(Previously [mb])
We open the episode with Meredith and Sandra Oh running through a what could possibly pass as a Seattle park. I mean, there’s grass and a few scattered trees. Not too over or underdeveloped, but whatever. Oh isn’t happy about this running, calling Grey a Sadist. But our herone reminds her that running is supposed to make them feel better. Something about the endorphins. As motivation, Sandra calls Meredith a slutty mistress, to which she responds with pregnant whore. It’s at this point that they finally realize that sleeping with their bosses might not have been the best idea.

After the jump, the rundown on Grey’s Anatomy, season 2 episode 3: the return of Mother Grey, development on the Sandra Oh baby story, cures for a blushing girl, hope for a sickly baby, and how dry cleaning fumes could break your heart.

Meredith says that her problem is “ferry boats”. She used to like them, and so did Dempsey. So did we until this show started calling them “ferry boats” and repeating the term over and over and over again. Sandra Oh says that her problem is coronary artery bypass grafts and aortic aneurisms. She used to love them, but now not so much.

And here we have the voice over for a summary of the episode’s themes. Meredith’s disembodied voice cuts through the jogging chatter (which is about whether either doctor has cried yet and whether crying would make them feel better) to let the home audience know that “surgeons are control freaks, with a scalpel in your hand, you feel unstoppable, you’re 10 feet tall and bulletproof, and then you leave the O.R. and all that perfection all that beautiful control just falls to crap.” (By the way, neither has cried and neither wants to do it now, in the park sprawled out on the crass as the spins above them.)

Suddenly we cut to the Seattle Grace Hospital intern locker room, George, Sandra Oh, and Seattle Grey are baffled to find Isabel and Alex chatting and laughing on the other side of the room. George speculates that they might be friends. Soon Dr. Model crosses over to tell them that Alex is actually really sweet once you get to know him. As the interns gather to follow Bailey on rounds, Alex tries to make an effort at actually being friendly by mentioning Meredith’s tapes of her mother’s surgeries. Per usual, it turns out that this mention of Mother Grey is just a bit of foreshadowing. Isabel invites him over to the Casa de Interns for a movie night. At this point Meredith term-checks Buffy the Vampire Slayer by saying that such a party would only exist in a hell dimension. Here, George seems kind of thrilled to be able to turn the tables and confront Isabel about the possibility that she has a thing for Alex in the way that she’s always confronting him about his thing for Meredith. She denies it, but no one buyes it.Still, this would certainly be more of a victory if Alex didn’t also seem to have a thing for Isabel.

As the intern parade marches off, the Temporarily Not Chief enters and forces his way into the elevator with Patrick Dempsey. The old Chief isi wearing a shiny hat to cover his brain surgery scars and wants to be cleared for surgery again because he can only take a week of staying home and watching Oprah. Dempsey isn’t sympathetic given that he wasn’t made interim chief while the old Chief recovered from his brain surgery. Also, it’s only been a week, and the Chief invited Satan (his wife, Addison) to Seattle. Naturally, in the world’s quaintest hospital, Satan herself enters, indicates her approval of the Chief’s silly hat, her preference for being called Ruler of All the Is Evil, and asks her husband to consult on one of her cases (which is why she’s still in town — Chief asked her to stay since their pediatric surgery attending is on maternity leave). Dempsey re-refuses to clear the Chief for surgery.

We cut back to the interns on their rounds gathered around a minor plot device patient. Sandra Oh tells Chief Wannabe #2 (or Baby Daddy #1) that the patient has a tumor, apparently the cancer was from being a fume huffing dry cleaner. Oh and Chief Wannabe are

After this bit with the patient, Meredith and Oh walk across a lobby and have a conversation where it seems like the audio track is all off. The point of their chat is that Meredith thinks that Sandra should tell “him” about the baby so that he’ll have the responsibility to pay. But Oh says no. Once it’s over Burke will just be a blip on her radar. I guess they say more than this, but I’m too overwhelmed by the tracking pro soblems to suspend disbelief that they’re talking about such a big secret in such a public place.

