Grey's Anatomy 4.04 "The Heart of the Matter" Recap

Grey’s Anatomy

Episode title: “The Heart of the Matter” Season 4, episode 04

Original Airdate: October 18th, 2007

Written by: Allan Heinberg

Directed by: Randy Zisk

The episode starts with the usual words of wisdom from the wise Meredith Grey: “In life only one thing is certain apart from death and taxes. No matter how hard you try, no matter how good your intentions, you are going to make mistakes…”

We see Callie sitting much as she was sitting at the end of the last episode: at the edge of the bed, with an expression on her face that could be interpreted as either: “I’m going to blow up the world and everyone in it,” or “if I just sit here long enough, maybe everything will be okay…” or maybe a little bit of both. George’s voice is in the background, calling her name. It’s daylight out, which goes to show just how long she’s been sitting there plotting Gizzie’s demise.

Meredith continues, “… you’re going to hurt people, you’re going to get hurt, and if you ever want to recover …”

George tells Callie, “You haven’t said anything in like …” and he doesn’t really specify time. He just kind of glances at the window where the sun is starting to rise. So we’re left to imagine it’s the next morning, because that’s the most logical assumption. But I suppose it could be several days later, or a week. George could’ve shaved and had meals while Callie continued to sit. The seasons could’ve turned. But no, I’m going to go with the next morning. “Just say something,” George pleads. “Please. Anything.”

And Meredith’s voice says, “… there’s only one thing you can say…”

Callie opens her mouth and says, “I forgive you,” in a flat, I-don’t-really-mean-it sort of way.

That’s not what George was expecting to hear. He just stares blankly at her back as though the many hours of silence have corrupted his ability to comprehend words. “What?” And Callie says that he made a mistake, but that they took vows. And you can see the, “Ohhh crap,” written all over George’s face. He was expecting a clean break. He was expecting tears and I hate you’s but eventually a goodbye that would allow him to run to Izzie. They would see each other across the hosiptal. He would call, “Izzie!” and they would run to each other in slow motion, jumping over medical equipment carts and dodging patients. Reality is a cruel thing. “…. til death do us part,” Callie says. “So, I forgive you.”

“Better Already” by Northern State is playing in the background of this scene, and continues to play as we cut to a bird’s eye view of George rushing in through Seattle Grace’s doors. He’s power walking through the hospital with his phone to his ear saying, “Izzie you need to pick up your phone…” Meredith tries to get his attention, but George says, “Gotta find Izzie,” and continues on his way.

Meredith walks back into the elevator, and MrDreamy catches the doors just in time to climb aboard the Elevator O’ Love. He starts kissing Meredith and suggests that they go away together this weekend. To wine country. Meredith has excuses, but McDreamy piles on the charm, and promises 48 hours of uninterrupted sex. Meredith decides she can roll with that. She just needs to find a replacement.

Meredith walks out of the elevator just in time to fall into step beside Cristina, who begins the episode by saying, “Oh, great, I’m stuck in the pit protecting smackheads and gangbangers with my idiot interns and you’re getting McDreamyd in the elevator?” Meredith is more amused by Cristina’s “smackheads” and “gangbangers” to answer the question. Cristina’s point was actually that she hates interns. And Meredith is quick to point out that Lexie isn’t that bad. Cristina goes, “Oh are we not hating her anymore?” But Meredith says, “Oh we still hate the idea of her, we just realized we don’t have a good reason to hate the actual person.” Cristina says that her being an intern is reason enough to hate her. And Meredith points out that Cristina might just be the new Nazi. Cristina walks away saying, “Damn right,” and heads off to, I imagine, get a tattoo that reads, “I’m the new nazi.”

We continue with Meredith. She notices her interns, and yells something about charts at them, and they scatter like cockroaches. I don’t know where these people went to get the charts, because I’m pretty sure that’s the last time we see Meredith with her interns. Perhaps she sent them on a voyage to Antartica to uncover the Lost Charts of … oh, it doesn’t matter. We don’t care about the interns. We have wine country to think about. And Meredith sees Alex as the perfect candidate to cover for her. He, naturally, asks what’s in it for him, and Meredith asks what he wants. Alex wants Meredith to take Mr. Gilmore, er, I mean, Norman the Overaged Intern, off his hands. Meredith agrees, because time with Norman seems like a good exchange for 48 hours of uninterrupted McSex.

