Losing My Mind

"The problem with being a resident is you feel crazy all the time. You haven't slept in years. You spend everyday around people in massive crisis. You lose your ability to judge what's normal, in yourself or anyone else. And yet people are constantly asking you to tell them how you're doing. How the hell are you supposed to know? You don't even know how you're doing. Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't. In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant, wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it all together."

- Meredith Grey

Losing My Mind is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season and the 76th overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
The Chief's mentor comes to town for more than just a visit, at Erica's excitement and eventually her dismay as she may threaten her career. Meredith tries to quit therapy, Cristina is acting out of character after learning about Burke's achievement and George becomes the Chief's intern. Mark and Izzie suspect something is wrong with Rebecca, and Izzie confronts her, leading to Rebecca breaking down.

Full Summary


The Chief’s mentor, Dr. Walter Tapley, visits the hospital and wants him to arrange a double valve replacement and tricuspid repair for him. The surgery is extremely dangerous, and Erica refuses to risk the life of one of the pioneers in the cardiothoracic field. The Chief eventually convinces her to do it, and they manage to pull it off. Walter Tapley praises George for running around the hospital, and tells him that it makes him a better doctor.

The Chief gets George, now the Chief’s intern, to draft an email to ask his wife out for dinner. She replies with a wink, which he mistakes for a typo. After George clarifies his confusion, the Chief praises him for his good work. Meanwhile, Bailey’s son was sent home from the daycare center after punching another boy. Bailey fights with her husband over Tuck. George offers to take Tuck from Bailey, so she can try to fix things with her husband.

Cristina continues to act out of character, going as far as cleaning her messy apartment and sitting out of cardiothoracic surgeries. She even refuses to scrub in on Walter Tapley’s surgery. She also insults George for trying so hard to impress the Chief, and tells Lexie that Meredith hates her.

Izzie confronts Rebecca about her fake pregnancy, but Rebecca insists that she is pregnant and has always wanted a baby. She is confused when Izzie points out that she already has a baby. With Rebecca’s approval, Izzie tells Alex that Rebecca is not pregnant, but Alex tells her to stay out of his life. Rebecca wants Mark to give her breast implants, causing Mark to suspect that she may have an acute stress disorder after undergoing extensive reconstructive surgery. Izzie confirms his suspicions, as Rebecca seems to be having an hysterical pregnancy. Alex sees the ultrasound for himself, and tells Rebecca that she was never pregnant. However, she goes into denial and cries after thinking that she miscarried their baby.

Mark decides to turn over a new leaf, and refuses Callie’s invitations for sex. Callie tries to tempt him with the idea of a threesome with Erica. Later, Erica tells Mark that he could not handle the both of them, and plants a kiss on Callie. Mark is once again aroused, and gets a stunned Callie to follow him to the on-call room.

Meredith fires her therapist, Dr. Wyatt, who tells her that she is a quitter. Meredith vehemently denies this, and insists on getting her file back. After Dr. Wyatt overhears Lexie forgiving Meredith for treating her so badly, Meredith agrees to go back to therapy. Dr. Wyatt tells Meredith that she is constantly waiting for Derek to fail, so that she can use it as an escape clause. The session ends badly after Dr. Wyatt suggests that her mother is probably the reason Meredith is careless with her life.

The latest clinical trial patient, Greta, requests that Derek and Meredith push back her surgery by a few hours so that she can wait for her boyfriend, Andre, to arrive. Greta’s sister tells the doctors that he is probably a figment of her Greta’s imagination as no one has ever seen him except for Greta. More doubts are raised when Greta’s recount of her meeting with Andre is similar to the story of Cinderella. Meredith wants to perform the surgery immediately, but Derek insists on waiting and letting Greta enjoy her fantasy a little longer. However, Andre does not show and Greta is devastated that Andre is not real. During the surgery, Andre arrives. Unfortunately, there was too much swelling in Greta’s brain, and she is now in a coma.

Meredith is shaken after realizing that true love may exist, and goes back to therapy. She reveals that when she was little, her mother tried to kill herself after the love of her life disappeared. Insisting that she is not a quitter, she challenges Dr. Wyatt to fix her.

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
 * Sara Ramírez as Dr. Callie Torres
 * Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan
 * Chyler Leigh as Dr. Lexie Grey
 * Brooke Smith as Dr. Erica Hahn
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Guest Stars

 * Amy Madigan as Dr. Wyatt
 * Elizabeth Reaser as Rebecca Pope
 * Paul Dooley as Dr. Walter Tapley
 * Regina Taylor as Greta
 * Lauren Stamile as Nurse Rose
 * April Grace as Greta's Sister
 * Cress Williams as Tucker Jones
 * Jeffrey D. Sams as Andre

Quotes

 * Rose: We spent a night together and then you vanished, now I wish that I was secure enough to handle that without a bruised ego and a lot of processed sugar, but I'm not.
 * Derek: Wait, wait, wait. Can't we just make this easier? Look, I don't want … See, I've done complicated. I don't wanna do that again. Can't this just be easy? Fun? We don't need that fairy tale thing right now. We just need a little happy. Hmm? (They walk out hand-in-hand out the door)


 * George: Dear Adele. Eat with me. The love train is leaving the station and you know you want to be on it. Take a ride on my love train.
 * Richard: O'Malley!
 * George: With all due respect, sir, I didn't come up with the train or the station.


 * (Mark goes to go on the elevator, the doors open and Erica and Callie are standing there)
 * Mark: Ladies.
 * Callie: He's thinking about a threesome.
 * Mark: I am not.
 * Callie: You are. You have been … all day.
 * Mark: Okay, fine. I got a new leaf, not a lobotomy.
 * Erica: You couldn't handle the two of us.
 * Mark: Oh, but I could. I won't, but I could.
 * Erica: You wouldn't find it intimidating?
 * Mark: Not at all.
 * (Callie laughs. Erica grabs her face and kisses her)
 * Erica: See? Too much for 'ya.
 * (She exits the elevator, leaving Callie standing there shocked.)
 * Mark: Damn it! On-call room, right now.
 * (He exits the elevator, Callie is still in shock, it takes her a minute to follow him.)