- Six hours after their oral boards, the fifth years relive their answers and worry about their chances. Back at the hospital, Bailey has to woo potential candidates for the hospital and Mark is startled when Julia makes a proposal about their future.—Nadia Nassar
- The residents are reeling from their boards. The next test is in June, Meredith says, of 2013. April wonders aloud if Alex made it. No one's sure what she means. Webber sees Avery's mom in the hotel hallway and she says that one the Seattle Grace residents didn't make it. She's worried that if it's Jackson, he'll blame her forever.
Six hours earlier: We see all the residents begin their exams in separate rooms and focus on Cristina for a minute and see that her examiner is being played by William Daniels, who TV hospital fans should recognize as Dr. Mark Craig of St. Eligius on "St. Elsewhere." She's a little annoyed at how slowly he explains the rules and reads the first question, but Cristina is off and running, as are the others. But there's an empty chair in one of the rooms. Alex isn't there.
Meredith looks a little ill and struggles to give her complete answers. We see Alex in a cab that's stuck in traffic. He's about 20 blocks away from the hotel where the boards are being conducted and he makes a run for it.
Back in Seattle, Sloan is nervous for Avery while serving breakfast to Julia and Sofia. Julia suggests they have a baby. Sloan says nothing and Julia stammers before leaving.
Sloan texts Callie, who is shocked, but Arizona doesn't really care because a childhood friend is coming in from Tibet for cancer treatment. She feels bad that she didn't pick him up at the airport. Callie tries to tell Arizona the man is going to be fine because he'd only been diagnosed six months earlier. She's surprised to see him using a cane. He says it hurts to walk and then clarifies that he was mistaken when he said six months. He meant years. Arizona is stunned.
Sloan tells Derek about how Julia wants his baby. Derek wonders why Sloan is asking him whether he should have a baby with Julia. Lexie walks up and they quickly change the subject.
They walk over to meet Charlie Connor, a man who fell off his roof and lost part of his skull several months earlier. Derek has made a titanium plate to replace the lost portion of Skull, and Sloan is going to do some work to get the man's face back in shape.
Hunt gives Bailey a pep talk about "wooing" some new candidates who are visiting. He's worried that after boards the hospital might lose some residents to other programs so they'll need fresh new talent. Bailey is annoyed, but says she will "woo." Hunt and Teddy have a terse exchange in which Teddy asks Hunt if he knows anything about Cristina's future plans. He says no and she asks him to keep her posted.
Meredith gets out of her first session, sees Cristina, and throws up. Cristina says it was "so easy," and Meredith tells her, "I want to punch your face."
Alex gets to the room at the end of the session and finds out he's failed the first session because he was late. The candidates have to pass two of three total sessions, so he must pass the next two.
Jackson sees his mom and they get into it about him having walked in on her half-naked with Webber. She says she's a woman who has "needs," which bothers Avery even more. He asks her to leave him alone because he's in the middle of his boards.
Into the next session, April has killed her hypothetical patient. Meredith is still feeling ill. Alex seems to answer a question pretty smoothly. April is trying to redeem herself from the patient she theoretically killed and the examiners ask her to move on. She keeps talking and rips off her jacket because it's so hot in the room and exposes some significant sweat marks. She melts down and asks the examiners to give her "all the information" about the patient.
Avery is distracted by hearing his mother laughing in the next room and his examiners wonder if his distraction calls into question his ability. They mock him and say they're going to let the traffic noises die down.
Cristina runs into a second "risky move" remark from her examiner.
Arizona's friend says he was trying to cure his cancer naturally. Callie is worried about the pain the man is feeling. After Callie leaves, Arizona's friend tells her he forgot how much he's missed her, and she says the same.
Bailey's candidates are asking questions about reserved offices and parking spaces, and she's annoyed but says she'll have to check on those things.
Derek and Lexie talk and Derek mentions to her that Julia wants to have a baby with Sloan. Lexie flips out and Derek leaves.
