This week Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice joined forced again, for a second week of cross over episodes. The first hour begins with Izzie preparing a contest for all of the interns. She feels they have forgotten why they love medicine, and what better way to energize them than with a little healthy competition (that somehow involves construction paper and glitter).
Meanwhile, Derek is bouncing back and forth between treating Addison's wise ass brother Archer, and his pregnant patient with the aneurysm played by Jennifer Westfeldt, a.ka. Kissing Jessica Stein. Addison begs Derek to do whatever he can to save her brother. She says "After the divorce, I put you in a box. Now I need you got get out of that box, and I need you to be a god. Just for today, be a god". No pressure, Derek, really.
Addison wanders to the hospital chapel, seeking some guidance from above. Callie joins her and kneels down to pray for advice as well. She begins to pray for clarity about her growing feelings for Dr. Robbins. Who despite being "so hot" has "butterflies on her scrub cap". Callie prays, "Please god, help me to get over the butterflies". Aww, cute. Callie is coming back to life.
While the interns race around the hospital, and Derek prepares to operate on Archer, Dr. Hunt is busy trying to avoid his ex-fiance, who he apparently broke up with in a two line email. Her father is in the hospital, he has cancer, but has not told his daughter. Nice.
When Dr. Hunt does finally run into his ex, Beth, she leaps onto him, wrapping her wraps around him tightly, saying that every night she gets down on her knees are prays that he will make it another 24 hours in Iraq, and that she just saw his mother, but she didn't say he had returned. Dr. Hunt pulls Beth off of him, and walks away. Christina witnesses this whole exchange and is horrified by Hunt's ice cold behavior. If Christina thinks someone is being cold, that's saying a lot.
As the peanut gallery assembles above the operating room for Archer's surgery, Sam (played by yummy Taye Diggs) notices Bailey filling out a form for a pediatric surgery fellowship. He says "You don't seem like a peds person to me, you don't smile". Bailey defends her new path, and with their bickering, a new friendship is formed.
During the surgery Derek is able to remove 7 of the 8 cysts in Archer's brain without any problems, but the 8th one bursts, and causes Archer to code. Derek allows him to flat line, while he tries to make a clean finish to the surgery. Of course, per McDreamy usual, he saves the day.
Just as Derek celebrates his victory, the interns are rounding the corner after their last task, and headed towards to contest finish line (made of scotch tape). Lexi wins (surprise, surprise) and immediately demands to know her prize. Izzie, who had forgotten to orchestrate a prize, looks sheepishly at the Chief, who offers Lexi the chance to scrub in on Derek's craniotomy and hold the "dooms day sucker".
Down the hall, Beth confronts Dr. Hunt exclaiming "You don't even look like yourself. I deserve better than a two line email". Then, as if they are having two completely separate conversations, Dr. Hunt replies "Your father has cancer". Gah! The girl is already flipping out that you are back, you didn't tell her, and you don't seem to care for her at all, and now you decide to drop the C-bomb. In the words of Jennifer Aniston "he is missing a sensitivity chip".
As the Grey's Anatomy hour of the show winds down, Meredith and Christina are on the 2nd floor, looking down at the hospital lobby where Derek, Addison, Naomi, Sam and Sloan are all gathered and laughing. Meredith says "he had this whole other life before me, its like I don't even know him". Christina, still reeling from Dr. Hunts spontaneously appearing fiance, says "Yup. Owen had a fiance I didn't even know about. We don't know them at all". Just when you thought Christina might be coming out of the bitter barn . . .
As most of the interns prepare to go home for the night, George corners Sadie, asking her why she failed to complete any of the tasks in the contest. George seems to have hit a nerve. In a scene a few moments later, Sadie is in the Chief's office, quitting the program. George explains to Meredith, "I knew something was up, I told her she could come clean to the Chief, or I'd do it for her". Sadie and Meredith proceed to have a sad conversation, where they realize they've grown too far apart to remain friends. I think that's the last we've seen of "hey, let's operate on each other" Sadie.
Down the hall, Dr. Hunt pulls Christina into an on-call room to try and explain himself. In what I think is the most touching scene in the whole two hours, Dr. Hunt says "The reason I don't drive the 6 miles to see my mother, is that she would look at me the same way Beth does, like I'm not there. The only time I don't feel like a ghost, is when you look at me, because you see me, this is me. Please Christina, see me". And Christina, whose eyes had been glued to the floor, slowly moves her head upward, and lock eyes with Hunt. Without saying a word, her eyes seem to say "Ok".
As she gets ready to leave the hospital for the night, Addison finally meets Lexi, or "Little Grey" as Derek refers to her. Addison can't help but smile and laugh at the nickname. She then thanks Derek and says "You were a god. You slayed dragons, you walked on water. But now, you have to get very tiny again and get back in your box". Derek smiles, and heads down the hall to check on his pregnant patient.
The rest of the gang heads to Joe's bar and starts to sing the song Derek wrote for Addison on their wedding day. I am dying to know who wrote those lyrics! Too funny. Derek arrives and is embarrassed by the re-singing of his ode. Just as he is about to relax and enjoy the night, he gets paged. His pregnant patient is seizing. That is the end of hour one.
The next hour, which is technically Private Practice, begins with two dramatic moments - first, the pregnant woman is seizing and her baby seems to be reacting as well, and Sam, passes out from an asthma attack.
Derek asks for Addison's help with the pregnant patient. It turns out, both mother and child have congestive heart failure. Addison thinks the only option is to delivery the baby, while Derek pushes for in utero surgery. Derek offers the most dangerous option to the patient without Addison's permission, and of course she badgers the doctors into agreeing to the procedure.
Meanwhile, Dr. Bailey is running tests on Sam to see why he passed out. Everyone thinks he is having an emotional reaction to seeing his ex-wife Naomi with Archer. Turns out, he got medication he's allergic to, and he asked Dr. Bailey to "pound out it" he was so pumped. Like a 5 year old. Since its Taye Diggs, this immature response was actually cute.
In a fit of paranoia about her brother, Addison requests more tests for Archer. When the labs come back, it looks as if he has more cysts in his brain. Archer goes on a rant apologizing to Mark for hooking up with his ex girlfriend, to Sam for wrecking his car, and to Naomi for "not living long enough to be the man you deserve". Derek walks in on this "I see the light" rant and explains the tests were conducted too soon after the surgery and its actually a false image. Archers lives, at least until one of the inner circle takes him out.
Outside of Archer's room, Karev asks Addison for her advice. He says he loves Izzie, but he has a knack for picking the crazy ones, and he can tell something is about to happen with her. He says "Its like a train is coming, and I can feel the ground shaking". He asks Addison "Are you happy you ran away? Because I feel like running". She calmly responds, "I didn't run away Karev, I walked". Oh Addison, that's girl speak. He has no idea what you meant by that.
At the end of the episode Derek is checking on his pregnant patient. He successfully treated her brain, Addison successfully treated her baby, and all seems well, until she starts talking garbage. Something about "tiger, blue . . .". Uh oh, brain has turned to mush. Not good.
Cut to previews for next week! The final installment of the cross over episodes. It looks like the pregnant patient will have another surgery, Derek and Sloan get into a fist fight, and then ABC puts these words up on the screen "Doctor or God?". Yup, you hooked me!
Kudos to Shonda Rhimes and team for the delightful exchanges between Sloan and Lexi this episode, as well as Addison's fabulous hair cut, and the painfully believable story line of the new mother who tries to drown her baby.
