Richard decides to give the attendings a challenge -- he's got a million-dollar grant, and they each have to make a pitch for why they should get the money for their own department. But when each of them makes their pitch, almost everyone winds up bringing some personal baggage into it. Derek wants to cure Alzheimer's, because every time Mere does something absentminded, he's afraid she's getting it herself. Callie wants it to start using bovine ligaments in surgeries, but also wants it because she feels like Arizona is better at everything than she is, from being a doctor to being a lesbian, and she wants to "win" something between the two of them. She even spends the whole day trying to psych Arizona out so that she'll cry in front of the Chief and then not get the money. Arizona doesn't cry, and gives a very well thought-out presentation about why it should go to pediatrics, but then gets fired up because everyone expected her to cry and winds up just wanting to punch someone in the face. Mark wants to bring in more cosmetic surgeries for more revenue and then create a state-of-the-art burn unit, but even more so wants something on which he can focus his attentions and spare time since he's not having sex with anyone right now. Teddy wants to do something with regenerating heart tissue, but really, she just doesn't want neuro to get the money, because she still harbors a grudge about Derek wanting to fire her a while back.

The only two docs that don't make it entirely about themselves are Owen, who wants to provide trauma training for the staff so that if something horrible like the shooting happens again they might be able to save more lives, and Bailey, who points out that they could repair some broken machines they already have and could hire a night nurse. Richard's pretty disappointed in that but she points out that she's practical rather than fanciful and also, he doesn't really have the money, so what is going on? He alludes to something happening in the next few weeks, though he doesn't say what, and then he announces Owen as the winner. You've never seen such insincere smiles on the other doctors' faces, which is saying a lot, given this crowd.

Since they are all busy with their pitches, Richard "promotes" the 4th year residents up to attendings for the day, navy blue scrubs and all. Lexie's disappointed to realize she's not part of this, since she's a third year, but then realizes this makes her Chief Resident for a day so she perks back up, even if it means she's run into the ground trying to help out everyone. Meredith and Jackson are in neuro for the day, and compete to see who gets to perform a procedure on Derek's patient. Jackson lures Meredith into thinking he's a basket case and then kicks her ass in the competition, so he wins the reward of taking point on the surgery. But once in the OR, he makes a mistake and Derek has to take over, though fortunately he's able to patch everything up. Even though Derek tells him later that it's okay, that people make mistakes and that this was totally normal, it clearly doesn't help Jackson's state of mind after last week's beatdown by Teddy for trying to use his looks to get ahead. Lexie, meanwhile, has a patient who suddenly has neurological symptoms, and Derek sends Meredith to help her out; since he's busy helping Jackson, Meredith has to go ahead and perform the other surgery with Lexie assisting. When Derek finally makes it in to their OR, he finds Meredith totally kicking ass, as she does the job perfectly.

Alex is in charge of a patient of both Arizona and Mark's -- a 13-year-old boy who has some condition which has given him breasts. His mother is totally nervous and winds up backing out of the surgery at the last minute, which ticks Mark right off since they'd been involved in this case for a while. But just as they are about to leave, Alex makes a case for the surgery and the mom winds up agreeing, and Alex proceeds to do an awesome job of it.

The last two temporary attendings are April and Cristina, who are working together on an old man whose lungs are failing. Cristina is still just shuffling around, saying she doesn't know the answers to questions, so April has to make almost all of the decisions herself and decides to gather a transplant panel to see if they can get him on the list. Teddy finally tells Cristina that she's in danger of getting fired if she can't pull it together soon -- she's not asking her to do any surgery, but she needs to at least start having opinions and making decisions. Even this doesn't really spur Cristina into any action, but she shuffles along and at least takes care of all of the guy's labs, while he teases her for her sourpuss face and attitude. When the two of them have a moment alone, right before the panel, he makes an impassioned plea to Cristina for the lungs, showing her just how much he wants to live. Once in the panel April flounders a bit and finally has to admit he's not a good candidate, but something stirs in Cristina and she actually speaks up (not a lot, and she speaks mainly to the floor, but she speaks nonetheless) and gives her own opinion of why he deserves the lungs after all. Teddy is both proud and relieved to see that Cristina might have some life left in her after all and it turns out she even convinces the transplant board, as they vote to put the guy on the list. So while it's still baby steps, Cristina still looks like she might make it back, if ever so slowly.