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[2MuchTV]

"The End is the Beginning is the End" - Meredith, Derek, Cristina and Arizona receive big news regarding the plane crash lawsuit, Richard avoids Catherine's romantic advances and Jackson takes on one of Mark Sloane's old patients. Meanwhile, Derek begins recovery on his hand, on "Grey's Anatomy," THURSDAY, JANUARY 17 (9:00-10:02 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

"Grey's Anatomy" stars Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, Patrick Dempsey as Derek Shepherd, Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang, Justin Chambers as Alex Karev, Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey, James Pickens, Jr. as Richard Webber, Sara Ramirez as Callie Torres, Eric Dane as Mark Sloan, Kevin McKidd as Owen Hunt, Jessica Capshaw as Arizona Robbins, Jesse Williams as Jackson Avery and Sarah Drew as April Kepner.

"The End is the Beginning is the End" was written by Joan Rater and directed by Cherie Nowlan.

[Sunny Kerr]

I didn't love how the whole settlement thing became all about Callie and her words of wisdom to the ones who actually were on the plane. Didn't care for her little "and Lexie" tag-on either.

ilovebooks --- Owen learned that, because Arizona replaced Alex on the plane, and broke a rule about there being no more than two attendings on these kinds of flights, the insurance company won't pay, so the hospital has to. So the hospital goes bankrupt. So everyone loses their jobs.

Edited by Sunny Kerr, Jan 17, 2013 @ 10:15 PM.

[ilovebooks]

My DVR cut off at the end. What happened after Owen got off the phone with Derek?

[Frankie5Angels]

Dude. Arizona fucked up huge. Either they all take less money or no money to save the hospital or the hospital goes out of business and it's all because of her. Obviously, in the story line the hospital is still at fault for the crash, but the financial situation is compromised by Arizona's rash behavior. That one rash decision cost her her leg and will cost everyone else. I just need this lawsuit thing to end.

The rest of the episode was forgettable. I can't care about Jackson, Stephanie, April, Leah, or Jo. I hate that we got to see Alex and Jo interacting as roommates but not Alex and Cristina. Speaking of which, I see Cristina and Owen are back to their routine of fucking instead of talking.


I

didn't love how the whole settlement thing became all about Callie and her words of wisdom to the ones who actually were on the plane. Didn't care for her little "and Lexie" tag-on either.

Word. I thought the whole thing was so weird.

Edited by Frankie5Angels, Jan 17, 2013 @ 10:29 PM.

[harkiv]

Isn't it Owen's fault not Arizona's? He's the chief, he should know the rules. And if all the doctors are supposed to know that rule Derek and Mark should have said something too.

[MGTex]

I like divorced Cris & Owen way better.
I like pregnant-admitting Mer.
I like ping-ponging Der.
I like old school Bailey and her itchy boo-tock. Hee.
I like a friendly/competitive Alex & Jo.
Not a big fan of pushy/mushy Dr. Catherine.
Don't like sad Richard.
Don't like a bankrupt SGMW hospital.
Oh, and April, please just go back to Iowa.

[AnitaMC86]

I enjoyed this episode. It was good and relaxing.

Loved Derek's new "therapy". Enjoyed his competitiveness with Shane. Their scenes were funny and I have come to like Shane a lot. He can stay.

Hate Jo. Can't find anything to like her. So is Jackson's new sex buddy and her friend. They should go now.

Little April, I can live with that.

The morbid dinner scene was nice after all. It was a good group scene.

I know I'm supposed to feel sorry for Owen but don't. I hate the new version of S&M he has with Cristina.

Isn't it Owen's fault not Arizona's? He's the chief, he should know the rules. And if all the doctors are supposed to know that rule Derek and Mark should have said something too.

As much as I hate Owen, he has not much fault here. The board was saying it was a loophole that the insurance company found where they don't have to pay to the third attending. I highly doubt that Owen could know that at the top of the head, or Mark & Derek by proxy. I also don't recall but don't think Owen sent them off. I don't know if he ever knew that Arizona left instead of Alex until the accident happened.

