The conclusion of last week’s Grey’s Anatomy [abc] episode, in which our favorite interns {as if we have a choice} from Seattle Grace Hospital deal with the aftermath of the O’Malley surgery, the constant presence of Mr. Katimsky / Grey in the nursery, ongoing silent treatments, near kisses, and important milestones. All of this to the tune of indie songwriters on the soundtrack, after the jump.

The episode opens with more snoring on red satin, despite the prominent nosestrip. The alarm sounds, Dempsey snaps. He didn’t sleep much, on account of all of the shoving / nudging. As a reprisal for his grumpy tone, Meredith won’t let him kiss her until he shaves.

In the kitchen, George opens the refrigerator and panics because the check isn’t there. Izzie, cooking a leisurely breakfast, nonchalantly says that she deposited it, not in the garbage disposal as George feared, but in the bank. He spazzes out, gleeful about the interest it’s earning and the things it could buy, but she doesn’t want to talk about it. Really, doesn’t want to talk about it. This point doesn’t really make it through his money happy skull and he continues yammering about all the rosebuds she could buy even after she yells at him to drop it. For good measure, he smacks her with the newspaper several times, causing her to burn her french toast. Which, he reminds her, she could buy new.

Addison rides the ferry boat to work {is she still living in dempsey’s trailer?} looking weepy along the way. At the hospital, she freezes and turns in avoidance of McSteambath, happily colliding with Alex instead. Thatcher [Katimsky] Grey fumbingly interrupts their pleasant romantic awkwardness to inquire about the health of his grandchild. More concerned with their own drama, they tell him that yes, Baby Grey has made it out of the woods and yes, he should tell his wife and daughter. {Why this isn’t their responsibility is unclear} A & A run into each other a few more times before turning and striding off in opposite directions, while he cell phones the rest of the family.

Grey, Izzie, and Sandra Oh watch his comedically clumsy phone call from the nurses’ station. Meredith can’t believe that she’s related to this stammering, mumbling, clumsy, disaster with whom she has nothing in common. They hate to break it to her, but she has a lot in common with him: nervous talking, messy [covered in food, et c.]. She doesn’t take this well. Before storming off, she points out that Oh is a woman in a relationship with no words and Izzie is a millionaire in $20 shoes. So there.

Izzie get’s paged. It seems that Ann’s spine straightening surgery is back on. No one in the home viewing audience should be surprised to find that the insurance company didn’t change their mind. Instead, an “anonymous” donor decided to pay the entire bill. Izzie pretends to be surprised, telling Ann that she’s a “very lucky girl.” Bailey stares Izzie out into the hall, confronting her about spending $300 grand so that she could get into the surgery. Izzie denies it, confessing that she spent it because it’s a good thing (“otherwise, she’ll never have a date or wear high heels”). This wasn’t the answer Bailey wanted to hear; now she’s off the case. She needs to decide whether she’s a surgeon. It’s lovely and generous, but once again she’s overly involved and can’t scrub it. Izzie huffs and stares at the ceiling as we pull back to the title card.

[ main title, slow Space Needle flyover, Regina Spektor sings "I Never Loved Nobody Fully" in the background ]

Out on the cafeteria patio {I’ve lost track of what time of year it’s meant to be in Grey’s“Seattle”, but sunbrellas induce fond summer memories for all of us in real Seattle.} Callie joins Addison at a table and sighs that George kissed her after seeing his dad produce urine. V. romantic, no? Addison silently fidgets with her laptop, despite the heart pouring out. Callie gives her shit of it all being about her and it turns out that it is. About eight months ago, Addison aborted McSteamy’s spawn. She peed on a stick. She wasn’t going to tell him, but she did. He bought the McSteamZygote a Yankees onesie and a calendar marked with the due date. Addision wanted to Dempsey back. She wanted his baby. Now it’s that due date and she’s “ended up” alone, unexpectedly. Callie tries to cheer her up, but this is one of the weeks that it feel that way. {This also gives us an upper limit on the number of months that have passed in Grey time since the show’s first episode}

In the O.R., Dempsey works on Ann’s shiny new spine. The interns watch. Alex asks about Papa O’Malley and George is pretty optimistic. Sandra Oh wonders whether George has been hanging out with Burke. He says that even if he liked her, he wouldn’t tell her. Izzie inquires about his hypocrisy, and he explains that her career wasn’t on the line when she lied to him. {Smug George is pretty much the least sympathetic character on the show right now; which makes for an odd juxtaposition given that this episode is all about his impending sorrow}. Oh refuses to talk to him because he owes her something. Alex is impressed and jealous of their non-verbal relationship. When Meredith asks how things are going with Addison, he gets all nervous until she clarifies that she’s talking about her NotNiece, Baby Grey. Alex says that the baby’s doing fine. Izzie sees through his game and Oh wants in on whatever he’s plotting. Meredith and George gets paged to George’s dad with a 911. Callie asks to leave the surgery when she sees them scurrying off.

