'Grey's Anatomy': Ambition and hubris with Harper Avery in the house

A family legacy can be a tremendous help in life -- until it's not. And between Jackson Avery and Meredith Grey, "Grey's Anatomy" gave us a front-row seat to the dilemma.

"The" Harper Avery: As in the prestigious Harper Avery Award -- which Ellis Grey won twice and Preston Burke won once after he left Seattle Grace is rushed into the emergency room after getting sick at dinner by Jackson, the exceptionally cute and singularly likeable resident from Mercy West. Cristina, who got pushed out of a trauma and waylaid by legal when an EMT slipped and the patient fell, leaps in trying to show off and totally whiffs by misdiagnosing the problem -- which the patient (Chelcie Ross, recently seen in a fantastic turn as Conrad Hilton in "Mad Men") completely busts her on. I could tell what was coming the minute he opened his mouth about her mistake, and promptly began kicking myself for not seeing the "Avery" connection sooner.

Soon both the fact that Harper Avery's in the hospital and the fact that Cristina royally humiliated herself in front of him is all over Seattle Grace, driving her to extreme lengths to redeem herself. More on that in a minute. Harper Avery, for his part, wants Ellis Grey to perform his surgery, but since she's not there, he asks for Richard to do it. And for him to be awake while it's going on. I don't buy for a second that any responsible chief of surgery would OK that, even when asked to by a chief at Mass General and even when persuaded that it'll be alright by the surgeon of record. But Harper Avery does inspire a curious mix of awe and testosterone-fueled ruler waving, and Derek relents, even allowing Jackson to scrub in (totally not plausible). And watching the surgery, you have to admit that Avery is a total badass, particularly when something goes wrong and he's on the table.

In grappling with his family legacy and his grandfather's expectations for him, Jackson finds an ally in Meredith, who knows all too well the pressures of finding her own way in the shadow of greatness. Talk about brothers from another mother -- and it's great to see Jackson becoming one of the crew, since he so clearly can hold his own and then some with the Seattle Grace residents. Richard, meanwhile, is grappling with his own issues, including taking drug tests and wanting to keep to a low-stress first day back. So much for that.

But when complications arise, he's convinced that he made an error, and encourages Derek to let Bailey take over. It turns out that the problem was an allergic reaction to the sutures, and there's no way anyone could've known or prevented it. Post-surgery, Meredith (it's genuinely amazing -- and refreshing -- how grounded they've made her character) convinced Jackson that he needs to make amends with his grandfather, which includes introducing them to his friends, and they line up like stammering teenagers (Cristina takes a photo on her iPhone), which he clearly loves. Really nice moment.

The New Chief and the Old Chief: For the past few weeks Derek has come off part righteous warrior and part stuck-up judgmental priss in his dealings with Richard -- both absolutely right and absolutely exasperating, even as he's doing the right thing. That's changed. This week Derek accepted the facts of the circumstances allowing Richard back (drug tests) and managed to be compassionate and supportive without being too touchy-feely. He let Richard and Harper Avery take the reins when necessary, but got all up in both of their grills when they needed it. But it came through strongest after Richard lobbied Derek to let Bailey to do the second operation on Harper Avery because what he wanted was a drink, not to be responsible for another man's life. Bailey can assist, Derek responded, but you can do it, because two months ago you would've just taken the drink rather than confess to wanting it. Really nicely written, and beautifully played by both Patrick Dempsy and James Pickens, Jr.

Lexie and Alex and Mark: Hands down this week's best dialogue came out of this situation, right from the first scene of the episode. Derek walks in on Lexie, who's waiting naked for Alex in his room, and is promptly followed by Meredith, who warns her that emotionally Alex is her three years ago, and that she needs to stop connecting her heart and her privates. Hoo boy. Cristina pipes in with exactly the same lines later on, proving that she and Meredith essentially share two halves of the same brain.

Alex is being the version of himself that's retreated into a shell but keeps finding himself thrown out of ORs and kept off cases because he's slept with other people's girlfriends (i.e., Lexie and Callie). Lexie spends her time trying to convince herself and everyone else that she doesn't really have feelings for Alex and that it's all just physical. And Mark buries his feelings by returning to his man-whore ways -- sleeping with a drug rep, at least one nurse (we're told there are others) and a patient's daughter -- all in the same day. Given that he performs a surgery and restores the patient's hearing as well, he really is superman. Anyone who can get that much action in a day and still practice medicine has to come from Krypton.

At any rate, Mark is on the verge of getting it together and going back to Lexie (uh oh -- there goes my three-episode theory) when he essentially sees her and Alex coming out of the on-call room and promptly stalks off. I get that Mark's supposed to be randy and have bad judgment in the Doug Ross/"ER" mold, but it seemed like a a little much to turn him into a full-blown sex addict in just one episode.

Teddy and Owen and Cristina: Arizona catches Teddy gazing at Owen longingly and decides that what Teddy really needs is a friend, and she's an awesome one. She also needs help with a case -- a young man who survived both leukemia and lymphoma, but whose lungs were damaged by his radiation treatments. He needs a lung transplant, but is an exceptionally high-risk candidate. There's talk of trying to essentially rehab lungs that would be deemed unusable, but Teddy's initially reluctant. Cristina uses Teddy's name to rescue them from disposal in a desperate attempt to redeem herself after her Harper Avery humiliation. Teddy goes ballistic and lectures Cristina about the dangers of ambition and angling for awards, and how it leads to bad judgment and out-of-whack priorities.

But ultimately, over his protective sister's objections, the patient decides he wants the (now-viable) hand-me-down lungs. When things start to get a little bit haywire in surgery, Cristina helps encourage Teddy through it, and their long-shot patient ends up fine. Owen, after being encouraged by Cristina (who adores Teddy) to be friends with Teddy, suggests that they get a beer and celebrate the success. But Teddy, bless her, sticks to the commitment she made to Arizona earlier about going out for a girls' night with her and Callie and Bailey. Meredith and Cristina join them all on the softball diamond for an evening of beer and batting, and all is right with the world. For now.


What did you think? Do you like the fact that Derek and Meredith seem to have graduated to being the adults on the show? Do you think Mark will snap out of it and get back together with Lexie? What kind of odds do you give the Owen-Teddy friendship?