- Izzie is torn over whether to have Derek's proposed brain surgery. A soldier on medical leave asks for a radical operation so he can return to active duty. The Chief tries to lure Bailey back to general surgery with a new toy, and Mark shifts into high gear with major life changes.—layle
- Voiceover: Meredith told us things don't always turn out the way you thought they would. "The house you were going to sell becomes your home. The roommates you were forced to take in become your family. And the one-night stand you were determined to forget becomes the love of your life."
Derek was smiling in the morning because he figured out how to remove the tumor from Izzie's brain. Newlyweds Alex and Izzie walked around the hospital and Izzie introduced Alex to her friends in the cancer ward.
Hunt told Cristina about a good session with his shrink, but he still hadn't spoken with her about his mother, who lives just a few hours away and still thinks Hunt is in Iraq. A soldier who'd heard about Hunt came in with a mysterious pain in his leg. They didn't know what to do and he asked the doctors to cut it off and fit him with a prosthetic so he could get back to Iraq. Callie didn't want to cut off a healthy leg.
Arizona wanted to pull Bailey into pediatrics to treat another patient, but chief pulled her aside and called himself Santa Claus before introducing her to the 'Da Vinci,' a high-tech surgical system used to perform surgery robotically with extreme precision and optimum patient safety that is very new, and very very expensive.
Sloan hinted to Lexie that she should move in with him to a new condo, but she essentially shot him down. Sloan decided to take such a leap because "life is short -- look what's happening to Stevens."
Derek told Izzie about the surgery he wanted to try, but there was a risk that she could lose her memory. Dr. Swender, Izzie's primary oncologist, was against it and while she and Derek argued, Izzie closed her eyes and day dreamed about sitting on the beach with Denny. She talked with him about having kids with Alex.
Izzie wasn't sure whether to have the surgery. She wanted Alex or her friends to decide for her, but they refused.
George asked the soldier guy why he wanted to go back to the war. He said the guys in Iraq were his real family, the only people who understood him. Swender showed Cristina some X-rays of a patient who had five surgeries for a brain tumor and several treatments the mets disappeared. Dr. Swender told Cristina that Izzie should be patient with her treatments. "Surgeons like to cut but sometimes there's a better way," Swender said.
Bailey played with the new "Da Vinci" like it was a video game. The chief told her about another doctor who was doing single-incision gall bladder removals through a belly button and she could try it.
Cristina showed Meredith the results Swender showed her from the brain tumor patient. Derek walked in and said nothing.
Derek put the right side of Izzie's brain to sleep and asked her to remember some flash-card images (dog, plane, and house). Izzie couldn't remember the cards. Then she couldn't speak Mereidth's name. Izzie began to look scared when Meredith asked her if she knew who Alex Karev was and Izzie couldn't respond.
After the test, Swender and Derek continued to argue and left the decision to Izzie, who now had all her faculties. Derek and Alex walked out of the room to discuss it and when they left, Meredith closed the door and told Izzie, "You are not having this surgery."
Alex asked Derek to talk straight with him and asked him, "What if it was Meredith?" Alex wanted Derek to tell him what to do. Derek said he would ask her to have the surgery.
Meredith, meanwhile, told Izzie how she couldn't remember things during the test. Meredith told Izzie about Swender's patient. She again told Izzie not have the surgery. Izzie talked to a patient, Allison, who had 15 surgeries and decided that was enough. Then, the I-L 2 worked and she no longer has her brain tumor.
Callie talked to Charlie the soldier about how risky cutting off his leg could be. He told Callie not to bother trying to scare him because nothing scares him any more.
Bailey successfully performed the single-incision gall bladder removal. Arizona realized she'd be on her own for the ped patient. Bailey was going to do another surgery with the new "Da Vinci" after lunch. Arizona got mad at the chief in a bizarre way that included crying. She said it was wrong for the chief to lure Bailey away from pediatrics with a robot. Arizona vowed to fight the chief and win. "Good luck," he said with a laugh.
Alex went to Izzie's room and learned that Izzie decided not to have the surgery. Alex got upset and yelled at Izzie, telling her she was having the surgery because Derek said she should.
Derek was yelling at Cristina for being unprofessional and interfering with Izzie's treatment, but Meredith walked in and admitted she was the one who told Izzie not to have the surgery. Derek turned his anger toward Meredith, saying that as his resident she needed to go back in and change Izzie's mind, "because this tumor will kill her."
Hunt pulled Cristina into a room and told her his work in Iraq isn't done, so he's decided to go back. Cristina left. Charlie told George and Callie he was in Iraq because he was trying to help people and it was his job.
Izzie talked to Allison about her fight with Alex. Meredith told Cristina that Derek had a right to be mad at her about how she told Izzie about her options. They got a page and walked into the cancer ward to find Izzie pumping Allison's chest. Allison was unconscious.
Hunt, George and Callie were performing the amputation on Charlie. Hunt and George had to convince Callie one last time that they were doing what Charlie wanted. She starting cutting.
Cristina and Swender were operating on Allison and Cristina said, "So much for I-L 2." Swender got upset, saying that nothing was a guaranteed cure for cancer and that Allison lived for almost two years longer she was expected to.
Sloan explained to Lexie that he was asked her to move in with him. She said she'd love to eventually. In, like, 10 years. Sloan was thinking more like one year. Lexie asked Sloan if he was asking her to marry him. They decided, both laughing, to end the conversation.
Bailey was giddy from another surgery with the "Da Vinci," then she told Bailey that her ped surgery went well, too. She told Bailey to stop by when Arizona gave the kid's family the good news, so she could "see the joy."
Meanwhile, Swender and Cristina were giving the bad news to Allison's parents, who were told that Allison would likely not come off her ventilator.
Izzie went back to her happy place with Denny, but George showed up because she paged him. She asked him what she should do. He told her the back-and-forth was just fear and that she'd already made her decision when she decided to fight the cancer. Izzie went to Derek and told him to do it. "You can cut into my brain again," she said, telling him she didn't want to end up on a ventilator. She was going to sign a do not resuscitate order (a DNR).
Alex got mad at Izzie for signing the DNR. He reminded her how crazy it made her when Denny signed his DNR. She said she didn't want to live if something went wrong in the surgery. She said she didn't understand when Denny signed his DNR, but now she does. She told Alex, "If it comes down to it, just let me go."
Meredith saw the whole scene and said, "I always thought it would be me," meaning she thought she'd get Alzheimer's like her mom and forget everyone. She asked Derek to go to City Hall with her the next day so they could get married. "I don't want to spend another day not married to you," she said.
Cristina told Hunt she didn't want him to die.
Callie told Bailey she cut off a healthy leg. In the same room, Swender was lamenting the fact that her "miracle case" was on life support. Bailey took them to pediatrics so they could "see the joy," and reminded them of why they do what they do. Swender and Callie both smiled on cue.
At an Army recruiting center an employee knocks on the recruiter's door and tells him there's a doctor who said he needed to sign up immediately. Cut to a door opening and we see that Hunt went his mother's house and brought Cristina with him. He told his mom, "I'm home," and they hugged. "Congratulations, doctor," the recruiter said. "Welcome to the Army." He reached out to shake the doctor's hand. It was George, who shook the recruiter's hand and said, "Thank you."
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