GREYS ANATOMY SEASON 9 1.

Going, Going, Gone

The plane crash that took the life of Lexie Grey doled out even more aftershocks to some of our favorite docs. Time has passed and most folks are back at Seattle Grace Mercy West, though one is in a hospital bed. Mark Sloan is hooked up to a ventilator and a slew of tubes. He's been in a coma for some time. Machines are keeping him alive, but only until 5:00. That's the time Mark's living will dictated he be let go. Old video footage shows the times of Mark's life. Back in 1994, he told Derek that he will never ever find another friend like him. There's the beginning of a sex tape, but Callie tosses a pillow to dismantle the camera before she and Mark get rolling. There's also footage of some on-the-job training with Jackson and a testimonial with Mark naming the love of his life: Lexie Grey. Derek has been cleared for surgery regarding the hand he injured in the plane crash. Callie forces him to say something before his first operation. Derek obliges. He says, "It's a beautiful day to save lives." Too bad Derek won't be the one doing the saving after he drops a clamp during the procedure. His hand went numb. Not good. Derek will have to process what all this means later, as the five o'clock hour draws ever closer. Dr. Jo Wilson is one of the new interns working under the tutelage of Medusa. Who is Medusa, you ask? Well, that's Meredith's new nickname. It seems the new interns believe her to be a monster of mythic proportions. Bailey's impressed that her former student has struck such intimidating fear into her charges. Meredith chooses Jo to do the traditional solo intern appendectomy and must bail her out when things go south. Owen later lets the crying intern know that Meredith isn't mean. She's a teacher. Cristina is loving life doing the doctor thing in snowy Minnesota. Okay, that's not true at all. She's having trouble dealing with endless chitchat from Dr. Thomas (guest star William Daniels), who happens to be her inquisitor from the boards. The laid back, jovial head of cardio, Dr. Parker (guest star Steven Culp), is also someone she clashes with personality-wise. He orders her to take some time off and maybe visit the Mall of America. We hear they have an aquarium there and also Sbarro. Bailey has been doing the long distance thing with Ben for awhile now. She perks up instantly when he shows up at the hospital unexpectedly. The new interns have noticed this phenomenon in the past. That's what led them to give Bailey a nickname, too. She's bummed to learn that it doesn't illicit feelings of dread like say "The Nazi" or "Medusa." Hey, it's just hard to be afraid of someone who's known as "Booty Call Bailey." Alex has been giving a special, intimate goodbye to all the pretty interns before heading off to his new gig at Johns Hopkins. He meets Mel Barnett, the new attending in pediatrics. The guy plans to transfer out all the sick orphans that they help with their exchange program. That's something Arizona would never have let happen. Speaking of Arizona, we still don't know her fate. All we do know is that Callie breaks down crying after she's mentioned in conversation. Jackson lets Mark know that the Plastics Posse will live on because he can take it from here. Richard turns off the ventilator and stops all medications. Derek and Callie sit on either side of Mark as he struggles to breathe without the use of machines. His other friends wait just outside his hospital room. Meredith can't stay. She needs to fly to Minnesota to see Cristina. As for Mark, he takes his final breaths with his two best friends by his side. We are treated to another video of him gently rocking his little girl to sleep. Meredith runs into Alex at the airport. She's ticked that he didn't think to say goodbye to her. Their conversation doesn't end well. Owen is also at the airport boarding a plane. As for Meredith, she freaks out as her flight gets ready to depart. She demands to be let off the plane. Alex finds her at the airport bar. As it turns out, he's ditching Johns Hopkins to stay in Seattle. Owen is the only one who actually boards a plane. Everyone thinks he's going to see Cristina. He's not. Owen flies to farm country to ask April to return to the hospital. She belongs in Seattle saving lives. Speaking of Seattle, Callie returns home to find Arizona curled up in bed. It's obvious she's been like this for awhile. Callie demands that she snap out of it. Arizona is too furious to follow this advice. That plane crash took a lot out of her including her left leg. 2. Remember The Time

