Grey's Anatomy: Throwing it All Away (10x15)

I'm actually going to have a bit of a hard time summarizing this plot for you. It was very intricate, and a lot of the story lines wove together. I'll do my best!

First of all, Alex has been suspended from surgery for three days because of his outburst with the board about his relationship with Jo. Meredith tries to help out by suggesting that Alex and Jo sign a relationship contract, but Alex is afraid that this will freak Jo out, so soon after the whole proposal fiasco. Jo, for her part of the story, is startled to find a baby in the dumpster. She and Stephanie bring the baby into the hospital. Christina takes over the care, naming the baby Oscar. She and Shane work on the patient together. Christina talks with Shane, making sure that he didn't feel compromised by their relationship. Things between them seem to be repairing. Owen and Emma break up, and Christina is angry with Owen about it, questioning why he would throw away his dream girl. Owen says that Christina feels guilty, and wants to see him have what he wants, so that she can stop feeling responsible for his unhappiness.

Meanwhile, Stephanie is having a rather off day at the hospital. She accidentally hits Arizona with a gurney, causing her prosthetic leg to break. Later, she hits Jackson, too. While filing an accident report, Stephanie tells Jackson that he and April can stop feeling so guilty, and stop trying to apologize all the time. She says she no longer cares about Jackson.

Arizona's spare leg is squeaky and uncomfortable, and her status as an amputee becomes even more important when she and Callie disagree about a young woman's care. Arizona thinks that Callie has done everything she can for the girl's legs, and that she should have a double amputation. Callie isn't ready to take that step yet. However, eventually the patient and her father agree that the amputation is the way to go. Callie is on board as well. But Callie is having a very bad day overall, as Derek informs her that he can't work on their research together, and she can't continue working with the equipment either. This means that all of Callie's hard work so far has been basically for nothing. Derek is really sorry, but he can't exactly say no to the White House.

And as if Callie's day wasn't bad enough, it turns out that when Leah filed the complaint, it was about Callie, not Arizona. Callie now has to deal with her wife's jealous ex-girlfriend, and on top of everything else, this seems to be too much. Arizona tearfully tells Callie that she's been selfish for the past year, only thinking of herself, and that she has now realized that she only needs Callie and Sophia to be happy. At first, it seems like Callie can't forgive Arizona, but then she returns to the room with Arizona's old skate-shoes. She doesn't want Arizona to give up anything, no matter how hard it will be to fix.

There you have it! A big week for Callie and Arizona. Meredith took a serious backseat this week, as did April and Jackson. I like episodes that focus on a smaller core group of characters, because I think we get to learn more about them this way. Let's start with the few things that I didn't really enjoy...

The baby in a dumpster thing was sort of weird. Like, I didn't have a big problem with it, but it seemed a bit pointless. It didn't do much for the overall plot, and seemed like a bit of a gimmick to get our attention.

I'm also still annoyed with the Derek plot. I feel like it's super unrealistic that Derek wouldn't have known he had to discontinue his current research. After all that vetting, all those interviews... he didn't know that basic fact?

However, there were a lot of things to love. Let us list a few.

Alex is worried that Jo will leave him, like Izzie did! Aw my poor baby! I love Alex Karev. I love how much he loves his patients, and I love his relationship with Meredith, and how Meredith is trying to help him.

Arizona and Callie. Yeah, I know, they were most of the episode. But I just love seeing them struggle to find equilibrium again. It was really sad, at the end, when Callie walked out of the room. Arizona looked so distraught, until Callie came back in and she realized what was going on. Also, I loved it when Alex came into the room while Arizona didn't have her leg on, and Alex reacted so awkwardly. Another good Arizona moment was when she and Christina reminisced about the plane crash.

Christina! Her interactions with Shane and Owen were both really excellent. With Shane, it seems like she's taking real strides to repair the damage, and she's acknowledging her own fault in what happened. With Owen, I'm not quite sure what's going on, but I love it. They have this weird joking thing going on, and yet Christina must be aware that she's a part of why Owen and Emma broke up.

Next week it looks like we're getting some April/Jackson drama. I hope there isn't any risk of their relationship ending... that would really annoy me.

8/10