Harper Avery

The man for whom the prestigious Harper Avery Award is named is rushed into the emergency room after getting sick at dinner.

Admitting him? Jackson. His grandson. Cristina tries to show off but ends up misdiagnosing the problem, which he busts her on.

Soon both the fact that Harper Avery's in the hospital and the fact that Cristina humiliated herself in front of him is all over SGH.

This drives her to extreme lengths to redeem herself. Harper, for his part, wants Ellis Grey to perform his surgery, but she's not there.

Hasks for Richard to do it. And for him to be awake while it's going on. Derek relents, even allowing Jackson to scrub in.

Avery is a badass, particularly when something goes wrong and he's on the table.

In grappling with his family legacy and his grandfather's expectations for him, Jackson finds an ally in Meredith.

Richard, meanwhile, is grappling with his own issues, taking drug tests and wanting to keep to a low-stress first day back. So much for that.

But when complications arise, he's convinced that he made an error, and encourages Derek to let Bailey take over. It turns out that the problem was an allergic reaction to the sutures, and there's no way anyone could've known.

Post-surgery, Meredith (it's genuinely amazing - and refreshing - how grounded they've made her character) convinced Jackson that he needs to make amends with his grandfather, which includes introducing them to his friends, which he loves. Really nice moment.

Lexie, Alex and Mark

Derek walks in on Lexie, waiting naked for Alex in his room, and is promptly followed by Meredith, who warns her that emotionally Alex is her three years ago.

Cristina pipes in with exactly the same lines later on.

Alex is being the version of himself that's retreated into a shell but keeps finding himself thrown out of ORs and kept off cases because he's slept with people.

Lexie spends her time trying to convince herself and everyone else that she doesn't really have feelings for Alex and that it's all just physical. Mmm hmm.

Mark buries his feelings by returning to his man-whore ways - sleeping with a drug rep, at least one nurse (and a patient's daughter in the same day.

He performs a surgery and restores the patient's hearing as well, so it's not like it's hampering his work.

Mark is on the verge of getting it together and going back to Lexiewhen he essentially sees her and Alex coming out of the on-call room and promptly stalks off.

Teddy, Owen and Cristina

Arizona catches Teddy gazing at Owen longingly. She decides that what Teddy really needs is a friend.

She also needs help with a case - a young man who survived both leukemia and lymphoma, but whose lungs were damaged by his radiation treatments.

He needs a lung transplant, but is an exceptionally high-risk candidate. There's talk of trying to essentially rehab lungs that would be deemed unusable.

Teddy's initially reluctant, but Cristina uses Teddy's name to rescue them from disposal in a desperate attempt to redeem herself after her humiliation.

Teddy goes ballistic and lectures Cristina about the dangers of ambition and angling for awards, and how it leads to bad judgment and priorities.

But ultimately, the patient decides he wants the (now-viable) lungs. When things go haywire, Cristina helps encourage Teddy through it, and the patient is saved!

Owen, after being encouraged by Cristina to be friends with Teddy, suggests that they get a beer and celebrate the success.

Teddy sticks to the commitment she made to Arizona earlier about going out for a girls' night with her and Callie and Bailey.

Meredith and Cristina join them all on the softball diamond.