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“Grey’s Anatomy” recap (10.6): A Sliding Scale

Braiiiiiins. No, no zombies (that’s next week), it’s just Derek, taking over narrating duties on this week’s Grey’s Anatomy. See, Derek sees patterns everywhere. It’s his job to connect the dots, and find new paths. The patterns are what make us uniquely…well…us. What we think, who we love, it’s all in the minutia of the pattern. Derek is currently working on a new, innovative project. His patient Mickey, a quadriplegic, is hooked up to sensors and using his mind to move things on the computer screen. One day, this technology will be used to help people like Mickey live fuller, more independent lives. Technology! Fuck yeah! Mickey is totally jazzed, but asks Derek where Callie is. You see, Callie and Derek have taken on this project together, and she is nowhere to be found. Derek has bigger fish to fry than a missing Calliope however. Mickey’s brain is bugging out. Derek realizes he has inadvertently taken his red coffee cup to work with him, and asks Ross to stash it in baby Bailey’s diaper bag when he gets a chance. (The mug has a guest-starring role, ok?)

The interns are officially taking a step toward being less awful. Today is the day they get lab coats with their names stitched on them. They also move up to those cool, open wood lockers. It’s like Christmas, if Christmas were really boring. The interns are all talking at each other. Everyone has secrets they want to spill (Leah and Stephanie) or boyfriends they want to bitch about (Jo). In one of the lockers, there is a lab coat with Heather Brooks’ name stitched on it, and the sight sends Ross heading for the hills.

Jo calls Alex, who is heading out and manages to slip past her. He’s been avoiding her for days and it’s starting to take its toll on her. Arizona is hanging by the nurses station (per usual) and Leah slides her overeager beaver right next to her. Leah asks if Arizona got her text about passing her exams. Yes she did, and she responded like any non-committal, slightly terrified paramour. Congratulations. The look on Arizona’s face whenever Leah is around is priceless. Like one part horrified, one part nauseated, with a dash of arousal. Arizona, it happens to the best of us. Leah tells her that she had a lot of fun, with the kissing and the first basing. She’s ready to take it further, but Arizona’s eyes say, “Quiet. Quiet. QUIET!” Leah gets the hint and zips it before she bounces off, riding high on a sliver of flirtation.

Guest stars Annie Potts and Jere Burns arrive in the ER, and are amazing from the moment they open their mouths. The husband busted his ankle and April tells Stephanie that he needs some X-rays, including one for his chest, and an ortho consult. Paging Dr. Torres.

Things with Owen and Emma have moved past the baked goods-stage, into something a little more serious. She’s visiting the hospital for the day and Owen is all ruddy cheeked and smiling. He asks if he can start telling people about them, and she is happy at the prospect of telling the world. She literally runs into Cristina on her way out, and Cristina teases Owen about her. “Is it bring your girlfriend to work day?” She puts up a good front, but it can’t be easy watching another woman make the man she loves smile like that. Cristina runs into Meredith who is preoccupied and still a little pissed off. Mer is trying to settle on a research project, and blows Cristina off.

Richard is suffering from shoulder pain, and he’ll be damned if he isn’t going to make this a teachable moment. Jo is his student today, and she’s trying t get to the root of his pain while Bailey observes. Meredith crashes the party to ask Bailey’s advice on which research project she should go for. She has some choice options, and Bailey is impressed with Meredith’s moxie. One of her choices is a project that her mother was working on in the days before she got truly ill. Richard gives that one his vote and mentions her mother’s notes are in a journal at his home. He then tosses Jo out of his room. The red mug made its way to Ross, and now it’s found its way to Richard’s room. Jo grabs it as she heads out for a much needed cup of joe.

Stephanie, also caffeine-deprived, grabs the mug from Jo and take a big slug. All is well until Stephanie sees the films from her broken ankle patient, and she drops the mug in shock. It shatters in a spray of Fiestaware sadness. The man has an enormous tumor on his heart. Ross is really upset that Stephanie broke the precious mug, but like any normal person, she blows him off. Stephanie gets Yang to look at Ankle Guy’s heart films, and consult with the couple.

Derek finally tracks down Callie and asks if she’s ok. He’s concerned that she wasn’t there for Mickey’s simulation earlier. Callie confesses that she’s trying to get her groove back and concentrate on fixing herself. That means less time for other things, like the project with Derek.

