Tonight’s episode of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, titled “From A Whisper To A Scream”, was all about secrets. George knows that something is wrong with Burke. He also knows that Cristina’s been helping Burke cover it up. A huge car accident results in the wife of a patient confessing a secret she was keeping. In the end, the moral of the story is pretty obvious: Secrets ruin relationships and get people killed.
It’s Thanksgiving and I’m a bit irritated that ABC would air such an important episode on a night when we should be napping off our turkey hangovers and preparing for Black Friday so I’m going to keep this recap brief and just get down to the nitty gritty.
Throughout the episode, Cristina becomes more and more paranoid that George is going to tell the Chief about Burke’s tremors. When George decides to ask Dr. Hahn (the doctor who did Denny’s surgery after Burke was shot) to perform his father’s heart surgery, Cristina is convinced the Chief knows. The Chief calls Burke into his office but we don’t get to hear the conversation. Burke comes out and tells Cristina that the Chief is replacing him with Dr. Hahn for head of Cardiology. The Chief also said he’s planning to retire and will recommend to the Board that they give Burke the position of Chief of surgery. This confirms that George definitely didn’t tell Weber about Burke’s hand issues.
Cristina thinks this is a good thing but Burke is filled with guilt, saying he’s wanted this his entire career and now there’s blood on it because he didn’t tell the Chief about the tremors. The two have a huge fight about this and Burke basically blames Cristina for convincing him to keep it a secret. Cristina, feeling guilty herself, feels betrayed by Burke for even suggesting that this is her fault.
A car accident in the fish market fills the hospital with trauma patients. The driver of the car was an old man who, as it turns out, has a problem with his spine that causes his feet to go numb. His wife claims he was healthy before the accident but after she sees one of the victims (a pregnant shopkeeper who was hit by the car and thrown through a window), she feels too guilty to keep her silence any longer. She confesses to Bailey that her husband’s condition was bad enough that their daughter took his keys away but she gave them back. Miranda convinces her to speak to the police, which she does.
The pregnant woman has a shard of glass in her heart and the driver of the car needs surgery as well. Burke is asked to scrub in on both. He ends up doing the surgery on the woman’s heart, calling Cristina in to assist. Burke leaves the O.R. to help Dr. Hahn with the driver and when he returns to the woman, a complication with her stitches causes her heart to bleed out all over Cristina. According to Burke, this is a common complication that’s fixable and when Cristina, concerned for Burke makes some suggestions, he snaps at her and orders her to leave the operating room.
Both surgeries are successful, which is good because for a minute I thought this was going be the moment when Burke’s tremors came back and one or both patients would die as a result. Apparently that same thought had crossed Burke’s mind because he went immediately to the Chief’s office to confess. When he arrives he finds Cristina sitting there looking devastated. She beat him to it.
Again, we don’t get to hear the conversation between Burke and the Chief but through the window, it’s clear that Weber is yelling at him.
When Cristina returns home, she tries to talk to Burke but he just closes the door in his face.
Some other minor character developments:
George becomes angry with Izzie when she convinces his parents that Burke is a better surgeon than Hahn and should perform the surgery. George tells his parents (in front of Izzie) that the reason Izzie’s on probation is because the last time she interacted with a patient, he died. Izzie returned home later that night and told George he can never mention Denny to her again. She also refuses his apology but then sits down next to him and tells him maybe tomorrow he can apologize. They’re going to be ok.
George tells Callie that he knows she slept with Sloan. Callie thinks Meredith told George and confronts her in the locker room, throwing her into the lockers (or as Izzie put it, she went all cage-fighty on Meredith). Meredith quickly denies it, saying she didn’t even know she slept with Sloan until George told her. Callie tries to apologize to George and tells him that they were broken up when it happened and she was just trying to get over him. George can’t hear any of this though because he’s too stressed out about his dad.
Alex helps with the pregnant woman and even counsels her a bit on why the woman should tell the father about the baby. This impresses Addison and the two have a brief conversation in which Addison tells him he’s a decent guy. There’s a pause after this in which the two share a moment of silence, just looking at each other. They snap out of it and it’s at this point that I’m starting to believe the fans who are insisting that Addison and Alex get together might just be onto something.
Derek is upset with Meredith at the end of the episode because he could tell she knew, during the surgery on the driver, that something might be wrong with Burke (Meredith kept watching Burke). Meredith tells Derek that she couldn’t say anything because Cristina is her friend and was there for her when he wasn’t. She didn’t mention that she only learned about Burke’s issue that day, right before he came in to help with the surgery. The subject is quickly changed when Derek and Meredith finally decide to give up on the “taking it slow” plan and sleep together.
That about wraps it up. We never did find out what repercussions there would be for Burke at the hospital but as he wasn’t in the previews for next week’s episode, I’m thinking its not good. One thing is clear; Burke and Cristina might not make it through this. I do have to say, if their performance in tonight’s episode doesn’t earn them Emmy nominations (if not, wins), I don’t know what will.
