Grey's Anatomy Recap: 5.13 'Stairway to Heaven'

5.13 Stairway to Heaven

Written by: Mark Wilding

Directed by: Allison Liddi-Brown

Original airdate: January 22, 2009

Ellen Pompeo took the day off from doing the voice over narration for last night’s episode and passed the baton over to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who served as our otherworldly voice of wisdom.

The episode begins with Izzie brushing her teeth and of course Denny’s there watching her. We move on to Meredith who’s watching the monitors, and one can guess she’s waiting on William to crash. William, meanwhile, is still banging his head and bleeding profusely. His monitors eventually begin to beep and nurses rush to his aid. Sadie appears and asks Meredith if she’s going to check in on her patient, but Meredith pretty much tells her to go away and pretend nothing weird is going on.

Meanwhile, Izzie is still trying to get rid of Denny who tells her that he’s there for her and he can’t go.

Back at Seattle Grace, Alex assures Bailey that Jackson is now at the very top of the donor list, but unfortunately time is not on their side and Bailey’s worried it will be too late.

Meredith managed to stabilize William – somewhat. Bailey’s there and Meredith tells her that William is a match for Jackson. Bailey looks somewhat conflicted by the information.

Elsewhere in Seattle Grace, Lexie and Mark wander into the on-call room, presumably not for a nap.

And when we return to Meredith and Bailey they’re in the middle of a discussion regarding the situation with William. Meredith wants to convince Bailey that letting William die is the best case scenario for all parties, but Bailey ends the conversation by stating that they’re doctors not executioners.

Meanwhile, the interns, who seem to not really do anything besides sit around and talk to each other, are lamenting the noises coming out of the on-call room. It seems they’d like to get some actual sleep because doing nothing at all is rather exhausting. Alas, the on-call room is currently in use by Lexie and Mark. But noises of pleasure suddenly turn into male noises of pain and the interns look at each other like, “Uh oh,” and scurry away.

Inside, Lexie looks on in horror as Mark cries out in pain. Oops, she broke his penis. Time to page Callie.

Over at Casa de Cristina, Cristina is watching Owen slumber away. She gets up eventually and slams the door shut. Owen wakes up at the sound.

Back at Seattle Grace, Bailey assigns Izzie and Alex to Jackson. Time is clicking and they have to do their best to keep him alive for as long as possible. Denny, however, is at hand to give Izzie some ominous warnings. Arizona and the Chief arrive and tell Izzie and Alex to find a dialysis machine, which might give Jackson a few extra hours. But maybe not.

Bailey starts to lose her cool, saying she needs to get off the case cause the boy is going to die and she doesn’t want to watch it happen. Arizona tells her to get some sleep, but Bailey refuses.

Dr. Shepherd arrives and greets Meredith lovingly and enthusiastically, and Meredith notes that he’s in a good mood. He tells her that his liked her and that she thinks Mer is good for him. He looks rather thrilled by it all. Meredith would probably be happier if she weren’t so preoccupied by the serial killer situation.

Lexie manages to track Callie down by paging her and does a fine job of explaining the broken penis emergency without really saying it out right. Callie gets the picture though and they hurry off to examine the broken … bone.

Owen finds Cristina and starts to apologize for getting in her shower with his clothes on and then passing out naked on her bed. Cristina isn’t anxious to talk about it and leaves it at that.

William isn’t doing so good and Meredith asks him if he’s sure he doesn’t want her to page Derek. William guesses correctly that Derek is her boyfriend and says he’s got good taste. Then he tells her a story about lemons. That before he died his grandfather said that he smelled lemons and so now William is waiting to smell lemons as a signal that he’s about to die. But he also says that his grandfather was a liar.

The Chief is talking to George! He’s telling George to see if he can track down a donor in the hospital, but to be sensitive to the families. George gets all of like two lines there.

Derek runs into Cristina and shows her the ring that his mom gave him in last week’s episode. He tells Cristina that he’s planning to propose to Meredith and he thinks it’s time for them to wrap up their little argument because Meredith will need someone to freak out to when he pops the question. But Cristina is still being stubborn.

Izzie is watching over Jackson and tells his mom, Melinda, to take a break and get something to eat. Denny is still in the room and Izzie tells him to go away, but he insists he can’t because he’s there for her. This goes on for a while, the back and forth of it all. Finally, Izzie asks him what he means, and Denny gives her a hint by telling her she’s the doctor and to figure it out.

Meredith and Cristina continue their awkwardness. Finally, Cristina asks Meredith about the serial killer and Meredith says she’s got it under control, which makes Cristina suspicious. So Cristina goes to check on William, to find that he’s doing quite poorly. She asks if Meredith has paged Shepherd but Meredith launches into a speech about how the man’s organs will save the little boy and Cristina looks like maybe she wants to sympathize, but William decides now is a good time to change his mind about the whole thing and tells them that he wants to live. Cristina hurries to page Shepherd.

Back in Jackson’s room, Arizona, Izzie and Alex are examining Jackson, while Denny is talking to Izzie. He’s talking so loudly that Izzie can’t hear Arizona. He tells Izzie that she needs to figure it out and Izzie ends up yelling, “Will you just tell me already!” Arizona and Alex stare at her in confusion and Arizona tells Izzie to take a break.

