Mother knows debilitating tension: Derek’s mother visited, which had Meredith in a nervous knot. Izzie helpfully removed every potentially embarrassing item from the house (except the dead boyfriend), while Meredith dressed to impress with a kicky ponytail. Unfortunately for Meredith, McMama turned out to be Tyne Daly, and if anyone is going to be wise to Meredith Grey, it’s Tyne Daly. Ultimately, though, she gave Meredith a hearty thumbs-up.
Sympathy for the devil: The saga of Eric Stoltz as William Dunn, a hospitalized death-row prisoner, continued, as he refused necessary brain surgery, figuring it wouldn’t be so bad to die in the hospital instead of by lethal injection. Derek, of course, was determined to get him well enough for execution.
The obligatory heart-tugging child: Things got complicated when the prisoner told Meredith he’d donate his organs to Bailey’s desperate young patient. There was another donor, but (of course) those organs failed, and Meredith alone knew that Dunn could step in. Her decision to the ethical dilemma was (as usual) to duck it, here by telling him how to destroy his own brain, the better to allow the harvesting of his organs. As the episode ended, he took her advice, slamming his delicate, post-surgery melon into the edge of his bed.
McArmy moves slowly: At long last, Owen “McArmy” Hunt asked Cristina out. She accepted. They made awkward small talk. He blew their first date by getting panicky drunk, so she threw him in her shower and listened while, fully dressed and soaking wet, he spoke of his pain. Just another week of breathlessly speedy progress.
Short people got no reason: Callie treated a short fellow who’d had shady leg-lengthening surgery resulting in grotesque (really grotesque) infections. Sloan and Callie used the time during his restorative surgery to formulate a particularly blunt metaphor about life’s setbacks making you progressively shorter. (Like most of the show’s metaphors, it’s plausible, but painfully ham-handed.) Eventually, Short Man’s brother hectored him into getting over his self-pity. Problem solved through histrionics! Again!
Dead And On And On And On: Izzie was still with Dead Denny, who continued advocating for himself as a potential boyfriend. She eventually admitted that she would really rather have someone in her life who’s alive, so she broke it off, which was bad news for Dead Denny, but good news for Alex. Or seemed to be, until Denny apparently decided to haunt Alex next.
The young and the shameless: Sloan was riddled with guilt over sleeping with Lexie, especially when confronted by McDreamy’s McMama. McMama gave Lexie a thoroughly embarrassing once-over, and then, to Sloan’s surprise, recommended he continue the relationship. As she explained it, Lexie may be only 24, but Sloan is emotionally 15. (Good point.) McSteamy not only listened, but told Callie to stop feeling short — as it were — and get on with things.
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Linda Holmes is a writer in Washington, D.C.