Remember the Time

Remember the Time is the second episode of the ninth season and the 174th overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
In this flashback episode, return to the site of the plane crash and watch as each doctor tries to cope with the heartache and injuries caused by the crash. Meanwhile, back at Seattle Grace, everyone struggles to find a bit of normalcy amidst the chaos.

Full Summary
Meredith

The light of the rescue helicopter shines on Meredith's face, who's laying on the ground in the woods of the plane crash. She shields her eyes from the light.

In a hospital in Boise, Meredith is on a gurney being examined by a doctor. Meredith mumbles that she needs to get on a plane, but the doctor tells her that she was in a plane crash. When the doctor says this, there are flashbacks of the plane crash. Meredith wants to get off the gurney, asking about her sister and husband, but the doctor tells her to sit back. Outside the room in the hallway, Webber and Bailey, carrying Zola, want to enter the room. A nurse tries to stop them, but they ignore her and they come in, while Meredith is still mumbling about the others that were with her. Bailey comes in and gives Zola to Meredith. This calms Meredith down. Bailey and Richard look at each other, clearly worried.

Meredith, who is receiving IV therapy, enters Cristina's room. Cristina is lying in a hospital without talking or moving at all. Meredith climbs into the bed. She tells Cristina that they'll be taking them home the next day on a plane. Meredith says that she initially refused to go on a plane again, but there was no choice because of Mark and Arizona. Meredith then says that she told Bailey to sedate them. She tries to get Cristina to respond, but it doesn't work.

Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Arizona are sedated in the back of the plane, while being watched by Richard and Bailey. Lexie's body (in a body bag) is also on the plane. There's turbulence and Bailey makes a reference to Lost, the TV series, but Richard doesn't get it.

Back at home, Meredith is completely healed from her minor injuries, and she's discussing whether or not she should take Harvard's offer. Meredith doesn't want to, mentioning Mark and Cristina and the condition that they're in and saying that Derek still needs two or three surgeries on his hand. Derek says there may be doctors in Harvard who can help him too. He adds that the people from Harvard don't want them to leave the next day, but that they're just looking for a time frame. Meredith says that she gets that he really wants to go, but that she can't even think about leaving. Derek says that it's about her career, but Meredith replies that they actually want him. Derek says he's not so sure about that, as he's not the same man that they hired anymore: he mentions his hand may only get to back to 80% function.

In the next scene, Meredith, Alex and April (who's wearing light blue scrubs) are eating lunch in Cristina's room at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. Alex finds it strange that Meredith turned down the offer from Harvard, and she makes a comment about him turning down Hopkins. He says he's only postponing Hopkins till Robbins is better, adding Avery did the same for Sloan. April says that she stayed too, but Alex says that's only because she had no place to go. He gets comfortable in the sofa, telling Meredith and April to wake him up at 10 for chunky stew. April says he just ate, to which he replies it's a nickname for one of his patients, saying Robbins hated it. Meredith then asks him if Arizona's infection is getting any better. Alex says he doesn't know as he hasn't seen her. Meredith questions this as he is running her service. Alex says that she probably doesn't want to talk to him because she previously was so angry at him for leaving Seattle which caused her to take his place on plane, and thereby got in the plane crash. Jackson walks in, asking how Cristina's doing. Meredith doesn't answer but asks him if he's talking to Sloan. While checking out Cristina toes (which apparently got frozen in the woods), he says that he does but not about work stuff, saying that Mark doesn't need that kind of pressure. Meredith says to Alex and Jackson that Arizona and Mark will both be fine. Meredith then looks at Cristina and repeats that they're all going to be fine. Cristina still doesn't respond to anything. Alex questions if that's okay, and April gives her the opportunity to insult her, but Cristina only turns her head to the other side.

Later in time, Meredith is standing in the doorway of Cristina's room, watching two workmen take away the broken window of the room. Another doctor is screaming at Owen and Bailey that Cristina doesn't belong on the floor, adding that she's a danger, violent and uncommunicative. Bailey points at the broken window and says the she communicated but just hasn't talked yet. The other doctor says she needs to be admitted to psych, but Owen walks away. The other doctor follows him. Bailey walks away too. Meredith then enters Cristina's room, urging her to talk, but it has no effect.

Derek

When the light of the rescue helicopter shines on him while he's lying on the ground in the woods, Derek remembers things that previously happened in the woods.

At the hospital in Boise, he's taken to the OR, where a surgeon assures him that he will be just fine. Before he's put under, he sees a scan of his hand's broken bones. He tries to say that he's a surgeon, but the surgeons don't get what he's saying. He's then put under.

In a conference room at SGMWH, Callie explains to Dr. Schacter what she did to Derek's hand after he came to Seattle from Boise while Meredith and Derek are listening. Dr. Schacter tells Derek that he'll concern himself with the nerve damage in his hand. When asked about this, Schacter says that he'll get him back to 80% function. Callie, Meredith and Derek look at each other.

