Grey's Anatomy: Season 7
Episode 5

Title: Almost Grown
Episode: 7.05
First Air Date: October 21, 2010 (9pm)
Writer: Brian Tanen
Director: Chandra Wilson
DVD: Grey's Anatomy: The Complete Seventh Season
Guest Stars:
Ron Perkins as Roy
Candice Patton as Meg
Randee Heller as Joanne
Deborah Strang as Ellie
Charlie Koznick as Trey
Susan Slome as Mindy
Jarrod Bailey as Seth

Music:
Grey's Anatomy Theme: Cosy in the Rocket by Psapp

The Bamboos, "On The Sly"
Meredith, Cristina, Alex, Lexie, Jackson, and April wait to hear from Richard. Derek, Teddy, Owen, Mark, Callie, Arizona and Bailey wait to hear from Richard. Richard begins speaking to the doctors. Richard talks to the doctors. A group watch the residents work. Callie intimidates Teddy.

Mat Kearney, "Head on Your Heart"
Bailey talks to Richard. Roy and Cristina bond. Meredith, Alex, April, Jackson and Cristina take off their navy blue scrubs. Lexie sleeps. Richard gives money to Owen. Derek worries about Meredith.

Kyle Andrews, "You Always Make Me Smile "
April tries to debate with Cristina over Roy's future. Mark, Callie, Arizona and Teddy talk about their pitches to Richard. Mark teases Alex. Callie gives Arizona Kleenex. Derek checks up on Meredith and Jackson.

Wait.Think.Fast., "Look Alive"
Meredith updates Derek on her surgery. Alex prepares to cut. Mark and Arizona cheer him on. Lexie watches Meredith operate. Jackson is guilt riden. Mark and Arizona watch the surgery. Mindy, Trey and Joanne all wait together. Roy waits. Cristina overhears Bailey, Teddy, and April. Derek watches Meredith operate.


Fan Rating: ??/10 (Average of all fan submitted ratings)


Synopsis:

As part of their training, Seattle Grace's residents are put in charge; the attending surgeons compete for a million-dollar grant.

(From ABC)
As part of their training, the Chief puts Seattle Grace's residents -- including Meredith, Cristina, April and Jackson -- in charge; meanwhile, Derek, Callie, Owen and the other attending surgeons compete for a million-dollar grant.


(Recap From ABC)
For one day only, some of our favorite docs will don the prestigious navy scrubs—better known as “attending scrubs.” The Chief has a million dollar surplus that he’s going to award to one department. He’s throwing down the gauntlet. Only the most impressive doc will win the day, except for Lexie. This temporary promotion only applies to fourth-year residents. That means little Grey is stuck wearing her usual light blue scrubs. Bummer.

Callie plays more than a few mind games on her colleagues to make them nervous about their five minute pitch with the Chief. Teddy begins with note cards but ends in a rant against Derek. Owen wants to use the cash to train every hospital doc for trauma and disaster. As for Arizona, Callie has her worried that she may cry during her pitch, which she does. Yes, Dr. Torres shows no mercy.

Mark pitches an expansion of the burn unit. He makes a good case until Callie’s psyche out strategy kicks in. Soon Mark is babbling about having the strength of 10 men because he’s not currently sleeping with anyone. Next! Later, the Chief isn’t all that inspired by Callie’s pitch. So, she decides to try her mind games on him, too. It doesn’t work.

Alex runs point on a rather strange breast reduction case. The patient is a teenage boy. The mom freaks out and cancels the surgery. It’s up to Alex to reel her back in. Too bad she’ll only talk with Mark and Arizona. Eventually, Alex lets loose on the mom on why she should let her son make his own decision in this particular instance. His rant impresses Mark and Arizona, as well as the boy’s mother.

With everyone in attending scrubs, Lexie is left running around the hospital doing resident duty solo. She’s seeing gobs and gobs of patients, but handles everything with extreme efficiency. The only problem patient is a woman who had knee surgery, but is suddenly hit with vision issues and tingling in her body.

Derek sets up a little competition between Meredith and Jackson. Winner gets to do a brain shunt insertion on a female patient. The woman’s partner isn’t thrilled with the idea of a resident operating, but Derek assures her that he’ll be there every step of the way. Surprise, surprise. Jackson wins the war and gets the surgery gig. That means Meredith must pinch hit for Derek when Lexie asks for a consult on her case.

Meredith realizes knee surgery woman has a bleed in her brain and needs to be cut open pronto. But when Jackson runs into trouble, Derek has to save the day. That means he can’t deal with Lexie’s patient. It’s up to Meredith. By the time Derek arrives, it’s already too late. And by that we mean Meredith has already saved the patient all on her own. Woo hoo!

When Cristina is indecisive as to whether an old man should have a lung transplant, April steps up to say they should convene a panel to approve the procedure. Teddy is concerned by Cristina’s lack of initiative. Her “I don’t know” attitude simply won’t fly at Seattle Grace and it just gets worse as the day marches on. A pep talk from Owen seems to snap Cristina back to reality.

Cristina knows Teddy doesn’t believe their plucky patient is a good transplant candidate. She also knows that without surgery, the guy will die. Based on what Cristina said about Teddy’s perspective, April flip-flops on her initial notion that the patient would be a good candidate. Cristina agrees that the guy’s a borderline case, but the patient is a fighter. That actually makes him the perfect candidate. The panel agrees.

Derek wants to use the surplus money for a clinical study to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. He says, “Today I watched Meredith perform an emergency craniotomy by herself. She was perfect. She’s got her mother’s talent. She’s got her mother’s looks, Richard. What if she has her mother’s disease?”

Bailey says a million bucks isn’t enough for them to change the face of medicine. But it could help fix the real problems that currently plague the hospital. When all is said and done, Owen gets his trauma training wish granted. Bailey also suggests that the Chief doesn’t really have a million dollars. He responds, “Well, things may be a little different around here in the next few weeks.” Hmm.