[Erratic]

I didn't mind any of the interns today. Actually enjoyed some of their scenes.

And, even though Callie's speech was a little odd, I like the result of it. The realization that they are Survivors, and that surviving doesn't mean just being not dead, but living happy lives.

I was a little annoyed about the Jackson/Arizona storyline. The Plastics Attending was mentioned at the end, as an afterthought. Shouldn't *he* be taking on Mark's more tricky cases? Unlike Cristina's situation, where we know she is the greatest novice heart surgeon in the whole world, Jackson has never been shown to be 'great', just as having some talent for a regular Plastics Fellowship.

Bailey and Callie's friendship FTW!

Edited by Erratic, Jan 17, 2013 @ 10:45 PM.

[proud2be]

Callie grated on me tonight. Jackson hasn't earned the right yet to be that assy to an established attending. Loved Bailey. Like Alex and Jo as just friends. It's not Arizona's fault the insurance won't pay. Obviously none of them knew that technicality. Interns go away and take April with you.

[Chicken Wing]

I'm getting tired of Callie the Cheerleader trying to rally everyone to embrace this chance to move on and celebrate the fact that "we" won. I just want someone to scream at her, "You weren't there!!!"

[TXSforever]

Since when did Callie care about missing Lexie? Talk about left field and last straw. So sick & tired of her in the middle of the plane crash story like it's all about her when she wasn't even on the plane. Also where were Lexie and Mark in these court proceedings. If the survivors were awarded a settlement then so should Mark's children and Lexie's next of kin be awarded either?

Meredith did say it was her sisters blood money, but they didn't point out if Meredith got awarded for Lexie or not.

Alex wanting to be on a plane for money that killed a former girlfriend and mentor was tacky.

Interns all need to go away except Ross.

[lovlylizzy]

It doesn't matter to me that Callie wasn't there. Yeah she wasn't physically on the plane but I can legit argue that the result of the crash was just as emotionally taxing on her as it was for anyone else. Emotional loss, which Callie got in droves is just as painful as a physical loss.

I didn't bother being annoyed by Callie being the one to mention Lexie because I was just happy they finally decided to remember her name.

I really liked the humor this episode but that's it.

Edited by lovlylizzy, Jan 18, 2013 @ 12:24 AM.

[NYluv]

So the writers made a point to address Alex and Jo as friends (didn't Jo even go so far as saying Alex is like her brother?)... one would hope that that means it will stay that way, but forgive me if I don't really buy it as these are the same people that let Gizzie happen. Would have loved to have seen some Alex/Cristina roommate time instead of Jo practically moving in.

Bailey and Callie's friendship is so great!

So the loophole, does that mean no one get's the money or that one of them (re: Arizona) is assed-out?

I thought it was a solid episode. Transitional in moving the story forward.

Oh! and my favorite part was Cristina already knowing Mer is pregnant because of her boobs and appetite, and congratulating Derek.

[Erratic]

So the loophole, does that mean no one get's the money or that one of them (re: Arizona) is assed-out?

No, the award of $75M still sticks, but the Insurance company won't pay on behalf of the hospital, the hospital will need to pay.

[cycworker]

The problem for me is the trial had no emotional resonance because we didn't actually see it. While I agree with the poster that Callie did suffer hugely from the fallout of the accident, I'd feel it more if I'd actually watched her testify about what those four days waiting to find out the fate of her wife and her best friend/father of her child was like. Especially if there were flashbacks.

I thought Sara Ramirez's acting, however, was on point all night. She made that speech better than it was. From a writing perspective, it was all just a plot device to have the baby reveal. And, of course, it was to set up the juxtaposition (I hope I'm using that word correctly; its one of the few literary terms I've always had trouble understanding) of them celebrating vs the bad news re: the settlement and have the Owen/Derek forgiveness moment.

Tonight was the first time I liked Debbie Allen in the role of Dr. Catherine Avery. She really dialed it down nicely.

