Grey's Anatomy - Holidaze - Recap

(Here's Desi's recap of tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy: Holidaze)

O. M. G. Tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy was the last before it takes its holiday break before resuming in January. As a result, they had three months and a lot of holidays to pack in, so the episode felt rushed. Until the OMG moment that closed out the show (the ABC dramas are full of those this week, aren't they?)

We start on Thanksgiving eve where Richard explains to Meredith what she saw in the last episode: Joe pouring the Chief a tall "club soda"... and by that he means vodka. Richard explains that he wasn't an alcoholic: he was just suffering from "situational depression" at the hand of Ellis. As horribly as he thinks she treated her, he still recognizes that she was a brilliant surgeon and sees the same brilliance in Meredith, offering to become her mentor.

While Owen and Christina are spending some quality time together in the on-call room, her pager goes off. She goes into surgery with Teddy, but after removing the patient's heart, they don't know what to do. They put the patient on a bypass machine, hoping they'll soon find a transplant donor. I rapidly see a Denny situation abrew.

Callie overhears a phone conversation between Bailey and her parents house, talking about how she'll spend the holidays with Tucker. Little problem, she and Tucker are divorced. She says she isn't sure how to tell them, but it turns out she doesn't have to: word spread through her family grapevine, eventually getting back to her father. He decides the only way to deal with the situation is to fly out to Seattle and ambush her.

She isn't the only one with a surprise visitor for the holidays: as Mark is working on a patient, a hot blonde walks into the clinic looking for him. Lexie looks over at him, jealous, when the girl opens her mouth: "My name is Sloan and I'm pretty sure you're my dad."

In addition to his baby drama, Mark is also called in to develop equipment to perform a serious case. There's a tumor in a child's brain that can't be reached with the tools they have, so Mark, Derek, and Arizona collaborate to create one.

At Callie and Arizona's, Lexie is chopping celery. Mark and Sloan walk in the door and announce that yes, he really is her father. Lexie's reaction is a new ingredient in Thanksgiving dinner: her pinky finger. She cuts it right off and barely feels the pain.

Fast-forward to Christmas Eve, and Lexie's finger is sewn back on. In the month that Sloan has lived with them, Mark has spoken to her only three times, so she urges him to try. (Ironic, my dad and I have lived together for 22 years and I think that's how much we've spoken.)

Christina and Teddy's heart patient is still on the bypass, and Christina says that New Years Eve will almost certainly hold the solution: drunk drivers on icy roads make for lots of donors. She tells them that if she's going to die, she at least wants to go outside before it happens. The doctors manage to roll up her bypass machines to take her outside... where she promptly collapses from an intestinal problem. The little boy with the brain tumor is also still waiting for the equipment to be created, and I find that a little unbelievable. With the severity of his nosebleeds, I think it's unlikely that he'd have survived for another month (but I got my M.D. from TV, so who am I to say?)

As Bailey is faced with her father crisis, she insists that Derek and Meredith invite her over for Christmas dinner so he doesn't think she has no life at all. Mr. Bailey chooses this time to tear into Miranda about how he is disappointed in what she's done, interrupting the entire dinner and drawing stares from the other doctors around the table. The rest of the Christmas dinner seems a bit odd: Arizona singing Christmas carols with the Chief as Owen plays guitar? His dancing is certainly entertaining, at least. Meredith is in the kitchen doing some last-minute dinner preparation as Thatcher comes in to talk to her. (My actual first note on his appearance? "HIDE THE ALCOHOL!") I get that he has half of her liver, but it's a little awkward to see him in his ex-wife's house among his estranged daughter's friends. He takes issue with Richard's drinking, saying that he's off the wagon. Meredith knows, having seen him drinking at Joe's, but excuses his behavior by saying that it's Christmas and everyone drinks egg nog on Christmas. Meredith finds a retort, asking if Thatcher drank before he left Meredith and Ellis. He says no, that it happened much later, and she says the best comeback I've ever heard: "well, we can't blame the world's evils on alcohol, can we?"

By New Year's Eve, Mark still finds it difficult to talk to Sloan. He approaches her, finally, to ask when she's leaving and she finally spills her secret: she's pregnant. She dropped out of school and her mom kicked her out and Mark is her last resort. For someone who says he is so inept at parenting, he seems pretty effective at comforting her.

Just as they're about to intubate Arizona's young patient, Derek rushes in with good news: they've finished the equipment and need to rush him into surgery right away. Christina's heart patient doesn't have such good news: her kidneys are starting to fail, and she needs a transplant right away. By the stroke of the new year, not only is the little boy's life saved (complete with the most precious midnight kisses through surgical masks in the OR) and a brain dead 18-year-old rolls in ready to be a donor. Bailey's dad finally decides to leave after spending New Year's with Tucker and baby Tuck. He continues to make her feel guilty, though, for not telling him about the divorce. She tries to tell him that there are just some things we can't tell our parents.

And I cannot believe Shonda Rhimes for doing this to us at the ending of a two-month drought. Meredith rushes into the bar to meet Joe, who apologizes for paging her. By the jukebox stands the Chief, doing something that resembles dancing. OMG HE'S KRUNK. And can we just commend Jim Pickens for his phenomenal acting? He plays drunk better than anyone I've ever seen. He pulls Meredith up to the bar next to him, pushing Joe to pour her a drink. "Tequila!" he requests.

I'm glad that the season does seem to be getting better and better -- and there was barely any instance of Mercy West in the episode! The hour did feel a little rushed, though, since they covered so much ground. I'm irritated by Mark's daughter (he was a manwhore, we get it) and I wanted to just punch Bailey's dad right in the jaw. We're still not back on track with the Grey's of old, but we're getting closer and closer.