Life During Wartime

"For a surgeon, every patient is a battlefield. They're our terrain. Where we advance, retreat, try to remove all the landmines...And just when you think you've won the battle, made the world safe again. Along comes another landmine. Some wars are never over. Some end in an uneasy truce. Some wars result in complete and total victory. Some wars end with a peace offering. And some wars end in hope... But all these wars are nothing compared to the most frightening war of all. The one you have yet to fight."

- Meredith Grey

 is the sixth episode of the fifth season and the 84th overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
Dr. Owen Hunt returns to Seattle Grace, being named as the new Head of Trauma Surgery - all part of the Chief's effort to raise the #12 ranking, and it works, raising Seattle Grace back to a Level I Trauma Center. Hunt uses his unorthodox treatment and teaching methods, rubbing Izzie, Derek, Mark and Cristina the wrong way. In keeping with his spirit of raising the #12 rank, the Chief has Bailey and Hahn perform tumor resection deemed impossible by many other hospitals. Callie tries to find out who she really is. thumb|300px|right

Full Summary
Meredith went through boxes of her mother's old stuff while moving things down to the basement. Izzie and Alex woke up together and Alex asked her if they were going to be exclusive or if she was going to "go off and screw O'Malley." She didn't like that. Callie and Hahn woke up rejoicing in how "amazing" "it" was. Hahn went off about how Callie was "glasses" because her moment of clarity was similar to when she was a kid and needed glasses and even though she didn't think she needed them, they allowed her to see leaves on trees for the first time. Hahn cried, which caused Callie make like a tree, and leave.

The chief introduced Major Owen Hunt, the new head of trauma, to Derek and Sloan. The chief said the hospital was being reclassified as a Level 1 trauma center by the end of the month. That's a good thing, because without Level 1 traumas, this is basically "Private Practice." Cristina saw Major Hunt and took off.

The chief told Bailey to be him, because she has the potential to be the best surgeon. He asked her to put together a plan to save a girl with an inoperable tumor. She asked Meredith to join her.

Alex and Izzie had another tiff about whether they were exclusive, because Alex wanted to know if Izzie was "all in." If not, he was going to continue sleeping with other women.

Hunt pulled together all the doctors -- residents and interns -- and began training them on how to handle traumas -- on live pigs. He jammed a switchblade knife into each of them and gave one simple direction: "Save their lives."

The doctors were stunned. He said the pigs were all sedated and didn't feel anything. Izzie called Hunt "a monster" and left.

Meredith began explaining the surgery to the inoperable tumor girl with her "Anatomy Jane" doll, but the girl's grandmother demanded that Hahn be on her surgical team. Meanwhile, Callie demanded sex from Sloan so she could test a theory. In the pig experiment, Hunt called out Cristina -- also claiming he didn't remember her name -- and told her George was doing a better job.

Izzie complained to Derek about Hunt, but he said she should roll with it. Callie was upset that sex with Sloan was good. Bailey asked Hahn to join the case of the girl with the tumor. Hahn resisted and Bailey pleaded a bit more, prompting Hahn to tell her not to get emotional. "Nobody likes girls who get emotional," she said.

A real trauma came in and Hunt sent most of the doctors out, leaving Cristina to deal with the pigs and keep them alive. Hunt shut Sloan and Derek out of the trauma, which included a patient with head injuries and burns. Hahn told Bailey they should send the girl away, just like three other hospitals already had.

Derek told the chief that "Rambo is completely out of control." The chief didn't want to be bothered, and mentioned he was getting annoyed with Meredith playing with her doll. Meredith's doll might have helped figure out the case. As she took out Anatomy Jane's organs, one by one, she suggested they take out each of the girl's organs to safely get the tumor out. The chief thought it was just crazy enough to work.

Hunt was calling shots in the ER, telling Alex to glue a guy's head wound together and reminding Izzie that the first experiments with tetanus shots were done on horses.

Bailey and her team told the girl's family their idea of removing her organs and, despite the risk, they agreed. Meredith asked the chief some questions, but he wouldn't look at her while answering. She asked him why and he told her to focus on the patient.

The girl was in surgery when she started bleeding unexpectedly. Lexie, who'd been petting the pigs and talking to them, had given them names, which upset Cristina. Back in surgery, a nurse told the chief that the girl's father was asking for updates and Bailey told him to go talk to the father. The chief talked to the dad, who told him it's difficult to get information at hospitals and that it's difficult to talk to doctors and that doctors don't even talk to each other. The chief took his words to heart.

