Risk

"Nobody's memory is perfect or complete. We jumble things up. We lose track of time. We're in one place, then another, and it all feels like one long, inescapable moment. It's just like my mother used to say: the carousel never stops turning. Nobody's memory is perfect or complete. We jumble things up. We lose track of time. We're in one place, then another, and it all feels like one long, inescapable moment. So what does it mean? What do we take away? Which pieces will haunt us? Hurt us? End us? Inspire us? It's just like my mother used to say. The carousel never stops turning. You can't get off."

- Meredith Grey

 is the eighth episode and mid-season finale of the eleventh season and the 228th overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
Maggie and Meredith disagree with Derek about the best way to approach a patient’s case, which leads to a bigger argument between the couple. Meanwhile, Callie feels responsible when one of her veterans is pushed too far and one doctor’s routine procedure results in a devastating diagnosis.

Full Summary
As Meredith's voice over talks about memory again, there are flashbacks to her youth and her more recent fights with Derek.

Derek and Maggie are arguing in front of Owen in an X-ray viewing room as Meredith walks in. Maggie paged her instead of Webber for a general consult. Maggie needs to go in her patient to debride the infection before it shuts down her heart, her lungs, and all other organs. Also, it's her patient. She only paged Derek for a consult. Derek says that if the ventricle ruptures, it's gonna be catastrophic. Maggie thinks that if Derek goes in first, the patient will die on the table. Derek says that if Maggie goes in first, the patient will come off the table brain dead. Owen concludes they're both racing against the clock. Meredith sides with Maggie. Owen knows what they're gonna do.

In the patient's room, the doctors explain what's going on. Holly's mother is shocked that her daughter needs brain surgery. Owen wants to run a chest CT with contrast to see which infection is most urgent. They'll base their decision on which surgery comes first on that.

Stephanie enters the exam room where April is all set up for an ultrasound. Stephanie explains she's interested in fetal surgery, so Webber let her do some OB ultrasounds. April says it's fine as she applies the gel onto her belly. As April doesn't want to know the sex, Stephanie's gonna do all the looking for her. However, as she talks about the baby, she accidentally spills the sex by saying that he's sitting like a Buddha. Jackson comes in, surprised to see Stephanie there. April tells him the baby's sitting like a Buddha, like last time. Stephanie is alarmed by that and while she compares the ultrasound with the one taken three weeks ago, Jackson informs April he has a busy day. April thanks Stephanie because she had to lie to her husband about not knowing the sex and decides that they're done here, despite of Stephanie's objections. Stephanie stays behind with a worried look.

In Callie's lab, two soldiers, Rick and Jordan, are mastering their virtualreality leg. The one with the best numbers will get a robotic limb first. In order to calm the competitiveness between the two, Owen reminds them they're both gonna get a robotic limb eventually. Callie thinks the competition is what's keeping them going, and besides, they came up with it. Owen warns her not to push them too far, but she's too excited because they're really close to have someone walking again. Jordan wins and high fives Rick, who congratulates him. Callie tells Owen she doesn't need to push the soldiers; they come wired that way. She asks Jordan if he's ready to take a walk.

While talking to Graham and Arizona about a surgery, Herman is enjoying ice cream for breakfast. Life is short and she's perky, so she decided she can eat whatever she wants.

Graham leaves the scrub room to go prep the patient. Herman tells Arizona she's trying to go through every flavor of ice cream before she cashes in. Arizona is nervous, because they're about to operate and she doesn't know if Herman is in any condition to. All she knows is that Herman has a brain tumor. Herman reminds her she only has access to her knowledge, not her life. Nicole does say she's divorced. Now all she has is work, her, and Graham. Now she realises that sounds sad. Nicole doesn't want to share anything about the tumor, because she has a team of neurosurgeons far more experienced than Arizona, so her input is nothing more than an invasion of her privacy. As Arizona keeps asking about the tumor, Herman decides she's not focused enough for surgery and throws her off the case.

Debra introduces herself to Derek, who says he doesn't have time to talk. She was asked to talk to him by the President. She's his special assistant. She's here to talk to him about the leadership of the brain mapping initiative. Derek reminds her they already had that talk, but Debra says the President doesn't like being told no. She knows he's busy, but she'll wait until he can make time for her.

Maggie and Meredith are waiting for Holly's chest CT. Derek is frustrated that they started with the chest.

With Rick and Owen watching, Callie helps Jordan to take a few steps with the robotic leg. It's hard, but he's getting there. He takes a step without anyone holding him. They applaud and he asks to do the stairs set up in the lab. The doctors say it's enough for now, but Rick encourages him to prove them wrong. It goes wrong on the first step. Jordan falls down and hits his head on the metal bar used for walking. Callie and Owen rush to his side. He's bleeding from the head, so Owen calls for neuro.

Amelia and Owen take Jordan up to the OR. Callie wants to come, but Owen tells her to stay with Rick because she's done enough. Rick feels bad. He thinks he pushed Jordan too hard.