Alex introduces the second plot device patient, Lady Blush-A-Lot, with big words that sound like erythrophobia and hyperprexia. Essentially, the patient in this bed is a very very pale blond woman who get very very red in the face when Dempsey is mentioned. Alex makes a joke about how everyone in the hospital has the hots for Dempsey. Of course, Meredith is in the room at the time so this is especially hilarious to those of us watching the show. Isabel asks why he acts like such an ass, but Alex doesn’t really seem to care. In a way, it’s nice that they aren’t changing his character completely just so he can be made more of a part of the ongoing plot.

This bit of banter breaks up quickly, as the other interns sprint from the candy machine to the emergency are of the hospital where a new case diverticulitis is about to be wheeled in. A very angry and disoriented Mother Grey is very unhappy to be strapped to a gurney. She screams at the entire hospital staff, calling them amateurs. Meredith freezes, her mother screams a her. Like a pro, Meredith quickly flees to hide behind a doorway just as it’s revealed that this angry patient is her famous surgeon mother.

act 1

Back from the commercials, everyone is trying to get into the locker room to talk to Meredith. But Bailey is holding them off at the pass. Through the door, Sandra Oh helpfully adds that her great randmother died from Alzheimer’s. Bailey hushes her and assigns each of the interns to surgical cases. Alex gets assigned to the red faced lady, with a warning not to torture her over the blushing impulse. Isabel gets sent off to the Shepherds. Despite objections, Oh is sent to help her baby daddy Chief Wannabe #2. George is momentarily thrilled (enough to hug Bailey) when he’s assigned to take care of Dr. Grey until he realizes that this means that he’s being sent to take care of mother instead of daughter. The onetime Dr. Nazi takes the duty of talking to Meredith. While she gives Meredith the chance to take the day off to be with her mother, Grey refuses, saying that she needs to work. Bailey doesn’t really believe that Meredith is “fine”; so she assigns her to scutt duty.

Isabel winds up with the uncomfortable task of spending time in a sort of NICU with Dempsey, his wife, and a very premature underweight drug addicted baby in need of a spinal surgery. Looking at the baby’s chart, Patrick Dempsey determines that the baby wouldn’t survive surgery. He doesn’t want to prolong her short painful life. Addison responds by calling him “honey” and asking to give the baby a chance. Here, the argument turns away from their patient (as usual) as they bicker about oaths and sheets. Dempsey doesn’t want to make her life more painful. Addison says that this baby needs someone to fight for her, and chides her husband for walking away. Dempsey says that she’s too far gone, and they need to let her go in peace. How convenient that this terminally ill baby gives them a chance to hash out their marital difficulties.

Next, we cut to Chief Wannabe #2 sucking up to the recovering Chief and cleaning his things out of the Chief’s office. The chief tells his wannabe to stop with the profuse thanks, because he’s not going away anytime soon. Chief Wannabe #2 is happy that the Chief is back, he’s just hiding his joy, deep down inside. On the way out, he stops to tell the Chief that the hat a little pimped out. Meredith enters to welcome him back and to talk about her mother. She passes Mother Grey’s chart to the chief and apologizes for not telling him about mom’s Alzheimer’s situation. She asks the Chief to pay her mom a visit because she’s been reliving the heyday of her residency and they were pals way back when. Once again, Meredith asserts her fineness and lack of need for a day off.

Speaking of Mother Grey, George is in her room, trying to examine her, and having a fight instead. Mother Grey isn’t in the mood to play doctor and shoos George out of the room while she flips through a chart. Meredith interrupts to tell them that her mother is allergic to Penicillin. Here, we pick up the cute detail that Mom Grey is calling George “Thatch” because she thinks he’s Meredith’s father whom she never talks about. This episode includes a lot of Meredith leaning against walls or doors as a response to being emotionally overwhelmed, and this scene is no exception. For those reading along at home, Meredith really isn’t looking as “fine” as she claims to be. Luckily, Dempsey walks by and Meredith convinces him to put her on his ETS surgical case because she can’t deal.

Meanwhile, it’s surgery time and Oh is a few minutes late to the party. Speaking of not looking fine, Sandra isn’t looking so great in this scene either. Oblivious to her condition, Chief Wannabe #2 chides her for not being on time as they get to work dissecting the dry cleaner’s tumor.

