Two lives hang in the balance on ‘Grey’s’

Treatment conundrum: In the glow of last week’s surprise Izzie-Alex wedding, Derek happily announced that he knew how to fix Izzie’s brain. Unfortunately, the procedure could devastate her memory and speech, even if it saved her life.

Derek told Alex to tell Izzie to have the surgery, while Meredith told Izzie not to. Then Izzie was encouraged by another cancer patient her oncologist had treated with chemotherapy — only to have that patient suffer complications and wind up on a ventilator. Izzie chose surgery, but insisted on a Do Not Resuscitate order to avoid a similar fate.

Career change: Elsewhere, Owen, George and Callie treated a young soldier who wanted Callie to amputate his leg, which was functional but in constant pain, so he could get a prosthetic that might allow him back to active duty. Callie was horrified at the idea, but Owen approved, and George looked on with silent fascination at the talk of duty and honor. Callie eventually gave in, and they amputated the leg.

The soldier’s commitment seemed to affect everyone. Cristina had been telling Owen how important she thought it was for him to go and see his mother to tell her he was home, but instead, he announced that he was returning to Iraq to finish his commitment to the Army. In the end, though he didn’t rejoin the ranks, he did pay that overdue visit to his mother. Instead, it was George who joined the Army.

Bailey’s dilemma: The Chief thrilled Bailey with expensive surgical equipment that tempted her to return to general surgery and give up pediatrics. After lots of waffling, Bailey admitted to Arizona that Tuck had told her that if she took the fellowship (and the long hours and training that would go with it), he would divorce her. Bailey ultimately decided to return to general surgery — because she was leaving Tuck over his cruel ultimatum, and she didn’t think her first months as a single mom were the right time to take on a new specialty. Poor Bailey.

Military service: All of George’s friends, convinced it was a crazy, Owen-driven idea for George to join the Army, put together a plan to convince him to abandon the idea. Only Arizona backed George’s choice. Later, she told Callie that her brother died in Iraq, and she would be thrilled to have as many good doctors there as possible.

Miscellaneous love: Once the visit to his mom was done, Owen could sleep again, and he believed he was ready for a relationship with Cristina. She freaked out at first, but then they met up in their old creepy fan chamber. She said she loved him, and he told her she just had to “say yes” to make it all work. Which, in the episode’s last moments of calm, she did. Meanwhile, Mark floated the idea of buying a condo with Lexie, but she wasn’t interested, and they bickered.

Being's believin': Meredith was so moved by Izzie’s drama that she decided she wanted to get married right away at City Hall. But surgeries and Izzie and George piled up, so she and Derek settled for vows written on Post-Its, which they exchanged privately at the hospital as a bizarrely serious version of “Flashdance (What A Feeling)” played in the background.

Remember?: Izzie survived surgery, but she began to repeat herself, and it became clear that her mind was being wiped clean about every minute or so. Alex panicked and took it upon himself to retrain her memory. Later, when she remembered enough to be mad at him for an earlier fight, they realized her brain was recovering, but then she abruptly crashed. Deciding to ignore her DNR, everyone worked madly to revive her.

The big shocker: A man injured beyond recognition arrived in terrible shape after being hit by a bus saving a young woman’s life. She was obsessed with the idea that he was her “Prince Charming.” She hovered and worried over him, guilt-stricken that she wasn't nicer to him before the bus showed up. As his condition grew grim, he spelled out “007” on Meredith’s hand with his finger, and she realized that the unrecognizable man was George. He was taken into surgery, where everyone worked madly to revive him.

And so, as the season ended, the show cut back and forth between George and Izzie’s respective battles for life (which would be more compelling were the associated contract disputes not so public and ugly). A hallucination of Izzie’s, in which she stepped off the elevator in her Denny-is-dead prom dress and instead saw George in his uniform, seemed to indicate that maybe they were … both dead? Partially dead? On the edge of dead? Only time and the actors' contracts will tell.

Linda Holmes is a writer in Washington.

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