The mid-season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 9 assesses the damage through the lens of another trauma case. Check out our recap for more!

Someone, anyone! Take the blame! On tonight’s Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 9 everyone is looking for someone to blame for the changes in their lives. The case of one woman’s breakdown pushes more than one doctor to their breaking point.

Case of the week: A woman intentionally drove off of a bridge with her two children in the car, causing a chain of accidents with over 20 patients in need of trauma care.

Derek’s bags are packed and his flight boarded. Meredith has returned to work and must begin conducting nanny interviews ASAP. She drops the news of Derek’s departure to her coworkers over the bodies of victims of the recent crash.

Jackson’s discovery about their baby’s diagnosis sends him into full mommy protective mode. He asks Hunt to pull April from her surgery and insists that she go home to dwell on the news. But for the doctors of Grey-Sloan Memorial, doing nothing is never the answer. The more problems are pushed to the side and ignored, the better they feel when the finally explode. Unfortunately for April, she has tiny detonations on nearly the entire staff before she succumbs to her emotions.

Meredith and Hunt are left to operate on the mother who is responsible for the accident. Over her body, Meredith suggests to Owen that perhaps she too should take a break from surgery seeing as Derek left and she is now handling her career and children on her own. But Owen knows better than to cross Meredith Grey and suggests that she talk to Cristina, an activity that Meredith has avoided for weeks.

Cristina was right about Derek and their future and Meredith needs her to be wrong for the time being.

Alex and Bailey are stuck with two kids who took their parents’ car for a joy ride to the ice cream parlor. While one is rushed to surgery, the other remains a “brick wall,” refusing to give Bailey any information about his parents. Bailey is facing another “brick wall” when Karev uses his Pediatric Attending trump card to bypass Bailey’s involvement on the more seriously injured of the two patients.

Dr. Herman’s tumor is a time bomb. Amelia and Arizona argue about when would be the appropriate time to break to the news about the possible operation, but they are spared the awkward conversation after Herman finds her scans on display in the lab.

As the cops make their round interrogating the children involved in the accident, their father arrives and is torn up about not being around enough to notice there were problems at home. Her forgetfulness and exhaustion were side effects of being a mother, but to Meredith Grey they turned out to be symptoms of a tinier problem.

For her own sanity, Meredith needs there to be a tumor on the pancreas of the mother. It is something to stick the blame on. If science can prove that this woman had a cause for going off the rails then there is hope that Meredith will not succumb to the same fate.

Speaking of hope, Dr. Herman describes it as the worst side effect of terminal cancer. Leave it to Arizona to make the plea for one more shot at hope. Amelia explains the procedure in immense detail. When the tumor gets to the optic nerve it will be too late to operate. All Herman hears is that she has until the tumor threatens the optic nerve. In that case, Amelia gets her tumor, Arizona gets her training, and Herman gets a few weeks of her life.

April is responding to the bridge trauma much worse than Meredith. She blames the mother for throwing away her life with two perfectly happy and healthy children. Who would rid themselves of something that not everyone is privileged to have? Running around the ER ordering people to do their jobs has its benefits though. The board is cleared by 9:00 p.m.

Jackson sets up a meeting with Arizona to get all the details. They have a chance to see what it coming down the road, unlike the people on that bridge. April already knows exactly what to expect. She’s studied cases; she has looked at her ultrasounds. What she cannot reconcile is the “why” of the situation. Jackson understands exactly what she needs in that moment: to admit he does not know the answer.

The Post-It marriage comes to the rescue yet again. Derek, stuck at the airport all day with delays, is about to board his flight to D.C. He and Meredith both agree that they are not ready to let their story end. Other couples go through long distance, so they can make it work too. There is hope, fellow MerDer fans!

Watch Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 10, “The Bed’s Too Big Without You,” Thursday, February 5 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.