Emma is planning to observe a surgery that Arizona is performing with Alex, and Leah escorts her to the room. Misinterpreting Emma’s admiration for Arizona’s work, she gets instantly jealous. Leah gets a double whammy of disappointment when Arizona won’t let her scrub in. Alex puts on his best lezbro hat, and teases Arizona about being a shirt chaser. At first she looks appalled, but then a smile creeps across her face. Sometimes, you just need a friend to keep you brutally in check.

Jo is jogging through the halls on a mission. She’s got Ellis Grey’s journal (Richard sent her to get it) and tracks down Meredith to pass it along to her. She finds Meredith, chatting with Callie. Meredith fills Callie in on her possible research projects. When she tells Callie about her mother’s portal vein project, Callie gets excited. She tells Meredith that this is part of her story: finishing her mother’s work and making a name for herself in the process. Callie is “reinvesting” in herself at the moment, and challenges Meredith to do the same. Meredith isn’t quite sold, so she hands the journal over to Ross and takes her leave.

Ross decides to approach Derek and request to leave his service. Derek admits that he acted unfairly when it came to the competition between Ross and Brooks. Before they can get too far into their discussion, Derek spies something unpleasant in Mickey’s MRI. A glioma. Mickey’s got a tumor in his brain, and that’s why the results of the simulation were a bust. Ross asks if it can be treated, and Derek suggests the possibly of using a special medical glue that’s been show to be effective in brain AVMs. The closer he looks though, Derek realizes the tumor is too close to the brain stem and treatment would be unsuccessful.

Speaking of venous malformations, Cristina delivers the bad news to Ankle Guy and his wife. Well, at least she thinks she’s delivering the bad news. It turns out that the couple has known about the defect for a while. They’ve tried all the treatments, but nothing worked, so they made peace with the inevitability of his demise. He’s going to go out, but he’s going out having lived life to the fullest. Annie Potts comforts a completely befuddled Cristina.

Derek goes to Mickey and explains that his options are pretty much nil, and they will have to remove the sensors from his brain. The tumor might be giving abnormal results and thusly, the study could be compromised. Mickey isn’t about to relinquish the sensors though. The only way he will is if Derek tries to remove his tumor along with them.

In the OR, Emma is engrossed in the surgery that Arizona is performing. However, Arizona needs some girl advice, stat. She asks Alex if he’s ever had a girl get super clingy after a heated smooch session. Alex is like, I’ve slept with every woman in the hospital, and you know who is that worst with that? Leah Murphy. You can see the “oh shit” look on Arizona’s face, even with her mask on. The scene cuts to Leah, waxing poetic about her secret love like a regular Doris Day. Ross is gluing the red mug, and being an overall killjoy. Jo is stressed about Alex, and Leah is not helping the situation by telling Jo that she’s one stop from Dumpsville. Stephanie and Ross get into it about the mug, and talk turns to Ankle Guy’s tumor. Stephanie shows the film to the interns, and suddenly Ross gets inspired and runs off to find Cristina. Glue! Could the glue save Ankle guy’s life, he asks. Cristina, never afraid of a challenge, says maybe. She’s going to need an awful lot of glue.

Derek now knows that nothing is going to save Mickey and asks for Callie’s help in convincing him. Callie doesn’t seem to take the whole thing very seriously, so Derek drops a truth bomb. Callie doesn’t want to face Mickey and tell him that she’s bailing on the project, and she’s bailing because of Arizona. Callie wanted to do this project because of her wife, and now that they are separated, Callie is throwing away all the time and research she put into it because her personal life is getting in the way. She goes back at him, and accuses him of dropping the project to spend more time with his family. Derek tells her that it’s different, and Callie asks how. Because Derek has a perfect family, a perfect wife, and a Mer/Der mansion? And Callie’s life is a mess, and everything hurts? He tries to empathize but he can’t. She opens up about facing the devastation that is her current headspace. She’s just trying to figure it all out. She tells him that she will talk to Mickey, and try to make him understand.

Jo is still trying to get to the bottom of Richard’s shoulder pain, and he’s getting fed up. She’s not breaking the surface of the issues, so he tells her to dig deeper and get out.

Bailey finds Meredith hemming and hawing about her research project. She’s possibly moving in to something else because her mother’s research is outdated. Plus, Meredith is afraid of being compared to her mother. Bailey doesn’t think that would be such a bad thing. A faulty printer leads to a moment of inspiration for Meredith. What if she used a 3D printer to make a portal vein? I love a good eureka moment.

