We went into this episode already knowing that Henry was dead. But the tragedy of his death was compounded by the hours upon hours that Teddy spent in the operating room with Cristina, who already knew that Henry had died (while she was operating on him) and yet Cristina had to lie to Teddy by saying that Henry was A-OK.
The scene when Teddy suggested that she and Cristina remove the patient’s heart from her body in order to repair it — an operation that was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience for surgery junkie Cristina, who would’ve normally relished the opportunity with tremendous enthusiasm — followed by Teddy literally whooping it up in order to remain awake and alert were very well done. You could feel the crushing burden of the truth Cristina was withholding from Teddy just by looking at Cristina’s eyes.
While everyone was tiptoeing around Teddy so she could save a patient, one poor, newly-minted 18-year-old girl had to watch as her mother, her father and her grandmother all died, right in front of her, following an atrocious auto accident which killed them and severely injured her two younger siblings, both of whom had to have surgery.
Normally, I find myself unable, unwilling really, to get emotionally invested in the weekly patient stories because I know they’re going to be gone as soon as the credits roll. But to see the teen weather this horror and have the wherewithal to realize that she didn’t want extraordinary measures to be taken to keep her dying father alive, was incredibly moving.
The story also afforded Meredith the chance to flex her empathetic, loving, maternal muscles as she took the girl under her wing on probably the worst day of that girl’s life, and provided her with exactly what she needed, someone to lean on, someone to stand by her. Despite all her dark and twistiness, nurturing comes naturally to Meredith.
This is what made the single, shining moment of the first 2012 episode of Grey’s Anatomy pay off: The inexplicable return of Zola to the arms of her adopted mother and father. Amidst the death and the heaves of melancholy that gripped everyone from Teddy and the 18-year-old orphan, to Callie and Avery who realized that their screw-up nearly killed a woman, Meredith — she of the giant heart who’s willing to stand in front of an oncoming car to save a child — got her baby back. (Yes, I realize that she AND Derek got THEIR baby back, but, unlike Meredith, I’m still angry with Derek for being a calloused, sanctimonious prat who abandoned his wife when she needed him.)
It was a gratifying end to a devastingly grim episode as a mother and father cuddled with their baby, creating a happy new beginning, in contrast to the sad beginning the 18-year-old had as the new head of her family and the one upon which Teddy is about to embark as a widow. I just hope that in the next episode we don’t see Teddy holed up in her apartment, baking a bazillion muffins or lying, emotionally stunned, on the bathroom floor.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Jan 06, 2012 @ 09:12 EST5EDT
