Grey's Anatomy - Episode 6.14 - "Valentine's Day Massacre"

It's Valentine's Day, and the doctors must treat dozens of injured people after the roof collapses at a popular romantic restaurant; Derek tries to manage his busy schedule as Chief of Surgery; Meredith wrestles with her new duties as the Chief's wife; and Mark and Callie team up to convince Sloan to do the right thing for her baby.

The opening starts off with new best mates Derek and Owen who plan to take their ladies out for Valentine's Day, except they aren't having it. "We don't DO Valentine's Day!". And to their delight, a massive trauma leads to the guys getting paged and they have to head back to the hospital. There's been a roof collapse at one of Seattle's most famous restaurants on Valentine's Day.

Three of the victims of the roof collapse are Mrs. Banks, her husband, and the maitre'd, Emile (who has been silently loving Mrs. Banks from afar for fifteen years). Meredith and Alex get sucked into this unfolding drama, but later she has an illuminating conversation with Mrs. Banks who, as it turns out, has a strong marriage despite Emile's perceptions. "I made a choice," she tells Mer. "...and I keep making it every day. That's what marriage is." And that's when Meredith realises she needs to attend the brunch she's been avoiding. She needs to be Derek's wife. It doesn't make her any less of a surgeon. But in that moment, he needs her to be his wife.

Meanwhile, all around the hospital, characters are reinventing themselves. Derek is struggling to be the chief of surgery at the cost of actually being a surgeon. Miranda is trying to deal with anesthesiologist, Ben, and ends up agreeing to go out with him. Lexie's become a blonde, but Jackson helps her to see that that's only an external change and that true change comes from purposeful, internal choices. Mark is trying to complete his change from shallow pretty-boy to responsible grandfather, only to be shattered when daughter Sloan takes off after making the decision to give her baby up for adoption - good thing Callie is there to help him pick up the pieces. And Teddy understands that the end result of her unfortunate attempts to admit her never-ending love to Owen has led to the breakdown of their friendship. So she changes course, offering to be Owen's friend and Cristina's teacher. But can she undo what's been done? Can she "unring the bell?" And as a final note, how cute are Owen and Cristina? Arm-in-arm at the end of the day, he's fine with her being called into surgery with Teddy (lesson learned from last week) saying: I'll see you at home.

In her closing voiceover, Meredith touches again on the choices we make. How we change. How we adapt. Life is change. Life is adaptation. Life is reinvention. Because we are either moving forward or we are moving backward. There is no standing still.

Preview of next episode: Grey's Anatomy 6.15 "The Time Warp"