Cristina explains to Ankle Guy and Annie Potts, what she’d like to try with the glue. She thinks it might save his life, which the couple doesn’t take as well as she thought they would. See, they maxed out all their credit cards, blew up some boats, and committed a handful of other felonies, with the expectation that the life insurance would cover their debts. If Ankle Guy lives, they are in a boatload…sorry…of trouble. It’s risky procedure and the possibility that the husband could die on the table, brings them a little comfort. To that end, Cristina is going to need all the glue they have.

Meredith is running around, frantically looking for her mother’s journal. Ross has given it to Stephanie. Stephanie gets interrupted by April, (Hi April!) who is confused as to why Ankle Guy is now Heart Surgery Guy. Stephanie is confused too, and the mug makes its way to the nurse’s station.

Yang is getting scrubbed up, when she bumps in to Emma again. Emma asks her about the glue surgery and is impressed that it’s never been tried before. Cristina introduces herself to Emma, but the other doctor is not picking up on what she’s trying to say. Finally, Cristina tells Emma that she is Owen’s ex, and Emma looks as if she might puke all over Cristina’s Crocs.

Alex is still doing his best to dodge Jo, but she catches up with him at the elevator. She asks if he’s seeing someone else, and he tells her no. She wants to know where he’s been running off to, but he tells her to mind her own business. Oh the pitfalls of dating Karev.

Callie approaches Mickey, who is playing a video game WITH HIS BRAIN! She tries to explain that the surgery he wants could kill him. He confesses to her how he ended up a quadriplegic. He was a drunk driver who killed two young women before paralyzing himself. For years, he wished he would die. Now he finally feels like he is doing something good for the world. Even if he dies, he will at least be giving of himself to science.

We finally find out where Alex has been running off to. It’s a bar, but not Joe’s. It’s a little seedier and out of the way, but has something that Joe’s doesn’t. His father, playing live music.

After hearing Mickey’s reasoning, Callie convinces Derek to perform the surgery. He agrees and arranges it for that evening. He asks her to page Ross for him. Ross however is already in surgery with Cristina. Cristina is impressed with her possible protégée’s insights, and calls him Sharkie again.

Jo, once again trying to suss out what’s wrong with Richard, runs to the nurses station and orders an ultrasound. For a moment, Meredith thinks Jo might be pregnant, but she explains the ultrasound is not for her. Jo then panics because she worries that Alex might think she’s pregnant, and that’s why he’s avoiding her. Meredith tunes her out, because low and behold, the mug has shown up again. And attached to it? Her mother’s journal.

Derek is getting ready to work on Mickey and Ross responds to his page. Ross tells Derek that he’d rather not scrub in, but Derek tells him to get over his shit. Ross raises his voice and basically breaks up with Derek, right then and there. With Derek, he was second choice. With Cristina, he’s a shark in training.

Speaking of Cristina, she and Ross get to deliver the good news to Ankle Guy and Annie Potts. The growth of the tumor has been stopped, and he’s going to live. Relived and terrified, the couple looks toward a new lease on life, and bankruptcy.

Ross is feeling mighty good, but Stephanie crashes his party. He thinks she’s mad because he came up with a fix for the AVM, but really, she’s still pissed about their kiss. Ross tries to play it off like Stephanie is upset because the kiss meant more to her. Her head nearly pops off with frustration. Leah jumps in and spills the beans about Arizona. Ross asks if she’s gay now, and she tells him to grow up. She says that sexuality is a sliding scale, and she’s all slid up on Arizona at the moment. This may be one of my favorite things ever uttered on Grey’s Anatomy. The ease and nonchalance in which Leah describes herself, is sheer perfection. She’s not down with labels, but she’s down with a certain blonde doctor. In fact, Leah thinks she might just be in love. This statement proves to be one of those things that’s better left being spoken in one’s own head. Arizona overhears the conversation and calls Leah over. Leah wears the smile of deep infatuation, but Arizona takes a moment to wipe it right off her face. She tells Leah that what happened between them was a fun, meaningless, one-time thing and like Olivia Pope, she is going to shut.it.down. Leah stands in front of Arizona like she has just swallowed a thousand firecrackers and doesn’t want anyone to know. She delivers this monologue:

There’s no need to apologize, it’s my fault. I don’t open up to people much and when I try to open up a little bit, I can get carried away. It’s happened before. And you…I’ve just always admired you as a surgeon and a person, and the thought that you thought about me…I misunderstood. I went overboard and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.
Then, in the most desperate attempts at saving face and stamping out her feelings, Leah offers her hand for Arizona to shake. Arizona softens and in a rare moment of real connection between them, calls her Leah. “Thank you for understanding,” Leah says as she runs off crying.

