ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy Recap (07×22): Unaccompanied Minor

ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy takes a turn towards end-of-season dramatics with a devastating plane crash and some surprising discoveries.

At the end of last week, Alex spilled the beans about Meredith interfering with Derek’s Alzheimer’s trial (directly involving Chief Webber’s wife Adele) and at the beginning of this week’s episode, the you-know-what has hit the fan. The Chief and Derek are absolutely livid at the news, and question Meredith relentlessly, but Meredith maintains that as long as she doesn’t reveal the details of her interference, the trial will remain impartial and untarnished. It is revealed that April has been made Chief Resident, much to everyone’s surprise, but there isn’t much of a reaction, as everyone at the hospital seems to be preoccupied with an incoming major trauma: a plane has crashed in the Sound and Seattle Grace waits for the survivors to be brought to them for surgeries. The waiting game drags on and on, however, as more family members pile into the cafeteria to wait for news. The older surgeons declare that there must not have been any survivors; too much time has passed. But at last one phone call is made and a little girl — the unaccompanied minor of the episode’s title — is found in bad shape but definitely still alive. The relatives of the less fortunate victims of the crash decide to stay and wait, praying and hoping for the little girl to survive her surgeries. When the girl’s mother arrives, she is overwhelmed by the love and uninhibited care these strangers show her.

Meanwhile, Mark speaks to Jackson about Lexie; he gives Jackson permission to go ahead and be happy with Lexie, though Jackson didn’t exactly seem to need to hear it. Lucy makes a brief appearance and begs Alex to tell her not to go to Africa, to which he responds, “Go to hell.” It’s impossible to keep Alex from ultimately telling Chief Webber the final important detail about Meredith’s mistake: the interference was the swapping of placebo for the actual drug for Adele’s participation in the trial. Chief Webber, overcome with the multiple layers of meaning behind this choice, decides to simply suspend Meredith and try to wait it out. Derek, outraged, gives Meredith the cold shoulder and ignores her calls for the rest of the day, leaving Meredith alone to face the social worker’s decision to grant temporary custody of baby Zola, the African child she and Derek were planning on adopting. Cristina discovers that she is pregnant and after several skirmishes with Owen — who is overjoyed and wants to have the baby — she makes an appointment to terminate the pregnancy and ends up being kicked out by Owen.

It seems the happy people of this week are Lexie and Jackson (though I don’t know that I’d really count Lexie, as she’s clearly still having feelings for Mark) and Bailey and Eli. It’s about damn time Bailey was happy, that’s all I’m gonna say.

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