Cristina Yang’s life, which is her career, is heading in the direction she has always dreamed of. No, she is not moving in with Owen or having kids. Instead, Yang has officially become one of five nominees for the prestigious Harper Avery Award.
But, before everyone starts raising their glasses to Yang’s acceptance speech, she has to solve the mystery that is her three cardiomyopathy patients – all of which are siblings. It is extremely rare, especially since all three cases were developed within a short time frame one after another. She has succeeded at getting the two sisters into a stable, healthy, condition. However, their brother is declining rapidly, with his diagnosis only being announced a couple days prior. Before than, no signs or symptoms were experienced.
Cristina is not the only one performing ground-breaking research. Dr. Miranda Bailey is conducting a painfully slow process in the hope of discovering a genetic cure for a child without an immune system. Unless her genome sequence research progresses, this boy will spend the rest of his life in a bubble. Any human contact will surpass his weak immune system, causing an instant and possibly fatal infection. He is unable to take the isolation any more and somehow escapes through the hospital hallways.
Bailey can’t help but feel inadequate next to all of the hype surrounding Cristina’s nomination. It is expected she feel some jealousy or bitterness, seeing as though Bailey raised her. But, in the end Bailey finds the heart to congratulate her and teach her a thing or two about accepting praise. On the other hand, Cristina successfully completes the surgery, saving the last and final sibling, hopefully for good. She could not have done it without the help of Dr. Jackson Avery, who sacrificed 25,000 dollars from his own credit card to get a private plane to Seattle with an up-and-coming piece of machinery needed for Yang’s surgery.
Meanwhile, Dr. Meredith Grey is in the process of prepping two HIV-positive patients for a kidney transplant, with Leah Murphy by her side. Unfortunately, this uncommon surgery is unable to be performed, because the donor is suddenly frightened by the minimal risk involved with the surgery. Meredith and Leah have to put the blame on themselves when they break the bad news to the dialysis patient, to hide the reality of his donor’s selfish decision.
The donor becomes extremely remorseful and apologetic from his decision to back out of the surgery and has now decided it is back on. There is just one small problem. Meredith already told the dialysis patient they were not a good match, and the only way she is getting out of this is with Dr. Bailey’s help. As some sort of vengeance against everyone else’s success, Bailey informs the patient that Meredith is a young, surgeon, who misread the lab report. Further, Bailey will be taking over the transplant for Grey – meaning Leah misses out and Shane scores once more.
Dr. Jo Wilson’s new found love of ortho has landed her on Dr. Callie Torres and Dr. Derek Shepherd’s service. Their new brain machine, for lack of better scientific verbiage, identifies Callie as being a depressed woman. No matter what she reminisces on or what pictures she gazes at, her brain appears red with anger. Her brain activity finally reflects happiness when Meredith walks in with her baby, propelling Callie and Arizona into another major life decision. Just like that it’s official -- they are having another baby.
The episode closes with Cristina Yang sitting with her beloved Owen Hunt, in a place where they once grew in love. As they sit by the fan enjoying their champagne, Owen whispers how confident he is that Cristina will win the Harper Avery. She finally admits it too and is beginning to look like a mini Ellis Grey.