Now just hear me out. There are moments, when everything you think and feel about someone gets turned on its head. Leah is self absorbed, overly intense, and sometimes heartless. But in this moment, something changed for me. Let me preface this by saying I am not jumping on to a Leah/Arizona bandwagon. Far from it. What I am saying is, I no longer think that Leah is the worst. I can say that because I have been a Leah, as have many of us. Desperate to be truly known, full of wondrous daydreams built on a moment or two of bliss. Young, impulsive, careless. She became just a little bit real to me. I’ve fallen for people in the span of an evening, and thought my heart would burst with desire for a practical stranger. Blame it on youth, and reckless abandon. Don’t you remember the first time you felt understood? Wasn’t it intoxicating? I don’t think that Leah is a good match for Arizona, but I don’t fault Leah for wanting it.

At the random bar, Alex is joined by his father. He sits next to Alex and recognizes him as a doctor from the hospital. He doesn’t get why Alex is at this dive, but Alex tells him that he likes the music. His father cracks some jokes about his sorry lot in life. When Alex tells him that he’s a pediatric surgeon, his father tells the story of the day his son choked, and was saved by people like Alex. Alex asks about his family but his father tells him that it’s complicated. Instead, he asks Alex to jam with him.

Try as he might, Derek is unable to save Mickey and he dies on the table. Callie watches from the observation room, and puts her head in her hands. In the corridor she runs in to Meredith, who is buzzing with excitement. Meredith is going to follow her mother’s passion as well. Callie watches her walk away, and something registers on her face.

All of Jo’s hard work finally comes to fruition when she discovers that a pancreatic pseudocyst is causing Richard’s pain. Richard is pleased and tells her that he finally feels like he’s in good hands.

After seriously rocking it out, Alex’s dad gets serious with him. He starts talking about mistakes and not being able to go back again. Alex allows himself to open the door just a crack to this man. His father asks if Alex wants to see a picture of his son. When he pulls it out, Alex is shocked to see that it is an unfamiliar young boy. Disappointment, shame, and anger all rise to the surface for Alex. He yells at his father, then hauls off and punches him. In that moment, recognition finally flickers across his father’s face.

Derek and Callie are doing a post mortem on Mickey, removing his brain for further study. Callie admits that Derek was right about her reasons for wanting to abandon the study. Now, more than ever she wants to commit to it, and rather than simply doing it for her wife, she’s doing it for millions of people. She can’t do it alone though, and asks for Derek’s help.

After a long day of gluing people back together, Cristina catches a glimpse of Owen and Emma kissing. She goes to the one person who gets her, her person, Meredith. Meredith is still smarting over Cristina’s takedown, and isn’t exactly hanging on her every word. Cristina tries to engage her, but Meredith is fed up. “You pushed me aside because I had a baby,” Meredith tells her. Cristina doesn’t have time for things she doesn’t value and right now, Meredith doesn’t have time for her.

Jo finally confronts Alex in his house. Alex is still enraged from earlier and asks Jo if she’s proud of herself. He burns with disappointment, a feeling he had packed away a long time ago. He runs upstairs and flops himself on the bed like a ten-year-old. Also tossing in bed is Arizona. What do you do when you aren’t good at being alone? You find a somewhere or someone to grab onto. She picks up her phone (which has enormous font by the way) and writes a text to Leah. “What are you up to?” She hesitates for a moment, then presses send. Physician, heal thyself! Arizona won’t stop hurting and the longing won’t cease until she starts looking inward instead of outside of herself.

At the Mer/Der mansion, Meredith is excited about her new research project. Derek decides that now is the time for him to step back and let her take the lead. He’s going to focus on his project with Callie, and spending time with his beloved children. He encourages Meredith to go forth and show the world what she can do. She’s skeptical, and teases him about having all the fun. Their love is palpable, and all the wrong turns and missteps they made along the way, seem like an eternity ago. They followed the path to each other, and now their path has led them home. The cup has made its way home as well. It’s been mishandled, broken, glued but now is back in its rightful place.

What did you think of this week’s Grey’s Anatomy?

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