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“Grey’s Anatomy” recap (11.7): Oh, Brother

“They say life doesn’t give you second chances,” Meredith’s voiceover tells us as Derek flashes back to a painful memory from when he and Amelia witnessed their father’s death. “But we do. Surgeons do.” Perhaps that is exactly the reason some people enter the surgical field, to have some positive control over the destinies of others, even if the same can’t be said for their own lives. Meredith and Maggie both sprint through the halls, chasing down an emergency page. Meredith apologizes for being late to her own dinner party, and Maggie pretends to accept it.

Arizona, who has been up all night freaking out about Dr. Herman’s bombshell, declares that she needs more information before agreeing to the dying doc’s six-month plan. Herman explains that some burdens are hers and hers alone. Arizona doesn’t get to know the intimacies of her illness, but she will get to be privy to all of her hard won knowledge and experience. Before heading off to an appointment, Dr. Herman cancels all surgeries for the day, and assigns Arizona to her rounds.

Meredith, Callie, Owen and Maggie all wait outside for an emergency patient. Callie is tired and grumpy from being up all night with a distraught Sofia, who doesn’t understand why her mommies no longer live together. Meredith is tired, too, but only because she and Derek were too busy playing “time out” all night. When the emergency arrives, it’s one of the more heartbreaking stories we’ve seen in a long time. A man named Norris is clutching his wife’s body for dear life. He tried to escape a fire by jumping out a window, hoping that his body would break his wife’s fall, but it appears that she has passed away from her injuries. As he wheels past, Amelia sends Derek to the head-injury farm team, while she walks over to help with Meredith’s patient. Meredith and Maggie gently explain to the poor man that his wife Hattie is gone, but he did what he could to protect her. He finally lets go, and in a miracle of the second chance variety, Hattie has the faintest of pulses. Amelia promises Norris that they will all do their best to save Hattie.

While on Dr. Herman’s rounds, Arizona works with a young pregnant couple whose baby has a tumor that is causing it to become anemic. While she is calm about the baby’s situation to the parents, once she gets outside, she tells Graham that the situation is indeed dire. If Dr. Herman doesn’t operate today, the baby will likely die.

Amelia, Owen and Maggie attend to Hattie, who has a head injury along with a punctured lung that both demand immediate attention. Amelia heads off to inform Hattie and Norris’s daughter Sarah, and is surprised to find that they know each other-from Narcotics Anonymous. When Amelia tries to explain to Sarah what she plans to do to help her mother, Sarah starts freaking. She demands that they find her parents a new doctor, and outs Amelia’s drug addiction in front of the entire hospital. Amelia looks like she’s been hit by a bus as Owen attempts to intervene. Derek steps in and says he’ll take over and gives his sister a smug look, offering Amelia little comfort in this huge violation of her privacy.

Meredith, who was also present for Amelia’s humiliation, confronts Derek. Derek, not surprisingly, thinks he’s being quite noble by taking over for Amelia. You know, protecting her from any harm if anything goes wrong. Meredith doesn’t quite buy that, but Derek swears he’ll clear it all up with Owen, after the surgery.

Arizona finds Alex, who is holding adorable court over a trio of babies. She explains that her patient will lose the baby if they don’t perform the inter-uterine surgery; something that Arizona doesn’t know how to do. Dr. Herman isn’t picking up her phone and Arizona wants Alex’s advice. He suggests a C-Section, so that he can repair the damage. However, the baby is only 28 weeks along, and they have been trying to bring her to term. Arizona leaves Herman a message, giving her 30 minutes to respond before she and Alex operate.

In the ladies room, Jo is puking her guts out. Stephanie, who is waiting outside of the stall, tells her, “If you let Karev throw a baby in there, I’ll never forgive you.” It’s not morning sickness though, Jo declares. See today is Jo’s first solo surgery, which will be supervised by Bailey. Jo is confident that she’s got this, and lists the steps to the relatively simple surgery. She then swears that she’s not afraid of “little bitty Dr. Bailey.” As you may have already guessed, Bailey is in another stall and overhears the whole thing. Jo looks like she may puke again.

Amelia walks the halls, hearing the incessant whispers of the staff. She pulls Richard aside and explains that Derek was the one who hired her, so she assumed the rest of the board knew about her past addiction issues. Richard tells her that she doesn’t have to say anything to them, or Owen: “It’s the past, and you don’t have to defend it.” Owen approaches Amelia shortly thereafter, but she takes Richard’s advice, and doesn’t offer up any information.