Meanwhile, George is still running. Meredith reminds him about rounds, but George is like, “The other interns are in Antartica anyway,” or else he said, “Still can’t find Izzie!” One of the two. He zooms past her. And Meredith warns, “I’ll have to put you in the clinic if you miss rounds!” And George grunts and turns around because it occurs to him that the clinic is a logical place for Izzie to be. Zoom zoom.

At the clinic, our beloved Ex-Nazi is dealing with a young woman whose foot is looking mighty crappy. A guy is with her and introduces himself to Dr. Bailey, as “The Boyfriend.” He must’ve been teased a lot at school. Actually his full name is: “The boyfriend who warned her not to read on the Stair Master.” I don’t know what his parents were thinking. Anyway, Bailey doesn’t care much about him. She’s got an ugly foot to fix. The girl is saying that she took some Ibuprofen the night before but she woke up and the foot was looking big and purple. Bailey asks how much Ibuprofen she took. The girl says she takes some every day anyway because of the gym, so she just doubled the dose. Bailey suggests X-rays, but the girl doesn’t want anything that fancy. She just wants Bailey to put some cream on it or something and make it go away. Bailey looks like she wants to say, “Do I look like a magician to you?” but decides to go with, “I can’t treat you until I know what’s wrong with you.”

Enter Marathon George, who bursts into the clinic but comes to a screeching halt when he sees Bailey. He asks if she’s seen Dr. Stevens. Bailey tells him to check the pit. The lady with the injured foot asks Bailey when she thinks they’ll be done, so she can tell her trainer. Bailey just looks at her.

Cut to George running into the pit. He spots Lexie. “LEXIE!” he yells, only to startle Lexie. He apologizes for making her jump. She’s reading a book. A red book. I can’t read the cover. I imagine it’s called, So You Want To Be A Doctor and Befriend Your Estranged Half-Sister and Get Your Resident To Stop Calling You Three, but that’s just a guess. George asks if she’s seen Izzie. She hasn’t. She asks if he’s seen Dr. Yang. He hasn’t. Lexie is freaking out because Cristina told her to meet her there and she’s not there and blah blah. George doesn’t care. But Lexie has been practicing her affirmations and she recites them to George, who stopped listening as soon as Lexie said she hadn’t seen Izzie. Despite the help of the So You Want To… book, Cristina still yells, “Three! Incoming, let’s move!”

The incoming is a young football player who got hurt on the field. The father/coach is an insensitive jerk. McDreamy kicks him out. Cristina and Lexie are in the room assisting McDreamy. Cristina must’ve also sent her other interns on a cross-Atlantic voyage. Cristina begins to cut the guy out of his helmet.

We return to George, who is running, running. He runs past the Chief and straight into a cart of medical supplies. Ouch. He gets up, slowly, clutching subtly at his no-no-special place. The Chief is like, “O’Malley?” George attempts to look as though he doesn’t want to fall to the ground and cry like a little girl. He puts the cart back where he found it, and with trembling hands, picks up the stuff from the floor, all the while apologizing. He tells the Chief he just needs to find Izzie. And the Chief is all like, “Oh why didn’t you say so, she’s at the third floor nurse’s station.” George shakily thanks him. But the Chief adds, “Oh and when you find her, tell her Dr. Torres is looking for her.” Uh oh. George sets off again … though a bit wobbly this time.

Izzie is with her interns, patiently discussing the life and death importance of legible handwriting.

Meanwhile, George is running really fast across the bridge, yelling, “What kind of doctor doesn’t pick up their phone?!”

Izzie concludes her monologue just as George finds her. But! He’s a bit late. When Izzie turns around, it’s Callie that’s in front of her.

