'Grey's Anatomy' Recap: State of Love and Trust

After taking over Dr. Webber’s position as Chief of Surgery, Derek gives him an ultimatum. Either sign a paper saying that he will go to rehab and get help with his alcoholism or be completely fired from the hospital. I know I shouldn’t spoil the whole debate that this causes right away, but let’s face it, there are much better issues to be explored than the chief’s internal debate, so I’ll just go ahead and say that he chooses to go to rehab.

A big case this week involved a patient that Bailey operated on who woke up in the middle of surgery. After blaming the anesthesiologist, they realize that the patient has some sort of blood situation or complication that causes her to not stay asleep as long.

When they go to talk to the patient, she is freaking out, and when they tell her that she needs to undergo another surgery to fix what they were unable to do in the last, the patient refuses to let Bailey touch her because of what she experienced while awake and under the knife. This leaves Meredith as the choice of surgeon who Bailey will walk through the procedure in the operating room.

The best case of the episode is clearly the pediatrics case that Arizona and Alex Karev are on. A young boy is brought in complaining of stomach pain. His dad thinks that he is lying and is hesitant to run any tests because he is afraid of how much it will cost him. In the end, it turns out that while doing a surgery to basically look for a needle in a haystack, they find a much more serious condition that puts the kid in intensive care.

When they are yelled at by the father, Alex tells him off, stating that if they’d gone the path that the father had chosen, the boy would have died at home before they could figure out what was wrong. Alex: 1. Patient’s Dad: 0.

Lastly, it wouldn’t be a complete episode of this show without some sort of relationship drama. The love triangle between Christina, Owen, and Teddy is still as awkward as ever. Teddy has stopped giving Christina surgeries, and the only explanation is that she’s still hung up on Owen. When she does finally offer her a chance at a major surgery, Christina is in bed with Owen, and he convinces her to stay with him to prove that he’s just as important as her job. Later, Christina opens up to Owen about her past relationship with Burke.

Meanwhile, Mark and Lexie still aren’t talking, but Lexie manages to learn from Callie that he slept with Addison multiple times, making him an even bigger hypocrite than he already is. Mark’s cries that she broke up with him and that he was dealing with the stress of his daughter’s pregnancy don’t make up for the fact that he’s being a selfish jerk. If these two don’t get back together, there is a serious problem because they are the cutest couple on the show.

Next week’s episode will focus on trauma on Valentine’s Day, as if the holiday wasn’t already comprised of enough drama.