Last night's Grey's Anatomy was true to form in that it had a central theme -- it was all about fixing what's  broken. (Or as head writer Krista Vernoff described it in her blog, "A love letter to therapy.")

So maybe we should all be proud of Meredith for advancing as far as she did with her shrink, because she's suddenly up and quit, deciding her fleeting moments of happiness far outweigh the continued needs of  mental health.

You see, she's happy with Derek. Happy he's all moved in and even happier that they've officially taken things to the next level. But as she's walking out on Dr. Wyatt, Derek's at the house taking measurements of Izzie's bedroom. He's thinking about making it a cozy home office, and nearly going as far as to issue her a verbal eviction notice.

Thus, the next scene begins with Alex and Izzie confronting Meredith on the whole housing issue, wondering how she's failed to mention they might be homeless in a week. Meredith doesn't know what to say,  but she's taken to bribes ("Remember the muffin") and suddenly looks like she needs time to think about  building a life with Derek. Just Derek. (Personally, I thought she looked like she might be physically ill when McDreamy left her high and dry by the elevator, but that's just my take on it).

But I digress, because we have bigger things to worry about. Namely, the Chief's mandatory meeting which has filled the auditorium (hey, who knew this place had other doctors?) so that he could lay the groundwork for a new teaching protocol at Seattle Grace. There will be, he points out, lots of new rules -- and some old ones newly enforced:

1. First, second and third-year residents will no longer be able to defacto specialize, because it interferes with a fully rounded surgical education.

2. Personal relationships, personal loyalties and personal favorites will no longer be a factor in the  training program.

3. Attendings will spread their wealth of knowledge equally among all residents. In addition, there will be a refocus on patient communication and bedside manner -- meaning some will learn the lost art of compassion, while others will learn to treat patients without getting so emotionally involved.

4. Residents, your interns reflect on you. If they fail you fail, and if they succeed you succeed.

The speech is accompanied by a nicely-edited sequence in which Cristina is pulled off the case of a patient suffering from an aortic aneurysm, Meredith from consulting on Derek's neuro patient and Izzie off the case of  a young girl with stage 4 colon cancer. (Alex gets the aneurysm, Cristina the neuro patient in extreme pain and Meredith the cancer girl. And then there's George, who is trying desperately to re-take his intern exam before he's sidetracked by water that's suddenly dripping from every crevice of the hospital)

The lesson that follows, of course, is that not everything that's broken can be fixed. Alex's heart patient,  who is cursed with a string of bad luck throughout the episode, is one of the lucky ones. He's on the operating table when parts of the ceiling give way, causing the doctors to explore his abdomen more throughly. They find a malignant tumor, remove it, and it turns out the guy won't even need chemo.

The Lexipedia (aka "The Grey with the photographic memory) has also figured out a way to help the neuro patient from something she read in an article circa 1964, but Meredith isn't so lucky, as she discovers the cancer in her patient has metastasized and is now inoperable.

We also come to learn through the tragedy and triumph at the hospital that Cristina really is a good and caring person (even if did steal Izzie's apartment with the hardwood floors and a real, working fireplace) Because Cristina tracks down Meredith's shrink and begs her to tell Meredith that she needs to keep going to therapy, eventually leading Mer to come to the same conclusion, albeit in a roundabout way.

At the end of the day Meredith is finally brave enough to tell Derek that Izzie and Alex are family, and she can't kick them out. Derek, in turn, wants to talk about it later -- but in a huge, HUGE step for these two ... he agrees to stay with the current living arrangement.

And finally, George gets to take his intern exam with the Chief acting as his proctor. The same Chief who watched the hospital crumble around him, who spent the majority of the episode taking the wrong course of action to fix the problem, who finally put his pride on a shelf long enough to get his patients transferred to Mercy West and  Seattle Presbyterian.  That Chief.

So if you ask me, I think they're both going to make it.