‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Christina Leaving Owen Behind — Episode Recap – Hollywood Life

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Recap: Owen Begs Cristina Not To Leave Him Behind

On the May 8 episode of 'Grey's Anatomy,' the wheels are in motion as Cristina prepares to leave Grey-Sloane Memorial Hospital for good. In the meantime, Alex steals a surgery from Arizona, Derek gets an offer he can't refuse, and one of the residents gets fired. Are you ready to say goodbye to Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) for good? In one of her final episodes, Cristina is put in charge of finding her own replacement.

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Greys Anatomy Cristina Leaving Owen Behind
Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ — Cristina Interviews Potential Replacements

We are down to the last couple of episodes featuring our beloved Cristina.

The episode begins on a high note. Derek (Patrick Dempsey) is traveling for business, probably something fancy for the White House or something like that. Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) doesn’t seem to  miss him much, because during their morning Skype session she is much more interested in the delicious waffles his sister Amy made for her. Great, now I want waffles!

Over at the hospital, Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is faced with finally having to tell Brayden’s parents that he received the stem cell treatment they refused. Even though it worked, she went against their wishes, which could mean a huge lawsuit for the hospital. Bailey knows she has to tell the board before she tells Brayden’s parents, so she goes to Cristina. When Cristina hears the news she is shocked, but after finding out that it worked she is excited for Bailey and even offers her a high five.

This could, potentially, have something to do with the fact that Cristina is leaving and does not care about the legal issues Grey-Sloane Memorial Hospital will face because of Bailey’s decision. At least that’s what I’m assuming.

Speaking of, no one seems phased by Cristina’s decision to leave. This makes me think that Meredith is still the only person who knows, which means an emotional wave is coming our way when everyone is forced to say goodbye at the last minute. But, let me not get ahead of myself. I only have one box of Kleenex for this episode.

Anyway, back to Bailey’s drama. Needless to say, Brayden’s parents do not take the news very well, and soon enough she is sitting face-to-face with Owen in a conference room. Owen is baffled, and immediately contacts the hospitals legal team. Bailey tries to get Stephanie out of it by claiming she was not involved, but Owen asks her if she knew about Bailey going against Brayden’s parents wishes — which she did.

In much happier news, April (Sarah Drew) and Jackson (Jesse Williams) are finally back together and happier than ever about their bundle of joy. Keeping it a secret is the difficult part, and when they get caught in gynecology.

Meanwhile, Cristina is interviewing potential doctors to replace her — and she hates ALL of them. Maybe she is not the one who should be making this decision.

Alex Returns To Steal Surgeries

Even though Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) left the hospital for a private practice, he is still a staple around the hospital. Most of the time it’s just for his girlfriend, Jo (Camilla Luddington), but in this episode he is up to NO good.

Not only does he steal Shane’s tablet which holds every patients information, but then he straight up steals one of Arizona’s (Jessica Capshaw) patients. Shane protests, but Alex threatens him by telling him he will straight up lie to Arizona about how he treated a patient. Then, making matters much worse, he throws the fact that Shane “went nuts” and killed his father. Yikes. What’s up with that, Karev?

Owen interrupts one of Cristina’s interviews to talk about Bailey’s confession, but what I find more fascinating about their conversation is that he knows she is leaving. He knows she is leaving, and he is not reacting. What is THAT about?

Jackson decides to get involved with Brayden’s parents, and he not only offers to run some tests for them but he also spills the news that his wife is expecting. Wasn’t he the one telling April to be tight-lipped about that at the beginning of the episode? Also, why is Jackson running tests on Brayden when Bailey has already done all of the testing to prove that her treatment worked?

I  have to admit, I am concerned for Bailey. This is not the first time she has a major legal mess on her hands. Remember when her patients started going septic? That was no good, and she barely survived that ordeal.

Some of the interns have decided to give their A-game in the emergency room because they are under the impression that one of them is going to get fired, if not all of them. Jo is really going hard, and kissing way too much behind while working with April. She is also trying to please Callie (Sara Ramirez), who is not impressed with the “sissy girl” act Jo keeps putting on.

“Check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self,” is probably the line of the night, delivered by Callie to Jo. Classic.

Leah Works On The Farter

Leah (Tessa Ferrer) and Richard (James Pickens Jr.) have the BEST patient of the episode. We shall call her “The Farter.” She is a cancer survivor with major bowel issues, and from what I gathered early on she has problems containing her movements. This means she farts and poops constantly. It’s actually really if you put too much thought into it, because she’s a young girl who has big dreams of being a professional dancer. However, Grey’s has added a touch of comedic relief to the situation to keep us from falling into an emotional trap over The Farter.

When Arizona finds out what Alex did, she is pissed. She confronts him while he is scrubbing in and calls him out on poaching her patient, but he brushes it off like it’s no big deal. Then Shane walks in and tells Alex that the kid is ready for surgery, which pisses Arizona off even more because now she thinks her residents are turning on her. If only she knew why Shane was involved though. Ugh!

During the surgery, Arizona bursts in uninvited and sends Shane to do something else. Arizona reminds Alex that Shane is her employee, not his, and that she needs him to do other things. So, therefore she is now going to assist Alex in surgery, and he does not seem very happy about it.

Arizona reminds Alex that she is the one who taught him how to do the surgery he is doing, and that she taught him better than the way he is behaving.

Cristina is not having any luck with the candidates selected to replace her. However, Owen told her earlier that none of these new people would ever be her, and she is finally taking that to heart. While trying to explain this to Meredith, she sets a conspiracy theory in motion. Meredith tells her that she thinks Owen picked a bunch of unqualified people so that Cristina would realize she needs to stay, but Cristina isn’t falling for it. Instead, she thinks it’s Meredith who is trying to use reverse-psychology on her and get her to stay.

