What is It About Men

"There are distinct differences between male and female brains."

- Derek Shepherd

"Female brains have a larger hippocampus which usually makes them better at retention and memory."

- Richard Webber

"Male brains have a bigger parietal cortex which helps when fending off an attack."

- Alex Karev

"Male brains confront challenges differently than female brains."

- Jackson Avery

"Women are hardwired to communicate with language, detail, empathy. Men.. not so much."

- Mark Sloan

"It doesn't mean that we're any less capable of emotion."

- Owen Hunt

"We can talk about our feelings. It's just that most of the time we'd really rather not."

- Derek Shepherd

"Be a man. People say it all the time."

- Alex Karev

"But what does that even mean?"

- Owen Hunt

"Is it about strength?"

- Richard Webber

"Is it about sacrifice?"

- Owen Hunt

"Is it about winning?"

- Jackson Avery

"Maybe it's simpler than that."

- Mark Sloan

"You have to know when not to man up. Sometimes it takes a real man to set his ego aside, admit defeat, and simply start all over again."

- Derek Shepherd

The doctors of Seattle Grace are called upon to man up when a stampede at a comic book convention causes an influx of colorful characters in the ERÑblurring the lines of fantasy and reality; Mark shows his softer side with baby Sofia when Arizona and Callie go out of town, but at work he continues to give Jackson a hard time; Ben returns to the ER, only to find that Nurse Eli has moved in on Bailey; and the male doctors bond over their frustrations with women. thumb|300px|right

Full Summary
Meredith wants to talk about Derek's surgical cases, but he's not having it. He doesn't want to have that conversation every day because she chose to leave neurosurgery. We then hear from each of the men in the cast, who are taking turns narrating this evening, about how men's brains are different than women's.

Alex is running late for a surgery with Derek. He's worried Derek will be upset, so Webber tells Alex to tell Derek he had an appointment "with Mayfield in 22." Webber says Derek will understand. Sure enough, when Derek lectures Alex for his tardiness in the O.R., Alex says the thing about the appointment with Mayfield and Derek says he understands, and lets Alex finish the operation.

Webber is looking for cases when he finds Sloan watching Owen in his new office. He thinks Owen isn't cut out for the job. Owen shares the news that there was a human stampede at a comic convention, and that's when some colorful characters start coming into the E.R. The chief, desperate for a case, claims a "sexy zombie nurse" as his own.

Alex treats a guy who's proud to have "battle wounds" but when Alex tells him he'll need X-rays the gets worried he'll never walk again. Alex tells him he'll be fine, but has a couple of broken toes. Meanwhile, the chief is discovering that all of the sexy zombie nurse's cuts and scrapes appear to be fake -- part of her costume. Still, she's not conscious.

Avery gets a patient whose ear was ripped off when it got caught in someone else's costume. The commotion at the convention was because the first 15 people there were to receive some kind of limited-edition "Doctor Who" tardis. The ear guy is relieved and says he's glad they at least got the tardis they went for, which his friend is holding. His friend corrects him, saying, "I got the tardis."

Alex's patient has a nerd crush on Kepner as soon as he sees her, saying she has the skin and face of a princess from middle earth.

The ear patient can't feel his legs and Derek orders an MRI. He then walks into the hallway to find Nurse Eli and Dr. Ward, the anesthesiologist, arguing over the surgery patient from earlier. The epidural apparently went wrong the patient lost spinal fluid. Eli and Dr. Ward are almost ready to go to blows when Derek breaks it up. Derek then tells Dr. Ward not to "fight about Bailey" on work time, and the news that Eli and Bailey are together is news to Dr. Ward. He's not pleased.

Owen is tied up with paperwork in his office while everyone else is working on urgent patients. He's frustrated.

Alex is about to go into surgery with Derek when he asks whether the operation could count as two because he needs to log more surgeries. This enrages Derek, who kicks Alex out. Alex goes to the skills lab to complain about Derek. There, he finds Webber and Avery practicing microsurgery on grapes.

Derek takes Owen out to his new house, where he's building his deck. Owen thinks everyone in hospital is waiting for him to fall on his face, and Derek reassures him -- by telling him they've all got money on it. Derek bet $100 that Owen will make it beyond six months, so he tells him to "buck up."

Back at his apartment, Sloan is watching the baby alone for a few days while Callie and Arizona are off at a conference. They're calling every 20 minutes to make sure the baby's OK and Sloan says she's fine, then turns to see she's not laying on the couch. She rolled off. She's fine, Sloan smiles.

Sloan brings the baby to the hospital and wants Alex to check out. He's worried because she hasn't cried since she fell off the couch the night before.

The ear patient's friend has found the missing ear, but the man is still more worried about the tardis. He asks his friend if he can at least keep it in their living room so he can see it regularly, and the friend says, "Actually..." The ear guy flips out, thinking his friend sold it, and Derek and Avery have to restrain him in bed, again checking his feet for movement. There is none.

Sloan is still nervous about the baby, but Alex says she's fine.

Carter, Alex's nerd patient who has a crush on Kepner, is standing in the E.R. on crutches when he sees Kepner pass by. Alex tells Carter he'll give him Kepner's number if he'll leave, but Carter wants to stay. He finally blurts out that he has chest pains, knowing Alex will have to admit him as a patient for observation.

