Intern Cabal

Lexie practices stitches on Steve

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The intern cabal is a series of medical procedures the interns did on themselves and others to practice.

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Frustrated with their residents' refusal to teach them the surgical skills they needed to learn, the interns started secretly practicing on each other. Lexie initially refused to participate, however, she later found unclaimed bodies in the morgue when working on a patient who had no idea. She flirted with a morgue attendant and assembled several bodies on which to practice. Then Alex overheard and the residents used the cadavers instead, leading the interns to go back to practicing on each other, with Lexie joining them. ("Rise Up")

They were almost discovered when George came looking for them and asked what they were doing. Lexie turned him away and told him to go find his own hangout. Cristina saw the bandages on Lexie's arm and wondered if she was secretly cutting herself, causing Meredith to go to Lexie and ask if she was okay. Lexie denied any problems. Lexie then tried to stop it, worried about them getting caught. Sadie, who'd recently joined them, said they needed to stop using so much anesthetic because that was going to give them away. She cut her own shoulder with a scalpel and offered the other doctors a chance to stitch her up. They jumped at it.

When Lexie did impressive stitches in the OR, Richard complimented Cristina's teaching. Cristina confronted Lexie about it afterward because she knew she hadn't taught Lexie the stitch. She said practicing on herself was dangerous and told her to shut it down. ("These Ties That Bind")

Despite being told to stop, the interns instead got bolder, doing an epidural on Steve. Lexie then suggested they could remove his appendix. He refused, but Sadie said they could take out hers as long as she could do one of them afterward. They decided to do the procedure in outpatient surgery, which would be unoccupied. They gave Sadie an epidural and used a medical textbook to guide their movements. Lexie tried one final time to back out, but Sadie grabbed the scalpel and made the first incision. Lexie continued the surgery and they gave Sadie a mirror so she could watch. Then Lexie saw that it looked inflamed, meaning it wasn't a routine procedure. Graciella suggested they call a resident, but Sadie said if she was going to panic, she needed to leave, which she did.

Graciella ran into Cristina and Meredith in the hallway and pretended not to know where the other interns were. Cristina figured out what was going on and went to deal with it. Lexie then found Meredith and asked if she had a second. Lexie took Meredith to outpatient surgery, where Cristina joined them soon after. Ryan was suctioning Sadie's blood and said he thought she was dying. Meredith and Cristina jumped in to help, telling Lexie to page Bailey and the Chief to help. Bailey came to help and talked Meredith and Cristina through finishing the surgery.

After discovering what had happened, the Chief talked to Meredith and Cristina, complimenting them for getting help right away. Lexie, thinking they were getting in trouble, came in and said Cristina had told them to shut it down, indicating to him that she'd known about it before that day, which did get her in trouble.

Needing to find a suitable punishment for the interns, the residents took them into Sadie's room and made them present her case and apologize to her for the mistakes they'd made. They then told the interns they were all on probation and wouldn't see the inside of an OR until further notice. ("In the Midnight Hour")