I Am a Tree

"I Am a Tree"
Grey's Anatomy episode
Episode no. Season 3
Episode 2
Directed by Jeff Melman
Written by Krista Vernoff
Production code 302
Original air date September 28, 2006 (ABC)
Guest stars

Chris O'Donnell as Dr. Finn Dandrige.
Richard Roundtree as Donald Burke.
Roxanne Hart as Dana Seabury.
Peter Paige as Benjamin O’Leary.
Steven W. Bailey as Joe.
Elizabeth Sampson as Ruth O’Leary.
Javier Grajeda as Jeffrey Hernandez.
Diahann Carroll as Jane Burke.
Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan (Uncredited).

Episode chronology
← Previous
"Time Has Come Today"
Next →
"Sometimes a Fantasy"
Episode chronology

"I Am a Tree" is the second episode of the third season of the ABC series, Grey's Anatomy. The episode was written by Krista Vernoff and was directed by Jeff Melman. It originally aired on September 28, 2006, running for 43:08 min.

NOTE: CTV accidentally aired this episode as the season premiere instead of "Time Has Come Today".

Contents

Starring

Episode Recap

Burke's parents walk in on Cristina as she straddles Burke wearing only her lingerie. Cristina then has coffee with Burke's mother, who first suggests that once Burke and Cristina marry she should change her specialty to OB/GYN. She also states that Cristina is selfish. Bailey starts being much harder on her interns, as she feels she could have stopped Izzie from cutting the LVAD wire had she not "gone soft." In the end, Bailey tells Izzie she can come back to the hospital. In order to save the interns from Bailey's wrath, Callie claims the panties on the noticeboard as her own, leading to George being jealous as he has never seen Callie wear them before. Izzie bakes dozens of muffins to deal with her grief and lack of work. Callie moves in with George after the Chief discovers her living in the hospital basement.

The doctors must deal with a boy who, while street luging, was thrown into a pile of tree clippings, and is left with a large branch protruding through his abdomen. Derek operates on a man who, due to a brain tumor, vocalizes all his thoughts and does not realize when he offends people. A lung cancer patient lives what may be her last day to the fullest, which includes having sex with Alex in the toilet of Joe's bar.

At first Meredith decides to choose Derek over Finn, but is impressed when she finds that Finn brought Izzie food. This forces Meredith to flip a coin to choose, but in the end she decides to try dating both of them. Addison, after finding Meredith's panties in Derek's tuxedo, has turned to alcohol and takes a break from her hospital duties. Derek comes to the conclusion that his marriage is over and tells Addison this, after meeting her in a hotel room. The episode ends with Mark, with whom Addison had originally cheated on Derek, emerging from the bathroom of the hotel room wearing nothing more than a towel.

Title Reference

This episode's title refers to a song written by Doug Gillard, from the Guided by Voices album Mag Earwhig!.

Music