Although Ross is definitely my favourite intern, the others are growing on me. I see a really nice potential for a triangle for Steph/Jackson/April. The scene between April/Jackson was quite nice. Jackson is a jerk, though and doesn't have the charm the Mark had. He's never going to work as a replacement for Mark.

Loved Yang today, and I really like Owen & Cristina again. I'm fascinated by how something as simple as letting them divorce has made them interesting to me again.

Alex and Jo are growing on me.

[Bleeding Love]

I didn't watch the episode, but I did see the promo of Arizona saying 15 million each. Who gets that? Meredith, Arizona, Cristina, Derek - does Jerry get money? Does Sofia (Callie) get a share on behalf of Mark?

[Mistakeoverturn]

I was displeased with the trial. It was over so quickly and they skipped ahead so it wasn't very personal. It detached me from the story.

[NYluv]

No, the award of $75M still sticks, but the Insurance company won't pay on behalf of the hospital, the hospital will need to pay.

Oh, duh me! Thanks.

Why $75 mil instead of $90 mil, did I miss something? If the breakdown is $15 mil/victim, then they are only paying out 5 people (unless they are splitting the deceased's cut, which doesn't seem right).

[willriley01]

Even though I watched them explain it to Owen, I still don't get why the hospital has to pay.-- So I'm going to lay it all out, and anyone else let me know if I missed anything.

It was the airline's fault, but the airline/insurance won't pay because it was the hospital's fault that three attendings were on board instead of two (because technically Arizona would put them over some kind of quota/coverage rate since Alex isn't worth as much.) The hospital broke the contract with the airline, or however you want to say it.

Which makes sense about why the insurance people won't pay up, but I don't remember exactly how they picked who was going on that plane. What would they have done if the other hospital needed more attendings? Say sorry, but our insurance doesn't cover it? Which leads me back to- how can the airline not be paying for this? I thought the deal with the airline was for flying costs, not insuring payouts if a plane went down? Which what does it matter the plane was crap and killed people. If they had been any other occupation and had this horrible crash, the airline would still be paying for it. Help?

[TXSforever]

It doesn't matter to me that Callie wasn't there. Yeah she wasn't physically on the plane but I can legit argue that the result of the crash was just as emotionally taxing on her as it was for anyone else. Emotional loss, which Callie got in droves is just as painful as a physical loss.

What about Owen, his wife was on the plane, he buried 2 doctors. It wasn't taxing on him emotionally?
What about Thatcher? His daughter is dead and his other one and son-in-law were on the plane, is he not emotionally taxing somewhere? I hear nothing about him or but Callie's going to bring up how she misses Lexie? What a joke.
What about Mark's eldest daughter?

Callie made this all about her like she was on the plane and she suffered and lost the most. They made her this token of the accident like she should so be involved in it like she was on it amd she deserved it more than others. When really is seems like Shonda just shoving Sara down the viewers throats.

[Zgrok]

Watching this season, I find I am constantly repeating a phrase in order to understand the writing. I think it might help you understand the whole plane crash/lawsuit storyline, willriley01...

...a wizard did it...

[NYluv]

Callie was made a part of this when she was named as Mark's proxy. She was present at all of the meetings, she got a vote in whether or not to settle, this was thrusted upon her. She didn't ask for any of this - and for awhile, she was attending the meetings for her wife as well. No, she wasn't on the plane and didn't suffer like the other's, but she went through her own ordeal and in the end had to handle the aftermath like the survivors. She's allowed to want to celebrate the fact that this horrific chapter in their lives is over.

Had Cristina not survived, Owen would've been in the same predicament. But once Cristina came back, he wasn't needed to speak for her anymore. That and, because he is Chief, he became part who/what is at fault. And FWIW, Cristina invited him to the dinner but he turned it down.

Edited by NYluv, Jan 18, 2013 @ 2:28 AM.

[zenyatta]

Why $75 mil instead of $90 mil, did I miss something? If the breakdown is $15 mil/victim, then they are only paying out 5 people (unless they are splitting the deceased's cut, which doesn't seem right).

