- In a final attempt to save Erica's life, Amelia arrives at Seattle Grace to beg Derek for help with the gliosarcoma case; Cristina and Owen engage in heated arguments during marriage counseling; Alex realizes that in order to be a good doctor, he'll need to improve his people skills; and Meredith is given a chance to shine when a man enters the ER after getting his hand stuck in meat grinder. Meanwhile, the residents continue to study for their upcoming oral boards.—ABC Publicity
- Cristina and Owen are in counseling talking about how they don't communicate. Owen says there's "no intimacy," which Cristina refutes. He says they're "not on the same page" because she had an abortion. They both reveal their PTSD, with Cristina saying hers wasn't as bad as his, but things get heated again when the abortion thing comes up again.
Derek and Lexie are looking at a case that his sister, Amelia, brought him. It's a woman who has a tumor that Derek says would be impossible to remove without killing her. Amelia says it's the wife of Cooper, who she works with and will have to explain to his young boy why his mom couldn't be saved.
The residents are studying for their boards and Webber overhears them. Then he goes to Callie and they do talk about residents who might be good to work on her service.
Alex is working on a young boy named Chuck, who needs a gastroscopy. Alex's intern, Morgan, is working with him. She's also feeding him study questions for the orals.
Bailey is upset about a patient of hers who's come in for a lymph node transfer. Sloan and Avery are preparing to operate on her, but Bailey is going to the patient to try to talk her out of it because she thinks it's dangerous.
Meredith comes to Callie, who's suddenly talking in the third person about herself and her "secret study method." Then she goes to see her next patient, a guy with his arm stuck in a meat grinder.
Callie decides that Meredith is going to determine the course of action. Meredith thinks they should amputate. Meredith finds a viable finger and decides they should try to save the hand, but they need to remove the grinder from the guy's arm first. His brothers (it's apparently a family-owned butcher shop) volunteer to take it apart and Meredith lets them.
Amelia tries to convince Lexie that she can remove the tumor in her patient, but it has to work in 90 seconds or else she'll bleed out. Amelia coaxes Lexie into asking Derek on her behalf. Lexie figures this out, but does it anyway.
Cristina and Owen are still arguing in counseling about whether she had always been clear about not wanting kids.
Bailey talks to her patient about the lymph node transfer. She's suffering with "sausages" for arms, but Bailey tries to convince her that's the price she's paying for surviving her original condition. The woman tells Bailey she won't do the surgery if she really thinks it's a mistake.
The butcher brothers are still trying to disassemble the grinder, and Meredith gives them 15 more minutes, or else she'll have to amputate.
Lexie tries to talk Derek into taking Amelia's case and he decides to do it only to prove to Lexie that it won't work.
Morgan, Alex's lackey who's been feeding him study questions for his orals, gives Alex a list of symptoms that she's clearly feeling, and she notes that the "patient is 24 weeks pregnant." Alex tells her what he'd do, and she says, "Yeah, you should probably do that." Then she collapses.
Alex is now treating Morgan, who's telling her the symptoms again, and he tells her she's having a heart attack.
Owen is now trying to convince Cristina that "people don't not want kids -- that's not a thing." She says it is her thing. He tells her she's going to change her mind and regret it. She insists she'll be OK having made her choice of medicine.
Bailey comes back to Sloan and Avery and recites the whole history of her patient before confessing that the woman still wants the surgery. She insists that Avery and Sloan read the file first.
The meat grinder is finally removed and Meredith sees they have a whole arm with a couple of fingers still attached. The two brothers faint. Meredith finds two more fingers in the remnants of the grinder and asks Callie if they can be saved. Callie repeats the question back to Meredith.
Amelia and Lexie are practicing the 90-second procedure and it takes 97 seconds -- for the eighth time. Amelia starts to doubt herself.
Teddy comes in to rush Morgan off to surgery, and her baby is going to have to be delivered at 24 weeks. Alex gets Morgan's name wrong -- as he's been doing all day, thinking it's Megan -- when he's asked to call Morgan's boyfriend.
Meredith winces as she works on one of the severed fingers because it smells like pork. Alex watches from the gallery, waiting for Meredith to puke. Amelia and Lexie are watching, as well, and watching Meredith and Callie take the more difficult approach to their patient sparks an idea for another method on Amelia's patient.
Bailey comes into Avery and Sloan's lymph node surgery. She gets nervous when she hears Avery say, "Oops." She asks Sloan to direct Avery differently, and he does.
Lexie talks to Derek about how he's too emotionally involved in making the decision not to operate on Amelia's patient.
