Grey’s Anatomy: Family Affairs

The last time we saw the doctors of Grey’s Anatomy, they were attending the reinstated lecture series with talks given by Richard, Callie and Bailey. This week’s episode revolved around family—Jackson and his grandfather (a famous doctor), sisterly advice from Meredith to Lexie and Mark’s coping with the loss of Little Sloan and the baby. Not only were the doctors dealing with family issues but it carried over to the patient stories as well. Plus, Richard’s first day back.

The episode opens with a naked Lexie waiting for Alex in his bed but to her surprise, Derek and Meredith walk in on her. Meredith warns Lexie that Alex will hurt her if she develops feelings for him and that “your heart lives in your vagina!” Lexie tries to convince her it is just sex.

Mark isn’t coping well since Little Sloan left and is back to his old ways…sleeping with as many women as possible, including the daughter of his patient. Mark is also angry with Alex for sleeping with Lexie, yells at him constantly and kicks him out of ORs. Despite the chaos in his personal life, Mark believes he can help Callie’s patient—an older deaf woman who was in a car accident. Since the patient is partially deaf, her daughter and the doctors have to yell for her to hear—very amusing!

During the operation, after Mark is critical of Alex and throws him out of the OR, Callie has had enough and lets Mark have it.

She says, “It is sad and pathetic. You have a choice here. Sloan and her baby leaving you either can be the worst or the best thing to happen to you. You can grow up and find a woman to love and have a baby. Or you can be the ass attending who screws everything that walks into this hospital. So just pick one.”

Way to go Callie! Good news for the patient—Mark is able to remove bone in her ears, which allows her to hear again!

Alex confronts Lexie because he thinks she told Mark about them to make him jealous. Lexie tells Alex that she didn’t and that he makes her “not feel.” Mark apparently takes what Callie said to heart because he begins to apologize to Alex, who is leaving an on-call room after “not feeling” with Lexie. But when he sees Lexie walk out (awkward!), a dejected Mark turns and walks away. Poor Mark!

Jackson brings his grandfather, the famous Dr. Harper Avery—who hands out prestigious medical awards each year—to the hospital with abdominal issues. This is a surprise since no one knew Jackson was related to Dr. Avery and we learn that Jackson and his grandfather do not really get along.

Meanwhile, it is Richard’s first day back at the hospital and he asks Derek for a low-key day. This changes quickly when Harper requests Richard to perform his surgery. His other requests for surgery—to be awake and a certain type of suture. Afterwards, Harper has a complication and must have another surgery. During the second surgery, Richard discovers that Harper is allergic to his choice of sutures, which caused the complication from surgery #1. A very relieved Richard is happy that he did not make a mistake on his first day back! Jackson is amused to find out the complication was his grandfather’s fault.

Meredith and Jackson bond over being related to a famous doctor and the expectations and pressure that comes along with that. A rather pompous Harper gives Jackson a hard time for not taking the spot he saved for him at Massachusetts General Hospital. Although Meredith understands what Jackson is going through, she says, “if she (her mother) were here right now in a room upstairs, I’d want to go see her and make things right with her. And I would definitely want to learn from her. And you still can.” This convinces Jackson to go see his grandfather and introduce him to his friends.

Owen is surprised to hear Cristina praise Teddy and Cristina tells him, “be her friend. I never asked you not to be.” Meanwhile, Arizona catches Teddy staring at Owen and wants to help her get over him. Arizona tells Teddy, “I like to fix things, people. You are going to be friends with me. Yeah, I’m an awesome friend.” Then Arizona invites her out for “girls night.” Arizona cracked me up this week!

Teddy’s patient—a teenage boy, who had survived leukemia and lymphoma, is in need of a lung transplant. Since he is a high-risk candidate, it will be difficult to find a donor. Cristina is desperate to impress Harper Avery. She manages to find lungs and performs the “ex vivo” lung surgery to repair them without Teddy’s permission. Teddy is furious with Cristina! Since the new lungs are viable, Teddy decides to discuss this with the patient but his negative and overprotective sister wants to reject the lungs because they are “hand me downs.” However, the patient agrees to the risky transplant and it is successful!

After the surgery, Owen asks Teddy out for a beer but she refuses because she has “girls night,” which is a funny scene with Callie, Arizona, Teddy, Bailey, Cristina and Meredith at the baseball field. Scenes outside of the hospital are a good change of pace—they are fun and relaxed!

Last review, I said how I hoped we’d see and learn more about Jackson and this week it happened! I was very happy to see Jackson get a bigger role in this episode! He deserved it. He fits in great with the rest of the cast, much better than the other Mercy Westers.

Has anyone else almost forgotten about Izzie? Is she ever coming back? Just me but I’d prefer to see Izzie and Alex plus Mark and Lexie back together…

Next week: Derek must choose between Richard and Owen, who are competing, for a difficult surgery. Another date for Bailey and Ben? I cannot wait…Bailey is one of my favorites!

For another opinion on this episode, check out Family Ties by Tanya Lane.

Season 6, Episodes 16: Perfect Little Accident (originally aired March 4, 2010)

For more Grey’s Anatomy, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC and Eric McCandless.