Grey's Anatomy 5.20 "Sweet Surrender" Recap

It feels so good to have a new episode of Grey’s Anatomy! And last night’s episode did not disappoint! It was funny and heartbreaking all at the same time.

For those that missed it, or want to revisit the episode, here’s my recap of the episode.

5.20 “Sweet Surrender”

Original airdate: April 23, 2009

We open with Meredith and Derek in bed. Meredith is examining her wedding ring from all angles. Meanwhile, Izzie is getting her chemo, while Alex sits at her side, looking around at all of the other patients. Arizona and Callie run into each other in the stairwell and kiss. While Cristina sees Owen and avoids him.

In bed together, Meredith and Derek discuss the wedding. Meredith wants a simple wedding. She doesn’t want to wear a big poofy dress and Derek recommends they get married naked, in a field. Mer says she’s gotten Izzie to plan the wedding and that at least now they have a theme: simplicity.

Downstairs, Lexie and Mark are being cute with each other, until Meredith and Derek appear. Mark and Derek are still mad at each other, making things awkward.

At therapy, Owen tells the doctor that he feels nothing. The therapist asks him how he can begin fo fix anything without knowing what he feels. He needs to claim his feelings.

After her first chemo treatment, Izzie is acting like she feels 100%. She’s on the phone, asking for wedding dresses to be delivered. The Chief watches on, along with the Oncologist who warns Richard that Izzie needs rest because later on Izzie is going to feel like death.

Arizona and Mark walk together and Arizona is saying that Callie’s dad is visiting. She doesn’t seem particularly worried about the visit. Callie appears and sees George and warns him to run. But oh, too late! Daddy Torres catches George and throws him against the wall. He’s angry about him cheating on Callie. Callie tries to intervene by bringing Mark into the fold, stating that she cheated on George with Mark, technically. So Callie’s dad throws Mark against the wall. Callie keeps trying to talk him down, saying that she’s dating someone now and she’s happy.

That seems to relax her father, who lets Mark go. He turns his attention to Callie, wanting to know more about this gentleman she’s now dating. Arizona watches on. Callie introduces Arizona as the person she’s dating. Arizona cheerfully extends her hand and says she hopes he draws the line at throwing women against walls.

Elsewhere, the ambulance arrives with two patients. One hit the other with his car. The one that got hit with the car is very agitated and angry about the man that hit him. All the while, Mark and Derek bicker at each other. Lexie keeps eating.

Owen puts Alex in charge of the pit, and tells George to report to Alex. George is put in charge of the guy that got hit by the car.

Arizona and Bailey walk together. It’s Bailey’s day off but she’s there to observe Arizona. Arizona babbles on about meeting Callie’s dad until Bailey tells her to stop telling her about her personal life. Arizona tells Bailey she should really be home on her day off. Bailey talks about how her husband is being very supportive of her change in specialities, but Arizona sees through the lie and asks if she hasn’t told her husband yet.

Their conversation is interrupted by a man who’s yelling about his daughter not being able to breathe. Arizona and Bailey rush over to attend to the little girl.

Meanwhile, Mark and Derek continue to argue like an old married couple, and they put Lexie smack dab in the middle. Each wants her to say what the other wants to hear, but Lexie tells them they’re both amazing doctors and walks away, eating a candy bar.

George attends to the patient that got hit by the car, but he notices that the man’s injuries do not coincide with the story he’s telling, about being hit while walking on the crosswalk. He goes to Alex and says they should get a psych consult for the guy. Alex resists at first, thinking they should just let the guy go because they need the bed. But George insists and Alex unhappily agrees.

On the bridge, the Chief gives Meredith the big congratulations on the engagement. And then orders her to go try on dresses for Izzie.

Meredith isn’t happy about the dress thing, and complains to Derek. She gets upset that the Chief even knows they’re engaged, but Derek says if she doesn’t want to try on dresses to take it up with Izzie. Meredith doesn’t want to do that because then Izzie will look at her with those big “cancery eyes.” Derek asks if Meredith wants him to go in her place.

Meredith then watches from the window as Derek talks to Izzie. Izzie is crying. When Derek walks out he tells Meredith that they now need to make time for ballroom dancing lessons.

Callie sets a poor guy’s bones while making a case for her happiness. Her dad stands by the doorway. When she’s done talking about how happy she is, he tells her that she’s to come live with him and her mom in Florida. He’s going to talk to the Chief about having her transferred.

Arizona and Bailey watch the sick little girl from the window. Arizona explains that the little girl is terminal and doesn’t have much lef to live. The father comes out with paperworks. He’s been doing research and wants to take the girl to Mexico for an experimental treatment. He only needs two weeks, but Arizona says the girl doesn’t have two weeks. She only has a few hours. The father gets agitated and yells at Arizona for giving up.

Izzie starts to crash and Cristina runs to her side, but then Izzie starts laughing. She was just pretending. She just wants Cristina to get Meredith to come and try on the wedding dresses.

Mark, Derek, Owen and Lexie give the driver the bad news. His injuries are pretty severe. The guy is upset because he insists the man dove in front of his car. That he was just headed for the bank when the man flew in front of him.

In Izzie’s room, Meredith tries on a dress. Meredith tries to say she doesn’t want a big dress or a big wedding. She just wants buffalo wings. Izzie tells her she has to make a big deal about it because it’s her wedding. She says otherwise she’ll be sad and she doesn’t want anymore sadness because she’s already dealing with cancer. Meredith concedes.

Arizona watches as Callie paces back and forth, mumbling in Spanish. Mark arrives and Arizona rushes to him, explaining that she doesn’t know what to do about Callie and that she’s got to run because she’s got a little girl that’s dying. Mark says he’ll take care of it and shakes Callie and tells her to stop speaking Spanish.