Callie tells Izzie that they have to talk because George told her everything. Everything. The interns are happy to eavesdrop. Callie says, “Cafeteria. Noon. You and me. Be there.” An intern asks another intern, “Dude, is she going to kick her ass?”

And Izzie looks a bit like, “Oh crap I’m going to die.”

We cut to a few minutes later. George has come out of his hiding spot and they’re discussing the Callie situation. George tells Izzie that Callie told him she forgave him, and that people make mistakes, and yadda yadda. And Izzie’s all like, “Oh so now I’m a mistake?” Oh Izzie. This isn’t about you. George tells her he expected rage and bloodshed, but Izzie’s like, “She’s saving all her rage and bloodshed for me.” I think one of my favorite lines of the episode is, “She breaks bones for a living, George, she’s crazy.” But Izzie ain’t gonna just sit there and take it. She’s got her superhero TrailerGirl outfit in her locker, and come lunchtime, she’s gonna rip open those scrubs and show the world that Izzie Stevens can kick some ass.

George just looks like this:

We cut to McDreamy, Cristina, and Three, um, I mean Lexie. They’re looking at computer monitors, and Lexie is going on about how bad she feels for the football player guy for having such an insensitive father. Cristina is annoyed by the fact that Lexie is talking at all, and tells her to focus on the medicine. McDreamy is annoyed by the fact that Cristina is not teaching Lexie. So he asks Lexie questions about realigning the guy’s spine. Then, because realigning spines is a good segway into family affairs, McDreamy asks her how things are going with Meredith. Cristina rolls her eyes repeatedly. Cristina tries to tell Lexie to go do something, but McDreamy tells Cristina to go do it instead. Cristina is not happy by this Lexie/McDreamy bonding thing. It makes her feel decidedly non-Nazi-like.

We move on to Meredith and Norman. Meredith is introducing Norman to McSteamy. Norman has taken to speaking like this: “I know, right, it’s like seriously you’re an intern? But it’s seriously true.” And it’s seriously like kind of adorable cause Edward Hermann is like seriously awesome. Seriously. I don’t know how, but Norman is already all up on the McTerminology. “McSteamy!” he says happily, remembering the now not-so-secret code name for Mark. All of this in the middle of a conversation about telling someone that they’re going to die.

Dr. Torres gets paged by Dr. Bailey regarding the Foot. George is in the room, but Callie ignores him. They talk about the foot, and the X-rays, and Callie is very distracted. But thankfully, Bailey is there to steer the Chief Resident in the right direction. They all agree on more tests. Bailey can see that Callie is in another world. She looks at George for answers but George says he can’t talk about it with her. But Bailey just wants to know if Callie is all right. George says yes. They both know he’s lying.

On the bridge, Meredith is dispensing her sage advice to Norman, who is attentively listening. Meredith is also telling him that when telling a patient that they’re going to die, one needs to be detached but not cold. Norman is baffled by this. But Meredith says that he needs to show that he cares, but that he can’t get too emotional because if he does, then the patient gets scared. She tells him to focus on the medicine. Something that few doctors at this hospital are doing that day.

Just then, Cristina passes by and informs Meredith that McDreamy and The Other Grey are “bonding over their mutual Meredith-Greyness.” Meredith is displeased by this information, thinking that it means they’re talking about her behind her back.

Back in the football player’s room, Cristina is explaining to both patient and father how the procedure is going to go. The patient thinks it sounds painful, but the father is quick to jump in and tell him that it will be less painful than never being able to walk again. Poor kid. Wonder where his mother is? I also wonder how the father would be taking things if he were in his kid’s position. I bet he’d be crying like a baby. Anyway, Lexie tries to talk but Cristina gets in front of her and interrupts her. Bad Cristina.

Elsewhere, Meredith’s advice was put to bad use. The woman who just found out she was dying is shrieking and crying in her bed, while Norman stands by looking emotional. Meredith chastises him for getting too emotional, but he tells her he couldn’t help it. This doesn’t go well.

He looks to Meredith for help, who tells him, “Now we slowly and respectfully back out of the room.”