In the kitchen at Meredith's house, Derek says he can do consults and teach, but that he just won't do another surgery. Meredith tells him not to talk like that. Derek says that it's enough that he's still alive and Zola still has both of her parents, and they kiss and hug.

In a room at the hospital, Derek, Owen and Dr. Ramsey are watching a patient's scans. Derek gives her perfect fix for the patient's tumor. Without thinking about it, Ramsey says she'll be happy to have him join her in the OR, creating an awkward silence as Derek can't operate anymore. She then quickly leaves. Owen says he's invaluable (for all his knowledge). Derek smiles and leaves too.

Later, Derek goes to observe Ramsey's surgery from the gallery. Shane informs him on the patient's condition, but Derek already knows everything because he did a consult, so he brushes him off. When there's a complication, Ramsey is handling it wrong, so Derek rushes down. He's giving advice, but she doesn't take it. The patient starts crashing.

In Mark's room, Mark assures Derek that it's not his fault that she couldn't pull of his approach. Derek says that he could've pulled it off if he had been in there. Mark says Derek will be back in the OR, but Derek reminds him of the 80%. Mark simply tells him to get back to 100%. Derek tells him he's glad Mark's doing better, and Marks replies that Derek will be doing better soon too.

In a revalidation room at the hospital, Callie is taking a look at Derek's hand. She says that she took a look at Schacter's plan. Derek notices that she's up to something and urges her to tell him. She then says that she may have another idea. Callie then starts doubting herself and says that Schacter had probably thought of it as he's the best and that it's much riskier than Schacter's plan. She then suddenly says that it may get him back to 100% function, to which Derek replies that he may end up with less function than he has at the moment if the plan doesn't work. Callie then says that he's right and that that's probably the reason that Schacter isn't doing it. Derek then tells her to do it. She declines.

However, in the next scene, Callie is operating on Derek with Meredith watching from the gallery. In the middle of the surgery, Alex comes in, saying there's a problem with Arizona.

Cristina

The light of the rescue helicopter is shining on and around the crashed plane. Suddenly, Cristina steps into the light and starts waving.

In the ER of Boise hospital, Cristina starts fighting the doctors there, who are trying to keep her on the gurney. They decide to sedate her.

While walking in the hallway to Cristina's room, the Boise chief tells Owen and Richard that she seems to be in a state. While she tells them she thinks it's reactive psychosis, Owen walks over to Cristina and unties one of her arms, right when the Boise chief tells them that Cristina gets violent when they try to examine her. Cristina starts wearing off Owen with her arm, but Owen holds her tightly and says that he'll help her.

In Seattle, we see everything from Cristina's eyes, though everything is blurry and the sounds are muted. Bailey is talking to her (though it's unclear what she's saying). We then see the lunch scene that was previously shown again, but now from Cristina's point of view.

Later, outside her room, a couple of interns are staring at her through the window. Shane says she just stares and breathes. When Shane makes a mean comment, Cristina grabs a vase and throws it at the window.

In the firehouse, Cristina is sitting in the tub and Owen is washing her. He assures her that she'll feel stronger and that they have all time in the world. When he asks her to come out, she says she can't. She then starts telling about what happened in the woods: ''"I stayed awake for four days. I remember every single minute of those four days. I went out, it was really, really dark. There were so many stars. I remember getting the bugs out of Arizona's leg. I put leaves on it, trying to keep them out. And Mark... Mark just kept dying, so annoying. I kept trying to help him but he just kept trying to die on me. I just wanted to lie down and sleep on him, cause he was warm. And I wanted to sleep. Meredith was asleep. Everyone was asleep. Arizona got the last of the water, I remember drinking something bad. Might have been the fuel from the plane. I drank my pee. Noises, animal noises, fighting and growling right next to us, right there. I kept waiting for them to come and kill me but they didn't. Then I realized they were fighting over Lexie. I tried to keep them off of her, I tried, but I couldn't get out."'' She then repeats that she can't get out. Owen tells her that she's out now and that he got her. Cristina says she'll never get out.

Cristina leaves the firehouse with one of her boxes. Meredith is waiting next to her car and opens a car door. Meredith asks her if she's sure about leaving, saying she's worried that Cristina is just running away. Cristina admits that she's fleeing. She says Meredith should flee too as horrible things happen in Seattle. Meredith says that that's life and that they should stick together. Cristina then lists a couple of horrible things that happened, trying to get Meredith to leave too. Meredith then gets angry and tells Cristina that neither she nor Owen is Cristina's person but that Cristina is her own person. She then leaves Cristina, who drives off to Minnesota.

