Grey's Anatomy: Here Comes the Flood (Episode 80)

After last week's disappointing two-hour season premiere, this week gets slightly better. Slightly being the keyword.

Meredith is at the therapist again, and she definitely needs therapy. She thinks her life is all peachy now that she and Derek are going to be living together, but the therapist tries to tell her differently. Meredith doesn't want to hear about this so she leaves.

Derek once again stayed the night at the residents house. During the morning routine he mentions to Izzie about her and the other residents moving out. This is news to Izzie and everyone else, and they're not happy. Why the hell is Derek the one breaking this news and not Meredith? Apparently this whole idea is just in Derek's head, he hadn't even mentioned it to Meredith yet so she's just as surprised as everyone else. Derek tells her that that was her life before, now they need to build their life together.

The Chief holds a major news announcement for all hospital staff. He tells them that there will be new rules and they will be strictly enforced. Looks like the Chief is going to be a total asshole this season. One of the new rules is that the docs must give a better all-around education to residents and interns. This means the interns and residents working harder and the docs actually listening to them and involving them.

The first patient is a middle-aged man named, Jack, who is at Seattle Grace for an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Second patient is another middle-aged man named, Barry (I think... Meredith mumbled), who has severe headaches almost 24/7. He can't handle even regular speaking voices so the docs have to whisper around him. Derek decides he'll do surgery on his brain. The third patient is a 30-year-old female named, Shelly, who has liver cancer. She's a big fan of Izzie but the Chief is quick to ruin that potential friendship by taking Izzie off the case and putting Meredith on it. This is one of the new rules, you need to be humane but not get too involved, and we know Izzie has a tough time walking that fine line.

And, then we go to George who will finally get his chance to retake the intern exam to become a resident. He's pretty excited, finally he'll get his chance for redemption. But, George is the first victim of this week's freak flooding incident. Just as George is starting to take the test water begins dripping on the papers from the ceiling. Figures! George is already a ball of nerves, this is not what he needed.

Alex is wheeling Jack for more testing when the wheels jam up. Alex goes to get another wheelchair but as he's a few feet away Jack decides he'll just get up and walk the rest of the way. Alex is yelling at him that it's hospital policy just as Jack slips on a puddle of water (hmm.. wonder where that came from?!) and falls on his back. Jack has been whining about his bad luck the whole thing so it's sort of ironic. The Chief and Alex help Jack up and send him off on a gurney. Just then Chief notices a couple spots in the ceiling that are dripping water so he speaks with a custodian to see what the problem is. The guy says they'll need to turn off the water, but Chief refuses because it's the surgerical floor. A few moments later George catches the Chief and tells him water is dripping in the conference room and asks where else he could take the intern exam. George is still really flustered. T.R. Knight is really pushing for an Emmy with this performance, though it's really not Emmy-worthy, at all. Just sayin'.

Izzie spots an apartment flyer on the bulletin board and gets all excited. She takes it to Alex to see if he'll live with her because she can't afford the place without a roomie. He tells her that he'd rather live in his car. What a prick! Meredith, meanwhile, is chatting with Shelly, the liver cancer patient. Shelly asks her to dish about something, anything. Meredith starts dishing about her current ordeal with Derek and him wanting her friends to move out. Speaking of Derek, he and Cristina are running tests on Barry the guy with headaches. As they're running the tests Derek mentions that if Cristina convinces Meredith to get Alex and Izzie to move out that he'll let her perform the brain surgery on Barry. Cristina doesn't really care about Alex or Izzie so of course she agrees. It doesn't take long before Derek passes along the word to Meredith that Cristina agrees with him. He doesn't mention the bribe he made to get Cristina to agree though.

Alex is getting ready to run a CT scan on Jack. The Chief drops in to see if Alex thinks the guy will file a lawsuit for slipping on the floor earlier. Alex tells him that he doesn't think so, and just then we see sparks flying from the CT scan. Apparently water was dripping from the ceiling, again, and hit the CT machine. Jack is now sitting inside the CT machine in the dark. Most people would probably panic in this situation but not Jack, he's used to these types of things going wrong.

Shelly is in surgery now, Meredith and Bailey are performing the surgery. Bailey is trying to be enthusiastic, it's one of the new rules, but then she comes across something very bad. She realizes that the cancer in Shelly has spread beyond the liver. Later, after Shelly wakes up they have to break the news to her. Shelly's sister is there by her side, as she's been the whole episode, her sister is always wanting to talk about the cancer which drives Shelly crazy and is why she just wants gossip from Meredith. Shelly is of course upset about the news that her cancer has spread and there's no way to get rid of it. But, she tries to hold her emotions back.

Chief thinks George is already finished with his exam so he asks for his help to keep the hospital together during this flooding crisis, but then he realizes George hasn't taken the exam yet. George decides to put off the exam and help the Chief instead.

Lexie has photographic memory and remembers another patient that was having similar headaches and pain like Barry. She goes to Sloane and tells him about this, he's required to listen to her because of the new rules. He thinks she could be on to something so they go to Derek and Cristina and ask to see the patient. Sloane does a little feeling around in Barry's nose and he starts yelling that he's in intense pain. It turns out that Barry's problem is just an enflamed nerve inside the nose, no brain surgery required. Looks like Derek and Cristina need to start thinking things through a little more before they jump to the worst case scenario and open up people's heads. This is another reason why Derek needs to leave the show. Sorry ladies, but he's a moron!

Hahn and Callie are continuing with their experimental lesbian relationship. Callie told Sloane about their relationship a while back so now Sloane keeps giving Hahn crap about it. Callie takes it at what it is, just humor, but Hahn is really bothered that Callie would tell Sloane.

