As if all the chainsaw business weren't enough, we also had a literally heart-wrenching story about an older gentleman having to decide whether to take his dying daughter's heart to replace his own failing one. And Meredith, meanwhile, was working tirelessly to get that kid his free ears. Buddying up with old intern Norman last week, palling around with disfigured kids this week — will she perhaps be helping abandoned kittens next week? Maybe really cute ones that are missing limbs? As I said, though, all this pandering is kinda working on me, reminding me that I have been known to find her relatable. She's funny and caring at the same time, even: ''She was afraid of heights,'' she deadpanned when Cristina suggested scattering her mother's ashes off a roof. ''Sexy love, not sibling love?'' she asked guilelessly when discussing George and Izzie's newly public relationship with them. Clearly she's feeling the same about them as we all do.

Sorry, can we go back to swooning over Ava and Alex one more time? Her telling him about wrapping her baby in her shirt to get her to sleep because the kid smells Mommy and feels comforted? And Alex then falling asleep? It's a fine line between gag and swoon, but I'm on the right side of it. Okay, done. For now, anyway.

There was, however, not much love on the other side of the hospital, where Dr. Hahn, that random bitchy doctor who shows up once in a while, was smacking Yang down for sleeping with her superiors. Totally harsh, totally wrong in this context, but totally needed in the grander scheme of things. (And she's sticking around as the new chief of cardiothoracic surgery!) No one has been aching for an attitude adjustment more than Cristina, much as I love her. Well, Izzie has needed one, too. And Meredith. But we're getting there, folks, we really are! (Though Izzie proved she's still not quite adjusted when she blew up at Cristina for being a ''closed little circle'' with Meredith and then excused her own actions by saying, ''Meredith slept with another woman's husband!'' Sweetheart, Meredith isn't perfect, but very different story. This is, however, setting up a nice little bond between Callie and Cristina, which is a friendship that makes total sense.)

George, I suppose, has been beaten up enough lately — or at least does a much better job of acting all worn out. So he got to give a sweet, heroic little speech to the heart guy about how when he lost his dad, he would have gladly given his own heart to save him if he could have. (BTW, are we headed for an eventual Lexie-George coupling? She was awfully touched.) McDreamy, too, started regaining a little mojo, thank goodness, even if it was partly because McSteamy put the word out that he was ''lookin'.'' (No g!)

In a relatively unsurprising turn of events, Norman the Really Old Intern dropped to the floor during surgery and was later revealed to have suffered a stroke. We all saw some sort of health catastrophe coming for him, didn't we? Grandpa Gilmore couldn't hang with the Seattle Gracers forever. His emergency did pull Alex out of bed with Ava, which was a bummer but better not cause some kind of lasting rift between them. You show up at a hospital during a doctor's shift to declare your love to him, you accept he might have to, you know, doctor something. Anyway, he rushed to Norman's bedside to discover the old guy was just fine but had determined he wasn't cut out for surgery; he'd be going into psych instead. ''You surgeons are all just a bunch of little children running around with your scalpels and your severed feet and your inappropriate sex in inappropriate places,'' he said. ''You all need a good shrink.'' Oh, Norman, we'll miss your self-referential and totally obvious observations about life on Grey's Anatomy.

The second well-deserved new story line of the day went to Bailey, who's been doing a lot of her trademark telling-off of various interns and residents but not much else this season. Well, turns out she was having some marital troubles of her own — the hubby wasn't so happy about her missing their kid's first Halloween. She even got to go on about this for a good minute or so to George without having to discuss his crap in between. Though the problem with any of these married doctors is they always have the same plots — spouse is mad they don't spend more time at home, blah blah blah. Still, Chandra Wilson deserves to play something besides mother hen, so gold star for that.

Finally, in the obligatory end-of-the-day wrap-up sequence, Derek came to terms with reality: ''I have to start dating.'' (God help us.) Alex returned to the back room to find that Ava had gone but somehow left behind her shirt. (That better be a gesture of good faith, because I can't handle them already breaking up.) George and Izzie beamed at each other about making it through the day, then chastely clasped hands. (If this affair were so hot, wouldn't they be making out now?) And Meredith, um, washed her mom down the surgery drain. Seeing this, I'm officially never checking into Seattle Grace, even for a Band-Aid (where has that been?), but I did get a little choked up, nonetheless.

What do you think? Any of you haters liking Meredith more? Or Sloan? Or George and Izzie?

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