If Tomorrow Never Comes

"A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. “Never leave that till tomorrow,” he said, “Which you can do today.” This is the man who discovered electricity. You’d think more of us would listen to what he had to say. I don’t know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I’d say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure. Fear of pain. Fear of rejection. Sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you’re wrong? What if you make a mistake you can’t undo? Whatever it is we're afraid of, one thing holds true: that by the time the pain of not doing the thing gets worse than the fear of doing it, it can feel like we're carrying around a giant tumor. And you thought I was speaking metaphorically. The early bird catches the worm; a stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we haven't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to ‘seize the day'. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore, until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst most intractable mistake beats the hell out of never trying."

- Meredith Grey

 is the sixth episode of the first season and the sixth overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
All of the interns are in awe when a woman comes in with a record breaking tumor, but it is so far advanced that the woman's prognosis is not good. Now that Bailey knows about Meredith and Derek's affair, their jobs are in jeopardy, and she strongly advises Meredith to end it. Meanwhile, Cristina and Burke's secret relationship gets more complicated, and when no one else can be reached, Izzie has to perform a major procedure on her own.

Full Summary
Meredith assists Derek on a patient with Parkinson's. Their working relationship is now strained, though - not by their rediscovered passion, but by Bailey's knowledge of it. Bailey doesn't want Derek giving Meredith any special treatment. Despite the fact that Derek is technically Bailey's boss, Bailey's threat to keep Meredith out of surgery is enough to get Derek change his attitude around Meredith in public - and not for the better. He's now intentionally harsh on her. Other than Cristina & Bailey, no one else knows about Meredith and Derek - particularly George, who's crush for Meredith still rages on.

Alex hasn't been himself lately. As Izzie notes, he actually seems sincere. Annie, a patient with a 70-pound tumor, takes a liking to Alex's bedside manner, not to mention the fact that "he's just so much fun to look at." But when he slips up and shows his true colors - she overhears him make a snide comment about her when he doesn't think she's listening - Burke tosses Alex from the case and replaces him with Cristina (even though Alex rightly notes that his flippant attitude towards patients isn't any different than hers). Cristina and George then get the joyous opportunity to hold up the 70-pound tumor during a 14-hour surgery.

Alex gets to watch over the surgical floor with Izzie, which is left understaffed as so many doctors, nurses, and interns are involved in the tumor surgery that whole day. But Izzie winds up all alone watching over the floor when Alex forgets to change the battery on his pager and doesn't get a single page from her. The floor gets busier and busier, and things reach a boiling point for Izzie when a heart patient starts dying from a massive clot that has to be removed immediately. Izzie is the only doctor around, so she has to do it herself - cut open the patient's chest and reach in with her own hands and remove the clot from the heart. It's a truly heroic maneuver, and she does it successfully. But Izzie doesn't have time to revel in her moment, as she has to ream Alex for abandoning her.

Meredith is quite upset that Derek has gone from being super-nice to her being a bit of a "jackass" (in her words) to her on the Parkinson's case. A procedure exists that could potentially ease the Parkinson's patients tremors, but the patient is reluctant to undergo any brain surgery - particularly one that occurs while the patient is still awake. Meredith strongly sympathizes with the patient's daughter, since she's in a similar position with Ellis, so Meredith wants to encourage the patient to undergo the procedure. But Derek, with Bailey's threat firmly on his mind, disagrees with her rather harshly. Derek comes around, though, and does talk to the patient about his options again. The patient still declines, but then Meredith has some words of her own for him! And he changes his mind. After the surgery, Meredith and Derek reach an agreement - no special treatment and no acting like a jackass just to appease Bailey.

The surgery to remove the massive tumor is even more complicated than they had imagined. Annie is losing too much blood, but there is little they can do as the tumor is just too entwined in her. Alex, watching the surgery from outside the OR sees trouble forming and runs to get as much blood as he can. But when he returns she's already gone. He's left there, holding the bags of blood in hand, looking down at the lifeless patient who he insulted earlier. It's a moment for him, and one that doesn't go unnoticed by Meredith, as she watches from the Gallery.

Burke finds Cristina in the on call room, where she's recovering from holding the tumor up all day. He admits to doing her a favor getting her in on the surgery, but she isn't as grateful as he'd thought - a "favor" shouldn't leave her in so much back pain. They don't talk much, though, before the sexual tension between them snaps, and they're in each other's arms.

Main Cast

 * Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
 * Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang
 * Katherine Heigl as Dr. Izzie Stevens
 * Justin Chambers as Dr. Alex Karev
 * T.R. Knight as Dr. George O'Malley
 * Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
 * James Pickens Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber (credit only)
 * Isaiah Washington as Dr. Preston Burke
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Guest Stars

 * Bruce Weitz as Edward Levangie
 * Alex S. Alexander as Annie Connors
 * Jane Galloway Heitz as Annie's Mom
 * Lara Phillips as Mary Levangie

Co-Starring

 * Steven W. Bailey as Anesthesiologist
 * Sean Palmer as Intern
 * Patricia Bethune as Nurse Ginger
 * Yvonne Farrow as Heart Patient's Wife
 * John O'Brien as CT Tech
 * Yolanda Snowball as Physical Therapist
 * Walter Wong as Echo Tech
 * Moe Irvin as Nurse Tyler
 * Noelle McCutchen as Nurse Vivian
 * Sharmila Devar as Female Intern

Edward Levangie

 * Diagnosis:
 * Doctors:
 * Treatment

Quotes

 * Bailey: You see this, what's happening right here? This is the problem with you sleeping with my boss. Not whether or not you know him before, but how it affects my day. And me standing here talking to you about your sex life affects my day. And the longer this little fling goes on, the more favors you get over the others, who are fighting tooth and nail just to make it through this program without any assistance. When those people start finding out what's going on and they don't want to work with you and talk to you or look at you, and they start bitching and moaning at me, the more it affects my day. So, no, Dr. Grey, I don't care what you know, or when you know it. Are we understood?


 * Izzie (to a patient after he throws up on Alex): You are so my favorite person today.