'Grey's Anatomy' Season 5 Episode Guide

5x1 "Dream a Little Dream of Me: Part 1" (OAD 9/25/08)

Cristina is impressed when an Army doctor comes in and stables his own leg wound. The man is Major Owen Hunt, and even while injured he saves people's lives.
Meredith asks Derek to move in with her.
Meredith and Cristina fight and then Cristina is stabbed by an icicle that falls from the roof outside the hospital.
Chief Webber and the hospital staff are dismayed when they learn that Seattle Grace has fallen from its number 2 rating to number 12.
Christina messes up a stitch on a liver and a man dies. She stitched it like it was a heart.
Erica Hahn observes other attendings in her attempt to learn how to teach.

5x1 "Dream a Little Dream of Me: Part 2" (OAD 9/25/08)

Owen pulls the icicle out of Cristina and then he kisses her. Webber offers him a job, but he says he has to get back out on the field. He tells Cristina about the field and says she would be a good trauma surgeon. She is intrigued.
Izzie sees Alex with a girl in his room and is upset.
George tells Lexie that she is one of his best friends and she is disappointed.
Meredith helps Derek pack up his things to move into her house.
Callie tells Hahn that she has never kissed a girl before, but she likes kissing Hahn and Hahn says she never has either. They decide to be scared together.
Rose accidentally stabs Derek in the hand with a scalpel and then decides to change to a peds specialty.

5x2 "Here Comes the Flood" (OAD 10/09/08)

Derek tells Meredith's roommates that he is moving in so they have to move out. Izzie finds an apartment and asks Alex to move in with her, but he says he'd rather live in his car. She asks Cristina, but Christina thinks she is recommending an apartment for Cristina and Callie and puts a down payment on it. Izzie realizes that she has nobody and Meredith says that's not true. Meredith tells Derek that her roommates are her family and he's not kicking them out. He says okay.
George is set to retake his intern exam but helps Webber with a flood in the hospital caused by a burst pipe. Webber stays late to serve as a proctor so that George can take his exam.

5x3 "Brave New World" (OAD 10/16/08)

Callie is nervous about her date with Hahn and talks to Bailey about it, who says to set down some rules.
George waits for the results of his intern exam. Lexie is sure he passed and will take him out for a beer regardless. He gets the results and she opens them for him and says he passed. He says he has to go tell Meredith and Izzie and leaves her alone.
Meredith is upset because when finding a place to put his clothes, Derek found her mother's diary and brought it out for her to read. He offers to move out and she says she wants him there and he can have her mother's den. He says she needs her own place too and gives her the trailer. She and Cristina read the ​diary together.

5x4 "There's No 'I' in Team" (10/23/08)

Bailey orchestrates a domino surgery where six patients give kidneys and six receiving. The person who gives a kidney gets one for a loved one. The surgery depends on each person staying in the program and when one drops out, the whole thing almost falls to pieces, but Bailey gets her to stay in the program. During the surgery, everyone is horrified when Meredith drops a healthy kidney. They clean it up and the woman who received the kidney seems to be doing fine.

Callie has Mark teach her how to have sex with women.

George becomes a resident and Lexie is hurt that she didn't ask her to be his intern and she tells him so.

Meredith is upset because Derek is recognized for the clinical trial without a mention of her when it was her idea.

5x5 "Life During Wartime" (OAD 10/30/08)

Alex and Izzie decide to be exclusive.
Hahn cries after sex saying that sex with Callie is so much better than with a man. Callie has sex with Mark twice and likes it just as much as with Hahn. He tells her she has to be honest with Hahn. She tells Hahn that she'd slept with Mark. Callie and Mark go get a drink and he gives her advice about dating women.
Owen Hunt begins work at the hospital and at first Cristina hides from him, but when he sees her, it seems he doesn't remember her. Later she asks him and he says that there were twenty in his unit that went to Iraq. Nineteen of them died there. He's a different person now.
Derek finds a box full of Meredith's mom's diaries.