Mark

In the rescue helicopter, the flight nurse looks at Mark's chest and asks himself what they did to Mark out there. Mark opens his eyes and sees the body bag in which Lexie's body is lying. We then see a flashback of Lexie in the woods, crushed under the back of the plane. Mark then crashes.

At the hospital in Boise, the doctors are reanimating him.

The next thing we see is Mark lying in bed in a room in Seattle Grace Mercy West, with Julia by his side. She tells him that she flew to Boise but that they didn't allow her to visit him, as she wasn't his family. Julia assures him that she'd stay with him and that she loves him. Mark then confesses that he loves Lexie.

In the next scene, Derek wakes up Callie, who's asleep next to Mark's bed. Mark is in a coma, and Derek says that she should go home, as she's been bouncing between Mark and Arizona's room for the past two nights. Derek says he'll stay with Mark all night. Callie confesses that she feels like they're losing him and that she's scared that she'll get a phone call that he's dead as soon as she leaves the hospital. Derek assures her that that's not gonna happen tonight, which convinces Callie to go home. Derek then starts talking to Mark.

Callie is running down the hallway in her pajamas, saying she shouldn't have gone home. Jackson is waiting for her and asks her to come see. Callie is asking where Derek is, when she enters Mark's room and sees him sitting up. He greets her and Callie is relieved.

Richard, Heather, Callie, Jackson, and Derek are watching Mark from outside his room, commenting that he has a pretty good recovery. Callie walks into his room. Derek notices Richard's face. "You think it's a surge," Derek says. Richard says that it might be, but Derek doesn't agree. Richard explains to Heather that a surge is when terminally ill patients have a final surge of energy, getting better before they get worse. Jackson agrees with Derek that this is not that. Richard then continues, saying that he'll do what all surge patients do: starting to tell what really matters in life and having epiphanies. Derek and Jackson still think it's not a surge as Mark is telling dirty jokes.

Jackson is informing Mark on a patient, who's in for a breast augmentation. Mark tells him that he has to say that her breasts are beautiful the way they are, to save her an unnecessary surgical procedure if she believes him. Mark then tells him that being a doctor allows them to help take worries away from patients and that if he loves someone, that he should say it, loud, even if he's scared of it. Jackson seems a bit worried as it clearly is an epiphany. Mark suddenly asks to see Sofia. Jackson initially refuses as babies aren't allowed in the ICU, but Mark convinces him. When he leaves, Mark seems to be in pain. Richard walks by, and Mark asks if this is what he thinks it is. Richard says there's no way to know, but seems to be worried himself.

Jackson is pushing the elevator button when April comes over, asking to talk. Jackson says he can't as he needs to go pick up Sofia in day care, but that he'll call her later. April then says that she's leaving for home. April says that her contract ended a few days ago and that she stuck around waiting for Sloan to get better. Jackson gets in the elevator and says that he really needs to go get Sofia, but asks her to wait for him at Joe's.

In the his room, Mark asks Richard not to tell anything to Callie, as she is about to operate on Derek and that that surgery is very important as it'll get him back in the OR. He says that Callie doesn't even know how good she is and that he sometimes wishes that people saw themselves the way he sees them. Mark is afraid that it's the surge talking, but Richard assures him that it's all him talking. Richard says he'll stay with him.

Arizona

Arizona is lying in the scanner at the hospital in Boise.

The Boise chief looks at the scans with Owen and says that she officially recommends amputation. Arizona overhears them talking and asks the chief to show her the scans. Arizona says to Owen that she gives no one permission to cut off her leg, certainly not over there in Boise, and asks him to take her home to Callie. She says that Callie will know what to do.

At Seattle Grace Mercy West, Callie is taking care of Arizona's leg. Arizona asks her if the infection is getting better or worse, but Callie tells her not to worry about that. Alex suddenly comes in, informing her on "chunky stew's" case. He then starts talking to her about the plane crash, saying he'd trade places with her if he could. Arizona says she'd let him. She then admits that she had the same thought too, a lot. She says that she only took his place on the plane because he was so selfish and thoughtless. She says she tried to make him better, but that he's still a horrible person. She says that she keeps wondering why this would happen to someone like her, who has a family, instead of someone like him, who's all alone. She says she's still angry at him.

Bailey is visiting Arizona with Sofia when Callie comes into the room. Bailey leaves with Sofia to bring her back to day care. When they're alone, Arizona starts questioning her future. She thinks she'll have to have her leg amputated and urges Callie to come up with something to save it. "Promise me you won't let them take my leg!" Arizona says. "I promise," Callie assures her. Arizona starts crying and Callie comforts her.