Back in Blushy McBlusherson’s room, Alex is feeling his patient’s throat glands. When Dr. Dempsey walks in, she turns very very red. (Does anyone know if this is a real disease?) He asks if she’s ready to go into surgery. She says that she’s been ready since the 3rd grade and rattles off a medical dictionary of side effects. This convinces Dempsey to schedule the operation. He exits and Alex translates these potential risks for those without medical jargon (she could end up with excessive sweating, paralysis, collapsed lungs). Meredith asks if a little bit of blushing is really worth the risk. Obviously it is way more than a little bit, but we’ll cut her some slack. It’s a stressful day at SGH. Nevertheless, Blushy gives one of the show’s trademark speeches that is really about the main characters, saying that anytime she has a feeling for anyone, she can’t feel it without the whole world knowing. She can’t have a secret. Blushy asks if Meredith can imagine living like that for her whole life. Ah, if only she knew the half of it, right?

When we return to Mother Grey, she’s still on a rampage! Assaulting her imaginary husband George and his puppy dog routine and his use of students for his grants! Her work pays for everything including Meredith and his precious lifestyle! She wants to be left alone! to do her work! Alex and Meredith watch the chaos, until Meredith retreats to Blushy’s room to lean against the door and claims to be O.K.

act 2

In the hallway, George is looking panicked. He meets the Chief (who is wearing a different, slightly less pimpish hat, sort of like what a cabbie might wear) and asks for help examining Mother Grey. The Chief pretends to be busy instead of uncleared for surgery. When George explains his predicament, the Chief tells him that he does look a bit like Father Grey and reminds him to just take good care of her. As usual, George needs help (and he doesn’t seem too happy about resembling Meredith’s dad).

Luckily enough Alex and Isabel are in the stairwell having a cute, blow on an eyelash moment. Until a nurse comes by and Alex turns on his jerk face. They exit into George’s hallway as Isabel asks why Alex is afraid to let himself seem human. George reminds her about the incident involving a lot of pictures of her dressed only in underwear being posted all over the place and resulting in everyone calling her Dr. Model. (Alex explains that this is before he knew her). Dredging up bad memories doesn’t stop George from recruiting Alex to help him with Mother Grey’s exam. Possibly because Alex can’t resist the chance to lay on the charm and adopt a fake persona. Soon he has Mother Grey playing along and submitting to an exam by complimenting her skillz and blaming hospital bureaucracy and sending George out of the room.

With her pal Alex doing medical work, Isabel returns to sad babyland. Addison is marveling at the premie’s grip strength, while she notes that the baby’s infection with an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria means no operation. All of this baby grip business seems to be an excuse to show that Dempsey’s wife is still wearing a rather large diamond wedding ring.

When we return to Sandra Oh, she’s still in the O.R. and everything is in blurry vision. Chief Wannabe #2 quizzes her and apologizes for interfering with her daydream. Dismissed from the baby case, Isabel joins Bailey in the gallery to watch the surgery. We get brief reminder of the Nazi charm when Bailey queries Isabel about being a spectator, asking if she has a problem or a “mocha latte”. Isabel says that she needs a new assignment since the baby case turned out not to be surgical. Once again, it’s time for a foreshadowing speech. Bailey asks if Isabel knew about Mother Grey’s condition. Dr. Model was oblivious and talks about how “… you think you know someone, share a house, make wishes on eyelashes with them, but we don’t know them, we’re just a bunch of interns who work together, there’s nothing there.” I wonder if there’s something else no one else knows about . . . Oh yeah. Just as Sandra Oh is doing her best to answer her boss & ex-lover’s surgery questions about how the tumor has infiltrated the pericardium, causing the patient a broken heart, she collapses to the O.R. floor.

act 3

When we get back from the commercial break, Chief Wannabe #2 is freaking out and completely ignoring the tumor surgery to attend to Sandra Oh. Bailey and Isabel come down from the gallery to cart her off on a gurney, strapping on an oxygen mask, and noting her racing pulse. Oh takes off her mask to whisper that she’s seven weeks pregnant. This alerts them to take her straight to pre-op and call in Dr. Shepherd.

