I Will Survive

"We've all heard the same. It's one of those things we've learned in seventh grade science class. Adapt or die. Adapting isn't easy, though. You have to fight your competition, fend off their attacks, and sometimes, you have to kill. You do what you need to do to survive. Adapt or die. As many times as we've heard it, the lesson doesn't get easier. Problem is we're human. We want more than just to survive. We want love. We want success. We want to be the best that we can be. So we fight like hell to get those things. Anything else feels like death."

- Meredith Grey

 is the twenty-first episode of the seventh season and the 147th overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
Personal and work pressures are adding up and have Meredith visibly on edge, Owen conducts formal interviews for the Chief Resident position, Cristina grows increasingly defiant, Alex and Lucy's undefined relationship gets tested, and Jackson suddenly backs out of the Webber's diabetes trial.

Full Summary
Cristina begins the night by denying Hunt sex in order to save him from having a conflict of interest in choosing a chief resident. Final interviews are happening. She wants him to see her as a capable candidate and not his hot, naked wife.

Alex is giving Meredith the cold shoulder. She asks if he's going to tell Hunt about her clinical trial. He's annoyed that she didn't even wish him luck and walks away, saying, "I guess it's every freakin' man for himself.

Lexie is trying to pump Avery up for his interview. Fields tells Alex she got a job offer at Baylor. He thinks she should take it.

Meredith shows up to the hospital nervous for their interview with a social worker. Zola cries when Derek hands her over to Meredith. Arizona, who's going to do a minor procedure for a hernia, soothes the baby with a pacifier.

Alex is seeing off one of his African patients as Bailey watches. The girl's older sister is having some stomach pain and falls to the ground.

Teddy and Henry are out for a run and she tells him about her boyfriend's offer to go with him to Germany. She wants his advice. She lists him as a "complication" when listing the various factors. She's trying to convince him to look at other women running. He doesn't bite.

Alex's new patient is 17 years old and eight months pregnant. She didn't want to tells anyone she was pregnant because she wanted to make the trip with her sister. The baby is small.

April is walking Hunt through a system she's established for keeping track of patients' progress.

Bailey and Alex are operating on the 17-year-old and they discover the baby is outside the uterus and tangle in the girl's intestine. Alex takes the baby aside and quickly gets it breathing.

Henry talks to the chief about getting some of his trial medication for diabetes.

Callie asks Hunt for a surgery so she can remember why she loves surgery. She hears a baby crying and it's Sofia. Sloan brought the baby. Callie says the baby is crack to her and she asks Sloan to take the baby out of her arms so she can get to work.

Bailey, Fields and Arizona get the 17-year-old fixed up and Alex says she might be fine for now but won't get the follow-up care she needs. Arizona suggests he take her spot working in Africa.

Avery goes to the chief and tells him he wants to drop out of the trial. He says he wants to focus on surgery, but doesn't seem all that convincing.

Cristina is running a test on her patient and finds something surprising, but tells the nurse they should not call Teddy. The patient, it turns out, doesn't have cancer -- he has a tree growing in his lung. He may have inhaled a seed. April is upset that Cristina didn't follow procedure. Cristina tells April they should do the procedure without telling Teddy, and in exchange Cristina will put in a good word with Owen for April.

Andrew, Teddy's boyfriend, shows up and there's an awkward exchange with him and Henry, who was talking to the chief about getting into his clinical trial. The chief puts Henry in, saying he needs all the help he can get if he's going up against Andrew Perkins for Teddy's heart.

Fields catches Alex talking to the clinic in Africa. He's considering going. He asks her what she thinks, but she says she really doesn't think it matters what she thinks.

Cristina and Alex share an elevator. He tells her "chicks suck." He explains that Fields was upset that he was thinking about the job in Africa.

Lexie sees Sloan holding Sofia and surrounded by fawning nurses. She asks Cristina what it is about a man holding a baby that makes someone like her want to spend the rest of her life with him. Cristina tells Lexie that the nurses are looking at the baby and Lexie is the only one who is looking at Sloan.

Cristina sees April, who seems nervous as they walk to their patient's room. When they get there, Teddy and the chief are waiting. The man tells Teddy and the chief he wants Cristina to do the surgery because she was the first of three doctors to actually figure out what was wrong with him. He also points out that April suggested he might have cancer (he overheard her saying they should run a test to "rule out cancer").

The chief thinks Cristina should do the surgery, which upsets Teddy who thinks she should be suspended for insubordination. He says he'll determine disciplinary action for Cristina but won't take it out on the patient. Teddy will observe and April will assist. The chief tells Cristina he's going to make sure Hunt takes this into consideration in his evaluation for chief resident.

Meredith is nervous about Zola's surgery and about the social worker's evaluation. Derek says everything is going to be fine, which makes Meredith mad.