I was confused about this too unless Lexie's estate is being settled separately? Mark had time to set Callie with POA but its plausible that Thatcher or Molly would be Lexie's legal next of kin.

Callie pushed for the dinner but I didn't think she was making the crash or the settlement to be all about her. I thought she explained it nicely at dinner. She wasn't ignoring people died or minimize the pain that others have gone through. She was glad to close the chapter and celebrate that the others survived to live the rest of their lives. I liked the dinner scene overall.

Is Cristina and Owen having sex but not being married supposed to be like Meredith and Derek with their sex and mockery? The no relationship definition after breaking up but sleeping together all the time reminds me of that mess. I don't care for it anymore this time around with different people.

I am happy that Alex isn't sleeping with Jo yet. I still think it will happen but at least they are making some attempt to show them having some kind of relationship build first.

Didn't care about Jackson's mother, found Jackson a bit irritating, had no interest in the hair eater or the senior pole dancer. I did feel badly for Richard but at the same time it kind of pissed me off. Where was his guilt while he was always going to see Ellis in the home?

Edited by zenyatta, Jan 18, 2013 @ 2:49 AM.

[willriley01]

Zgrok, lol thanks. I can't believe I forgot the number one rule.

[ghostwriter31]

I liked the fact that there was no long, drawn-out emotional trial. This way it is over for the survivors and they can move on and, as Callie said, celebrate being alive and happy. I had no problem with her wanting the dinner, because sometimes people need to be reminded of what they have overcome and what they have now.

I hated Jackson tonight, he was a huge douche. Mark was arrogant, but he had years of experience as a plastic surgeon and had the skill and the reputation to back it up. Jackson hasn't earned that, so to come off like he is the new Mark Sloan is just wrong on so many levels. Plus, he was rude to Arizona for no reason when she questioned his plan, which she had every right to do on her patient's behalf.

Still hate the Alex/Jo thing. Maybe there will be another woman coming into his life and Jo will help him to not screw it up by pointing out when he makes mistakes. I will hope for that, but I fear they will become a couple soon enough.

I kind of got my wish to find out if Dr. Ross was as upright as he seems. I wonder what kind of trouble that competitive side got him into when he was younger.

Everything else was ok.

Burning question: Why can SGMW not sue the charter company to recoup some of the losses from this settlement? Isn't that what usually happens? Someone sues a company for one thing and they in turn sue someone else if they have a legitimate case against them?

Edited by ghostwriter31, Jan 18, 2013 @ 4:17 AM.

[Somerset]

Take out everything involving Jackson in this episode and I'd say I loved it. Didn't care about the weird-looking kid and couldn't care less about April pining for Jackson. His arrogance on top of all of that was off-putting. On the plus side, April wasn't annoying and Leah stuck up for herself.

It's weird that Steph and Jackson get called out but nobody among the interns is saying boo about Alex and Jo's relationship. We know it's perfectly chaste at this point, but Jo constantly hanging out with Alex for a month would have everybody in the hospital assuming she's just another one of his conquests. Maybe we're to assume that they got that conversation out of the way a long time ago.

I think it's interesting the way Jo is insinuating herself into Alex's life. Yeah, she only bought him a couch, but she pretty obviously intends to sleep on it quite a bit, and it wouldn't surprise me if she's basically living there by the time Cristina moves out.

The only thing I hated about Jo being in Alex's house is that it robbed us of scenes of Alex and Cristina trying to live together. I demand those scenes, dammit!

Everything about The Chief's grief was great, in my opinion. Part of me was hoping that Meredith would tell him about the pregnancy in their last scene together because I wanted something to cheer him up, but it was better that he had that scene with Catherine in the restaurant at the end.

And I'm profoundly glad that the trial is over. I'm still wondering how we got from Derek wanting to push forward so that they'd find the answers that would prevent all future plane crashes from happening (hyperbole, there) to extracting their pound of flesh from Owen Hunt and killing Seattle Grace.

Oh, and yeah, I did feel like it was strange that Callie was suddenly the ringleader of the whole group there, considering she can never truly understand what they went through, but I liked her perspective on the whole thing precisely because she is a bit of an outsider in this case.

