he’s busy too. She then approaches April, but quickly changes her mind. Instead, she heads into the Cardiomyopathy family’s room to check on the kids. Tensions are running high with the parents, and they soon start a screaming match, which Cristina breaks up, sending the father away. The kids and mother all look exhausted.
The residents (including Ben! Yay!) are gearing up for a hot night of karaoke. Stephanie is bummed out because she’s stuck working and karaoke is the air that she breathes. Derek marches in and announces that he’s going to be teaching them that evening, so their plans for a social life are down the toilet. Anyone else notice that Leah is forever trying to get the hell out of there and keeps getting pulled back in?
Bailey is in her lab, carefully prepping her genomes. Ben comes in to let her know that after working for thirty-two hours, he has to work some more. Bailey wants to sit and watch her genomes do whatever genomes do, but Ben suggests she actually go home and rest. Surprisingly, she does.
Cristina has found someone to work on her speech with. The Cardio kids. Linc thinks it’s too braggy. An honest critique. Owen pops his head in, responding to her page. She wants his input too. That’s not exactly what the paging system is for, Cris. Brayden’s toy camera car zooms in, looking for Frankie and inviting her to come play.
Derek and his crew of residents visit a patient who has been waiting to have her surgery done for two days now. The patient’s friend is pissed and yells at Derek in front of them. Derek promises that the operation will proceed in a few hours and that the residents will assist. They collectively groan out of exhaustion.
Meredith’s gastric bypass patient isn’t doing well and needs to go back to surgery. When she finds out that Derek hasn’t picked up the kids, she gets all Khaleesified. Where are my dragons?! I mean, children!
At Jackson and April’s house, they continue their conversation about the child’s cochlear implant. Jackson assumes that if he and April were in a similar situation that of course their child would have the implant. April pipes up that she wouldn’t and they begin to argue.
Back in the cardio kids room, Ivy, the oldest isn’t feeling well. Her stomach is rigid and Cristina fears that she is rejecting her donor heart.
Meredith, in surgery herself, calls Derek to find out where their children are. Derek doesn’t answer because he and the residents are poking around in a dead guys brain. Ben, who is beyond exhausted, leans against the wall for a quick 30 seconds of shuteye.
Emergency babysitters extraordinaire, Callie and Arizona actually have Lil Bailey and Zola. They have cancelled date night, but now Derek owes them a child-free weekend. (We better get to see that. Antiquing, brunching, sexy times. Listen to what the people want, Shonda.) They coo over Bailey and talk about missing Mark. He was an integral part of their family before, and a new baby requires a few ingredients that they don’t have quite yet. Callie assumes she’ll be carrying the child, while Arizona pipes in saying that they hadn’t exactly decided on that.
Cristina and Owen work on Ivy to see what they can do to prevent the rejection. Owen continues to push at Cristina about the awards ceremony. She tells him she wants to go it alone, and this hurts Owen.
A gentleman with a pair of scissors sticking out of his head comes into the OR and Derek and the residents get to work on him. Jo volunteers to remove the scissors, which she does like a young King Arthur pulling the sword from the stone.
Jackson and April continue fighting because April thinks that he willfully ignores her feelings, which he sometimes does. She finally declares that Jackson was judging the parents of the deaf child, and she’s worried that he will do the same to her. She knows that Jackson thinks religion is ridiculous, so how will he react when she wants their kids to go to bible study and church. April has been wanting to have this conversation since they first got married, and the implant incident has just allowed her anxieties to bubble to the surface. How do two people with completely different ideologies come together and raise a child without alienating each other? April and Jackson will have to find a way.
Cardio mom has been trying to reach her husband for hours but he’s not answering. No one can find Frankie either. Alex goes to Brayden’s room to see if he might know. On Brayden’s camera car, they locate the girl. She’s passed out in a hallway. Alex and Owen find her and rush her into surgery.
Meredith finally finds Derek as he’s prepping for surgery and gives him a real tongue lashing about misplacing their children for a few hours. Derek doesn’t have time to talk, which is a thing he does when he knows he’s been an asshole.
At Chez Calzona, Arizona chats with Meredith before bed. The kids are alright. When Arizona attempts to go to sleep, Callie turns on the light so they can process. Callie assumed she would carry the child because Arizona couldn’t “take another loss.” She didn’t want to do anything that would make Arizona sad. If carrying their baby would make Arizona happy, it would make Callie happy. Damnit, now we are all happy! Sorry, as a Calzona shipper, this feeling is strange and slightly tingly.
To say that April is freaking out would be an understatement. She yells at Jackson about not taking her faith seriously and wants him to admit he thinks having faith is ridiculous. Jackson breaks and admits that he doesn’t believe in God. April says that she feels sorry for him.
Cristina and Alex perform surgery on Frankie, and Meredith stops in to check on Cristina. Alex thinks Cristina is going to win the Harper Avery, and since she’s running short on prep time, she’s just going to wing the speech. Alex tells them about his moonlighting at Dr. Butthole’s private practice. Cristina wants to know why the hell he’d want to go into private practice anyway. Ummm, money, he responds. Some people don’t come from rich families, or are married to millionaire brain surgeons with perfect hair.