We jump back to the days of the plane crash. A rescue team transports our favorite docs from the woods. Meredith freaks out in a hospital. She's looking for Derek. She's looking for Lexie. Mer calms considerably when Richard and Bailey show up with Zola in hand. Later, she visitsCristina, who seems to be in a catatonic state. All of the injured docs are sedated as they are transported home on another bumpy plane ride. Time passes. Derek and Meredith argue about moving to Boston. She can't even think about that right now.He's wondering if they'll still want a surgeon with a hand that's only at 80%. At work, Meredith tries to keep her colleagues positive. She insists that Mark will come out of his coma and Arizona won't lose her leg. She states this emphatically as Jackson checks up on a still-catatonic Cristina, who is kept in bed with restraints. Meredith begs her to say something. It doesn't happen. We flashback to rescue day. Derek tries to tell the doctors treating him that he's a surgeon as they try to salvage his hand. Callie does follow-up work but the nerve damage that was done is what gives him that 80% number. Derek may never operate again. That doesn't stop him from trying to talk another surgeon through a tricky procedure using his approach. It doesn't go well. Mark gives his pal a pep talk reminding him that he loves a hopeless case. That's why Derek talks Callie into performing a risky nerve graft surgery that could get him to 100%. A gaggle of interns make snide comments about Cristina outside her hospital room. This prompts her to grab a vase full of flowers and heave it toward the window. SMASH! The interns scatter. Cristina still isn't talking, but it's obvious she's been listening. Owen vowed that he would be there to help her after she was pulled from the woods. Cristina tells him that she stayed awake for four days enduring horror. This prompts her to flee to Minnesota, but not before parting acrimoniously with Meredith. Amputation seems to be the only option regarding Arizona's leg. She refuses to accept this. Back in Seattle, Alex tries to apologize for all that's happened to her. It doesn't go well. Arizona only got on that plane because she was totally ticked at him. She spent a lot of time wondering why such a horrible thing happened to her and not to someone like him. Later, Arizona makes Callie promise that she won't let anyone cut off her leg. Mark kept dying during the rescue, but they kept bringing him back. He survives to tell Julia that he loves Lexie. He "loved" Lexie. A short time later, Mark's health improves dramatically. Richard thinks it may be "the surge." That's when terminally ill patients have a final burst of energy followed by epiphanies. Sadly, he's right about this. Mark knows it, too. That's why he tells Richard that he wants all care to be withdrawn if signs of recovery are not seen after 30 days. Arizona crashes just as Callie operates on Derek's hand. Alex needs consent to cut off her leg to save her life. Callie has no choice but to give it to him. Meredith offers to help with her husband's operation. Callie assures her that she's fine. As Meredith watches the rest of the operation from the observation room, she leaves a voicemail message for Cristina. A lot of bad things have happened to her in Seattle, but so many wonderful experiences have shaped her life there as well. Cristina calls back to assure Mer that she will always be her person. Lots of things are happening as Mark Sloan slips into the coma from which he will never awaken. April stuck around for awhile, but ultimately headed back home. She and Jackson didn't really have a chance to say goodbye. Alex amputates Arizona's leg while Callie completes Derek's surgery. Richard is by Mark's side as he takes one last breath before crashing. We already know what happens after this and we're all still heartbroken by it. 3. Love The One Youre With The airline makes a sizeable settlement offer to the surviving Seattle Grace docs for the horrific plane crash that took the lives of two of their own. The decision to take the money has to be unanimous. Cristina tells Owen that she'll do whatever everyone else wants to do. This is discussed during one of the many phone chats they've been having lately. Meredith and Callie, who is serving as proxy for Mark and Arizona, seem to be leaning toward settlement. Derek, however, is struggling with some internal conflict. More on that later. Everyone is shocked to see that April is back, especially Jackson. The two of them team up on a case involving the skin removal of a woman who lost a significant amount of weight. Things are awkward from the get-go since April announces that she's re-virginizing. In other words, she's acting like what she went through with Jackson (we'll call it her "de-virginizing) never happened. Meredith figures out their secret and realizes she missed a lot during that plane crash like the fact that Alex is diseased man-whore again. Speaking of Alex, he's warned by Callie to stop sleeping with interns because it ruins them. Guess that's why he's being so mean to his latest pretty underling, Jo, even though he totally digs chicks with boy names. Alex puts the kibosh on Jo's hopes of scrubbing in the surgery of a young girl with a nearly severed foot. As for the patient, she