Edited by Somerset, Jan 18, 2013 @ 4:54 AM.

[ElectricBoogalo]

So much hate at Cristina and Owen going back to their old fucking but not talking routine. Yup, glad that divorce fixed everything.

My absolute favorite thing about this episode was finding out that Cristina knew Meredith was pregnant but not pushing her about it. The fact that she confronted Derek about it just made the whole situation even more hilarious. I know that Cristina and Meredith can have a sickeningly codependent relationship but this was one of those moments between them that I love. They know each other so well and they know what the other person needs.

I thought Bailey knew about vajazzling. Didn't she bring it up in an episode years ago? I guess I have a hard time believing that the woman who was talking about vajayjays is that upset about a little vaj bling.

[Chicken Wing]

I know that Callie has suffered emotionally through all of this -- her wife lost her leg and their marriage has been on an unsteady ground ever since, her best friend and the father of her baby is dead -- but any way you slice it, bottom line, full stop, it's not the same as having been there in the woods for four days. It's not the same. There is a reason why she was exhaling a sigh of relief and wanting to celebrate the end and the others were all staring back at her in numb silence.

As to why the hospital's breaking the two-attendings-on-a-plane rule allows the insurance company to refuse to pay out a claim, it's because an insurance company will look for and use any possible excuse on this green earth to avoid paying a claim. Having three attendings on a plane has abso-freaking-lutely nothing to do with the crash, but since it violated a rule of the insurance policy, boom. They broke the terms of their contract, so that flight was officially uninsured from takeoff. No money for you, sir.

And the airline isn't paying only because the lawyers decided to go for the entity who had the deepest pockets -- the hospital. They knew they had bigger limits to work with going after the hospital's insurance company than the airline's.

Edited by Chicken Wing, Jan 18, 2013 @ 7:11 AM.

[Mama No Life]

My absolute favorite thing about this episode was finding out that Cristina knew Meredith was pregnant but not pushing her about it. The fact that she confronted Derek about it just made the whole situation even more hilarious. I know that Cristina and Meredith can have a sickeningly codependent relationship but this was one of those moments between them that I love. They know each other so well and they know what the other person needs.

Agreed.

Loved Mer/Der together this ep, and their separate story lines as well. Enjoyed seeing Cristina happy...her huge smile when Meredith announced her news was lovely.

I was glad the trial was over....guess it was too soon though, since it seems like that plot line still has a way to go before being wrapped up.

And damn that Owen for making me like him again...

[lumpsum]

I have been watching this show semi-regularly for a long time and while I find it entertaining in a silly way, I can't stand it anymore.

I could get pass the stretches, like surgeons waiting for ambulances, doctors drawing blood, the completely weird timelines, how it is so easy to have sex in a hospital with an unlocked door.

But the plane crash and everything involving it did it for me.

Owen cannot be responsible for the change of carriers. These decisions are made by a board of directors, not the chief surgeon. Even if it were a one person decision, it would be the hospital Dean, or whatever the title is.
There is no way that an appeal would not follow. No way.
If the insurance does not want to pay - and by the way, what a stupid loophole. Seriously, hospitals are limited on how many doctors it sends and their titles? - the hospital would not pay either. They would fight and not simply close the doors. Not because of a small group of people, no matter how much they were hurt, no matter how many people died.
If the lawsuit could only have happened with "all" of them, then Lexi's representative would be there. and Mark's other daughter. This information would be readily available to all lawyers and if one person were not there, then there would be no ruling. If the "all" or "none" is a true thing.
Hospitals and insurance companies have way more resources and power of intimidation to win this.

There is probably more but I find it ridiculous that Shonda and Co. want to go so far into oddity land to spin a silly story that should have never happened.

Now what? are we going to see everybody coming together to "save" the hospital, because they are all family? Or are we going to dwell on this storyline forever?
Either way, shondaland gets even more bizarre. What's wrong with the woman?

Edited by lumpsum, Jan 18, 2013 @ 8:40 AM.