Callie and Arizona sit across from each other all atwitter about what they are about to do. No, it is not sex. They are about to flip a coin to see who gets knocked up. Yes, ye old pregnancy coin flip, performed by lesbians since the invention of double-sided currency. They decide this is the best way to handle this massive decision. When the coin goes airborne, Arizona screams out that she actually doesn’t want to carry the baby after all. She wants Callie to. Callie is thrilled to do so anyway. It’s a win-win.
All three Cardio kids are now on the transplant list. Ivy is indeed rejecting her new heart. Frankie is going through heart failure and Linc is surviving on that experimental pump. The father is still not answering the phone and the mother is worried that he has walked out on them all.
While Ben slumbers against the wall back in the ER, Derek and the residents work on his patient Nova, who had been waiting two days for the surgery. Jo is doing a bang up job, but Derek sends her away for being a know it all. Takes one to know one, Derek. He brings Leah in who doesn’t listen and puts a clamp on the patient, possibly causing major damage.
Cristina, Meredith and Owen stand outside waiting for a cab to come and whisk Cristina away to Boston for the awards. Meredith gets a page and has to run, as does Owen, but he feels guiltily leaving Cris. She’s ready though, and sends him off. The cab comes and a glowing Cristina gets in.
In the morning, Richard arrives and finds Ben asleep in the hall. Ben realizes that he’s missed surgery and runs off. Derek and the residents check on Nova, and thankfully she is fine because Leah was practically trembling with fear. When they all exit, Leah begins to cry. Derek issues the doctor’s creed, “Doctors don’t cry in hallways, that’s what stairwells are for.” Also on call rooms are for banging, while supply rooms are for drinking.
The Cardio father comes back, apologizing profusely. He fell asleep in the car and his phone died. He and his wife embrace. The only way they will get through this is together,
A yawning Alex gets help from Jo with his tie before he heads off to work at the private practice. He falls asleep sitting up, which Jo finds adorable, as do I.
Derek finally apologizes to Meredith for dropping the ball with the kids. He tells her that something has to give, and she knows that something will likely have to come from her.
The doorbell rings at Chez Calzona, and Arizona stand there looking ridiculously cute with Lil Bailey on her hip. April stands before them, eyes red from crying, and asks if she can stay there for a while. They of course invite her in.
Bailey shows up all bright eyed and bushy tailed, thanking Ben for encouraging her to get some Zs. She even had the time and energy to make pancakes. Ben allows Bailey to think he’s some kind of Superman. Hey, we all need these little victories.
It’s finally time for the Harper Averys and Cristina looks like a million bucks. She and her updo are soon surrounded by doctors who oo and ahh over her brilliance.
Suddenly, even while surrounded by people, Cristina feels completely alone. She calls Meredith and laments not letting her and Owen come to the event. Not to worry, because Meredith and Owen did show up to surprise a grateful Cristina. A really wicked cover of Tears for Fears‘ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” plays as they all settle in to listen to Catherine Avery deliver her speech. The Harper Avery is for doctors who destroy obstacles, who redefine medicine. She announces the winner, who is not Cristina. This is some bullshit! Cristina sits stunned and disappointed, politely clapping for the winner.
A huge thank you to my screencapper Chen Drachman who you should totally follow on Twitter (@shokoshik) and Tumblr. Here are some of our favorite #GreysGays tweets from this week’s episode.
Hey, you want to be a guest star on Grey’s Anatomy? Great. We’re going to tape a tube to your nose. How’s that? #greysgays #glamorous
– Tammy (@tylynn_sings) April 18, 2014
Christina Yang. Babysitting. I’ll repeat: Christina Yang. Babysitting. Children. Willingly. #GreysAnatomy #GreysGays
– Holly Parker (@pshayholly) April 18, 2014
Cristina, you should take April, she is an awesome drunk buddy, ask Arizona… #greysgays
– willy92 (@willy92) April 18, 2014
Christina Yang. Babysitting. I’ll repeat: Christina Yang. Babysitting. Children. Willingly. #GreysAnatomy #GreysGays
– Holly Parker (@pshayholly) April 18, 2014
Somebody get Kepner 10ccs of Tequila. STAT #greysgays
– Marcie (@geosooner) April 18, 2014
Yang used an lvad! Katherine Heigl should make a cameo and cut the wire! #greysgays
– Samantha J. Green (@SamanthaJGreen) April 18, 2014
As much as I adore cute, maternal #Calzona, I would really like to see sexy, married #Calzona sometimes too. #GreysAnatomy #GreysGays
– Nicole Duguay (@nicoleduguay) April 18, 2014
Only 4 more episodes of Cristina Yang. OH SHIT. I am now hyperventilating at the realization #GreysAnatomy #greysgays
– Arizona (@raising__me) April 18, 2014
As long as Arizona doesn’t get so pissed at Alex for leaving that she gets on a plane, I’ll be good. #GreysGays
– Lady Liberty (@CindyLMarshall) April 18, 2014
I reckon Kate Walsh takes a shot every time someone says the words ‘private practice’ #GreysGays #GreysAnatomy
– Tippi McCullers (@ali_steventon) April 18, 2014
I’m more enraged about the Harper Avery than I was about Tatiana Maslany at the Golden Globes #GreysGays #GreysAnatomy
– Tippi McCullers (@ali_steventon) April 18, 2014