In the family conference room, Bailey explains that she needs to do a procedure to help him breathe. George explains the medical jargon. The Brothers O’Malley are confused because Dad’s been making buckets of pee. She’s asking permission to re-intubate because the tube is kinked and with all of the swelling, it’s a complicated procedure so they need to prepare themselves. The Family O’Malley plus Callie wait, police lineup style, against a blinded window. One of the O’Malley brothers spews noxious odors as a result of over-nervousness. They all crack up; George and Callie holding hands.

Sandra Oh goes to Burke’s room and plays telephone with the nurse to convey Papa O’Malley’s deteriorating health.

In the room, the Chief defers to Bailey, reminding her that there’s no room for nerves. She snaps her neck a little and gets to work. Meredith hands her tubes, she encounters trouble [loud beepy sounds], and then she’s got it. The chief compliments her on her beautiful work. Her son is names after his son; she just needs a minute. {Lest we forget that she is now a mother, and possible of compassion and involvement with her patients. Wait! Isn’t this what she lectured Izzie about mere minutes ago?}

[commercials]

It’s another morning. Grey and McDempsey awake on the satiny red sheets {from the threesome dream?}, she’s wearing two breatheright strips and he’s recommending surgery. She rejects the idea unless he goes in for halitosis and stubble cures. He’s too tired to shave!

[Alki flyover]

Alex tracks down McSteamy in the hallway, bearing a “bone dry cappuccino” as a measure of his goodwill. He wants in on a rhinoplasty; Sloane wants intel on Addison’s state of misery. After stammering through his coverstory {remember when he used to be an ace liar?} Alex gives him what he wants, with embellishments, but it doesn’t get him into the O.R.

In the bunks, Oh and Grey chat. Neither of them have been sleeping and now is no exception. Sandra Oh is mad that Burke disappeared; Grey reminds her that he’s in the hospital and she could just ask. Oh wants him to tell her. Meredith muses that George’s dad is going into renal failure, while her healthy dad is at the hospital all the time and she has nothing to say to him. If Thatcher died, her life wouldn’t be any different. She asks if it’s weird that she’s jealous of George. Oh says yes.

At Burke’s room, George shares his dad’s chart with him. Burke explains that his father’s organs are shutting down and there’s no one to blame. George asks for encouraging words, but Burke doesn’t have any medicine for him. They’re men of science says George, but Burke says that sometimes that isn’t enough. He’s willing to hope with him or send up a prayer.

In the waiting for bad news room, George and his mom wait with Ann’s mother. {Who? her? BTW, her surgery went well.} They share stories of their sickly relatives. This is mostly an occasion for George to quietly realize that it’s kind of weird that they went through with his father’s cancer surgery. In typical fashion, he throws a temper tantrum, confronting the Chief and Bailey in the hallway about the months that they could have had with him had they ignored his father’s wishes and closed the surgery when they saw all of the spreading cancer. He cries and yells that his father didn’t know any better and they did. He stomps his feet and angrily pouts that they shouldn’t have done it.

[commercial, an evening northbound I-5 flyover]

Addison finds McSteamy snifling over tea in the lounge. He’s miserable. She blames it on the rain, telling him that it takes some time for the body to adjust to the constant dampness. {she’s already forgotten yesterday’s sunny afternoon lunch. you need to hold on to those.} He doesn’t want to adjust; reminding her that if she’d kept the baby they’d be together in New York and it wouldn’t be raining. Even if it was, they wouldn’t care because they’d be together. He’d have a family instead of walking pneumonia and an ex-best friend who hates him {which reminds me, whatever happened to SPIDeRBITeS, Ryan Davidson’s post- eXBeSTFRIeNDS band?}. She explains that he didn’t want to raise a child, he wanted to trump Dempsey, he wanted to win. He accuses her of not wanting a baby, she reminds him of all of the affairs that he had while they were together, the non-goodness of their relationship, and his likelihood of being a terrible father. She wanted a baby, just not with him. On the verge of tears, she walks out.

Ingrid Michaelson pops onto the soundtrack as Sandra Oh drops into Burke’s room carrying his lunch. Neither says a word. She steps back when he reaches for the plate. Rather than break the silent treatment, he calls the nurse.

