Grey's Anatomy: These Ties That Bind (Episode 85)

We begin this episode with everyone finding out that Hahn, or as Cristina calls her "the wicked witch," has left the building and is not coming back. It was just about a week or so ago that ABC announced Hahn would no longer be on the show and we still do not have a logical explanation as to why, but I must say Shonda Rhimes did a nice job at gracefully writing her out of the show. Anyway, as I was saying, Cristina tells Meredith the wicked witch is dead. But, when one witch dies apparently one arrives, and the new witch goes by the name Sadie. She arrives at the Grey-McDreamy household at the crack of dawn looking for "dead," or Meredith as we know her.

You read that right, Sadie calls Meredith by the nickname of "dead." Why you ask? Well, supposedly it has something to do with them backpacking around Europe. Oh yes, those wonderful backpacking around Europe stories, oh wait I didn't go backpacking around Europe. Damn it! Cristina is automatically not a fan of Sadie when she gets kicked out of bed to make room for her. Derek tells her "welcome to my world."

Izzie arrives at Seattle Grace for work and even though you might have thought we got past the Denny issue last week, clearly we have not because she is still having visions of him. Yeah, another week of crazy Denny drama. How lucky are we? I hope she's not expecting a damn Emmy from this storyline.

Cristina discovers the mysterious marks on Lexie's arm, which Lexie lies and says is from her cat or maybe her hairbrush... she's not really sure. Alex comes to Cristina asking about a Dr. Dixon that's coming today for a piggyback heart surgery. Cristina gets all excited because she wants to work with Dixon but unfortunately for her she's not on the case. Tough luck. Instead, Cristina gets paired with crazy Hunt and depressed Callie. She's so lucky! Her luck isn't nearly as bad as their first patient though. The guy was in a freak accident with a garbage truck. He impaled himself -- yes, impaled himself, or as Callie describes him "a human pretzel." Cristina's theory is that the guy was sleeping in a dumpster when they started crushing the garbage. For the first time during his time at Seattle Grace, Hunt actually asks Derek and Sloane to help with this case. Their first move with the guy is to try to un-"pretzelize" him. Just for the record, I'd like to lay claim to the word "pretzelize." As they're trying to stretch the guy back out he wakes up and is in extreme pain. They stop stretching him and try to calm him down. The only thing he is concerned about is whether he'll be able to walk again, if not he doesn't even want them to touch him. He tells them that he's homeless and if he can't walk there's no way he can live. Hunt tells everyone to stop then, if the patient requests they not do surgery then there's nothing more they can do.This leads to Hunt and Derek getting in an argument, Derek tells Hunt that if he can't handle it he should go back to the desert. Derek tells Callie and Sloane it's upto them to build the guy new legs.

Alex finds out from Bailey and the Chief that Dr. Dixon is a strange bird. Bailey tries to defend the woman saying everyone has their off days. Well, Bailey gets a surprise when Dr. Dixon shows up and she is definitely a strange one. She has no personality and all she seems to know is stuff about the heart and heart surgery. Dr. Dixon is a real stickler for the details and follows the rules, every rule line by line. When Alex calls the surgery a "piggyback surgery" she tells him not to do that as if he's just said something horrific. 

The guy having the piggyback surgery is a native american man. He tells Izzie that the piggyback heart that he received was from a hitchhiker girl and ever since he received the heart he has been haunted by hitchhikers. He says he doesn't want a new donor heart, he just wants them to talk this heart out, even if it means he'll have to live on machines the rest of his life, which Dr. Dixon tells him in a very straight-forward style. She doesn't beat around the bush at least. What the man wants is after the surgery he wants the piggyback heart to do a sacrifice on to get rid of the spirits but Dr. Dixon is about to have that. She says it's against the rules, no way. 

Back to the homeless guy, Cristina, Meredith, Sloane, Callie and the new girl Sadie, who in case I didn't mention before isn't just Meredith's friend but also a new intern at Seattle Grace. She used to work at a morgue but now she finished her medical schooling and is interning.The group is sitting around discussing what can be done to build the guy new legs. Sadie tries to get in on the convo but Cristina quickly puts her in her place, Meredith tries to defend Sadie but Cristina says she needs to learn her place. Callie is working away at how they could rebuild his legs. Ultimately the best solution may just be to build new legs entirely, so Callie sends the crew to search for titanium in the hospital.

Bailey goes to the Chief to declare a new rule that they respect the spirtual beliefs of patients. The Chief wonders what this is all about because technically they would typically respect a patient's beliefs out of common courtesy. Bailey explains that common courtesy doesn't work for Dixon, it must be a rule for her to follow it. The Chief gives in and tells Bailey it's a rule. Meanwhile, Cristina goes to Dixon and tries to ask her if she can be on her case but Dixon doesn't follow. She asks Cristina if the others have been taken off the case, when Cristina says no Dixon asks why she's talking to her then. Cristina just walks away. She goes to Sloane and Callie telling them she wants Hahn back. She ponders why Hahn just suddenly left. We know how she feels. Callie says they had a fight, Cristina blows it off saying it's not like they were girlfriends or anything. Sloane and Callie just look at her. Cristina connects the dots and asks if they were girlfriends. Callie admits to it. Of course the next question is whether Callie is a lesbian now, Sloane calls her a "onesbian" Callie says it's more like a "twicebian," or something like that. 

