Love, Loss and Legacy

"The human body is designed to compensate for loss. It adapts, so it no longer needs the thing it can't have. But sometimes the loss is too great, and the body can't compensate on its own. That's when surgeons get involved. We're so hopeful at the beginning of things. It seems like there's only a world to be gained not lost. They say the inability to accept loss is a form of insanity, it's probably true. But sometimes, it's the only way to stay alive."

- Meredith Grey

 is the fifth episode of the eighth season and the 153rd overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
The residents try their hardest to impress surgical great Catherine Avery-who also happens to be Jackson's mother-when she arrives at Seattle Grace to perform a groundbreaking transplant surgery; Arizona and Alex find their hands tied with a confidentiality issue when a familiar patient comes into the ER; meanwhile, a love-struck Teddy throws a dinner party for the couples, and Bailey makes a decision regarding her love life.

Full Summary
The episode starts with Meredith frantically folding baby clothes in an attempt to forget about the Zola situation, though Derek thinks they've lost her and throws a little top down before stalking out.

Elsewhere, Cristina's making eggs (though looking at Owen's face, they're not good), dancing, and practising using just one hand to help her surgery skills. But it's not long before she's kissing Owen and they're doing something a bit naughtier.

Meanwhile, Jackson's mother Catherine is coming into town, so he's shipping Lexie off to see Molly (basically, he's getting her out of the line of fire). Teddy and Henry are hosting a dinner party later to celebrate their new place. And Ben tells Bailey that he had been giving her some space, but now that she's dating Eli he's not going to avoid her surgeries anymore. Webber's irritating Bailey, too, by urging her to let Meredith help with the clinical trial.

The doctors have all been called to a lecture being held by Catherine. April is very excited - she met Catherine at Mercy West and they're now Facebook friends. The rest of the doctors are a bit annoyed that they have to come to the talk, but they soon sit up and listen when Catherine announces that she is later going to carry out the USA's first ever penis transplant on a patient called Ryan.

Mark suggests that penile reconstruction is normally a more accepted treatment, but Catherine says that Ryan has the chance to live a full life. And hey, he's helping out medical science on the way. Everyone's loving it except for Jackson, bless, who's sinking into his seat all embarrassed.

Afterwards, Jackson goes to say hello to his mother - who is mainly concerned with meeting Lexie. But she's not exactly surprised when she discovers Lexie's not around. Then Mark comes up and lets slip that he is Jackson's mentor. Catherine tells him to scrub into the surgery so they can talk about that more - much to Jackson's dismay.

To work out which two lucky residents will get to scrub in, Catherine holds a little skills lab. Mark urges Jackson to do well as it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Inside, the doctors work on some chicken - April's soon out for being too tense, while Cristina's left hand is shaking. Eventually it's down to Alex, Jackson and Meredith - and when Alex's pager beeps, he leaves and forfeits. So Meredith and Jackson get to scrub in (while Catherine insists there's no nepotism involved).

Meredith, Jackson, Mark and Catherine go to see Ryan, who's with his very over-excited brother Chad. Ryan doesn't want to settle for reconstruction - it would remind him of what a coward he was for not getting his penis cancer checked out earlier.

Later, Catherine praises Meredith's skills and asks what she's specialising. When she reveals that she is making a change from neuro, Mark lets slip that Jackson could have gone into neuro and chose plastics instead.

Catherine's not too pleased with Jackson's decision, but at that point Ryan is wheeled down to prepare for surgery. Chad is still being over enthusiastic, but Ryan tells him to stop - he just wants to talk about normal things again. In fact, Chad can never again mention his penis after this. Chad promises to obey, but still punches the air in joy when Ryan is wheeled off.

But where did Alex get paged? He's running down the corridor - turns out Zola's been brought in! She had a seizure and Alex says they should page Derek and Meredith - but the social worker refuses. She points out that at this stage they're no more than a third party, and telling them could ruin the adoption. Later, when Alex looks at Zola's scans, Derek arrives and winces at the bowel obstruction, without knowing it's his daughter. Ouch.

But Alex can't keep this news in and tells Cristina. She agrees that they shouldn't tell Meredith if it could jeopardise the adoption, but Alex is really not sure that he's making the right decisions. Still, he can't chat for too long because Zola is seizing again.

Meanwhile, April's helping Catherine to harvest the penis for Ryan. Naturally, she's a bit excited about this but Catherine explains that she thought it would nice for them to catch up. Then she drops a bit of an awkward question and asks when April is finally going to have sex. Turns out she worked it out since April is so tense... and is staring at the penis like it will bite her. Anyway, she thinks popping her cherry would make April a better surgeon...

Later, Catherine's scrubbing in when Webber comes to see her. It seems they might have a bit of history - Catherine flirted with Webber at a convention but he told her he was married. She asks if he still is, and he confirms that he is. But it's heartbreaking because we know how unwell Adele is. Awful. Especially when Catherine cheerily says: "There's always next time."

But it's time for surgery and Meredith's doing well (despite Catherine asking questions about Lexie). But Cristina barges in and says she needs to speak to Meredith. Exchanging a glance, Meredith realizes that she needs to leave... and April gets to take her place. The surgery continues, as Catherine turns her attentions to plastics being a rubbish specialty for Jackson. But as they argue, things take a different turn - April messes up by using too much suction and destroys a vein.