Addison checks on Baby Grey. Alex drops in, explaining his absence by his chaotic life. She apologizes for what happened, reminding him that she’s his attending {since when has that stopped anyone in this hospital?}. They small talk about the baby.

[Pan of the waterfront at night. The viaduct actually doesn't look so hideous from this perspective.]

George shaves his dad’s face and confesses to lying about beating up a kid with a stick when he was a kid. The lie set off a chain of escalating violence, but George justifies the savage beating because the kid was bigger and he couldn’t reach his face without the stick.{His passive aggressive withholding of the truth has always caused problems for George, hasn’t it?} He whispers for his dad to fight just a little bit harder, kissing him on the forehead as we cut to commercials.

[ commercials ]

ANOTHER day in paradise. The red sheets are empty. Grey walks into the kitchen to find Izzie awake, drinking coffee over a counter full of cobbler. Dempsey slept at his place to get some sleep. Izzie confirms that Grey snores, but that it doesn’t bother her because she grew up next to a highway. She didn’t sleep either. She stayed up baking and cleaning the bathroom floor in case George wants to lay on it. Her money is useless, but cobbler is good.

A flyover the sound from Harbor Island brings us back to the hospital, where McSteamy guesses that Addison told Callie about the abortion. He asks whether she thinks he’s be a bad father. She quizzes him: does he like kids? (depends on how loud they are) does he like his family? (doesn’t have one, just Dempsey, pre-sleeping with his wife and breaking up his family.) does he remember birthdays and anniversaries? (no and no). He thinks that that’s the way with all men; she tells him that it’s not. She knows one for whom family is everything. He agrees, he would have made a terrible father. Exit Sloane.

In the conference room someone girlishly and quietly covers Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” while the Chief tells the O’Malleys that Papa O’Malley isn’t going to get any better. All of his organs are failing and he’s dependent on machines. They need to decide whether to let nature take its course (days to weeks) or take him off life support. The family, shaken by this news, turn to George for advice. Stuck in a terrible position, George explains that their father is in pain and medication can only do so much. Mother O’Malley asks if it’s time to let him go. Meredith looks up sadly and Bailey regretfully says that they can’t tell him what to do. George says that it’s not like his dad like this, and he won’t wake up.

[commercials, sped up southbound traffic races down I-5]

Meredith finds Mr. Katimsky in the nursery, with his new granddaughter. She asks if there’s a drawer of unopened cards anywhere. When he’s unsurprisingly baffled by her question, she explains that she’s only heard her mother’s version of events and wonders if he has a side to tell. Dumbstruck momentarily, he eventually stammers that she moved to Boston and told him not to come around, jumping to the part where he eventually remarried and is sorry. She asks if he snores. As she tells him to forget it, he really opens up telling her that he does, like a trucker, and that the wax earplugs work.

In Burke’s room. Sandra Oh quietly reads a chart. Enter Dempsey. Burke asks about Mr. O’Malley {because clearly he couldn’t talk to his girlfriend [?] about it without breaking radio silence} He tells him that they’re letting him go, eliciting a “hmm” from Burke. Who then turns to Oh and then back to Dempsey to reveal that he hasn’t had any more tremors all week. How about that?

Bailey unhooks Papa O’Malley while the family looks on. The machines make the bad sounds, Gary Jules sings “Falling Awake”, and they lovingly hold his hands. Mother O’M gives him a kiss; the other interns wait worriedly in the hallway. George walks out in a trance. S.O. follows him outside, wordlessly.

Izzie leaves to find Ann {who? her?} walking [!] down the hallway happily. She joins Bailey in the hallway of intern hangouts to tell her that she’s both: a surgeon and a person who becomes emotionally involved. She won’t give up either part, but she won’t cross the line again. As she walks away, Bailey lets out a quiet sob.

S.O. finds George outside. She welcomes George to the Dead Dad club (she was inducted at age 9). She’s really sorry that he had to join the club. He says that he doesn’t know how to exist in a world where his dad doesn’t. She breaks the bad news that that feeling never changes.

We swirl around the space needle, the Slip sing “Life in Disguise”, Alex joins Addison at Joe’s Bar. He tells Joe about George’s dad. Addison asks if he has a dad (not really, not anymore). They look into each other’s eyes, she pulls him in for a long kiss. {And now we’re at 80% of the interns dating their supervisors, we just need to find someone nice for Izzie.}

At the Grey House, Meredith snores. Dempsey climbs into bed and finds a fresh pair of wax earplugs. He puts them in, smiles and the silence, and spoons Grey to sleep.

(many thanks to beloblog, whose listing of the music featured on the episode [beboblog] I found halfway through typing this)