Kepner is examining a large man, who's annoyed he's at the hospital after a run-in with some teenagers who were on his lawn. Carter is watching Kepner, hoping she's OK, and the man gets up and goes berserk, pushing doctors, including Kepner and Alex, and demanding he be allowed to leave. Carter musters up the courage to go stand up to the large man, who promptly kicks Carter to the ground, kicks him and hits Carter with one of his own crutches. Owen, who just happens to be walking around the corner, punches the man in the face.

Later, Webber, Sloan and Derek want to know about Owen punching a guy, and Owen explains.

Alex gives Carter over to Webber, who's been wanting something to do. After explaining Carter's injuries, Webber knows it'll take a while to fix him up. Alex gets ready to leave because he doesn't need trauma hours, but Webber tells him he's not going anywhere. Then Webber has one of the nurses crank up him surgery music.

In surgery, Dr. Ward is still about the earlier thing about Bailey. Sloan nudges Avery out of the way so he can work on the ear that needs repair. Derek sees this and invites Avery over to help on the spinal decompression. Derek asks Avery if he'd consider neuro. Afterward, Avery asks Sloan if he can do he work himself next time. Sloan tells Avery he's not ready.

That night, Dr. Ward, Owen Avery and Derek are working on Derek's deck, hammering nails and sawing lumber.

Webber is getting deep into thoughts about life and mortality and living in the moment when Carter's heart stops. Alex works pretty quickly to get his heart beat back and the chief asks Alex if he's "feeling the joy." He is.

Alex tells Avery he's going to the lab to learn Webber's signature stitch, but Avery has something he's supposed to help Bailey with. Alex tells Avery to grow a pair and get out of it. When Bailey summons Avery, he says he can't make it because he has an appointment with "Mayfield in 22." Kepner looks rattled and Bailey tells Avery there are some things she doesn't need to know.

Alex has his Africa paper done and Webber takes it from him. When Avery shows up in the lab with Webber and Alex, he explains that he used the Mayfield excuse on Bailey, and Webber starts to laugh hysterically.

Sloan calls Alex over and says the baby still hasn't cried. Alex says it because she likes Sloan and he's a good dad. Then he pinches the baby's leg so she'll start crying, which she does, and he leaves.

Dr. Ward gets fired up watching Eli and Bailey hold hands. Derek tells him, "I guess I'll be seeing you at the deck tonight."

Carter gets his shot to say hi to Kepner when she thanks him for standing up to the crazy patient. Carter's opening line: "I was a Hobbit." Kepner says she's not familiar and thanks him again before walking away. A female patient in a wheelchair next to Carter's can't believe Kepner was not familiar with Hobbits, and Carter says hi to her instead. She gives him a smile.

In the ear surgery, Avery tells Sloan he'd like to leave their surgery early the next day so he can go into surgery with Derek, who's going to let him take the lead. Avery tells Sloan he was at Derek's deck the night before and this suddenly motivates Sloan to let Avery sew the ear patient's ear back on.

Owen goes into the room of the man who went nuts and says he's not sorry for what we did and that he'll defend his actions in court if he has to because the man was being unnecessarily violent in the hospital and had already hit a girl (one of the teens who was on his lawn) with a beer bottle.

Avery and Alex discover that "Mayfield in 22" is Dr. Mayfield, an erectile dysfunction specialist, whose office is Number 22. Webber comes by and hands Alex back a marked-up version of his report, calling it a "good first draft." He also suggests that they not hang around Mayfield's office too long because people will get the wrong idea.

The ear guy's friend comes back after the successful surgery and explains that he sold the tardis because his friend is broke and has a house full of such collectibles. He got $7,500 for it.

Alex is upset that his paper sucked and Avery tells him to grab his coat. They arrive at Derek's deck. Alex apologizes to Derek for seeming disrespectful. Derek hands him a hammer.

Sloan then shows up and tells Derek he can't steal Avery. He tells Avery to get in the car. This develops into a big, deep conversation between Sloan and Derek, and Owen volunteers to hold the baby while they talk. Sloan asks Derek if his name ever came up with Webber asked who should be chief. Derek says Sloan just had a baby, but adds that Webber didn't ask him. Sloan asks what he would've said, and Derek again says that Sloan just had a baby. Derek then explains that a few weeks ago he thought he knew where everything was going, and now it's all fallen apart. He tells Sloan he misses Meredith so much he doesn't know if he's going to make it.

Owen knocks a beer over while bringing the baby back to be changed, and when the bottle rolls all the way off the edge of the deck, Derek realizes he's going to have to call his contractor.

Music

 * "Devil's Taken Her Man" - Miss Li 
 * "Tokyo!" - Josh Ritter
 * "Cheap Music" - Handsome Furs 
 * "Dear Mr. President" - Fitz and The Tantrums
 * "Future Starts Slow" - The Kills 
 * "Goshen" - Beirut 
 * "Hold On To Your Friends" - Toro Y Moi 
 * "That Is To Say" - Opus Orange ft  Lauren Hillman

This episode's title originated from the song , originally sung by Amy Winehouse.

Quotes

 * 3 quotes from the episode.

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 Ramirez as Dr. Calliope 'Callie' Torres
 * Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan
 * Chyler Leigh as Dr. Alexandra '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

 * Jason George as Dr. Ben Warren
 * Daniel Sunjata as Nurse Eli
 * Todd Buonopane as Greg
 * Matt Doherty as Carter
 * Jeremy Howard as Keith Htichens
 * Jayden Lund as ______________

Co-Starring

 * Kosha Patel as Tia
 * Denice Sealy as Nurse
 * Gordon James as Nurse #2
 * Nicole Cummins as Paramedic Nicole
 * Brie Eley as Hospital Administrator