As I suspected, Bailey is in big trouble. Even though Brayden’s test results are coming back normal, his parents are not letting the issue go. Instead, they are filing a malpractice suit, and Owen delivers the news that they will also be filing assault and battery charges against her. So, even though Bailey was right, even though she saved this kid’s life, his parents can’t see past the fact that she went against their wishes.

With Derek being away, Meredith is spending a lot of one-on-one time with his sister, Amy. They even have to do a surgery together, which is when Amy tells Meredith she never wants to leave Grey-Sloane Memorial Hospital. She wants to stay there forever, and that’s why she’s been fighting with her fiance back home. Meredith doesn’t seem too upset by this, but I can’t help but wonder if Amy is just going to end up being more trouble than she is worth.

After hearing about a magnetic implant that helps stop acid reflux, Leah gets a brilliant idea. With a few modifications, couldn’t the implant be used to keep The Farter from, well, farting? When she brings the idea to Webber he is ALL for it, but not as much as The Farter’s boyfriend. When he finds out that the farting could be coming to an end, he is so happy he could cry, but mostly because he is at the end of his rope with “the smell.” Who can blame him?

April Spills The Beans About Her Baby

Callie’s lecture to Jo clearly worked, because when April refuses to put on the protective apron so that they can take an x-ray of the patient they are working on, Jo snaps at her. April calmly tells Callie that she can’t be in the room when the x-ray happens, and a light bulb goes off over Callie’s head. She knows that April is pregnant. First, it seems like she understands, and then it seems like she is angry. Callie is desperately trying to get pregnant, so of course hearing that April is pregnant would upset her. Callie does her best not to take it out on April though, and instead she takes it out on Jo. Poor Jo! She just doesn’t want to get fired, guys.

In one of the more exciting moments of the episode, Brayden finally gets to leave his plastic bubble. After months of being locked away from the world because he did not have an immune system, he is finally allowed to run out of the room and hug his parents. He is actually allowed to have human contact, and breathe the same air as other people, and it’s all thanks to Bailey.

When Owen tries to explain to Brayden’s parents that Bailey just went about what she was doing the wrong way, the father snaps. He tells Owen that they are lucky that Bailey will only be losing her medical license, because if Brayden had died they would be putting her behind bars.

That’s when Stephanie steps up and takes the blame for Bailey. She tells Brayden’s parents, in front of Owen and Jackson, that she forgot to tell Bailey that they decided to withdraw consent. Of course the father continues to flip out, but then the mother reminds him that their son is now healthy, and that he can go home. After months of watching him live in isolation, they are finally able to bring him home. Does this mean they are dropping the lawsuit?

Yes, it does! They agree to drop the suit, but only if Stephanie receives one week disciplinary suspension. That means everyone wins! Even if Bailey is upset the resident put her job on the line just to save her behind.

Callie runs into April later on and asks her how far along she is, and while April gushes about her baby being 10 weeks and even shows her a sonogram. And that’s when Callie finally loses it and starts crying hysterically. That’s when Callie tells April that she found out that she can not carry another baby because of injuries she sustained from her car accident. It’s heartbreaking to hear because she was so excited for another baby, but now it sounds like they won’t be doing that.

Derek Returns Home & Owen Begs Cristina To Stay

Alex finally explains why he stole Arizona’s surgery. He’s drowning in the private practice because he is not bringing in his own patients, and he had to do something before they cut him loose. Arizona is still pissed, but she tells Alex that next time all he needs to do is ask.

After her brilliant idea goes well in surgery, Webber makes an executive decision about Leah and ultimately fires her. She’s not fit to be a surgeon, and if anyone were to figure that out it would definitely be Webber. He is the one who trained all of these doctors, brought them under his wing, and made them who they are today. Even though the rest of the residents are still freaked out about getting fired, Leah decides not to tell them that it was her all along. Instead, she lies and says she will meet them at the bar, and after they leave she starts cleaning out her locker.

Callie finally tells Arizona that she can’t have another baby. Arizona offers to carry the baby, but Callie tells her that it would never work. They have been through too much, and they are too fragile, and if this pregnancy did not go well it would end them for good. So, for now, they settle on not having another baby.

Owen and Cristina finally have the confrontation we have been waiting for through the entire episode. She asks him not to ask her to stay, and he tells her that he wanted to so badly, but he won’t. He knows she needs to go, and she needs to move on for her career. However, he does ask her one thing. He asks her not to leave him in the cold, and the kiss they share is heartbreaking. Will it be their last?

Derek finally comes home, and he has news that throws everyone for a loop. He has been offered a position in Washington, D.C. by the president himself. Meredith is not into it, and does not like the idea of packing up her life and moving across the country. No matter how much he continues to try and explain that this is their next step, just like Cristina and Alex are taking their next steps, the look on Meredith’s face tells us that there is no way she will go for it.

So, what does this mean? I don’t know, but if the preview for the May 15 episode — Sandra’s final episode — did not give you anxiety, we can’t be friends any more.

Tell us, HollywoodLifers — Do you think Derek will take the job in D.C.? Do you think someone is going to die on the May 15 episode? If so, who? Let us know your thoughts below!

— Lauren Cox

More ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ News:

  1. ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Sneak Peek: Cristina Picks Her Replacement — Watch
  2. ‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Cristina Should Take Burke’s Job & Let Him Go
  3. ‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Burke Is Back — Cristina Reignites Old Flames