The fifth episode of 'Grey's Anatomy' season nine, "Beautiful Doom," showed best friends Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Christina (Sandra Oh) finally come to terms with some of the trauma they experienced during the fatal plane crash in May.
The Mer-Christina-centric episode followed the two doctors as they dealt with family, work and their relationships. The episode kicks off with Meredith failing to toilet train daughter Zola and Christina in a bad mood despite being in bed with "sex buddy" Dr. Parker (Steven Culp).
Meredith, who has been struggling to maintain a working mother's schedule, hands off little Zola to husband Derek (Patrick Dempsey) as she heads off to Seattle Grace-Mercy West. On her way, she comes across a car accident that leaves a young patient crushed under the weight of the car. She manages to convince onlookers to help her lift the car off her new patient and begins back to Seattle Grace-Mercy West.
Over in Minnesota, Christina gets a ride to work from Mayo Clinic buddy Dr. Thomas (William Daniels), who shows her their next cardiothoracic case-a complicated two-surgery aneurysm. Before the two scrub in, Parker attempts to convince Christina to take a case with him but is quickly turned down. Parker, who hopes to get Thomas to retire, then spends the entire episode thwarting the elderly doctor's work on their patient Katie.
Back in Seattle, Meredith struggles to keep patient Melissa alive and is forced to end her surgery prematurely when Richard (James Pickens Jr) tells her its time to give Melissa a break. Despite Richard's insistence that she step away from the case due to Melissa's similarity to Meredith's dead sister Lexie (Chyler Leigh), Meredith continues to care for her and watches her overnight before a second surgery.
Thomas and Christina successfully perform Katie's first surgery, although with a slight bump in the road. The incident causes Parker to tell Thomas that he is a liability to patients and that he will now be signing off on any future patients. Like Meredith, Christina is forced to watch her patient overnight to ensure her survival.
Meredith and Christina's patients survive the night and soon head to their second surgeries. Despite Parker's disapproval, Thomas decides to go ahead with Katie's final surgery, knowing full well it could mean the end of his medical career. Meredith also defies objections to Melissa's surgery and enlists the help of her interns to help save her patient's life. As if saving Melissa's life isn't enough, Meredith must also assign one of her interns to watch over little Zola, who develops a minor fever and is not allowed at the hospital's day care.
Both surgeries end successfully, although Christina is forced to finish the final surgery on Katie alone after Thomas collapses during surgery but cannot be revived by Parker. In Seattle, Meredith leaves Zola with "Uncle" Owen (Kevin McKidd) after her patient finally wakes up from surgery. Afterwards, as she puts Zola to bed, Christina surprises Meredith at her front door. Thomas' death proves to be the push for Christina to finally walk away from the Mayo Clinic, hop on a plane and head back to Seattle. The two embrace after Meredith tells Christina "Lexie's dead," and Christina responds, "Everyone's dead."
Next week's episode, "Second Opinion," finds Christina back at Seattle Grace-Mercy West having fun torturing her new interns.
'Grey's Anatomy' S9E6 "Second Opinion" airs Thursday, November 15 at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.
WATCH THE PROMO FOR S9E6 "SECOND OPINION"