Arizona watches the clock tick down, and with no callback from Herman, she and Alex go ahead with the C-section. Well, not before Arizona leaves yet another message for Herman, telling her that not only is she going to do the surgery, but she’s going to tell the rest of the board about Herman’s illness. Surgery goes well for the little one, and Arizona leaves Graham to close up after the C-section.

Maggie and Derek perform a double surgery on Hattie-with Derek going in through her nose-and Maggie handling the ruptured lung. Jackson assists Derek, and they do a little dad talking. Jackson doesn’t know the sex of the baby yet, and the thought of the unknown freaks him out. Derek reminds him that his own son was delivered by an intern in the middle of a storm, so you can’t always count on predictability. Derek then brags about what a amazing surgeon he is, because, Derek is Derek.

Callie and Meredith work on Norris, and Callie can’t believe that he was willing to become a “human trampoline” for his wife. Then come the words that ignited the Calzona fandom: “I can imagine throwing my wife out a window. Ex-wife. Everyone keeps saying that things will get easier, and I’m sure everyone can’t be wrong, but man, I am really ready for the easier part.”

So, yeah, Callie is pissed. Even though she seemed calm and resolved in the last episode, she’s pissed off now. That isn’t abnormal. Anyone who has been through a breakup knows that there are different stages. There’s the “My heart hurts so much, I think I might die” stage, followed by the “How could I have been so stupid?” stage. Then comes the “Did I do the right thing, I miss you so badly” stage. And of course the “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on” stage. I think Callie is experiencing the latter. Sometimes heartbreak can be callus. It can manifest in angry looks and words. It can refuse to get out of bed for days, and starve itself to the point of exhaustion. But at the end of the day, heartbreak is heartbreak, no matter how you experience it. Meredith tells Callie about her sex romps with Derek, and Callie reminds her that while fun, the sex is simply a Band-Aid for their own marital discord. If anyone knows about Band-Aids, it’s Callie.

Jo is uber focused during her surgery and Bailey gets really into the latest issue of US Weekly. Jo goes through the steps for Bailey, and Baily commends her for not puking in her mask. Little victories.

Arizona and Alex cheerfully work on the baby, while Arizona fondly remembers the “old times” when they used to do this kind of thing all the time. Her happy bubble is burst, however, when she is called into the OR where the baby’s mother, Emily, is bleeding out. Graham is pretty much useless, and the mother is suffering from placenta accrete, which means her blood vessels have attached themselves to the uterine wall and other organs, causing her to lose an insane amount of blood. Arizona kicks him aside and calls for a trauma doctor to help her.

Owen and Derek inform Sarah about her mother’s surgery. It’s gone well and she is grateful. She apologizes for outing Amelia, but instead of standing up for his sister, he simply keeps his head down. When Owen asks him how much truth there is to what Sarah says, Derek can barely speak up. Owen flat out asks him if Amelia should be removed as Neuro chief. Derek can’t bring himself to condemn or defend her.

April joins Arizona to try and stem the young mother’s bleeding, but the blood vessels have attached themselves all over. Owen interrupts Meredith and Callie’s surgery, to call an emergency board meeting about Amelia. Meredith is upset, so Callie offers to close so she can find Derek. Derek is busy pacing in the stairwell, remembering how he tried to protect Amelia the day their father was killed. He confronts Amelia, telling her that he may have accidentally given Owen the impression that she should be removed from her post. She rages at him. “You son of a bitch,” she yells through gritted teeth. Derek brought her back to Seattle, and now his ego can’t handle that she’s in charge. She feels sabotaged, and she’s not wrong. Although, it probably wasn’t Derek’s intention to bring his own sister down to satisfy his need for control. She’s just collateral damage. He promises to fix the mess he’s made.

Meredith finds Derek after his confrontation with Amelia, and gives him a piece of her mind. He refuses to discuss the situation with her any further though, and leaves her calling after him.

Jo is feeling pretty great about her solo surgery, until Stephanie puts the thought in her head that she may have missed an important step. Jo, who isn’t quite at the point in her life where she doesn’t question everything, worries that she may have really messed up. She has to tell Bailey, who is less than thrilled to hear about this. Bailey orders a CT scan and Jo prays that her patient doesn’t die between now and then.

