Father figure: Callie thought she had issues when her father came to town during her tumultuous George problems, but this time, she had to decide whether to introduce him to Arizona. After watching her father attack George and Mark for their roles in her life, Callie decided to tell him the truth. Her father, unfortunately, demanded that Callie quit her job and her relationship and leave with him. He even tried to bribe the Chief to transfer her somewhere else. Though guilt-ridden over all he’s done for her, Callie finally walked away from her father to hang on to her life.
Father figure, part 2: For her part, Arizona was off helping Bailey adjust to her new fellowship, which meant introducing her to the painful process of persuading a father to stop fighting the fact that his young daughter was going to die. Bailey comforted the child herself after the father kept disappearing, stubbornly insisting he was going to conquer the logistics of getting her to alternative treatments in Mexico. Fortunately, Bailey was finally able to get the father to stop and comfort his daughter as she died.
The wedding planner: Izzie’s chemo was progressing without too many side effects as the episode began, but even as she merrily helped plan Meredith and Derek’s wedding, her oncologist promised the Chief that her happiness wouldn’t last. Meanwhile, Meredith and Derek realized that Izzie’s planning was going to subject them to the wedding of her elaborate, possibly fevered dreams. Meredith and Izzie argued over Meredith’s desire to wear a simple dress and Izzie’s shameless demands that Meredith soothe her cancer-ridden soul by wearing a fluffier dress. Sure enough, Izzie eventually sickened, sobering up both the patient and her friends about the way this illness is likely to progress. And Meredith indulgently went back to trying on dresses.
That didn’t end well: The driver and the pedestrian in a guy-against-car collision showed up together at the hospital, bickering the whole time — much like Alex and George after Alex was put in charge of the case. George quickly smelled a rat in the pedestrian’s story of being hit while in the crosswalk, and the driver later confirmed that the pedestrian leapt in front of his car. Unfortunately, the pedestrian disappeared before a psych consult could be completed. As Alex and George argued in the parking lot over which of them is at fault for the fact that they can’t get along, the pedestrian successfully hurled himself out a window, but at least George and Alex later bonded over drinks.
Meanwhile: Owen finally started working through whatever has been eating him, starting with sessions with Dr. Wyatt (played by Amy Madigan), but his temper still seemed to be flaring regularly as he dealt with Alex and George. Mark and Derek wedged poor Lexie into the middle of their feud, which drove her to nervous eating. When they finally made up, she stopped chewing.
Linda Holmes is a writer in Washington, D.C.