5x6 "Rise Up" (OAD 11/06/08)

Izzie has to work on the man who'd she'd stolen Denny's heart from. He ends up in Denny's old room and Izzie sees Denny and he talks to her.
The interns practice on each other and then cadavers until they are caught. They go back to practicing on each other.
Owen is hard on Cristina but starts to see something in her that he likes.
Hahn wants to report Izzie because she'd stolen the heart, and Callie says she shouldn't because they need to look out for each other. They get into a fight and Hahn says that Callie is not a lesbian and then she walks away.

5x7 "These Ties That Bind" (OAD 11/13/08)

Izzie continues to see her dead fiance, Denny. She talks to a Navaho man who says she needs to burn anything that belongs to him. She has Alex burn the sweater she'd made for him, but she can still see him. She touches him and kisses him.

An old friend of Meredith's, Sadie, comes to the hospital as Cristina's intern. Cristina is jealous.

Callie breaks down after surgery because Hahn left without even saying goodbye. Cristina kicks everyone out of the room except for Mark.

Mark seems to like Lexie and Meredith tells Derek to tell him to stay away.

Cristina catches the interns practicing stitching techniques on each other and tells them to shut it down.

Owen gets mad at Cristina outside of the bar and then he kisses her.

5x8 "In the Midnight Hour" (OAD 11/20/08)

Denny tells Izzie that he's real and they have sex. Izzie gets called to the hospital and doesn't want to leave because she's afraid Denny won't be there when she gets back, but he promises he will.

At the hospital, Sadie talks the interns into taking out her appendix, and when there are complications, Lexie gets Meredith. Meredith and Cristina tell them to get Bailey and page the chief.

Meredith and Cristina get into a fight when Meredith finds out Cristina knew the interns were doing sutures on each other. Cristina is mad that Meredith didn't stick up for her with the chief.

Callie gets punched by a patient and Mark fixes her nose.

At home, Izzie goes into Alex's room after apologizing to Denny who is in her room.

5x9 "All by Myself" (OAD 12/04/08)

The attendings unanimously choose Cristina for the solo surgery, but she is on probation for not reporting that the interns were practicing on each other. The chief gives her the responsibility of choosing the second year resident to do the surgery. She chooses Alex because he is the one who is the most prepared. Meredith thinks Cristina didn't choose her because they are fighting over the intern thing, but Cristina says it's not true.

Owen takes Cristina down to the basement where there is a vent that blows a lot of air and kisses her.

Denny is with Izzie all the time and others begin to notice. Alex tells her he loves her and then asks her to scrub in with him on his solo surgery.

Lexie shows up at Mark's and they sleep together.

5x10 "Wish You Were Here" (OAD 1/8/09)

The chief pediatric surgeon has a heart attack and dies, and Arizona Robbins is brought in. She's young and perky and wears shoes with wheels on them. Bailey doesn't like her but comes to respect her.

Cristina and Meredith are still fighting because Meredith didn't stand up for Cristina when she got in trouble for the interns doing procedures on each other. Sadie reminds Meredith that the two of them had a fight like this once and they never really recovered from it and she should apologize to Cristina.

On Izzie's birthday, she tells Alex about Denny, but he doesn't seem too concerned. Izzie doesn't want to make a wish because she has everything she'd ever wanted, meaning Alex and Denny.

5x11 "Sympathy for the Devil" (OAD 1/15/09)

Derek's mother comes for a visit and Izzie coaches Meredith on how to be a girlfriend that mothers like. Mark hides from her, but when she corners him he admits to sleeping with Lexie. She talks to Lexie and decides that she is a good person and tells Mark that she likes her.

Meredith tells Mrs. Shepherd that she's a fraud and has been acting.

Mrs. Shepherd gives Derek a wedding ring and says that his father wanted him to have it for the right girl. He is surprised because she'd just met Meredith, but she says she can tell.

Owen asks Cristina on a date and then shows up late and drunk. He says it's been 5 years since he's dated and he just wanted to take the edge off.