Lexie walks into a dark room where Sloan is holding the baby, who is sleeping. He offers to let her hold the baby. She tells Sloan she hopes he's happy, and he says he is. He has everything he's ever wanted. Almost.

Cristina and April are in surgery, with Teddy observing. Cristina pulls out the tiny tree. She wants to keep it. It survived in a hostile environment. April says she can't keep it and it must go to pathology, per protocol. Cristina tells April she's not going to be chief resident no matter how many boxes she checks.

Arizona asks Alex if he's considering Africa. Then she asks if he's in love with Lucy because she doesn't want him to pull an Arizona and go running back to the girl he left behind.

Derek tells Sloan he's worried he and Meredith won't get the waiver they need to adopt Zola. Meanwhile, the social worker is asking Meredith questions. Meredith struggles to answer the questions. She finally breaks down and says, "I'm a surgeon, and I'm a good surgeon, and I want to be a good mother." She says she's ready to learn.

Hunt and Cristina argue as he tells her she shouldn't pretend to be an attending. He then tells her she's not going to be chief resident. He says she's not cut out for the job because it's more administrative than she thinks and it's something she'll eventually resent.

Alex tells Lucy he's not taking the job in Africa because she's "a factor." She tells him to stop and says he was right when he said career comes first. She tells him she took the job -- not at Baylor, in Africa. She tells him it wasn't personal.

Alex tells Cristina that Lucy stole the job from him. He gets a double whiskey. April shows up and gets a scotch. She tells Cristina the rules are there for a reason and she (April) wouldn't have killed a woman if she'd followed the steps. She tells Cristina that she can pretend the rules don't matter, but they do.

Hunt tells Avery that leaving the chief's trial was such a bonehead move that he had to learn more, so he looked into it and realized that Avery didn't want to stay on the trial because it might win the Harper Avery award (which was named after his grandfather). He knows Avery dropped out because he knew that if his name was on it, he'd ruin the chief's chances of winning. Hunt tells Avery he respects him not wanting to succeed on his name alone, but he should never let it hold him back.

Henry finds Teddy and tells her he got his job back. He tells her he soon won't need her insurance anymore. Andrew is waiting for her. They're going to dinner to celebrate the fact that she's decided to go to Germany. Henry asks her for a divorce. She seems bothered, but agrees and leaves for dinner.

At the end of the night, Lexie watches Sloan, Callie and Arizona leave with the baby. Avery tells Lexie he's out of the running for chief resident, but he has her and that's all he needs.

Meredith is watching over Zola and picks her up.

Cristina and Alex commiserate at the bar over many drinks. She says Meredith is going to get the chief resident spot. He's got tears in his eyes. Hunt shows up and Cristina gives him a big kiss. Alex downs the last of another shot of whiskey and clumsily blurts out, "Meredith messed with the Alzheimer's trial."

Main Cast

 * Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
 * Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang
 * Justin Chambers as Dr. Alex Karev
 * Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
 * James Pickens, Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber
 * Sara Ramírez as Dr. Callie Torres
 * Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan
 * Chyler Leigh as Dr. Lexie Grey
 * Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
 * Jessica Capshaw as Dr. Arizona Robbins
 * Kim Raver as Dr. Teddy Altman
 * Sarah Drew as Dr. April Kepner
 * Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Guest Stars

 * Rachael Taylor as Dr. Lucy Fields
 * James Tupper as Dr. Andrew Perkins
 * Wilmer Calderon as Raul Aranda
 * Scott Foley as Henry Burton

Co-Starring

 * Toni Torres as Annette Aranda
 * Anthony Keyvan as Miguel Aranda
 * Denice Sealy as Bronchoscopy Nurse
 * Ochuwa Oghie as Lebo
 * Anehita Okojie as Abena
 * Janora McDuffie as Social Worker Janet

Notes and Trivia
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 * This episode's title originated from the song I Will Survive, originally sung by Gloria Gaynor.
 * This episode scored 9.63 million viewers.

Quotes

 * Meredith: I'm a surgeon and I'm a good surgeon and I want to be a good mother. Honestly, I don't know much about it, but I'm ready to learn and I'm a fast learner. And I will do whatever it takes to be a good mom.


 * April: I missed a little step, one simple step. When we follow the protocols we don't skip steps. People live, simple as that. You know you're right. I probably won't be chief resident, but the checklists work. You can't tell me they don't.


 * Owen: It's what you are, just be excellent at what you are.


 * Meredith: Okay, what if the social worker wants to ask me about the time I spent sleeping around Europe?
 * Cristina: Oh, that's easy. You were absorbing other cultures.
 * Meredith: Okay, and what about the fact that my mother had early onset Alzheimer's and may have passed the gene on to me?
 * Cristina: It makes you more appreciative of the gift of life.
 * Meredith: I put my hand on a bomb in a body. She could think that was …
 * Cristina: Suicidal? No, it was brave
 * Meredith: I told a shooter to shoot me.
 * Cristina: Change the subject.