Derek and Sloan saw that Alex used skin glue on the head wound patient and Alex said Hunt's theory was that the ER was like being in the field: you use what you have available. Sloan said the hospital is not a war zone, and they called Hunt "a meatballer," a trauma guy who just slaps things together.

One of the pigs, Wilbur, crashed and Cristina had to open him up. The surgeons operating on the girl with the tumor were afraid they wouldn't be able to reconnect the six organs they'd already taken out of her. Meredith connected the dots step by step and Hahn was especially short and sarcastic toward her, finally saying, "And Grey gets a gold star."

Bailey and Meredith offered up ideas and Hahn kept shooting them down. Bailey finally asked if she had any good ideas and they started talking over each other until the chief told them to "shut up" and "talk to each other." Bailey suggested using human umbilical vein, which they all agreed could work.

Izzie and Hunt had another confrontation about his methods. Meanwhile, Cristina and Lexie worked to save Wilbur. We went back and forth between the girl and the pig, watching the doctors trying to save each of them. Eventually, they both made it.

Callie told Sloan that Hahn cried that morning. He asked her whether she was fine cheating on Hahn. Derek barged in and told Sloan he was going to go yell at Hunt, and invited him to join. Derek and Sloan confronted Hunt and told him he nearly maimed the patient for life. He asked what they would have done, medically, because he wanted to be a better doctor. They were both a little stunned by that, and Alex, who saw the whole exchange, took notice.

The chief congratulated Bailey and Hahn for their good work and Bailey scoffed. The chief left and Bailey laid into Hahn for being a naysayer the entire time, then accepting congratulations. Bailey told Hahn the surgery went well because of her, the chief, Meredith, and Anatomy Jane.

Cristina gave updates to Hunt on Babe, Wilbur, Reggie, and Patty -- the pigs. He told Cristina and the interns they did good work, then told them to "terminate them." Cristina walked out.

Hunt told Cristina she learned an incredible from the pigs, but to keep them alive after those kinds of injuries would be inhumane. She asked if he really didn't remember her name and he admitted he did, but said "that was before." He said on his recent tour in Iraq, his unit of 20 soldiers was attacked and he was the only one who survived. Then he was discharged. "Now I'm living in the after," he said.

Callie went to Hahn, who admitted she made Bailey's life hell that day because of Callie. Callie told Hahn that she'd slept with Sloan that day -- twice. She said she wanted to be with Hahn and needed to be able to tell her the truth.

The chief called Meredith and told her she wasn't imagining his unwillingness to look at her. He told Meredith that seeing the Anatomy Jane doll reminded him of when she used to run around the hospital with the doll. He felt bad that he was a cause for her neglected childhood and that she was a reminder of every failure in his life, because of his affair with her mother. Meredith listened, but didn't respond.

Cristina had trouble killing the pigs, but Lexie convinced her they would suffer if she didn't. So she did.

Alex told Izzie he wasn't good at the commitment and "stupid feelings" stuff, and he asked her to teach him. She asked him if he wanted to go steady. Lexie made mac and cheese from the box for George and they talked about their day, and Derek and Meredith went through more boxes, uncovering one that was full of more diaries.

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

 * Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
 * Scott Haven as Randy Begler
 * Lauri Johnson as Grandma Ruth
 * Brandon Scott as Dr. Ryan Spalding

Co-Starring

 * Adair Tishler as Tori
 * Sheila Shaw as Michelle
 * Michael Hagiwara as Charles
 * Ivette Cruz as Circulating Nurse
 * Chet Grissom as Uncle Pat
 * Brooke Blanchard as Jill the Paramedic
 * Candice Afia as Intern Laura
 * Amrapali Ambegaokar as Intern Dani
 * Tymberlee Chanel as Intern Claire
 * Gloria Garayua as Intern Graciella
 * Molly Kidder as Intern Megan
 * Mark Saul as Intern Steve
 * Janina Gavankar as Intern Lisa
 * Winston Story as Intern Leo
 * Joseph Williamson as Intern Pierce

Notes and Trivia

 * This episode's title originated from the song Life During Wartime, originally sung by The Talking Heads.
 * This episode scored 15.05 million viewers.

Quotes

 * Bailey: Next time you'll know to bring in an ugly doll, won't you Stevens?


 * Owen: Quick and dirty, Cristine.
 * Cristina: A! Cristina!