5x12 "Stairway to Heaven" (OAD 1/22/09)

Izzie tells Denny to go. He keeps saying he's here for her. She finally figures out that she is dying and he's there to take her away. She says no and pushes him away.

Meredith fights with Derek and Cristina about a death row patient. Meredith shows him compassion, but Derek is angry because a man like him killed his father. Meredith goes to the execution because the man asked her to and Derek picks her up there. She's crying and she won't stop, so he goes and gets Cristina.

A dying boy needs a transplant and Bailey tries to get it from the death row patient, asking Shepherd to kill him. Webber coerces a woman into donating her husband's organs. Bailey tells Webber that she'd crossed a line. He says he did too and then she begins to cry.

5x13 "Beat Your Heart Out" (OAD 2/5/09)

Izzie tries to draw her own blood, but can't do it, so she has her interns "practice" on her. Her tests reveal that she is anemic.
Derek is ready to propose to Meredith. Meredith is freaked out because when she comes near, conversation stops. Mark helps Derek decorate Meredith's room. Derek gets a call from Addison, cleans the room, and leaves.
Dr. Dixon has a panic attack and tells Cristina to hug her to slow down her nervous system. Owen has a panic attack, which Cristina helps him through with the same technique.
Lexie tells Mark that she doesn't want to keep their relationship secret anymore.
Arizona sees that Callie is sad, and kisses her.

5x14 "Before and After" (OAD 2/12/09)

Izzie holds a contest for the interns and George figures out that Sadie does not know things that she should know. He tells her to go to the chief or he will, and she goes in and quits. Lexie wins the contest.
Addison brings her brother, Archer, to the hospital because he's got brain parasites and she wants Derek to operate. Derek saves Archer's life.
The fiance with whom Owen broke the engagement is in the hospital with her sick father. Cristina finds out that she thought he was still in Iraq and that his mother still thinks he's in Iraq. He tells Cristina that they want the old Owen and he's not here anymore. Cristina is the only one who doesn't look at him like he's a ghost.

5x15 "An Honest Mistake" (OAD 2/19/09)

The interns switched the labs the day Izzie had them check her out. She checks herself over and then goes to the dermatologist. Then she has the interns look at her labs, saying they are for Patient X.
Cristina works with an older doctor whom she believes needs to retire. Owen tells Cristina that even though she was right, she was a bully about it.
Derek and Addison disagree over their patient. Derek tries to save mother and baby by removing parts of the mother's brain. Addison says that the woman is virtually brain dead and she needs to deliver the baby. Addison manages to save the baby and the woman dies.
Upset with losing his patient, Derek punches Mark when Mark says he's in a relationship with Lexie.

5x16 "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" (OAD 3/12/09)

The interns diagnose Patient X with brain cancer and give her a 5% survival rate. Izzie knows that they are right. She wants to talk to Cristina because she's a robot and won't be too torn up by it, so Cristina takes her to the special lower floor vent and Izzie tells her.

Arizona asks Callie out on a date.

Derek won't come to work after making a mistake that killed a woman. The chief tells Meredith to get him back and that he was going to propose. Meredith goes to his trailer, where he is drunk and hitting cans with a baseball bat and saying he's done operating. She says she knows about the ring and he pulls it out and hits it with the bat.

Lexie apologizes to Mark for breaking him, and Mark says that she didn't break him, she put him back together.

5x17 "Stand by Me" (OAD 3/19/09)

Cristina tells Bailey and Alex about Izzie's cancer after Izzie refuses treatment.

Bailey sends Callie to get Derek. She talks to him about a mistake that she'd made that caused her patient to die. He gives her a beer. When Callie doesn't return, Bailey sends Owen. He talks about a loss and Derek gives him a beer. Bailey sends the chief and Derek tries to kick him out, but he says that when this is over Derek will need friends and Webber will be there for him.

Meredith drives over. Derek asks if she will love him if he's not a surgeon and she says no because Izzie has cancer and he's one of only about twenty who can save her and she wouldn't be able to respect someone who could give up that kind of gift. She leaves him with Izzie's scans.

