My Favorite Mistake

"Surgeons always have a plan. Where to cut, where to clamp, where to stitch. But, even with the best plans complications can arise, things can go wrong. And suddenly, you're caught with your pants down. The thing about plans is they don't take into account the unexpected, so when we're thrown a curve ball, whether its in the OR or in life, we have to improvise. Of course, some of us are better at it than others. Some of us just have to move on to plan B and make the best of it. And sometimes what we want is exactly what we need. But sometimes, sometimes what we need is a new plan."

- Meredith Grey

 is the nineteenth episode of the third season and the 55th overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
Izzie seems to be the only one with a memory of the previous night, Derek gets over-protective when Meredith gets a surgery, and one of Callie's relatives comes to town.

Full Summary
Izzie is reeling from the realization that she and George slept together, but George doesn't remember anything. All he knows is that he has a killer hangover.

Callie tells George to forget about their argument. For today, they have to be the perfect couple because her father has just learned of their marriage and is in town to meet George.

Cristina tells Meredith she's going to try to get things back the way they used to be with Burke. She brings him coffee at the hospital, like she used to, but he reminds her they stopped doing that when she moved in and they made coffee at home. He tells her he's interested in moving forward, not backwards.

After just one day at Seattle Grace, Colin Marlow has drawn up a 10-year plan for the hospital. Once word reaches the attendings, who are all in competition for Richard's job, they try to outdo one another. Mark tries to pick Miranda's brains about what she thinks the hospital needs, but she snaps she doesn't have time, all she can think about is what needs doing right now.

Addison, Burke and Derek are amazed to see that Sloan has wowed the board. It's because he didn't get caught up in the10-year plan competition Richard explains, but that he had a "Right Now" plan.

Jane Doe needs to pick a face from three possible computer images of how she could look after Mark does reconstructive plastic surgery. But she doesn't recognize herself in any of them and that whoever's baby she's carrying won't recognize her if she picks the wrong one. So Alex helps her choose by inventing a persona for the three different faces and she picks the one he likes best, "Ava."

Izzie wants to avoid George and Cristina wants to avoid Burke and Marlow, so the both volunteer to work in the clinic. With George still shaky, Callie won't let him near her case, a woman with an incredibly rare disease which turns muscle into bone, since the slightest touch can cause more bone to grow. Just Izzie's luck: Miranda assigns her to help out the O'Malleys.

Callie's patient, Cathy, has internal bleeding, probably caused from too many painkillers. She knows she'll die of this disease sooner or later, so she asks what will happen if she refuses the surgery. Callie tells she'll bleed to death. Her daughter, Nina, won't hear of her mother giving up, and insists on the surgery. She bleeds out on the operating table but she would also have died if they opened her up. Izzie tells the daughter that her mother was ready to go.

Cristina sees a construction worker with diabetes complaining of a sore foot but the sore is so bad that the foot has to be removed. He begs her to find some way to save it. She pores over books, equating the man's foot with her own floundering relationship, but in the end, she can't save it. But she decides she can still save her relationship: Before his board presentation, she tells Burke he's still the same man the Chief originally chose and he tells her hopes he's grown since then.

That night, Cristina finally returns to Burke's apartment and agrees to a wedding, only if it's small and not religious.

Derek is keeping tabs on Meredith, who seems cheery enough, talking about how her dead mother would approve of a procedure she's going to do on Jane Doe: Sloan is going to let her harvest bone from her face by herself. Derek is concerned that Mark is using her, Ellis Grey's daughter, to impress Richard.

Derek confesses to Richard that he can't focus on presenting his plan to the board, since he's so worried about Meredith and that his only 10-year plan is about her.

Meredith is not pleased that Derek is being overly protective, but she tells Mark that she won't do it just to serve his ends. He says that the Chief has been looking at her like a lost puppy, but if she does the surgery, he'll look at her like a surgeon again. She decides to do it and comes through with flying colors.

"My dead Mommy would be proud," she later tells Derek, who needs cheering up after his board presentation flopped, although he doesn't tell her why he was distracted.

Izzie asks Addison for advice about sleeping with the wrong person is still wrong, even if it feels right. Addison tells her to just stop, but that's not what she wants to hear.

Callie's dad is not pleased about her quickie marriage, but now that it's done, he starts talking about the house and the car he's going to provide for the newlyweds. Suddenly, last night comes back to George in a flash and he excuses himself, but not before insisting that he doesn't want to take anything from him. Mr. Torres finds George and says he respects him wanting to provide for Callie on his own. But he warns him to never hurt Callie. George goes to find Izzie and she realizes he's remembered. Izzie wants to tell Callie but George insists he can't hurt her like that and that this has to remain their secret. Back at the hotel, Callie and George lie in bed and she tells him she can still smell his clothes from the night before, even in the closet. He tells her he's sorry and she says she'll learn to live with it. Meanwhile, Izzie strips the sheets off her bed and starts to cry.

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
 * Kate Walsh as Dr. Addison Montgomery
 * Sara Ramírez as Dr. Callie Torres
 * Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan
 * Isaiah Washington as Dr. Preston Burke
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Guest Starring

 * Elizabeth Reaser as Jane Doe
 * Michael Boatman as Doug Kendry
 * Roger Rees as Dr. Colin Marlow
 * Catherine Dent as Cathy Rogerson
 * Elisabeth Moss as Nina Rogerson
 * Héctor Elizondo as Carlos Torres

Co-Starring

 * Judi Barton as Board Member

Notes and Trivia

 * This episode's title originated from the song My Favorite Mistake, originally sung by Sheryl Crow.
 * This episode scored 22.30 million viewers.

Quotes

 * Izzie: Hours. Hours of out life that are all I can think about and you seriously can't remember?
 * George: Look, Izzie, I was drunk!. Whatever I did, whatever I said, I'm sure I didn't mean it.
 * Izzie: Yes George, you meant it. You meant it a lot. You meant it more than once.