Meredith and Cristina talk during a break in the bathroom, which they've locked, and Meredith is still not feeling well. April knocks on the door and Cristina sends her away.
Derek talks to Bailey about how everyone is coming to him for advice. She tells him to just give a metaphor about anything.
April is in the men's bathroom trying to dry off and she's yelling at all the men in there who seem uncomfortable. Jackson shows up and they start doing all kinds of shouting about how upset they are over how badly things are doing. April starts talking about having broken her "promise to Jesus," and Avery says he shouldn't have taken advantage. This all turns into some fairly awkward verbal foreplay and they wind up locking the bathroom door and doing it in a stall.
At lunch, Bailey tells Derek, Hunt, Sloan and Teddy that they need to keep their own, and they start talking about which of their residents are staying or going anywhere. Derek teases that he and Meredith might move to Harvard.
Meredith calls Derek and asks if he'll still love her if she quits. He tells her "the test is a mirror." She tries to figure this out.
In the final session, April goes into a full-blown speech about her relationship with God and how she's done hiding it. Then she proceeds to actually answer the question, apparently well. Avery seems to be on a roll, too.
Arizona seems nervous while Callie and Bailey operate on her friend. Callie tells her that her friend is going to be fine. But Callie sees something that doesn't look good. She send Arizona out of the room, making up a story about having forgotten something. After Arizona is gone, Callie tells Bailey she's seeing mets in the vessels and she know this means they will be everywhere.
Derek is dropping hints to Lexie and Sloan about their life situations through metaphors in the operation they're working on.
Callie, Bailey and Teddy break the news to Arizona about her friend's condition.
Cristina has another run-in with her examiner about his suggestion that she should do a more invasive technique on a hypothetical patient. She cavalierly says she's "done this procedure a dozen times" and he quickly shoots back, "and I, a thousand."
Meredith throws up in the middle of one of her answers and while her examiners tell her they can stop the test and she can take it again next year, she proceeds to answer the question and tells them to keep them coming and no go easy on her. Then she throws up again.
Cristina and her examiner get into a big argument about her attitude and she goes off on him about the invasive procedure he suggested, saying, "That might've been OK when, like, Hawkeye and B.J. did on 'MASH,' but this being the new century, and all, I would have, as I said earlier, treated it endoscopically." Her examiner tells her "it's been a pleasure being witness to such genius" and that he can now retire knowing that "such advanced and creative minds are at work in the surgical field." Cristina is worried that he's ending it 20 minutes early. He gets up to leave and tells her, "Best of luck."
Alex gets tripped up on what he realizes was a trick question and gets upset. His examiner tells him that because he missed the first session, he's lucky to even still be there. Alex says he missed it for the best reason, because he was with a patient -- a baby -- who had no chance and he was trying to give him a chance. Alex shouts some more about the process is messed up. The examiners close their books and thank him. He wants to know if he passed, but they can't tell him on the spot.
Webber kisses Jackson's mom goodbye and she says she doesn't regret the previous night one bit. He doesn't either, and says it was "just bad timing." She starts to leave and they talk about another conference in May they're both attending.
Derek's patient is better and looking forward to getting back on the ladder, but his wife tries to talk some sense into him. They decide that he shouldn't take any more chances with his safety because she's worried about losing him. Lexie sees this and immediately goes and tells Sloan she loves him. She says she's been trying not to say it, but she can't help it. She talks about how Avery is great, but it's like Sloan is a disease and she's "infected by Mark Sloan." She feels better, but he's not saying anything. Julia walks up and there's more silence.
Arizona goes to her friend and calls him an idiot for "going to some quack" instead of having called her. He says he didn't come earlier because he was worried about what it would have done to her after having seen her brother die. She says she could've saved him.
That night, the doctors are refreshing their smartphones waiting for results of their boards. Avery, Cristina and Meredith passed. Alex, too, passed. The four of them do a little celebratory dance until Avery asks, "Where is April?" Then they see her looking at her phone and starting to cry.
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