Alex is stitching some guy’s arm as Izzie approaches and asks for a favor. The news of the Torres/Stevens fight has spread. Izzie’s request for a favor is interrupted by an emergency.

The Chief’s niece – the one with cancer – is wheeled in. She can’t breathe. It doesn’t look good. At her side is the girl’s mom and the Chief’s wife. They’re both crying hysterically. Izzie and Alex run in to help.

A bit later, the Chief, Izzie, and Alex are discussing the girl’s condition. Her cancer is back and it’s looking like surgery will be needed. The Chief is very brokenhearted about this ordeal.

Meanwhile, Meredith and Norman are still parading around. They run into Cristina. Meredith notices McDreamy and Lexie laughing and talking together. Meredith blames Lexie for talking about her behind her back. When Lexie approaches, Meredith walks off without saying a word to Lexie. Lexie and Cristina have a moment. Cristina tells Lexie that she is not to do anything because she’s an intern. She’s to hug the wall and not touch anything. Lexie decides to put to good use her earlier affirmations and tells Cristina that her name is Lexie. Not Three. Cristina is not particularly impressed by this outburst of confidence.

Over in the land with purple feet, George is telling the patient her stats. And asks if she’s been dieting. The girl tells them that The Boyfriend said he’d move in with her if she lost some weight.

Bailey: How romantic.

The girl says it’s all about motivation. And that the guy had quit smoking because she didn’t want to be with a smoker.

Bailey cuts to the chase and says that the problem is that even if Dr. Torres manages to fix the fracture it’s not going to do anything uless she eats more and works less.

The Boyfriend says that they came here to get her leg fixed. And orders them to fix her leg. Callie just nods. Bailey isn’t happy going down without a fight. But she says nothing.

We cut to Meredith and Norman, who are approaching McSteamy. He asks how it went with the dying patient. They say there were tears. McSteamy is surprised and says, “Tears? Really? Such a tough old bird. I thought he’d take it like a man.”

There is a look of general, “Oh crap,” on Meredith’s face.

Basically, they told the wrong person that they were going to die. Can we say, lawsuit? Interestingly, the mistake arose from the fact that Norman read the room number wrong on the chart. It ties back beautifully with Izzie’s monologue on the importance of good penmanship. All the same, McSteamy isn’t happy.

The power struggle continues in the football player’s room, as McDreamy and Cristina continue to bump heads on the subject of Lexie. Cristina tells Lexie to move back, McDreamy tells Lexie to move forward. And so on and so forth. The poor guy on the bed is getting a nail jammed into his skull.

Alex and Izzie are having a sweet bonding moment over the tragicness of Camille’s (the Chief’s niece) condition. They quickly move on to the subject of the pending Torres vs. Stevens smackdown. Alex asks Izzie to tell him what she did to Callie. Izzie tells him to promise not to tell anyone. He agrees. Izzie confesses that she slept with George. Alex is visibly shocked by this news. Izzie chose George over him! The nerve! The blow to his ego!

Meredith and Norman go to find Ms. Bitzer to tell her the happy news that she’s not dying after all. Only to find out that the woman left an hour before. Oops.

Meanwhile, the Chief is telling his niece the bad news about the cancer. He talks of procedures and chemo, but the girl just wants to go home. She’s given up. She’s tired. Both the mother and Adelle try to convince Camille not to give up, that she’s too young to make such decisions. But Camille gives a very heartbreaking speech about how she knows she’s dying, and she just wants to spend what little time she has left with the people she loves. She begs Richard to let her go home.

In the football player’s room, Cristina’s attaching the weights as the guy cries out that he can’t take any more. The father is yelling at him how a coach would yell at a player. The guy eventually screams for the father to leave the room. The kid freaks out, and out of reflex Lexie reaches for his hand in a move that could’ve been detrimental to the guy’s ife. Cristina yells at her and tells her to leave the room, just as McDreamy walks in. McDreamy tells Lexie to take over for Dr. Yang. McDreamy warns Cristina that unless she learns to teach and stop being so competitive and selfish she will no longer assist in his surgeries.

