- Bailey's dream of a domino surgery crumbles when one of the donors learns of her husband's affair. Meredith is insulted when she gets no credit for the procedure she and Derek worked on together.
- George's first day as a resident includes being on a team of surgeons who is performing six kidney transplants in one day, which helps to distract him in seeing that Lexie has feelings for him. Meanwhile, Callie has problems in taking her relationship to the next level with Erica, and Meredith feels slighted when her name is left out of the medical journal report on her clinical trial with Derek.—Moviedude1
- Previously on...: George passed his exam, but failed to see that Lexie's in love with him; Hahn and Callie went on an official date; Izzie stood up to Alex and he apologized for being a jerk; Meredith helped Derek run a neurological study that eventually worked; and Derek found Meredith's mom's diary.
Taking it slow?: Callie and Hahn had their date, talked about how they were happy to be taking it slow, then got down to business.
Meredith and Derek's brain study was on the front page of a national journal, but he got all the credit -- they called it "The Shepherd Method." The chief was happy with the publicity, as was Bailey. Callie told Sloan it was "not good" with Hahn. Sloan couldn't talk about it.
The chief wanted each of the junior residents to give George an intern. Meredith sulked just a little about Derek getting all the credit for the study, which was her idea. Lexie decorated George's locker with congratulations balloons.
Bailey unveiled a project she'd been working on for a long time. It was a "domino surgery," where six kidney donors and six kidney recipients would have their transplants done all at once. Bailey told the doctors that if any one of the transplants went wrong, they'd lose them all.
Hahn asked Callie to come over again, but Callie was distressed. Meredith made it known to Derek that she was bothered by him getting all the credit for their study. She sarcastically told him, "Why would I be bothered? They can't call it the Shepherd-Grey Method because then people would think you had help."
Alex and Izzie found out that one of the kidney patients' sons was apparently getting paid $10,000 for his kidney, but the father pretended the money was just an early Christmas gift. They asked Bailey would happen if they hypothetically found out something like that, and she said the whole exchange would be lost. They let it go and slipped out of her office.
Another donor, a young woman, apparently didn't have a loved one in the exchange, but didn't want to hear any praise for her sacrifice. The wife of the man getting the young woman's kidney called the young woman a savior, but the young woman finally had enough and told the man to tell his wife the truth, "if the past three years have meant anything to you." The wife heard this. She worried that her husband was having more than "just sex" because his mistress was willing to give her kidney for him. The wife backed out of giving her kidney, which would have gone to a stranger in the domino surgery, and that left Bailey with a hole in her plan. She told Meredith to check with UNOS for a matching kidney.
Sloan tried to reassure Derek that Meredith was wanting credit she didn't deserve. "When Michael Jordan scores, no one cares about the assist," Sloan said, while doing research for his own clinical trial. Derek teased him for being jealous of his newfound celebrity status in the medical world.
Callie went to Sloan to talk more about "the non-sex sex" but he didn't want any part of it, claiming he had more important medical duties to tend to.
In the cafeteria, the junior residents lined up their interns and talked about them in front of them as they decided who they were going to give to George. Meanwhile, there was no word on the kidney match from UNOS. The patients and donors were started to grown impatient, all threatening to back out if their loved one didn't receive a kidney in the process. The chief said the hospital was being featured on the national news, but Bailey said she'd get it under control.
Alex and Izzie caught another awkward moment between the father and son who had the $10,000 kidney deal, and the son was not being very supportive of his ill father. He asked whether he'd get the money even if the surgery didn't happen. Izzie got upset and talked about how the kid was "emotionally stunted," but Alex said that her problem was caring too much about the patients. He said the father was the moron because his son is never going to give him what he wants and he'll just end up disappointed. "The sooner he gets that and the sooner you get it," Alex started telling Izzie before stopping himself. She told him to decide whether he was going to be a nice guy or a selfish jerk. He left.
George wasn't getting respect from his interns and Cristina said they didn't respect him because they weren't scared of him. She told him to decimate one of them, then she demonstrated by telling one of her interns that he was going to end up digging ditches by the side of the road.
Derek told Meredith he was going to write the editors of the journal and ask for a correction, but Meredith said she didn't want credit because he was mad about her being mad. She wanted credit if he thought she deserved it. But he said she didn't deserve it. "You're a baby," he said. "You have the potential to be a good surgeon, maybe a great one. But you haven't even scratched the surface on what you need to learn." She told him it was her idea.