Callie tells him that her father wants to take her away. He asks if she’s twelve. But Callie says that her father has supported her in everything her entire life and she doesn’t know what to do. Mark tells her that supporting someone and respecting them are two different things. And he should tell him that.

The little dying girl is asking for her dad and Bailey comes to her side. She picks the girl up and rocks her in the chair.

Cristina, Alex, and Lexie are all in Izzie’s room, waiting for Meredith to come out wearing another wedding dress. Alex brought Izzie some fries. They’re all amazed by how well she’s doing after the chemo. Meredith is refusing to come out of the bathroom. Izzie fakes another attack so that Meredith comes out. It works. But Cristina and Meredith tell her to stop doing that.

Lexie keeps eating Izzie’s fries because she’s stressed out about Mark and Derek. She asks Meredith to go talk to them.

Izzie sends Alex for more fries. And once she’s alone, she shows how sick she truly feels. And throws up.

Bailey is still with the little girl when the girl’s dad returns. He’s still insisting on going to Mexico. Bailey tries to tell him that he needs to stay with the girl but all he can think about is Mexico. He rushes off in search of plane tickets. The little girl is clutching to Bailey’s scrubs and she decides to stay there with the girl.

Meredith tracks down Mark and Derek and yells at them to make up already, if not for her, then for Lexie, who’s eating herself into another dress size.

Derek makes the announcement that the Chief is going to be his best man. This doesn’t sit well with Meredith. She doesn’t want the Chief as the best man. Derek says it’s his decision and she needs to get over her grudge. Meredith says the Chief had an affair with her mom and broke up her parents’ marriage and ruined her childhood. Meanwhile, Derek is willing to throw away twenty years of friendship with Mark over nothing. So she’ll get over her grudge when he gets over his.

Elsewhere, Owen asks Alex for an update on the guy that threw himself in front of the car. Alex doesn’t have one. Owen gets overly angry at Alex and sends him off to find out about the patient.

Alas, the suicidal guy is gone. Alex and George go outside to look for him, meanwhile yelling at each other about whose fault it is that the guy disappeared. While they’re yelling at each other, the man throws himself from a window and lands on top of a car near them.

During surgery, Mark and Derek continue bickering at each other. Then the patient starts to bleed and Mark impresses Derek by managing a quick stitch that saves the man’s life.

Alone still, Izzie isn’t looking well. But she gets out of bed anyway, to look at a wedding dress. She passes out on top of it.

Owen and George are in surgery, tending to the man who threw himself from the window. Owen is impressed with George’s quick thinking and tells him that his specialty should be trauma.

In the Chief’s office, Callie’s dad tells Richard that he wants to take Callie home. He’ll give whatever donation is needed to get Richard to issue out the transfer. Richard tells him that Callie is a grown woman. But Daddy Torres gives a long speech about Callie’s still his child and he’ll do anything to protect her, even from herself. And that as a parent you never surrender.

That ties in nicely with the little girl who’s dying. The dad is still freaking out about getting the girl to Mexico. Bailey has been holding on to the girl all day. She tells the man that he needs to let it go now and be with his daughter because she’s terminal and she needs him there. The man gets in bed and holds his daughter. Bailey sits there watching him talk to the little girl as she dies.

Cristina tends to Izzie, who’s no longer pretending she feels well. Izzie says she wanted to be the same person she was before, but she knows she’s not the same person anymore.

Arizona watches from a different room as Callie yells at her father in Spanish. She says, “Keep the money!” (in Spanish) and her father walks off. Arizona walks over to see what happened. Callie explains that her father is cutting her off from her trust fund because she refuses to go back home with him. So she cut him off too. Arizona asks if she’s okay, and Callie says no. Arizona hugs her while Callie cries.

In therapy, Owen is making progress. He makes an analogy between the man who threw himself in front of the car and his relationship with Cristina. He says he feels ashamed for throwing himself in front of Cristina’s car and hurting her. The therapist says it’s progress for him to be able to name what he feels. Now he can begin to deal with it.

Mark and Derek talk to the wife of the man who hit the guy with the car. They tell him that the man suffered some serious injuries but that he’ll be fine. The woman thanks them, but Derek tells her that all the thanks should go to Mark, because he’s one of the few surgeons in the world who might’ve saved the man’s life.

Mark is happy about the compliment, though Derek says it wasn’t a compliment; it was a fact. They bicker some more, but this time sounding more like friends.

Bailey comes to see Arizona before leaving home. Bailey is looking down. She says she didn’t do anything resembling medicine all day. If she’d wanted to hold a child all day, she would’ve stayed home holding her own child. Arizona asks if she’s going to tell her husband about switching to Peds. Bailey doesn’t know what she’s going to tell him. Arizona says that Peds is more than just cutting and that what Bailey did that day was heroic. And that Bailey knows it.

Back in Izzie’s room, Meredith tries on another wedding dress. It looks gorgeous on her. Cristina and Izzie approve. The Chief sees from the window and smiles.

At the bar, Alex sits besides George and tells him that he kicked ass that day. Alex laments the fact that he’s not as good as George under pressure. Izzie’s very sick and he’s not good under pressure. George passes him a beer.

At Meredith’s, she and Lexie are discussing the wedding. Meredith gives Lexie the news that she’ll be a bridesmaid. Lexie is excited. Mark and Derek walk in, talking like best friends again. Meredith and Lexie watch in surprise and Meredith tells Lexie she can stop eating now. “Oh thank, God,” Lexie says.

/End

What did you think of the episode?