wants to get back to her solo sailing trip. Callie warns her way-to-passive parents to stop her even if means having their daughter hate them. Oh, and Alex eventually does let Jo scrub in for a surgery. Cristina is back from her mandatory leave of absence from the Mayo Clinic where she Googled the Mall of America instead of actually going there. The head of cardio, Dr. Parker, wants to be sure she's ready to be a team player. So he assigns her to a rotation with the totally old school Dr. Thomas. Cristina is pleasantly surprised to learn something she never thought was possible during one of his surgeries. Remember how we said April was re-virginizing? Well, she may have to re-re-virginize after being unable to control her passion for Jackson. In other news, Bailey is frustrated that her former charges have taken over the Attendings Lounge. She leaves Post-It notes everywhere to get them to clean up their act. For the record, they are yellow PostIts, not blue. So, no one got married in the lounge. The real reason Bailey is upset is because Tuck let go of her hand and didn't even look back his first day of kindergarten. Richard encourages her to doing something great now that she has that hand free again, and she shouldn't look back. Speaking of not looking back, Cristina lets Owen know that they can't keep chatting like old times. She's in Minnesota now. That's where she needs to move forward. A nice little after-shift talk with Dr. Thomas has us believing that's exactly what she intends to do. Arizona is still extremely angry at Callie for making the call to amputate her leg. It makes for some incredibly tense moments at home. Arizona lets loose on a venom-filled tirade when she has an accident after not being able to make it to the toilet in time. Callie forcibly carries her into the shower. She breaks down in tears while doing so. Perhaps this painful episode has finally made Arizona understand that all this is now Callie's life, too. Derek visits the site where they are doing the investigation as to what caused the plane crash. The wreckage is laid out in a hangar. It's a scene that causes him to have flashbacks to the day of the crash. Derek wonders what happens to the investigation if they settle. They just can't stand by and let something like this happen again to other people's Lexies and Marks. His friends agree. We said earlier that the decision on whether or not to take the money had to be unanimous. It is. When it comes to something this important, there's no way these dedicated doctors can ever settle. 4. He Saw Her Standing There NEWSFLASH! Cristina is sleeping with the Mayo Clinic's head of cardio, Dr. Parker. He's about as jovial and carefree as a person can get and she's, well, not. Hey, opposites attract, right? Cristina assures Meredith that Parker is just her sex friend. Her closest pal in the great state of Minnesota is the guy she couldn't stand initially. That would be the elderly Dr. Thomas. The guy is Cristina's ancient Minnesota Meredith if that makes any sense. Cristina learns that her new sex friend is looking to force Dr. Thomas into retirement. She realizes the only way to save her Minnesota Mer-man is to get him to ditch his old school ways to do a procedure that's a bit more 21st Century. Dr. Thomas struggles during the operation. He wants Cristina to take over. Instead, she talks him through and everything turns out aces. Afterwards, Cristina lets Dr. Parker know that she having drinks with her friend, Dr. Thomas. That means her sex friend will be going home alone. David is the amiable fellow who is fitting Arizona for her new prosthetic. He can see how hard this is for her as she struggles to adapt to this new life. He also witnesses firsthand the venomous tirades Arizona is still hurling at Callie. David gives his patient time to cool down after he also experiences her wrath. Arizona attempts to walk while he's away. Alex pops into the room just in time to catch her when she falls. He says they need her back at work. Arizona says she's trying. Alex lets her know that Callie is trying, too. There's a good reason why Richard looks so spiffy at the start of his shift. The great Catherine Avery is in the house to help out with the case of a guy who has testicles the size of basketballs. She promises her slam dunk procedure will fix him right up. Bailey is disappointed to learn thatApril will be scrubbing in instead of her. This is so Catherine can avoid Jackson, who actually ends up scrubbing in anyway. April bails on Catherine's operation because the woman is obsessed with the details of her sex life. No need to give her an opportunity to figure out that it happened to get jump started by her son. The surgery is a success in more ways than one as the patient gets the courage (or the balls, as it were) to tell his best lady friend that she's the best

lady for him. Jackson also dials up the guts to tell Richard that he doesn't like that he likes his mom. The two of them come to an uneasy understanding with each other. Meredith's intern, Heather, discovers a massive tumor inside an overly-emotional bodyguard. Mer keeps the news from her hubby because all he can do is teach a bunch of hopeless interns at the moment. As for the surgery, Meredith has no idea how she's going to attack the mass. The patient freaks a bit when intern Heather blabs this to him. As for Derek, Owen lets him know that the reason his wife didn't tell him about her surgery is because she may have been afraid he'd run off to the woods and grow beard. It's happened before. Derek sees a sign of hope with an intern who correctly utilizes a technique he taught him. He also lets Meredith know that he's not going run off to the woods again. He wants to hear about all the good things she does. In other relationship news, Callie has been sleeping at Mark's place lately. Arizona puts a stop to this by asking her to watch American Bakeoff with her. Let the healing begin. Jackson distracts himself from thinking about his mom having sex with Richard by having sex with April. As for Owen, he hasn't been sleeping with anyone. In fact, he hasn't been sleeping at all. That's why he opts to spend the night at Derek's trailer gazing up at the heavens. Perhaps he can take comfort in the fact that at least he's under the same starry sky as Cristina. By the way, this episode was directed by the guy who happens to play Dr. Owen Hunt--Kevin McKidd.

5. Beautiful Doom
In this Meredith & Cristina-centric episode, the two friends continue to cope with life after the plane crash and their ever-growing responsibilities at their respective hospitals. As Meredith juggles taking care of Zola with a case that hits close to home, Cristina assists Dr. Thomas on a challenging heart surgery