Grey’s Anatomy: ‘Tis the Season

Three holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, are all wrapped up in this episode. We follow the doctors as they balance their holiday celebrations and work at the hospital. Get ready, there’s a lot to cover!

Thanksgiving Eve

Meredith and the Chief meet; he defends the drinking we witnessed last episode. He believes he suffered from “situational depression,” not alcoholism. His diagnosis–he can now drink. Also, since he is not performing surgeries, he offers to mentor her, which she accepts.

We then see Cristina join Teddy in surgery, who removes a transplanted heart from a woman because it failed.

Thanksgiving Day

Teddy’s patient, Kelsey, will live with the help of a machine until another donor heart is available. Her boyfriend, of only four dates, stays at the hospital to support her.

Arizona and Derek examine a young boy with an unstoppable nosebleed and determine he needs surgery to fix the blood vessels. However, they cannot reach the area in question because the available instruments are too large. They decide, with Sloan’s help, to build smaller tools.

A teenage girl comes to the hospital looking for Mark. She tells him that her name is Sloan Riley and that “I’m pretty sure you’re my dad.” Everyone is shocked, including Mark who is speechless; he tells Derek he is too young to have an 18-year-old.

At Thanksgiving dinner, Mark announces that the paternity test confirms that she is his daughter. Lexie is so dumbfounded she cuts off the top of her finger instead of a vegetable. Ouch!!

Christmas Eve

The Chief and Meredith have a “mentoring” session where she tells him that “he should make up with Derek. It’s Christmas. It’s time.”

Sloan is still struggling to connect with or even talk to his daughter. He admits to Derek that he knew her mother was pregnant but assumed she had an abortion.

Kelsey, the cardiac patient, is growing weaker. Cristina encourages her (as only she can) to hold on until New Year’s Eve because lots of accidents happen that night. Kelsey asks to be taken outside to see the snow. Teddy makes this happen but Kelsey collapses outside.

Bailey’s father shows up and has only recently learned about her divorce. He tells her that she made a mistake and is ashamed that she chose her job over her marriage.

Christmas Day

Derek, Arizona and Sloan discover that the Chief cut the funding for the smaller surgical tool. They offer to donate their bonuses, which they learn they are not receiving this year, and then offer to pay for it themselves. The Chief apologizes to McDreamy.

A weakened Kelsey needs bowel surgery but can only handle a local anesthetic. To distract her from the discomfort during the surgery, Bailey makes the doctors sing “Let It Snow.”

Meredith and Derek host Christmas dinner. Arizona and the Chief sing a pretty good rendition of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” accompanied by Owen on the guitar, who stares at Teddy throughout the song. Meredith defends the Chief’s drinking to her father, who believes Richard is an alcoholic.

Bailey and her father also join the group. A rather tense moment occurs when he admonishes her for disucssing the bowel surgery during dinner. An emphatic Bailey stands up for herself and exclaims that “she had outgrown her marriage” and “I’m happy, my child is healthy and that is enough for me today.” Also, since it saved a life, the surgery is appropriate Christmas conversation.

New Year’s Eve

A frustrated Lexie forces Sloan to talk to his daughter. It turns out she is pregnant, has dropped out of school and was kicked out by her mom. She breaks down in tears and says she has nowhere to go. A very fatherly Sloan hugs her and reassures her it will be okay.

The tools are finished for the boy’s surgery, which is successful, just as the clock is about to strike midnight!

Teddy and Owen finally talk about their feelings. She asserts she has loved him forever. Owen admits that he had feelings for her but he now loves Cristina. They almost kiss…mixed messages Owen!

Meanwhile, an ecstatic Cristina finds a heart for her cardiac patient.

New Year’s Day

Bailey’s father returns to Seattle after visiting her son and they reconcile.

By New Year’s Day, Kelsey’s had surgery and is improving. Her boyfriend, who has stayed by her side, proposes and she accepts. After watching this, Cristina finds Owen to talk about their relationship, which she seems to be questioning. He tells her that he wants to be with her because he loves her.

The episode ends with Joe, the bartender, paging Meredith because the Chief is sloppy drunk at the bar. The Chief is falling apart! So much for his theory of being able to drink.

This episode was a bit of a whirlwind (but sometimes the holidays are) and covered a lot, perhaps too much. However, I liked seeing the episode through each holiday and thought it illustrated what a close-knit, family-like, however sometimes dysfunctional, group the doctors are. I enjoyed the large number of characters that were used (although hardly any Alex or the Mercy Westers) and how nicely the holiday songs were woven throughout.

For more on this episode, check out Tanya Lane’s review here.

Season 6, Episodes 10: Holidaze (originally aired November 19, 2009)

For more Grey’s Anatomy, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC, Randy Holmes, and Danny Feld