Mere is checking on Eric who asks, "Am I hallucinating, or is that a really high ponytail?" You know you've made a bad hairstyle choice when the serial killer is making comments. He realizes he really is dying and once again says that they should take his organs, but Mere tells him excitedly that they did find organs, so Jackson will be fine. Eric knows that he's really gotten under Meredith's skin, so after a moment he tells her that he gets to pick the way he's going to die, hanging or lethal injection. He asks her medically, which one is better? She hesitates a second but then explains that with hanging his neck breaks and he loses consciousness, but doesn't die for several minutes. But with injection he first gets an anesthetic that puts him to sleep, and then the lethal injection to stop his lungs and then his heart. Thinking that over, he asks quietly if he was a match for Jackson, and Meredith tells him that he was. This is the kind of story that I liked from early GA and has been missing so long. This guy is clearly a sociopath but yet you do feel something for him, and speaking for myself I can see why Meredith is reacting to him the way she does and also why Cristina and Derek react the way that they do. (Don't get me wrong, I still think Derek is a whiny, self-righteous prat, but I do have to admit that in this case I understand his feelings.)

Mama Shepherd notices Lexie working on a chart and walks up, staring at her. Lexie turns to ask if she needs anything but before she can finish, Mama S takes Lexie's face in her hands and asks if she is a good girl -- not perfect, but good. Lexie manages to squeak out a "yes," and then Mama S asks her how many sexual partners she has had. I love that she's so intense that Lexie just answers the questions, clearly terrified, without stopping to wonder why. Her answer is somewhere between six and seven, and then she also has to admit she got a speeding ticket once. Mama S then asks where the gift shop is but before leaving she takes one last loooong look at Lexie's sweet, scared face.

Callie and Mark are taking all of the rods and whatnot out of Chuck's legs, and Mark describes the situation as looking like "pudding." That's a disgustingly good description there. Callie points out that this is why she doesn't do this surgery -- you live with broken legs for months, in all sorts of pain, for a couple of inches. But Mark being Mark points out, "Pain and agony for a little bit of pleasure? I get it." She asks him, "If it's that bad, why don't you just stop sl..." at this she notices that there are other people in the room (might be a Seattle Grace first) and amends what she was about to say to, "doing what you're doing?" Mark tells her he doesn't stop because it's great, and adds that if she won't scared of getting burned she might feel the same way. Then, back to acting like there's no one else listening, she tells Mark about how she used to walk tall until George and Erica both took a couple inches off of her so now she's afraid to get burned. It's a little bit clunky, her trying to force her situation to match Chuck's pudding legs, but I get the point. She tells him the humiliation made her shorter and that one more personal disaster would cut her off at the knees, and he looks at her sympathetically while a sad piano sounds in the background.