Outside Camille’s room, Adelle and Camille’s mom are beg Richard to convince Camille to undergo treatment. Richard agrees to talk to her.

Meredith is on the phone trying to reach Ms. Bitzer to no avail. McDreamy stops by to yell at them. Norman sort of wanders off.

And then it’s lunchtime! Cristina is lamenting her potential bad-residentness. Meredith joins her in lamenting her own bad-residentness. In the end, Cristina decides that it’s all the interns’ fault. They recall the good times when they were both model interns. Hah.

Cristina: I was great! You were-you were good.

Izzie runs up. You can sort of tell she’s terrified that Callie is going to kick her ass but she’s doing her darnest to put up a brave front.

Alex joins them.

Meredith wants to know what they’re fighting about but Alex says, “Believe me you don’t want to know.”

Despite the fact that everyone has heard about the Torres vs. Stevens fight, George hasn’t taken it very seriously until a nurse makes him reconsider the severity of the situation.

He runs off to … save the day? He must be in great shape after this episode.

Back at the cafeteria, Izzie is building up her badass self, trying to convince the others that she can take Callie. I’m guessing she’s really trying to convince herself.

The clock strikes 12:00.

Right on time, Callie walks through the doors.

Izzie gets ready. She’s stretching. Callie approaches. The entire cafeteria stares.

Callie: Stevens…

Izzie: Let’s do this. Let’s go. Let’s go.

Callie: Go where?

Izzie: You know, go.

Callie: I wanted to talk.

Izzie: You want to talk? You don’t want to kick my ass?

Callie: (laughs) You thought I was going to fight you?

Callie looks around at all the staring faces. She turns serious and walks out of the room.

Izzie looks rightfully ashamed.

George runs in just in time to miss everything. He asks, “What happened, was there a fight?”

Alex passes by just in time to say, “Nope, guess they realized they were fighting over nothing.”

Harsh.

Oblivious to all of the other drama, McDreamy is searching the Internet for a good place to take Meredith that weekend. He asks McSteamy for advice. McSteamy isn’t very happy with Meredith over the entire Ms. Bitzer incident. He calls her an intern. McDreamy argues that she’s not an intern, but McSteamy disagrees. McDreamy finds wisdom in that. Somehow.

Bailey and Callie tell Ruthie (the Foot girl) that her foot will be in a cast 8-12 weeks. The Boyfriend is alarmed by the length of time. Callie tells him it will be longer if she doesn’t eat. He says she eats. Callie and him argue back and forth because Callie has decided that since she can’t take out her anger on George she’s gonna take it out on The Boyfriend. The Girlfriend, meanwhile, starts to cough blood and is rushed off to surgery.

At a different surgery, Cristina finally learns how to be a resident and teaches Lexie a procedure. McDreamy is pleased, and lets Cristina take over.

Meanwhile, Norman returns! Meredith starts to yell in the way that Meredith yells which is kind of not at all. But Norman has good news. He found Ms. Bitzer! For a woman who just found out she’s dying, Ms. Bitzer is rather cheerful. She quit her job! Dumped her boyfriend! Told her boss where to stick it! And is moving to Iceland!

Meredith tells her that she’s not dying after all.

The waterworks return. She quit her job! She dumped her boyfriend. She gave up her apartment!

Once again, let us say: lawsuit.

Outside, it’s raining in Seattle and The Boyfriend who’d quit smoking is smoking. Callie comes out to find him smoking and calls him on it. He says Ruthie will forgive him, but Callie says she won’t because she’s dead. That Bailey tried to stop the bleeding but because Ruthie had been starving herself her heart couldn’t take it. They argue. It escalates into yelling. Callie starts to lose it a bit there, so it’s a good thing George and Bailey intervene before the hospital gets another lawsuit.

Bailey asks Callie once again if she’s okay. She says she’s fine. Bailey doesn’t believe her, naturally.

Back inside, Richard comes to have his talk with Camille. They have a beautiful and touching moment. Once again, Camilla makes her case. She says she was hoping the cancer would kill her before she had to come back to the hospital.