Meredith emerges from who knows where and apparently hit the titanium motherlode. She first talks to Derek who alerts her that something might be up with Lexie. Meredith goes to Lexie and asks if she's a cutter, but just as Lexie is denying it Sloane comes up with an offer for Lexie to get in on the homeless guy's surgery. Lexie, or as Sloane calls her "little Grey," accepts without hesitation. After accepting Lexie goes to the "secret intern society" room and she tells them that they need to shut down for a while because people are questioning. To Lexie's surprise Sadie has joined the secret society. Sadie tells Lexie that no one ever gets ahead being careful and then proceeds to grab a scalpel and cut a slice down her own back for one of the other interns to sew up. Nothing like taking one for the team.

Hunt talks to the homeless guy and actually seems to connect with him personally. He convinces the guy to officially agree to have the surgery to try to repair his injuries and give him legs again. 

At lunch, Meredith asks Derek to have a talk with Sloane to keep his "little Sloane" out of "little Grey" (as in Lexie) because as Meredith says she has enough going on without Sloane going all manwhore on her.

Izzie goes to the native American man and asks him about the spirits he's been seeing. He asks why she's so curious, she explains that she has a spirit following her. He tells her that he doesn't want her on his surgery anymore because he says he doesn't need anymore spirits. So, instead of working on the case Izzie gets to watch it happen and the whole time Denny is at her side talking to her. She tries to ignore him but he just keeps yapping. In the surgery, Bailey tells Dixon of the new rule about giving the patient back the heart and Dixon agrees to follow the rule. After they take out the piggyback heart they notice something crazy, the man's old heart starts beating. It shouldn't be beating, but it is. This really throws Dixon through a loop. After surgery, Dixon explains that the reason the heart may be beating again is that it had so many years to recover and repair itself. Izzie then brings him the piggyback heart and he explains to her the process of getting rid of the heart to free him of the spirits associated with it. He tells her that in order for her to get rid of the spirits following her she needs to get rid of anything she owns from them.

Onto the other major surgery, Callie is working away at rebuilding the guy's legs and all seems to be going incredibly well. Lexie scores some points with Derek and the Chief when she sews something that she shouldn't even know how to do yet. The Chief assumes Cristina must've taught her and compliments her on a job well done, he even mentions she might be a front-runner for the solo surgery mentioned last week. Cristina didn't teach Lexie how to do it though, Lexie learned through the 'secret intern society' or whatever you want to call it. Right after all this the guy starts to flatline and they're not able to save him. After he is pronounced dead Callie breaks down. She says she didn't just try, she did it, she rebuilt his legs, and all they had to do was keep him healthy, keep him alive, and they couldn't even do that. She is bawling at this point. Cristina asks everyone to leave, when everyone is still standing around a minute later Hunt yells at them to get out. After everyone has left Callie turns to Sloane to cry on his shoulder and he hugs her.

As the day is wrapping up Dixon and Bailey get on the elevator together. Bailey tells Dixon she did a good job, well a good job at following the rules. Dixon asks her if she's familiar with Asperger Syndrome, Bailey says she is and starts to give the description and then it dawns on her that Dixon has Asperger's. Dixon tells her that she may not be well at understanding sarcasm but she does know when she is being manipulated and talked down to, and she doesn't like this hospital very much, she doesn't like it at all. Bailey is shocked and speechless.

Derek confronts Sloane about him keeping "little Sloane" out of "little Grey." Sloane is only offended because Derek calls it "little Sloane," he says it's "big Sloane." Sure it is, man.

Before Izzie leaves the hospital for the night Denny greets her at the door. She tries to be done with her visions, she tells Denny that she's sorry that they never got to be together, she never got to be his wife, they never got to have kids. He asks why she's telling him this, she tells him that this has to be goodbye, she loves him but this is goodbye. Alex comes home to find Izzie still reeling from her Denny visions. Izzie asks him to help her burn Denny's sweatshirt.

Cristina confronts Lexie, she pulls the band-aids off her arm reveals cuts. She tells her that she never taught her how to sew like she did in the surgery and whatever they're doing they better stop. She says it's crazy to be practicing on themselves and to knock it off. Later, Sloane, Callie and Cristina hit up the bar together. Callie is venting about Hahn leaving, Cristina is lusting for Hunt sitting at the other side of the bar, and Sloane is lusting for Lexie who just walked in. 

Derek asks Meredith to tell him the stories that she won't let Sadie tell him. She says the stories are ridiculous, Derek says what's ridiculous is him having to tell Sloane to stay out of Lexie, but he admits it makes him happy to see Meredith sticking up for her sister. Meredith is happy Derek told Sloane to stay away and tells Derek the Sadie stories.

Cristina leaves the bar and ends up in the alley with Hunt kissing, again. Alex helps Izzie burn Denny's sweater. But, this doesn't end the Denny drama. When Izzie goes to her bedroom Denny is there sitting on the bed. Izzie tries everything, hoping and praying, that Denny will go away but he is still there. He asks her to touch him, so she does by putting her hand on his chest and he really does seem real, and then they kiss.

That's all for this pretty amazing episode! Next week, we continue with the Denny craziness but things get even more insane. Izzie starts sleeping with Denny. Yes, she's sleeping with a ghost.

As much as I say I hate the Denny storyline I actually think it's sort of decent. And, I may have joked about Katherine Heigl winning an Emmy for this storyline but she seriously could have for the last scene of this episode. She's a very convincing actress I think. I just wish Izzie and Alex would finally have a stable relationship though. Also, I will admit I was wrong about Hunt. This week I was really impressed with him and I think I'm going to end up liking his and Cristina's storyline. I think we'll soon find out he's suffering from PTSD and Cristina will probably help him. Oh yeah, and where's George by the way? Did he leave with Hahn or what?