Speaking of Addison, she’s in the process of telling the Chief that she’s leaving for Manhattan in the morning. Despite his objections, she says that she came for one case (the twins from a previous episode), and can monitor them from New York. In addition, the part about Dempsey calling her Satan doesn’t leave her feeling too good about prospects for patching up their marriage. George interrupts to tell them that he noticed a mass on Mother Grey’s liver. When Isabel arrives to call Addison away to attend to Sandra Oh, George realizes that she’s pregnant. He sums things up by saying, “this is a very bad day.”

With Mother Grey needing a liver biopsy, the Chief busts in on Dempsey & Meredith’s ETS on Blushy demanding to be cleared for surgery. (Again, Dempsey refuses). They’re also there because Meredith needs to sign off on the needle biopsy for her mother. Grey seems to take this possible cancer news in stride, asking about her “billi” and noting that the low count is probably why she didn’t notice the jaundice. George gives Meredith the papers and tells her that they need to wait and see. He also tells her about Sandra Oh and her delicate condition.

On that subject, we cut back to Oh. The doctors ask if she’s told the father of if there’s anyone they can call. They reveal that the problem is that an extrauterine pregnancy is causing her to bleed out. Because of this, their patient is fading fast and doesn’t get a chance to answer. And any fears that Sandra Oh would keep the baby or have a primetime abortion are now handily resolved.

act 4

Apparently finished with the tumor surgery, Chief Wannabe #2 takes off his little surgeon hat and exits the O.R., likely en route to checking in on Sandra Oh. But it’s not to be. The Chief insists that he needs Burke to do the needle biopsy. Because it’s Ellis Grey. As he walks off to biopsy land, Sandra Oh’s character’s name is being inked on the big surgery board as we cut back to Addison asking Isabel how attached she was to the pregnancy. Per her speech in the previous act, Isabel doesn’t know. Bailey decides to stay in the O.R. for the surgery.

As Dempsey finishes his surgery, he tries to hug Meredith as she’s scrubbing her hands at the sink. She freaks out, but not because Alex might care that she was the intern stupid enough to get screw the married attending (she’s right, he doesn’t), but because Dempsey has a wife who’s annoyingly kind, painfully smart, and currently saving her best friend’s life. She turns down his supportive offer and takes off to check on Sandra Oh. Alex sums it up by smiling and saying, “Dude, that was rough.” However, after assuring her that Meredith’s forced jogging regime didn’t cause Sandra Oh’s medical problems, Bailey refuses to let her into the O.R., saying that she’ll take her down if she tries to bust through. This is somehow about Oh’s privacy, because she’s naked and exposed and a patient now, not a friend. Why this doesn’t apply to having Isabel assist with the surgery is kind of ignored. This is kind of nice moment. Grey says that right now, just in this moment, Grey hates Bailey, but Bailey can take it.

// throughout this whole section, there’s a folksy woman singing about fools falling in love playing in the background //

Such a busy episode! Chief Wannabe #2 is putting Mother Grey under so that he can do the biopsy. Tidily enough, Mother Grey mistakes him for a younger version of the actual chief and is very friendly, calling him a beautiful man.

Next, we check in on Dempsey, who is looking out those big pretty hospital windows at the utter lack of scenery. Later, Addison finds him looking at the sick baby. The show continues not to be about the patient, whose blood pressure is stabilizing even though there’s no reason she should be getting stronger. Instead, it’s about the sick baby as metaphor for the broken marriage. Addison comments on how beautify the premie is, and Dempsey says that if she makes it through the night, they can do the operation. Addison comes up with three potential solutions for their marriage. Option one is that she can apologize, he can forgive her and come home, and they can move on; option 2 is option 1 with him being able to use the affair against her in future arguments. He doesn’t think she’s funny. She doesn’t know what the third option is, because she’s kissing him instead. But Patrick isn’t really into either option, even though Addison still loves him. Instead he’s just looking kind of sad and confused.