Bailey struggled to figure out to make the domino surgery happen despite getting no kidney from UNOS, but the chief said they couldn't risk anything that could be seen as coercion. He told her to send all the patients home.
Callie told Hahn that she "couldn't do it" anymore and Hahn was disappointed that it clearly wasn't good for Callie.
The father with the seemingly selfish son explained that the boy's mother had died and that he made some mistakes as a father. Izzie told him that "some people are just broken." She said that they try to keep a safe distance by not caring so that they won't get hurt. Alex heard all this. The father broken and just kept saying "I'm sorry."
The woman whose husband's affair caused her to back out of giving her kidney told Bailey that she must think the woman was a terrible person. She said the man had taken everything from her -- her love, her dignity -- but the one thing he hadn't taken was her kidney. Bailey said she wasn't allowed to have an opinion because there were rules -- "good rules" -- against coercing patients to give organs. She told the woman that "if" she were to give her kidney up, it wouldn't just be for her husband, it would also be for five other people who she didn't even know. We next saw the chief explained that all the patients were ready for surgery.
Everything was going just fine with the transplants and there was even some pleasant Snow Patrol-esque music playing over the montage of their marvelous medicine (the song was actually "These Quiet Times" by Shady Bard, for those scoring at home). That's when Meredith dropped one of the kidneys on the floor. After a moment of shock and silence, Bailey shouted, "Five-second rule! Five-second rule!" Meredith scooped it up off the floor.
Callie asked Sloan to show her how to be good and taking care of business downstairs. "Fine," she said. "Take off your pants. I'll show you The Sloan Method. It won't be in a medical journal. But it should."
The situation with the kidney was close for a moment, and Meredith was pretty scared when the chief stormed into the OR and shouted, "Someone dropped a damn kidney?" After some tense moments, they were able to save it and the kidney worked as needed.
Bailey and the chief walked up on the gang splitting up their interns, which made the chief annoyed. He grabbed a stack of the flash cards they were using for each intern and handed it to George, saying, "O'Malley, you have interns." Bailey got a page and it didn't seem like good news. It was the father of the kid who wanted his $10,000. He had a seizure and the first thing he asked for was his son. Alex went to the kid's room and yelled at him, telling him that his father just wanted to know that he cared and that if he didn't go to be with him it was going to be too late and he'd have to live with it for the rest of his life.
Lexie, meanwhile, saw George talking to his new interns and he was still struggling to get them to respect. They called him "O'Malley" and he told Lexie they should probably call him "Dr. O'Malley." Lexie -- who had just seen the mistress react after realizing that despite giving up her kidney the guy she did it for had chosen to be with his wife -- got upset with George for not noticing how much she'd done for him. She wondered why it didn't even occur to him to ask for her as an intern. "Screw you, Dr. O'Malley," she said.
Bailey told the chief about Mr. Walling, who was having complications. The chief told Bailey the press would be all over it and he wanted Bailey available for interviews. She reiterated about the man who had complications, but the chief said, "but you saved five other lives. That's a good scorecard. Not perfect, but good."
The chief pulled Meredith aside and told her to forgive herself for dropping the kidney on the floor. On his way out of the hospital, Derek and Bailey congratulated each other and Derek complained about how Meredith was being "silly" and "emotional" about who got the credit for their study. Bailey suggested he start with "thank you."
At the bar, Cristina and Meredith chatted about all of it and Cristina talked about wanted "a man." She said Burke was a man. Just then, Derek walked in and handed Meredith a gift. It was one of the bad kidneys in a jar, because nothing says, "Thanks, I love you" like a kidney in a jar. He told her he couldn't have done any of it without her and thanked her. Meredith and Derek left and Cristina stayed at the bar.
Callie walked in on Hahn and told her to take off her pants. Izzie told Alex she cares about him and that she wasn't going to stop caring about him no matter how much he pushed her away. She kept repeating "I care about you" in the way that Robin Williams does the whole "It's not your fault" thing with Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting." Alex kissed her. (Editor's note: Matt Damon did not kiss Robin Williams in "Good Will Hunting.").
Meredith turned the lights out as she laid in bed with Derek and told him she was reading her mother's diary. "I'm not half the surgeon my mother was," Meredith said.
As Cristina was leaving the bar, lamenting the fact that "there are no real men left in the world," she overheard Major Hunt, the Army doctor from the season premiere, ordering a drink and saying he starts work tomorrow.
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