Maggie and Meredith ask for more images, frustrating Derek even more. Maggie leaves the room, giving Meredith and Derek time to fight. Derek says Maggie only called her because she thought she could talk him down. Meredith calmly asks the tech for a 3-D pericardial reconstruction.

Stephanie sits down in the cafetaria with Jo, who's observing Alex and Meredith, who're sitting at another table. Meredith is everywhere in her life. Stephanie shows her the scans of April's baby, with whom she thinks something is wrong. Jo takes a look.

Maggie sits down with Alex and Meredith. Alex thinks Meredith and Derek are using her to piss each other off. Callie sits down with them too. She's angry because everything in her life is going wrong and it feels like it's all her fault.

To be continued

Main Cast

 * Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
 * 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
 * Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
 * Jessica Capshaw as Dr. Arizona Robbins
 * Sarah Drew as Dr. April Kepner
 * Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery
 * Caterina Scorsone as Dr. Amelia Shepherd
 * Camilla Luddington as Dr. Jo Wilson
 * Jerrika Hinton as Dr. Stephanie Edwards
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Guest Stars

 * Geena Davis as Dr. Nicole Herman
 * Kelly McCreary as Dr. Margaret Pierce
 * Nicholas D'Agosto as Dr. Graham Madden
 * Titus Makin Jr. as Rick Schultz
 * Michael Roark as Jordan Carter
 * Kimberly Hébert Gregory as Deborah Curzon
 * Lindsay Pearce as Holly

Co-Starring

 * Raquel Gardner as Claire
 * Kyra Da Costa as Intern

Holly

 * Diagnosis:
 * Descending necrotizing mediastinitis
 * Brain abscess


 * Doctors:
 * Margaret Pierce (cardiothoracic surgeon)
 * Derek Shepherd (neurosurgeon)
 * Meredith Grey (general surgeon)
 * Richard Webber (general surgeon)


 * Treatment:
 * IV Antibiotics
 * Chest debriding
 * Steroids

After a root canal, Holly contracted a serious infection which had caused an abscess in her brain and damage to her heart. Maggie and Derek fought over which problem should be tackled first. After scans showed the extent of the infection, they planned to take her into surgery to remove the infection from her chest. Before that could happen, she crashed and had to have a cricothyrotomy put in. Derek then demanded that he be allowed to do the brain surgery first. Despite his insistence, Pierce pulled rank and took her in to operate on her chest. They were concerned after the surgery that she would have brain damage, but she woke up afterward and was able to respond to commands. He scheduled her brain surgery for the following day.

April Kepner

 * Diagnosis:
 * Pregnancy


 * Doctors:
 * Stephanie Edwards (surgical resident)


 * Treatment:

April had an ultrasound to check the progress of her pregnancy.

April and Jackson's Baby

 * Diagnosis:
 * Osteogenesis Imperfecta


 * Doctors:
 * Arizona Robbins (fetal surgeon)
 * Nicole Herman (fetal surgeon)
 * Stephanie Edwards (surgical resident)


 * Treatment:

The ultrasound April had revealed what looked like Osteogenesis Imperfecta in the fetus. Herman predicted that if the baby survived birth, he would live only a few days or weeks.

Rick Schultz

 * Diagnosis:
 * Above-knee amputation


 * Doctors:
 * Callie Torres (orthopedic surgeon)
 * Owen Hunt (trauma surgeon)


 * Treatment:
 * Robotic limb trial

Rick was one of the veterans in Callie and Owen's prosthetic limb project. By the end of the day, he was walking on the leg.

Jordan Carter

 * Diagnosis:
 * Above-knee amputation
 * Multi-focal hemorrhage
 * Edema


 * Doctors:
 * Callie Torres (orthopedic surgeon)
 * Owen Hunt (trauma surgeon)


 * Treatment:
 * Robotic limb trial
 * Craniotomy

While trying to walk in the robotic limb, Jordan, 22, fell and hit his head, causing a brain bleed. He was taken into surgery to repair the bleed.

Herman's Patient

 * Diagnosis:


 * Doctors:
 * Nicole Herman (fetal surgeon)
 * Arizona Robbins (fetal surgeon)
 * Graham Madden (fetal surgeon)


 * Treatment:
 * Surgery

Herman, Arizona, and Graham prepared to operate on a pregnant woman. When Arizona expressed concern about Herman operating, Herman took her off the case.

Nicole Herman

 * Diagnosis:
 * Astrocytoma


 * Doctors:
 * Dr. Weaver (neurosurgeon)
 * Amelia Shepherd (neurosurgeon)


 * Treatment:

Arizona lied in order to have Herman's scans sent over from her doctor's office. After Amelia saw them, she took interest. She said the tumor was beautiful and eventually told Arizona that she believed she could remove it.

Herman's Other Patient

 * Diagnosis:
 * Pregnancy


 * Doctors:
 * Nicole Herman (fetal surgeon)
 * Arizona Robbins (fetal surgeon)


 * Treatment:
 * Emergency c-section

Herman got paged for an emergency c-section. It went well.

Notes and Trivia

 * This episode's title originated from the song , originally sung by Deftones.
 * This episode scored million viewers.