The interns are busy discussing the hot subject du jour: Mark’s broken penis. Good news travels fast, it seems. Sadie asks Lexie if it was Callie that boke Mark’s penis, but Lexie blows up at her and says she wouldn’t tell her even if she knew because they’re not friends.

In William’s room, Derek is angry at Meredith for not paging him sooner. He’s intent on undoing whatever damage Meredith caused.

Jackson, meanwhile, is getting worse and Bailey makes a decision.

Callie called up Owen to help with the broken penis issue and Owen tells Mark that they need to operate. Lexie drops by to check in on him but Mark tells her to go away.

George makes another appearance, this time to tell the Chief that he found a donor. Or at least there’s a guy that’s dying that could potentially be a donor.

Bailey’s on a mission to find organs as well. She enters the OR and begs Shepherd to put down the scalpel and let William die. Derek asks, “Am I an executioner or a surgeon? It’s your call.” In the end, Derek lets Bailey decide whether or not to save William, and eventually Bailey tells him to pick up the scalpel.

The Chief, meanwhile, approaches the dying man’s wife and asks her for permission to take the man’s organs but the wife is too distraught with sorrow and asks him to leave because she can’t handle any more. But the Chief returns later to make a stronger case.

The interns are still discussing Mark’s penis and who the mystery woman might be. Lexie lashes out at them and tells them to shut up. They begin to suspect that Lexie is the woman in question when Sadie pipes up and says that it was she. Lexie looks at her gratefully.

Izzie has another face-off with Denny, during which she tries to figure out what he is. She says she can touch him and feel him. He tells her to think like a scientist and she says scientists deal in facts and the fact of the matter is that she can feel him there. They go back and forth, Denny continues to be vague and Izzie asks what’s happening and admits she’s scared.

Jackson’s dying while Shepherd and Cristina have managed to save William.

Izzie takes Melinda (Jackson’s mom) out of the room and tries to calm her down while Bailey and Arizona do what they can. Izzie says miracles happen every day. The mom insists that she needs to be there for her son and Izzie tells her that she is there for him. And then she realizes that this is what Denny meant all along by, “I’m there for you.”

Bailey calls for Melinda and tells her that this is it, that Jackson is dying and she should hold him and let him go.

The mom holds the boy and tells him it’s okay to go. Hope seems slim. But the Chief runs in and announces that he’s got organs and to get Jackson ready for surgery.

Meanwhile, Izzie runs outside, knowing finally that what Denny’s been trying to tell her is that she’s sick. Denny appears and Izzie gets mad that he didn’t tell her sooner. He says he didn’t know there was a chance that she might get better. She says she hates him and tells him to leave. Denny says he can leave because now she knows, but that he doesn’t know if he can ever come back. Izzie says she chooses life, and insists he leave. They kiss and then Denny is gone.

William is surprised to wake up alive. He starts to tell Meredith that he’d meant to manipulate her all along, but Meredith says that she knows he was just scared. He asks her to be there for his execution.

Owen tracks down Cristina again and tells her that he’d planned a real date and that he’d like another chance. Cristina tells him that he’s got some big issues. He asks if she’d go out with him anyway and she says yes.

Lexie visits Mark again after his operation. He tries to get her to leave but Lexie stands her ground. She says she has a good friend guarding the door and that she’s going to get in bed with him and pet his hair because that’s what she likes done when she’s hurt. And she does just that.

Outside, now good friend, Sadie, smiles as she guards the door.

Bailey and the Chief watch over Jackson after the operation. Bailey isn’t sure if the boy will even wake up because they took so long to find the organs. She tells the Chief that she crossed a line that day. The Chief says he did the same. And then Bailey starts to weep.

William’s back in prison and it’s time for his execution. He walks into the room and searches the crowd for Meredith. He finds her sitting in the back. The execution begins and Meredith watches on. Before he dies, William says that he smells lemons and realizes his grandfather hadn’t been lying.

Back at Seattle Grace, Jackson wakes up and asks for water, much to the overwhelming joy and relief of everyone around.

Derek is waiting for Meredith outside the prison and she approaches him and says that she knows he doesn’t understand her. That she’d come because she wanted to show him compassion … and that it had been horrible. She cries and Derek holds her.

Then Cristina opens her door to find Derek in the hallway. He tells her that Meredith is in the car and won’t stop crying. He says that she went to the execution.

Cristina rushes downstairs and gets in the car.

Derek watches on as Cristina and Meredith (hopefully) patch things up.

And there we fade to black.

Overall, I thought ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was a great conclusion to the story arc. The doctors faced some tough decisions but managed to make the right ones. The little boy gets to live, the bad guy got his punishment. Meredith’s compassion was unwavering, and despite Derek’s resentment, he really stood by Meredith in the end. Cristina and Mer look ready to put their argument behind them. I look forward to a fresh start for them, particularly with Derek’s proposal looming on the horizon. Cristina and Owen are heading toward something, as are Lexie and Mark. Izzie knows she’s sick, so now we get to see where that leads and how Alex deals with the news. And maybe George will get more lines in future episodes.

What did you think? Solid episode or were you expecting something more than what we got?

Grey’s continues all-new with 5.14 “Beat Your Heart Out” in two weeks, and ABC is promoting it as the long-awaited Grey’s Anatomy/Private Practice crossover event. Can’t wait!