Plot

The judgment of the residents is skewed by a competition, Meredith tries therapy and a bear attack may be more than it appears.

The first new episode of "Grey's Anatomy" since the TV writers' strike ended opened with Meredith in therapy but not saying anything. Meredith not holding up her side of a relationship? Say it ain't so! The hospital therapist tried to get Meredith to talk about her breakup with McDreamy, but Meredith refused and then had to race off to try to gain more points in the residents' competition.

The residents had been battling it out for two weeks, sleeping at the hospital and doing as much work, surgeries, sutures and solving of medical mysteries as they could in order to rack up points and win the mysterious competition. The chief asked Bailey to keep her animals under control, and Bailey pretended to know nothing about it.

Earlier, George complained about the roaches and general filthiness in the apartment he's now sharing with Meredith's half-sister Lexie. Lexie responded by going shopping for home furnishings, and "shopping for home furnishings," in this case, meant pilfering the hospital supplies closet, lifting artwork from the walls and stealing a bouquet of flowers. She spruced up the place quite nicely, if you're OK with using medical beakers as food canisters and "underpads," used for soaking up urine, as placemats. Mmmm, when's breakfast? Lexie's effort, and her plea to George that he make the best of it and allow her to be his friend because she has no one else and nowhere else to live, made George realize that he complains a lot. (Ya think?) He vowed that, from now on, he's going to focus on the good things in life.

Back at the hospital, the residents were trolling for big cases, surgeries and medical mysteries, in particular, which were big points in the competition. On their way to the ambulance entrance, they spotted McDreamy and nurse Rose walking in all smiley and giggly. It didn't seem as cute to Meredith and the gang as it might have to an innocent bystander.

Over at the ambulances, Izzie took on -- hey, is that Cheech Marin? It was. Cheech was playing an older man who collapsed in the middle of the street and didn't know or remember why. Izzie put her eggs in Cheech's basket, hoping his swollen ankle would turn into a coveted medical mystery. She ran $120,000 worth of tests on him, only to discover that his ailment was a minor case of the flu. She felt bad for treating him like a lab rat, and she didn't even win the competition. The chief later gave her a pep talk and told her to keep on fighting.

On the way to ambulances, Cristina found out that Callie -- her new roommate -- is all buddy-buddy with Dr. Hahn, whom Cristina considers to be her new cardiothoracic mentor.

Just when there were no more ambulances left, a car pulled up carrying a guy whose intestines were spilling out of his stomach after he'd been attacked by a bear. Cha-ching! Bonus points. Meredith treated the main victim's brother, who initiated the bear attack by touching a bear cub and angering the mama bear. After finding out that the guy had spontaneously gotten married to a woman he'd known for 10 days, Meredith became suspicious that the guy had a brain tumor that was causing his irrational behavior. Bonus! She was right, and let out a particularly rude yelp in front of the patient and his wife when she figured it out. It wasn't as much fun when she discovered later that the tumor was inoperable and the guy was going to die. The brain tumor guy's brother, who'd taken the brunt of the bear attack, died just before they gave him the news about his tumor and it being inoperable.

McDreamy ran into Rose while she was carrying a bouquet of flowers and they played around the way newly dating people do. Rose, totally smitten, turned to the nearest person as McDreamy walked away and said, "I love him." That nearest person was Lexie, and the second-nearest person, within earshot, was Meredith. She pretended to have no reaction.

Meredith wound up winning the competition, thanks for a tremendous run toward the finish with the medical mystery (brain tumor). She was given a sparkly pager that the other residents would have to call for the next three months as they go to any surgery. If Meredith wants it, she can take it. Way to go, champ!

Meredith wasn't much in the mood for taking surgeries or gloating, though, as she started doing a bunch of research on how they could, in the future, be able to save someone with the same type of brain tumor her patient had. In the end, she handed her research to Derek and suggested that they start trying out some experimental procedures. So they're, like, doctors?

McDreamy told Sloan in the elevators at the end of the night that his thing with Rose could be serious. That bummed Sloan out because he thought that once McDreamy was done with Addison and Meredith, the two of them would once again become dudes on the prowl together. But it isn't meant to be.

Cristina, who forsook the opportunity to score more points in order to watch Hahn insert a valve in a patient's heart, got home later to find Hahn hanging out and drinking wine with Callie. Cristina told Hahn it was "an honor" to have her as a guest, but she was basically ignored. Ouch.

In the end, Meredith went back to the therapist, sat down and said, "I think I'd better start talking."