Cristina and Owen go through an exercise where they're supposed to look at each other and breathe -- and Owen seems distracted. He can't look her in the eye. He finally tries after Cristina gets emotional, but they quickly break their gaze. Cristina says he has stop holding a grudge, starting seeing her for who she is, and let go of his little list" of all her crimes." And it again comes back to the abortion.
Bailey pops up over Sloan's shoulder again to offer unsolicited advice. Avery tells her that he read the file and her concerns shouldn't be a problem, but when the patient starts bleeding, Bailey offers Sloan a, "respectfully, I told you so."
Meredith tells Callie she can save the fingers, but the thumb looks too mangled. Callie says they're going to have to amputate because the thumb is responsible for 40 percent of the hand's function. Meredith suggests transplanting his big toe as a replacement for the thumb. Concerned for his ability to walk, Callie says they won't do that -- but she says they can try using his second toe instead because it can serve the same function without as much risk to his walking ability. But it will require the patient's consent.
Derek comes to Amelia to ask what she wants to do. He hears her plan and he tells her it's nearly impossible. He asks her not to be unrealistic about the surgery because she's too fragile. She gives him a quick speech about how she's a drug addict who's fallen off the wagon twice and gotten back on, which doesn't make her fragile it makes her "really freakin' strong." He decides to stay by her side, even though he still thinks the whole thing is unrealistic.
Webber asks Callie if he was right about Meredith. Callie says they have to wait and see, but Webber thinks Meredith's plan to use a toe for the patient's thumb replacement was brilliant. The patient agrees and Webber gets giddy. Callie asks if this is how he's now going to spend his time, "pulling strings behind the scenes like some kind of puppet master." Webber says he's really good at it.
Alex is looking for Morgan's baby in the nursery, then runs somewhere.
Avery seems frazzled as he works on Bailey's patient. Bailey is still watching and reacting to everything Avery does and says. Sloan tells Avery that if anything -- anything -- is compromising his ability to treat his patient, he needs to leave it outside. Avery tells Bailey to leave the O.R. He tells her she needs to leave immediately because he's trying to do something difficult and her distractions are making it harder. She asks Sloan if he's going to let his resident talk to her that way, and Sloan tells her he thinks Avery made it very clear that she needs to leave, or he'll have her removed. Bailey leaves.
Alex is racing through the halls and finally finds Morgan and her baby. Arizona tells him what's happening and asks him to scrub in. Alex's phone rings and he answers it. It's Morgan's boyfriend and Alex explains Morgan's situation, telling him to get on a plane to Seattle from Cleveland immediately.
Cristina and Owen are still fighting, now about Meredith and how she and Cristina do everything together. Cristina says Meredith is her "person," and Owen says he should be her person. Cristina tells him he should be, and he asks her to be his person.
Meredith and Callie are operating on the meat-grinder guy and Callie finally admits that Meredith is "impressive." Callie then admits that Meredith is tougher than she thought, and she's smart. She offers to help Meredith, then she tells her to show up at 4 a.m. every day and they will work hard.
Lexie finds Derek and Amelia practicing the 90-second procedure together, and Derek tells her they're going to go down fighting. Lexie decides to stay and help.
Alex and Arizona are looking at Morgan's tiny baby and he's down on himself because he ran his pregnant intern ragged until she almost died and he didn't even know she was pregnant, or knew her name because he was too focused on himself. He says he doesn't deserve the fellowship. Arizona tells Alex he reminds her of herself because ped surgeons are "vicious." She says she was a "full-on horror show" when she was a resident, "but that's what it takes to learn how to save tiny humans like this one." But she tells him to learn his interns' names.
Bailey chases Sloan down to tell him Avery was right about her patient, because she's now going to be able to use her arms. She wants to know why she was against it. He tells her she's gotten more conservative with age and experience because you know there are consequences to risks. "That's why we keep residents around," he says, "they keep us fresh." She asks if he's telling her she's not young anymore, and he tells her she's "arrived." He starts to leave, but turns and tells her, "you pull that crap in my O.R. again, I'll report you to the board." She says nothing.
Alex sits next to Morgan's bed. He gives her the full update on her condition, and tells her about the baby. He assures her the baby is doing great, and Arizona is watching him and that he'll watch the baby when Arizona leaves. She thinks he's there because it's quiet and he needs to study. He denies this, but she says he should. "I would," she says.
Callie and Meredith sew together the last bits of the meat-grinder guy's hand. Amelia and Derek finally nail their practice run in 86 seconds and Derek tells Amelia to get her patient up there.
Cristina and Owen, finally, are not speaking to each other when the therapist tells them their time is up.
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