5x18 "Elevator Love Letter" (OAD 3/26/09)

Owen chokes Cristina in his sleep. She tells Owen that it's okay and they have sex, but lying there after, Cristina says that she is sorry but she can't do this after all.

Derek performs a successful surgery on Izzie.

When Meredith goes to leave, Webber won't let her get on the elevator. The other opens and Derek is inside with brain scans posted all over the elevator walls. He goes through each one talking about what Meredith did in each one and how it brought them closer together. He says he won't ask her a question but he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. She says she wants to spend the rest of her life with him. She goes home and tells Cristina that she is engaged.

5x19 "Sweet Surrender" (4/23/09)

Izzie tries to go through her treatments like they are no big deal. Meredith tells Izzie she can plan Meredith's wedding, hoping to get her mind off ​her illness. Meredith is sorry when Izzie wants her to try on a bunch of different wedding dresses.

Derek and Mark have an argument over a patient, but Derek comes to see that Mark really is a good doctor.

Lexie is stress eating over the tension between Mark and Derek.

Izzie waits until everyone leaves the room, and then throws up.

Callie's father shows up and gives her an ultimatum. If she stays with Arizona, he will cut off her trust fund. She decides to stay with Arizona.

5x20 "No Good at Saying Sorry (One More Chance)" (OAD 4/30/09)

Meredith sticks up for an abused child and the chief is angry with her. Meredith tells Derek that he has to be on her side and he talks to the chief, who then talks to Meredith and says he is sorry that she was neglected as a child. He saw it happening and did nothing about it.

Lexie wants Mark to meet her father and he doesn't want to, but he goes to dinner with them.

Owen is very distant to Cristina and she confronts him. He says that he's working with a therapist because he loves her and he knows that he is no good for her so he is trying to do the right thing by keeping his distance.

Izzie's mom comes after Bailey calls her. Then Bailey lies and tells her that Izzie's scans are good so that she'll leave. Izzie goes into another surgery.

5x21 "What a Difference a Day Makes" (OAD 5/07/09)

Izzie continues to plan every detail of the wedding that is set to take place that evening. Denny shows up and Izzie knows that means she has another tumor. They hook her up to a machine and wait for her to have another hallucination. When she does, Derek is able to see the tumor, but it is so small, he can't get it out. Bailey suggests that he give up his wedding day for Alex and Izzie.

Meredith asks which of them will be her maid of honor and Izzie says, Cristina, because Meredith needs to be Alex's best man. Halfway down the aisle, Izzie has to pause for breath and George gets up and escorts her the rest of the way.

Back at the hospital, Izzie tells Denny that it was a beautiful wedding.

5x22 "Here's to Future Days" (OAD 5/14/09)

Owen decides that he is not done in Iraq and that is why he can't face stuff at home. He wants Cristina's support, but she says she doesn't want him to die and can't support him. Instead, he decides to stay and finally goes to see his mother.
Mark wants Lexie to move in with him, but she's not ready.
Meredith suggests she and Derek go to city hall the next day, and he agrees.
George enlists in the army.
Webber and Arizona are fighting over Bailey, each trying to woo her into their area of specialty.
Izzie has to decide whether to go with the treatment the cancer doctor wants her to do or the surgery that Derek wants. She decides on the surgery but signs a DNR.​

5x23 "Now or Never" (OAD 5/14/09)

Derek and Meredith had planned to go to city hall, but there is no time, so they get married on a Post-It note where Derek writes down their promises to each other.

Owen and Cristina get back together.

Izzie wakes up from surgery, but her memory resets every minute or so. Alex yells at her because he's frustrated with her memory and she remembers it. As he hugs her, she loses consciousness.

A John Doe comes in badly hurt after being dragged by a bus after pushing a woman out of the way. He finally gets the message to Meredith that he is George.

Izzie goes to the elevator in the dress she'd worn to the prom the night Denny died. The elevator opens to reveal George in his Army uniform. They smile at each other.