Speaking of messed up, there is little to be done for the mother of the baby. Alex requests Arizona, who runs to him. Thankfully, the baby is doing great. They both run smack dab into the baby’s father, and Arizona has to explain that his wife is experiencing unforeseen complications. He’s angry and demands to know where Dr. Herman is, but Arizona runs back to check on Emily. She didn’t make it. Graham sobs into his hands.

Amelia and Meredith sit alone together, discussing Amelia’ situation. Meredith thinks that Derek will do right by his little sis, but Amelia isn’t so sure. Meredith brings up her history of sucking at siblinghood, but Amelia thinks she’s been a pretty great sister to her.

The board meets and Derek decides to finally step up. He defends his sister’s recovery, and admits that he didn’t protect her when he should have. He wanted his old job back and that desire clouded his decisions. Derek tells them that Amelia is doing a great job, and he couldn’t do it better himself.

Arizona and Alex arrive to inform Emily’s husband of her death, but find Dr. Herman speaking with him instead. She assures the man that Arizona did everything right. Even if the original surgery had gone as planned, Emily would have likely died of this condition, as well as the baby. Afterwards, Arizona follows Herman into the residents’ lounge, where she yells at the ailing doctor for abandoning her that day. Herman had been receiving some serious radiation treatment, which is why she didn’t pick up her phone. Herman was actually logged into the hospital’s interface where she watched Arizona all day. Everything she did was right, which makes Herman all the more sure that her legacy would be in good hands. Arizona asks Herman to show her the inter-uterine technique so she can know it for the future. Arizona decides not to tell Owen and the board about Dr. Herman’s illness, and instead use their time together wisely. Dr. Herman bids Arizona a good night, and tells her to go home. But where is home?

Jo nervously awaits the results of her patient’s C-scan, and Bailey comes in to tell her the patient didn’t make it there. Jo starts to cry, but Bailey lets her off the hook. The patient didn’t make it to the C-scan because Bailey never ordered one. The patient is fine, and Jo did everything right. Bailey was there, and there’s no way she’s let her fail. Jo has to stop second guessing herself because, one day, Bailey won’t be there to look over her shoulder. Patients trust her, so she needs to trust herself.

Jackson and April cuddle outside after their long day. He tries to assure her that all is well with their baby, but she’s not worried. She has faith that God will see her through. Jackson is more of the doubting Thomas type, so worry is pretty much his part time job. While their philosophies on faith and the unknown are vastly different, at least now they accept each other’s belief systems. It’s kind of adorable.

Meredith and Maggie both find themselves in the on call room. Meredith brings up the night before, and Maggie admits that she is still mad, but not for the reasons Meredith thinks. Maggie is terribly lonely, and was disappointed that her night of conversation and company was derailed. Maggie gets a page that Hattie is awake, so they both pay her a visit. They tell Hattie about what her husband did to save her, as Norris lays the bed next to her. Norris tells his wife that Amelia promised that they would save her, and they did. When Mer and Maggie leave, Meredith asks her sister if she has any plans that evening. Turns out, she’s free.

Meredith, Maggie, and Callie all gather at Alex’s for brews and conversation. They all (with the exception of Maggie) joke about how they have all directly, or indirectly had sex with each other. They also pour one out for good ol’ George O’Malley. Arizona suddenly arrives with her suitcase in tow. Callie shoots her a look that doesn’t exactly say “Welcome.” Arizona sheepishly speaks to Alex: “Someone told me I should go home, but I wasn’t really sure where I should go.” Alex welcomes her in, because in the Grey’s Anatomy universe, there are no leases. You just move into Ellis Grey’s old house. “See, everyone lives here,” Meredith points out to Maggie. Arizona heads off to get settled in, and Callie knocks back her beer.

Derek is sitting in the dark, waiting for Amelia when she arrives with her own suitcase. She’s decided to move out, and Derek is all apologies. He talks about wanting to protect her since their father’s death, even when she didn’t want it. Once he began to see her as an adult though, those feelings of protection faded away because Amelia didn’t need his protection. Except that today she did. He admits that he’s flailing-he doesn’t recognize himself anymore. He’s a ball of anger and frustration, and all he can seem to do is hurt the ones he loves. Amelia gets that because she’s been there before. Welcome to rock bottom, brother.

Here are our favorite #GreysGays tweets from last night’s episode.

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