Cristina, Alex, Meredith, Lexie and George have lunch together and whine about all their problems. Bailey talks to Chief about the flooding problem, but Chief tries to blow it off like it's no big deal and he tells Bailey he has it under control. It is sort of a big deal though because Izzie is asked to move some patients to the clinic because of the flooding, I mean, minor leak problem. Izzie meets up with Cristina, Alex, Meredith, Lexie and George as they're heading back from lunch and tells them about her having to move the patients. They get on the elevator and Izzie and Alex are going back and forth over who deserves to be kicked out the house more, she says she cleans and Alex just brings STD's. Ouch! Just then the elevator doors open and water starts flooding in. They quickly get off the elevator and discover whatever floor they're on is flooded with several inches of water. Chief and Bailey are already on this floor trying to deal with the massive flooding. Bailey suggests the Chief shut down for a short time and send the patients to other hospitals while they get the situation under control. The Chief explodes on Bailey yelling at her that he has this under control and to take the patients to the clinic. She gives him a look like "oh no you didn't!" but then says "yes sir" and goes on her way. With that attitude I think the docs will be taking new jobs at Mercy West pretty soon. Maybe we'd at least get some new drama besides Derek and Meredith there.

George gets Lexie to help him with all the paperwork that the Chief has asked him to take care of while he deals with the flood. As Lexie is helping George Sloane comes by and tells Lexie that she was totally right about her diagnosis of Barry and asks her to help with the surgery. She tells him that she can't because she's helping George -- and Sloane knows she has feelings for George. She says she will next time though, Sloane tells her that there won't be a next time.He's just bitter because he hasn't gotten any in a while.

Cristina goes to Barry to take his blood. She notices he doesn't seem to be in as much pain and she mentions this to him. He tells her that he's been to dozens of doctors and they never find the problem, they tell him he's crazy, a drug addict, something or anything but they never figure out his problem. Last year his wife died after years of taking him to doctor to doctor for this problem. He breaks down crying, he says he couldn't even feel the pain of losing his wife, his favorite person in the world, because of this pain.

Jack is still whining to Alex about all his bad luck so Alex tells Jack about his bad luck too. He says bad luck is always bound to turn around, it's the law of averages. Jack's bad luck continues while he's in surgery. His body is cut wide open and just then the leak in the ceiling gives way and a flood of water and pieces of ceiling tile come down on top of him. Luckily, Alex leans over Jack and is able to keep the majority of the water and debris out of him. Alex rushes to Sloane's OR where they're operating on Barry. Alex tells him that they need his OR immediately. Bailey rushes to the Chief to tell him what happened and he finally realizes that the situation is out of control and has Bailey start making calls to send the patients to other hospitals. Looks like the Chief was wrong!

While they're finishing surgery on Jack, Hahn and Alex find a tumor. Fortunately, it's just a stage one tumor and hasn't spread anywhere so they're able to remove it and rid Jack of cancer. It looks like his luck has turned. Alex is excited to share this with Jack. Jack starts feeling better and even tells Alex that maybe he'll talk to the woman he's been wanting to.

Izzie takes her apartment flyer to Cristina and tells her to think about it. During surgery on Barry Cristina tells Derek not to ever try to use her to control Meredith again. After surgery Cristina goes to Meredith's therapist and tells her that she's been trying to be a good friend to Meredith and support her, so she needs the therapist to be the bad guy and tell Meredith the truth. The therapist tries to turn it around on Cristina and ask how she'll feel if she loses Meredith to Derek. Cristina is not happy with the therapist and walks out.

Shelly is still sick of her sister and only talking about the cancer so she has Meredith paged. He asks Meredith what she decided to do about her boyfriend and having her roommates move out. Meredith gives her a look and Shelly senses that Meredith is thinking of breaking up with Derek. Shelly starts to cry, she says it's not fair that she's dying and Meredith is breaking up with the "hotness" of Derek. "It's not fair," she cries.

Later that night at the bar Sloane takes a seat next to Lexie and tells her that they weren't able to do the surgery afterall. He asks her about her photographic memory and has her tell him the entire periodic table which she does. Wow! Also at the bar, Cristina and Callie, who are raving about their amazing new apartment -- the one Izzie wanted and gave the flyer to Cristina to think about. Izzie comes up and hears them raving about the apartment and goes off on Cristina. Cristina tells Izzie that she and Callie already put a down payment on the apartment. Bitches!

Callie tells Hahn that she gave up to much of herself in her last marriage and she isn't going to do that again. Sloane is her friend and they talk so basically Hahn will just have to get over that. Hahn says she just doesn't like Sloane because he's seen Callie naked.

Meredith ends up on the elevator with her therapist at the end of the day. She asks the therapist how to be happy when the world is such a horrible place. The therapist tells her that horrible things do happen, happiness in the face of this is not the goal, the goal is to know that you're not going to die because of those feelings, you can cope with them. The therapist says Meredith has grown because months ago she would've turned to alcohol to deal with her problems.

When Meredith gets home Izzie is sitting on the porch by herself. She asks Meredith how she got to this point where she doesn't have someone to talk to or turn to. Meredith tells her that she does. Just then Alex also gets home and says hello but Izzie ignores him. Meredith goes inside and talks to Derek. She tells him that these people are her family, they were there for her before him and will continue to be there, so she will not kick them out. He tells her ok and things are good between them. That was pretty easy.

The episode ends with the Chief giving George the intern exam. He apologizes to George for having to run him crazy during the flood but now he wants to give George his shot.