Sunday 8th april.
20.00–22.00Continuing tonight is the second season of the award-winning hospital drama. Currently the toprated show in the US, Grey’s Anatomy charts the personal and professional lives of a group of young surgical interns. It’s the week to end all weeks in Grey’s Anatomy, as each member of staff at Seattle Grace Hospital is forced to confront their own mortality. In an explosive two-parter, the hospital is evacuated when a man arrives with an unexploded shell in his chest. Hollywood star Christina Ricci guest stars as the young paramedic with her hand stuck inside the man’s body trying to stop him from bleeding to death. Meanwhile, Dr Bailey goes into labour and her husband is seriously injured in a car accident on his way to see her. The first episode of tonight’s double bill, ‘It’s the End of the World’, finds mortality weighing heavily on Meredith as she is struck by the feeling that today she will die. As the day draws on, her premonition takes on a very real significance. A trauma victim is brought in by a young paramedic, Hannah Davies, who has her hand wedged inside his chest to stop him bleeding. Alex discovers that the accident was caused by a homemade bazooka – and the shell inside the man is unexploded. Dr Burke tells Hannah not to move an inch, fearing the ammo could detonate, and calls a ‘Code Black’, evacuating half the hospital.Meanwhile, Dr Bailey has gone into labour and unbeknownst to her, her husband is involved in an accident on his way to the hospital. He is rushed to surgery where Derek begins an operation on his brain – only to hear that the hospital is being evacuated. Derek and Christina decide to stay: “I’m not leaving Bailey’s husband on the table with his skull flap open!” vows Derek. The bomb squad arrives while Meredith tries to reassure Hannah. The paramedic tells Meredith she is only working her second week: “Talk about on-the-job training,” she jokes. But the crisis deepens when the cowardly anaesthetist leaves Hannah alone. On her return, Meredith finds the paramedic in the midst of a panic attack. Hannah pulls her hand out and flees, only for Meredith to take her place with her hand inside the patient. The action continues in the second part, ‘As We Know It’, as Bailey refuses to have her baby, and the bomb squad struggle to find a way to extricate Meredith from her perilous position. With her husband absent, Bailey is adamant that she will not give birth. Addison pleads with her to reconsider, but it is down to George to convince her: “You’re Dr Bailey, you don’t hide from a fight!”he says.Up in surgery, Derek continues to work on Bailey’s husband while Meredith prepares to remove the shell from the patient. But a major problem arises when Richard realises that the operating room is directly above the oxygen lines. Nobody wants to break this to Meredith, but she soon figures it out: “If the bomb were to explode over the oxygen line,” she says, “the whole hospital could blow up.” The only solution is to wheel the patient into another theatre. But the slightest jolt along the way could set the shell off...Also this week, Izzie and George discuss the fact that, compared to their friends, they are too passive: “I think Meredith and Christina are doers,” Izzie says, “and we are watchers.” Resolving to be more proactive, Izzie wastes no time in hunting down Alex and seducing him in a linen cupboard. Plus, the stress gets too much for Richard when, at the height of the emergency, he succumbs to a panic attack and collapses. With so many lives at stake for the staff of Seattle Grace, could this week truly be the end of the world as they know it?Creator Shonda Rhimes Executive Producers Shonda Rhimes, Mark Gordon, Betsy Beers, Jim Parriott Director Peter Horton A Touchstone Television Production