Callie is talking to Owen about her plan to save Arizona's leg. Owen says that a prosthetic will give Arizona a better quality of life than Callie's plan. He forbids her to do the surgery, as she is her wife. Callie suddenly starts crying and says that she doesn't know who Arizona is anymore, as she's just an empty shell. She asks if the same has happened to Cristina. Callie says she wants Arizona back and she feels like she can't get her back if she cuts off the leg. She tells Owen to get on board with her plan and that she'll help him to get Cristina back. Owen says he doesn't think he'll ever get Cristina back. He then decides to take another look at the plan.

Callie is taking Arizona's temperature and tells her that she'll have the surgery tomorrow at noon. Dr. Carlson will perform it. Callie gets paged for the surgery on Derek's hand, and Arizona gives her a little more self-confidence.

Alex comes to Arizona's room with a piece of chunky stew's pizza. He then tells her that the patient is out of the woods, meaning that he's leaving for Hopkins. He says he did his best to make her department run smoothly and says goodbye. He apologizes once again, and when he's about to leave, Arizona starts crashing.

In Derek's surgery, Alex tells Callie that there's a problem with Arizona. Alex tells her she's dying because of the infection, and Callie then sees no other option. She tells him to cut off the leg and urges him to do his best. Meredith comes into the OR, asking if she can do anything, but Callie assures her that she's fine. Meredith leaves and Callie continues operating on Derek's hand.

All together

In Mark's room, Richard is asking about Mark's will if he crashes or goes into a coma again. Mark is signing the papers, including the one saying that life sustaining shall be withdrawn if there are no signs of recovery after a period of 30 days.

In the gallery, while Callie is performing the surgery on Derek's hand, Meredith calls Cristina and leaves her a message. The message is heard while the following events occur:

"This is a place where horrible things happen. You were right to go. You're probably escaping disaster."

In Mark's room, Mark is having difficulty breathing, when he suddenly crashes. Richard asks for a crash cart. Jackson finally arrives at Mark's room with Sofia while Richard is doing his best to resuscitate Mark. Jackson covers Sofia's eyes and asks a nurse to take her.

"Look at me. I practically grew up here, and you're right, it's hurt me in ways I'll probably never get over."

Alex cuts off Arizona's leg.

"I have a lot of memories of people. People I've lost forever."

April is on the plane, when Jackson is at Joe's bar looking for her.

"But I have a lot of other memories too. This is the place where I fell in love."

Derek wakes up after surgery, looking at his hand, and he seems to be happy.

"The place where I found my family."

Meredith wakes up in bed with Zola lying next to her.

"This is where I learned to be a doctor."

Jackson talking to a comatose Mark.

"Where I learned how to take responsibility for someone else's life."

Callie is holding Arizona's hand up after the amputation surgery. When Arizona starts waking up, Callie looks afraid.

"And it's the place where I met you. So I figure this place has given me as much as it's taken away from me. I've lived here as much as I've survived here. It just depends on how I look at it. I'm gonna choose to look at it that way, and remember you that way. Hope you're good. Bye."

Cristina is sitting in Minnesota, listening to Meredith's message and calls her back, saying she'll always be her person.

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
 * Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
 * Jessica Capshaw as Dr. Arizona Robbins
 * Sarah Drew as Dr. April Kepner
 * Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Guest Stars

 * Holley Fain as Dr. Julia Canner
 * Adina Porter as Dr. Ramsey
 * Gaius Charles as Dr. Shane Ross
 * Tina Majorino as Dr. Heather Brooks
 * Jim Turner as Dr. Schacter
 * Elizabeth Tobias as Boise Chief

Co-Starring

 * Craig Susser as Dr. Hurst
 * Martin Yu as Anesthesiologist
 * Ayanna Berkshire as Surgeon #1
 * Cory Blevins as Doctor #2
 * Louie Alegria as Doctor #3
 * Lonnie Colón as Doctor #4
 * Pat Destro as Boise Nurse
 * Patrick Quinlan as Flight Nurse
 * Brandon Slagle as Boise Radiologist

Notes and Trivia

 * This episode's title originated from the song Remember the Time, originally sung by Michael Jackson.
 * This episode scored 10.84 million viewers.
 * This episode is a flashback episode that shows what happened to each survivor of the plane crash between the Season 8 finale and the Season 9 premiere.
 * Alex is the one to amputate Arizona's leg. This is remarkable as he is a pediatric surgeon, so he normally only operates on kids.
 * This episode is the last one to feature Eric Dane as Mark Sloan.
 * Together with She's Killing Me, this episode is the only season 9 one not to feature Jo Wilson.
 * The episode chronologically tells what happened to Meredith first, then Derek, then Cristina, followed by Mark and finally Arizona. In the last five minutes of the episode, all their stories come together.
 * While on the plane, Dr. Bailey tells Dr. Webber that all she can think about is how they're going to crashland on a tropical island and get attacked by a polar bear, an obvious reference to the TV show Lost. Dr. Webber misses this reference and Dr. Bailey, a sci-fi lover, tells him he should watch more TV.