Still, at least it gives Mark a chance to prove how useful plastics can be. He offers a solution to the vein fiasco and Katherine agrees to it - but Mark lets Jackson carry out the procedure. It works a charm, and later Ryan wakes up to his brand new penis. Hurrah! He even offers to let Chad take a peak, but Chad's got the message by now and declines.

Later, Catherine thanks Mark for saving the day, while Mark explains that Jackson is a good kid. Aww. He also tells Catherine not to worry about Lexie as she's "smart", "beautiful", and "perfect". At the bar, April is still apologizing for suctioning the vein but Katherine tells her to learn how to relax. Oh, and she's set her up with a man at the bar. Yikes - good luck April So there's time for Catherine and Jackson to catch up. She warns him that he has to be careful of Mark when it comes to Lexie. She then asks if he's in love with her and Jackson grins like a schoolboy.

Meanwhile, it's all got a bit shouty now that Derek and Meredith have found out about Zola. Derek is determined to see her - especially as it could be his fault that she is unwell as he was the one who treated her before. Alex ends up giving away Zola's room number and Derek turns to leave, but Meredith begs him not to. She points out that Arizona is a great surgeon and urges him not to jeopardise the adoption.

Derek goes to take some time by himself and admits to Owen that he can barely look at Meredith as it's all her fault - each time he thinks he's over it something else takes him right back to her betrayal. Owen admits that he and Cristina have been struggling too and they do a bit of good old male bonding.

Meanwhile, Cristina is keeping Meredith company while she frets about Zola's surgery. Derek arrives to give them an update from Alex - it looks good so far. But in the OR, Alex asks Arizona how she can refuse to let them see Zola when she would have no rights to see Sofia. Arizona is thrown but deflects the question, adding that Meredith and Derek wouldn't be worrying if Alex hadn't spilt the beans.

Luckily, the surgery is a success and Alex tells Derek and Meredith, who immediately starts sobbing. Cristina offers to stay with Zola that night and call if there's any problem. As Meredith and Derek get in the lift, though, they come face to face with the social worker. After a long pause as they stare at each other, the social worker must know what's going on - Derek and Meredith are all teary. But she lets the lift go without her.

Elsewhere, Ben and Bailey are in surgery together but Bailey is furious that Ben isn't being civil at all. Ben points out that Bailey basically told him to wait for her - and now she's getting up to naughtiness with a nurse. Bailey is shocked and says she's not even in a relationship with Eli, but it all ends up getting very awkward and she stalks out.

Things get even more awkward when Eli and Bailey go to treat Henry, who lets slip that he's having a dinner party that night. It turns out that Bailey "forgot" to invite Eli - ouch. It's all a bit cringeworthy, and Webber doesn't help when he again urges Bailey to let Meredith work with her, considering the Zola situation. He calls Bailey a "moral compass" who could teach Meredith, but Bailey scoffs at that - she's using one man as a plaything and the other is bribing an OR scheduler to avoid him. Webber looks a bit embarrassed but suggests Bailey stops "playing" with Eli.

Bailey soon comes to the decision that she needs to break up with Eli, and clearly, so there's no confusion like there was with Ben. She decides not to do it before the party, considering he's looking forward to it (though this doesn't exactly sit well with Teddy). But when it comes to it, Bailey can't wait and breaks it off with Eli. She wants to be clear but he says she has no problem with that - she's been saying for weeks she didn't want a relationship. He says it's his fault for not listening and walks off.

Bailey waits for Ben to arrive so that she can tell him about the break up - and insist it has nothing to do with him, of course. Ben nods but he's grinning away like a Cheshire cat. Could these two be reuniting soon? Anyway, Bailey goes to Teddy's dinner party and keeps the breakup secret, but sucks down wine. Also at the dinner party, Arizona insists that she wants to get a piece of paper to say Sofia's hers after the Zola nightmare, and Callie agrees.

Back at the hospital, Cristina is looking after Zola and chatting away to her quite happily. Owen's there, but it's heartbreaking for him - he wants that to be his kid and Cristina to be her mother. It's so hard that eventually he gets up to go to the dinner party. None of this is said, but it's so beautifully obvious. So the episode ends with Cristina calling Meredith and Derek so that they can say good night to Zola (and sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'.) They're not ready to give up hope...

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
 * Chyler Leigh as Dr. Lexie Grey
 * Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
 * Jessica Capshaw as Dr. Arizona Robbins
 * Kim Raver as Dr. Teddy Altman
 * Sarah Drew as Dr. April Kepner
 * Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Guest Stars

 * Jason George as Dr. Ben Warren
 * Daniel Sunjata as Nurse Eli
 * Debbie Allen as Dr. Catherine Avery
 * Mason McCulley as Ryan
 * Robert Hoffman as Chad
 * Scott Foley as Henry Burton

Co-Starring

 * Janora McDuffie as Social Worker Janet
 * Carissa Kosta as Nurse
 * Houston Rhines as Boy

Notes and Trivia
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 * This episode's title originated from the song Love, Loss and Legacy, originally sung by Kelly Winter.
 * This episode scored 9.97 million viewers.
 * Lexie goes to see her sister Molly Thompson.

Quotes

 * Mark: Don't count out Lexie Grey until you meet her. She's smart, she's beautiful, she's perfect.


 * Cristina: How small are your balls?
 * Alex: Meredith didn't talk to me for weeks for messing up her life. The balls are pretty small.


 * Catherine Avery (to April): You keep looking at this thing like it's going to bite you.


 * Meredith: No, you had a mother. Jackson and I had surgeons who procreated. It's just a little complicated.