Grey's Anatomy: Season 3
Episode 16

Synopsis:

The Seattle Grace interns face challenges like no others they have faced.

(From ABC)
"Grey's Anatomy's" three-episode story arc continues with a part two that will challenge the interns of Seattle Grace -- and "Grey's" fans as well -- like never before

Fans of "Grey's Anatomy" should be careful what they wish for.

The ABC show's writers have been asked repeatedly by die-hard "Grey's" watchers whether two beloved characters — dashing heart patient Denny Duquette and fearless bomb squad captain Dylan Young — might somehow reappear, despite having been killed off last season.

(Spoiler alert: Stop reading now if you've saved the episode for later viewing.)

This week, both men appeared in a brief scene with Meredith Grey. But since Denny and Dylan are dead, that makes Meredith ... Oh, come on. Could the show's central character really be gone for good?

Meredith lingered beneath Seattle's icy waters for a ridiculously long time on last night's episode. But she was finally plucked from the water by Derek and rushed back to Seattle Grace, where the hospital's finest worked on her.

Things looked grim, but Meredith's encounter with Denny and Dylan was likely a near-death experience. (Or perhaps she'll now narrate the show from beyond the grave, like Mary Alice Young of "Desperate Housewives.")

As the episode ended, the senior staff rallied around a devastated Derek — even Mark Sloan reached out to him — and the interns huddled together.

Izzie, the group's self-appointed den mother, gave a somewhat overwrought speech about survival and bluntly told George that his marriage to Callie was a mistake. He didn't appear to disagree.

Earlier in the hour, at the site of the fiery ferryboat crash, Izzie drilled holes in a patient's head while the chief talked her through the procedure by phone. She handled this gruesome task so well, the chief ended her probation.

Meanwhile, George managed to find the missing son of Bailey's surgical patient (the boy was on Callie's operating table) and Cristina tended to minor injuries.

Sandra Oh, who plays Cristina, was underused in this hour. Each of her brief scenes involved whining about Meredith not being around to hear about her engagement, which further alienated Burke.

In some of the episode's most moving scenes, frantic families converged on Alex, begging him for information. With no updated list of survivors to share, he improvised by grabbing a camera to photograph the injured and dead.

It worked: Some family members were reunited, while others digested the news that their loved ones didn't survive. This flood of emotion moved Alex almost to tears (Justin Chambers was wonderful as the normally stoic Alex) and inspired him to take a small step closer to Addison.

George lies to the mother whose son is missing that he's found him so that she'll consent to go into surgery. Miranda insists he really find the boy by the time the mother wakes up.

Izzie is running out of options in dealing with the man who's pinned under a car on the ferry, so she calls the Chief and asks him what to do. He and Mark talk her through drilling holes in the man's skull to relieve cranial pressure. She does such a good job of it that not only does the man survive, the Chief tells her she's officially off probation and invites her in on the surgery.

Alex is busy dealing with the frantic families who are anxious to know the fate of their loved ones who were on the ferry. There's no identification on most of the accident victims in the hospital, so no way of knowing who's who. Alex comes up with an idea: he takes Polaroids of all the patients and posts their photos on the board so their families can identify them.

A man asks Alex if he's seen his pregnant wife and Alex assumes it must be the woman he rescued. But Addison insists he can't be sure until he's checked the morgue. An introspective Addison says that Jane Doe could easily be her, because if she went missing, she'd have no one looking for her. Alex says he would notice if she disappeared.

George tells Alex he's looked everywhere for the missing boy and Alex suggests one place he hasn't yet looked: The morgue. They go together and there's no small boy but there is a pregnant woman. Alex takes her photo, but first he shows the photo of the woman in surgery to the man in the waiting room. Her face is grossly swollen, so he can't recognize her. But her hair and eyes are the wrong color, so Alex reluctantly shows him the photo of the woman in the morgue. The man collapses in tears and identifies her as his wife.

George checks the O.R. boards and sees that Callie has a 7 year old boy in surgery. He brings in the photo and asks if it's him, and Callie confirms that it is. He, inappropriate as always, announces he's going to kiss her silly when they get home that night.

Cristina, who's been stuck monitoring Burke's cases and suturing wounds all day, is getting antsy for Meredith to come back so she call tell her about the engagement. She sees all the other interns return from the accident scene, but none of them can tell her where Meredith is.

Derek finds the little girl whom he saw with Meredith earlier and asks her where Meredith is. The girl silently points out into the cold waters.

Derek dives in and comes up with Meredith, who's pale and cold and not breathing. He works on her feverishly in the ambulance until they arrive at the hospital and the Chief orders him out of the room.

All the interns are paged about Meredith's condition and rush to the trauma room where Miranda and the Chief are working on her. Outside, Derek sits on the floor, grief stricken and Mark sits next to him in wordless support.

Izzie stops a distraught Cristina from going in, telling her she's certain Meredith will survive this. George is more pessimistic, saying "People die." Izzie makes a speech about how she knows people die, but she believes in the good, including believing that Denny is with her always. And she tells George that she thinks his marrying Callie was a huge mistake.

Meredith is severely hypothermic and isn't responding to efforts to revive her. The Chief announces, "We're losing her." Just then we see Meredith sit up and gasp. She's alone in the room, except for the demolition expert who was blown up at the hospital. "Am I dead?" she asks him. But it's someone else who answers. "Damn right you are," says Denny, who's smiling at her.