We leave this relationship drama to find George and Chief Wannabe #2 walking at talking. He tells George to get that needle biopsy taken care of as fast as possible. With George off having all the tests run, he stares at the big board and is shocked to learns that Sandra Oh is in surgery for an exploratory laprotomy for her ectopic pregnancy.

act 5

When we’re done being sold things, Oh wakes from her surgery to find Bailey sleeping in a chair next to her. Bailey tells her that she had an extrauterine pregnancy, that her left fallopian tube burst, and that Dr. Shepherd did everything she could, but there was too much damage and she couldn’t save the tube.

At about the same time, Blushy wakes up asking if it’s over. Meredith tells her that the surgery was successful. Now the patient can say and hear Patrick Dempsey’s character’s name without blushing. As she repeats it over and over, as if to wear away any pretense of my not remembering it for the recaps. Meredith says that she guesses it was worth the risk. Alex hilariously chimes in to say that he thinks it’s nuts to have major surgery just so people don’t know how you’re feeling. Here, Alex is likable again and offers to talk to Meredith. After all, she can tell him anything and even if he blabs, no one likes him so they would believe him anyway. Meredith says that Izzie likes him, causing him to blush from the cuteness banter overload. He doesn’t believe that she’s fine and says that he’s be “under the bar” if he thought that his mom had cancer. But Meredith gives him the ugly truth: she’s afraid Mom doesn’t have cancer, because liver cancer is fast and they give you morphine. Not so much for Alzheimer’s. She asks him what kind of person wishes their mom has cancer, and he doesn’t have an easy answer.

While they’re chatting, the Chief is talking to a sleeping Mother Grey about how it’s hard being the one whose gone, but how it isn’t easy being the one who’s still around. I expect this means that there’s a bit of history between the two of them.

At some sort of desk area, Isabel, George and Meredith are talking about Sandra Oh. Isabel says that she’ll have pain for a few days, but will be O.K. Meredith says that she’s glad that Isabel was there for her. Isabel is dubious, saying that she often feels like an outsider to Grey and Oh’s special relationship. But Meredith wants to know what’s up with Alex. Sure, she says that they hate him, but they believe that he’s different once you get to know him.

The results of the biopsy break up the conversation, as the sad piano of dramatic tension takes over. Meredith looks at the results and tells them to let her mother know. Isabel asks if she’s O.K., and Meredith finally admits that no, she is not.

George is dispatched to Mother Grey’s room. She tells him to go away, but he refuses and decides to play along with her delusion. He says that he doesn’t always like her that much either. And he doesn’t like how she speaks to him and he hates the way she treats Meredith, because she deserves better. Faced with this tough love, Mother Grey apologizes and asks if mass on her liver is algebra (malignant). It turns out to be benign.

This is the news that sent Meredith outside into the rain. As he walks out of the hospital, Dempsey finds her sobbing on a bench. Meredith begs him not to say anything. He agrees and just sort of looks around until she stands up. Although she’s not wet from the rain, she is exhausted from her mother, what happened to Sandra Oh. But hating him is the most exhausting. She kisses him and says that she doesn’t want to do it (hate him) anymore. She skps back inside and he looks even more confused.

And it’s voiceover wrap-up time: “No one likes to lose control, but as a surgeon, there’s nothing worse” . . . (cut to very uncomfotrable George cuddling with Mother Grey, professional as always. at least he’s in bed with one Grey woman?) . . . “it’s a sign of weakness” . . . (Isabel asking Alex how someone can be offensive and charming at the same time) . . . “still, there are times when it just gets away from you, when the world stops spinning, and you realize that your shiny little scalpel isn’t going to save you.” . . . (Meredith going to Sandra Oh’s bedside; Chief Wannabe #2 telling Dry Cleaner about his now fixed broken heart and nearly becoming overwhelmed with an emotion) . . . “no matter how hard you fight it, you fall. And it’s scary as hell. Except there’s an upside to free falling, it’s that you get a chance to have your friends catch you” (final scene of all of the pals crowded around Sandra Oh’s bed, blocking Chief Wannabe #2 from dropping by to say hello).

The end. Now buy the soundtrack. And stay tuned for a special KOMO “news item” about the show. Hey — did they meet their quota for tourism approved flyovers?

Next week [mb]: Dempsey gets divorce papers, Alex tries to get a date, and Sandra Oh’s mom has an awkward visit!

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