Stairway to Heaven (Grey's Anatomy)

"Stairway to Heaven" is the thirteenth episode of the fifth season of the ABC series, Grey's Anatomy. It aired on January 22, 2009.

Episode Summary

The death row inmate, William Dunn, is trying to kill himself by bashing his head in, hoping to cause brain death. He starts seizing, but Meredith ignores her page. Sadie and a nurse respond to the call, but Meredith tells Sadie to go find something else to do. Meredith wants to stall a bit to make sure that Dunn is good and brain dead so that his organs can be put into Bailey's pediatric patient, Jackson. He's seizing and bleeding out from the back of his skull and his eyes are rolled back inside his head so that only the whites show.

Meanwhile, at home, Izzie is trying to sleep, but she can't make Denny's ghost go away. She wants to know why he's still here, even after she broke up with him. He says that can't go because "he's here for her". Izzie eventually realizes that she is terminally ill, and that Denny was a figment of her imagination.

At the hospital, Alex tells Bailey that Jackson is now officially at the top of the list for a liver and small bowel transplant, but even that can't help him. He needs a miracle, probably in the form of a suicidal serial killer, now.

Meredith finally goes in to attend to William Dunn. She pages Bailey, not Derek. Dunn is hanging onto consciousness by a thread and tells Bailey that he's an organ match for Jackson, and he's ready to die. The two doctors take their conversation out into the hallway where Bailey orders Meredith to do everything she can to save her patient's life. They "are doctors, not executioners," she says. But the conviction in Bailey's voice falters.

Owen has slept off his drunkenness from the last episode in Cristina's bed. He wakes up as Cristina rushes out the bedroom door.

Bailey orders Izzie to keep an eye on Jackson, who is worsening rapidly, but Izzie is still being haunted by Denny. Arizona Robbins and Chief Webber suggest that they try using a liver dialysis machine to buy them a few more hours. Bailey has an emotional breakdown in front of Robbins because she doesn't want Jackson to die. She wants off the case, and Robbins tells her that she needs to get some rest. Predictably, Bailey does no such thing.

Derek shows up to work and immediately gets Meredith alone for a kiss. He's in a good mood because his mother likes Meredith and gave him her engagement ring for when he proposes. Meredith avoids him because she doesn't want to tell him what she did to the death row inmate, but he hardly notices.

As Derek is operating on the inmate Dr. Bailey enters the OR and asks him to let him die so the organs can go to Jackson. Derek tells her they took an oath and she replies that in that moment it doesn't matter. Derek believes and voices that if he stops the surgery "it will be the same as me sticking this scalpel into his brain", Bailey tells him that's what she wants and he tells her "It's your call" and after some hesitation she decides to let Derek be a surgeon rather than an executioner. Meanwhile Chief Webber is trying to find donors that match Jackson.

Title reference

This episode's title refers to the song, Stairway to Heaven, by English rock band Led Zeppelin.