It was only a matter of time before an all out slap-fest broke out among two of the characters of ‘Greys Anatomy’ but I don’t think any of us could’ve predicted which two it would turn out to be. Tonight’s episode, titled “Where The Boys Are” split the cast into two parts; the doctors and the campers. While the boys went off to be men in the woods, the women (and Sloan) stayed behind to work but neither group could escape the drama in their lives.
Derek planned a camping trip for himself and decided to invite Burke along. Burke ended up inviting Chief Weber, George and Alex. He also accidentally invited Joe, the bartender and Joe brought along his boyfriend. It was an all out man’s trip into the wilderness.
The guys went fishing and George noticed Burke having trouble baiting his line. Burke brushed it off but it was clear that George knew something was up. Burke went off to chat with Derek, who was clearly irritated that his camping trip turned into a group event. George moved on to chatting with Alex about Callie. After criticizing Alex’s technique of baiting his fishing line, Alex retaliated by telling George that Callie is sleeping with Sloan.
He didn’t want to believe this and they got into a fight. The chief decided to moderate the fight and, to make sure neither of them hurt their hands, he told them it had to be open-handed combat – basically, a slap fight. While Burke and Derek debated over who would win the fight, Joe’s boyfriend ended up getting knocked down and cutting his forehead open. With all the doctors standing around, it was Burke who ended up stitching up the wound. It was clear that Burke was concerned that they’d see his hand shake. He was especially aware of George watching him, knowing that George was starting to catch on to his situation but he stitched up the wound without any problems.
The only really positive thing to come from the camping trip was when Joe told the chief that his boyfriend wanted kids but didn’t want to raise them alone. He goes on to tell him that he spends so much time running the bar but he’d give it up for his man if that’s what it took. Its clear to Weber, who is still living in a hotel and missing Adele every day, that sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the one you love. It’s only a matter of time before he steps down as chief and returns to Adele (whom I’m sure will lecture him about taking so long before coming to his senses but would eventually take him back with open arms.).
One other positive thing that resulted from the trip was when Burke tells George that his standards are to high and how when he sees someone’s flaw, he attacks. He goes on to tell George that he and Cristina are a team and if you’re not part of a team, you’re alone.
Meanwhile, at the hospital Weber confronts Cristina about her wiping her name off the Operating board. Cristina denies it but Bailey's nowhere near convinced and assigns Cristina to monitor a child-patient who ate more than a handful of Monopoly pieces. Cristina spends the bulk of the episode reviewing the kid’s x-rays and sifting through his poop for little red and green houses as well as metal game pieces. When he ends up needing surgery, Weber still wont let Cristina scrub in unless she explains why she wiped the name off the board. Cristina still won’t tell her, though.
Izzie is assigned to shadow her peer mentor, Sydney. Played by Kali Rocha (who I recognized as Halfrek from ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’), Sydney is an overly peppy woman whose motto, “Heal with love” irritates Izzie. Izzie escapes for a while by helping Cristina, preferring to sift through a kid’s poop rather than spend time with this woman. When Sydney catches up with her, she tries to get her to talk about Denny. Izzie snaps at her about her not understanding what she’s going through. Later, Sydney tells Izzie that she had a kid die on her (though she doesn’t explain how) and afterwards, she had a breakdown. This prompts Izzie to open up a little, telling her that she misses Denny all the time and that she’s scared because she doesn’t know if she can be a surgeon again. She leaves it at that but it’s evident that she’s going to find a way to work through this.
Addison and Callie end up teaming up to work on a pregnant woman who fell and broke her wrist. Prior to this though, they’re in the break room and Sloan comes in to get some coffee. The awkward silence was deafening and Addison seemed to pick up on the fact that something happened between Sloan and Callie.
When they speak to the pregnant woman, Callie looks at her wrist while Addison checks the ultrasound. The woman tells Addison that she hasn’t felt the baby kick. Addison assures her that the baby is just sleeping but a closer look at the ultrasound shows that the baby’s heart isn’t beating. Addison doesn’t mention this and leaves the room. Callie finds her crying in the bathroom and Addison explains about the baby being dead. The two approach the room and take a minute to watch the happy couple, neither being eager to go in and tell them that their baby is dead.
Inevitably, they break the news to her and the next we see of her, she’s giving birth. The same thing happened in an episode of ‘ER’ a few seasons ago but I found the whole thing in tonight’s episode to be just as moving and to put it honestly, just as horrifying. After the woman gives birth to the stillborn, Callie and Addison chat outside the room. Addison brings up Callie sleeping with Sloan and Callie pretty much tells her that it’s totally over between them. Just as Addison is inviting Callie to go get a drink, Callie gets a page and takes a rain check on the drink. I never would’ve expected these two to buddy up but I kind of like their little friendship.
Finally, Grey ends up working with Sloan on a patient who is having sexual reassignment surgery. Sloan uses this as a chance to get close to Grey, often making comments about how he’s different from Derek. Grey resists his charm at first but when he sees how Sloan is when working with his transgendered patient and his/her wife, she seems to become charmed by him. They go out for drinks at the bar and just as it seems like Sloan has gotten into Grey’s head, he gets a page and has to leave but tells her he’ll be back.
Just as he leaves, Derek walks in. He walks up to Meredith and introduces himself. He then explains that he wants her to get to know him. How when the first met and got together, she didn’t know him and he wants to fix that. Sloan walks back into the bar and sees Meredith talking to Derek. Meredith starts to tell Derek that he walked away, implying that its too late. She sees Sloan over his shoulder and its clear that she’s making a choice. Just as I started to think she was going to do something incredibly stupid (walking away from Derek and leaving with Sloan), she introduces herself to Derek and they kiss.
When George got back to the hospital, he approached Callie to confront her about the Sloan thing but she cuts him off right away to tell him that his father was admitted to the hospital. Their spat will have to wait.
Based on how Meredith responded when Cristina tried to talk to her about the situation with Burke and then with how she dealt with Derek, I’m starting to think she’s seeing the big picture for once. Cristina and Izzie still have some issues to work out. Considering both of them would rather sift through a kid’s poop rather than face their problems, its pretty clear that they have a long way to go before either of them is back to normal.
What did you think of the episode? Do you think Derek and Meredith will finally get it right this time? Is Addison’s over-emotional-ness due to all of the stuff going on in her life or am I alone in wondering if the big “I’m pregnant and I don’t know who the father is” plot is going to pop up sometime soon?