Richard: What I have here is a plan to keep you alive. It involves twelve oncologists, eight new drugs, six experimental treatments from three different continents. I have no idea if it will work. But as your uncle, I am begging you to take it. Because I know for a fact the world, my world, is a better place with you in it. However, as your doctor, I promise to do whatever you want.

Camille: I just want to go home.

Richard: Then let’s get you home.

*sniff*

In the hallway, Callie is walking and runs into Izzie. She begins to walk away from her but Izzie begs her to wait. Izzie tries to apologize. But Callie undergoes too many emotions to capture in this recap. In the end, however, Callie tells Izzie that she should be the one who is humiliated and ashamed. “Don’t you dare come to me for forgiveness you traitorous bitch.”

We cut to Izzie, sitting on the floor, looking sorry for herself. Alex passes by and ignores her, but Izzie calls him on it. Alex reveals that he’s pissed at Izzie for sleeping with George after telling Alex that she wasn’t ready for anything after Denny. And George of all people. Alex’s manhood is bruised. He storms off.

Elsewhere, the mess with Ms. Bitzer seems to be resolved. Meredith begins to apologize but the woman hugs her and thanks her. She’s once again very cheerful. It turns out the lawyers convinced her to settle. Seattle Grace just bought her a spiffy new house in Iceland. I’d be happy too.

The Chief is not happy. Adelle comes in looking also not happy and yells at Richard for not convincing Camille to take the treatment. As much as I sympathize with Adelle for wanting to keep Camille alive, I feel like everyone is being terribly selfish here. If they love the girl so much they should see how much she’s suffering and will suffer if they force her to do what they want. But I suppose when it comes to grief few people are logical. Either way, Adelle is very unhappy with the Chief. Things don’t look good for them at this point. Though I imagine that Adelle has to come to her senses eventually.

It’s still raining outside, and George walks out without an umbrella and finds Callie standing in the rain. He tells Callie that she can’t just forgive him because what he did was unforgivable. He points out that she can’t even look at him. Callie looks pained and agrees that it’s true, she hasn’t forgiven him. She walks away.

Back in dryland, Meredith skips and hops over to McDreamy and tells him that she found someone to cover for her and they’re on for their 48 hours of uninterrupted McLoving.

Unfortunately, McSteamy’s comment about Meredith still being an intern and “green” have given McDreamy pause. He tells Meredith that he talked to Lexie about all the things he couldn’t say to Meredith. Meredith tells him he can say anything to her.

McDreamy: I want to marry you. I want to have kids with you. I want to build us a house. I want to settle down and grow old with you. I want to die when I’m 110 years old in your arms. I don’t want 48 uninterrupted hours. I want a lifetime.

Meredith looks somewhat panicked. Or at least I think she’s supposed to looked panicked. I’m not really sure how to read her expression. But McDreamy reads it as a form of panic and calls her on it. He says he understands. That she’s still an intern deep down.

Meredith admits she’s not ready but that she could get ready.

McDreamy says that she could get ready. That they could keep going as they’re going and he’ll wait.

That sounds great to Meredith!

But…

McDreamy: Yeah but what if while I’m waiting I meet someone who is ready to give me what I want from you?

Meredith: What if you do?

McDreamy: I don’t know.

I hope he wasn’t implying that Lexie is that potential person …

Regardless, the episode is almost over and Meredith’s voice over starts: “Forgive and forget … that’s what they say …”

Cut to Lexie thanking Cristina for saving her ass in surgery. “Well, that’s my job, Three.” Lexie is visibly disappointed that Cristina didn’t call her by her real name, but lets it go. One step at a time.

“… it’s good advice, but it’s not very practical…”

In her room, Izzie is crying.

“.. when someone hurts us, we want to hurt them back..”

Alex drops a box of tissues on Izzie’s bed, and tells her to keep it down.

“… when somone wrongs us, we want to be right…”

We see Callie alone on the bed, sitting and staring pensively at nothing.

“…Without forgiveness old scores are never settled, old wounds never heal, and the most we can hope for is that one day we’ll be lucky enough to forget.”

And curtain.