if we fall again

- burt has a heart attack kurt’s fourth year as a surgical resident and mike handles the case. kurt trusts mike but rachel believes she could do better and kurt has to remind her that if she had the chance to marry finn it would make burt family and you can’t operate on family and rachel is kurt’s family. its a wonderful hummelberry moment. kitty is the intern who assists and that’s when kurt recognizes kitty’s talent for cardio. there’s a freak storm that has the ER swamped and causes the power to go out temporarily during burt’s surgery. santana forces kurt to the ER to support incoming traumas and keep him from hovering. burt recovers and there are no complications. 

- they’ve all finished residency and are thriving in their fields. tina is in a car accident on the way back from an organ recovery surgery. everything seems fine when they are brought to the hospital but kurt ends up discovering that tina has a brain tumor. mike shuts down and quinn can’t operate on her fiance (yes i slipped in poly quinntike) so kurt has to operate. quinn and mike are banned by tina from interfering and since the tumor is not impeding her abilities, decision making, etc. there is no reason for her lovers to take over making medical decisions. quinn and kurt get into a heated argument mercedes is caught between that almost causes quinn to lose her job when marley talks to the chief of surgery about what is going on. tinas surgery goes well and quinn and kurt reconcile but quinn asks for a sabbatical to take care of tinas recovery and ends up starting research on an award winning neuro technique. 

- early on in their surgical residencies, santana struggles with following the rules when she thinks there are morally right ways to handle a case. santana and brittany are on a peds case where santana suspects that the father is abusing the child. they gather a ton of evidence and call family services. brittany covers for her after surgery when santana tries to keep the father from finding the kid until family services can intervene but santana gets cornered by the uncle who she believes is sympathetic and would take care of the kid. it turns out it was the uncle who was harming the child and santana has to set off the fire alarms and evacuate the building to get away from the uncle. santana receives several third degree burns and a broken arm from the physical altercation with the uncle but the kid remains unharmed. santana is treated primarily by mercedes. this is the case that makes brittany focus on being an OBGYN rather than a peds surgeon while santana buckles down on the rush of adrenaline caused from crisis situations. she’s working on controlling her impulses with the hospital ordered therapist. 

- finns death happened in the hosptial. this is the worst catastrophe and it impacts them all. this happens when they are in their third year as surgical residents. blaine is actually the last friend to see finn alive and their conversation was an argument about how to treat a patient. though it ended with them confirming weekend plans to hang out with kurt, puck, artie, mike, and sam, blaine will always remember that finn told blaine he sometimes takes too many risks in surgery when a more conservative approach will also save them. a shooter lockdown is called at the hospital and everyone is at work but no one can reach or find finn. finn is hidden in a nurses lounge with the nurse the shooter is looking for. finn takes a bullet for the nurse right before they are found. the nurse does her best but finn did not have much time left and he leaves her with some final words to pass onto his friends and family. this incident is hugely traumatic and pretty much impacts the whole hospital staff - the nurse quits, most of them are mandated therapy following the trauma and kurt and rachel take a whole month off for bereavement.  

- blaine’s grief following finn’s death is held tightly bottled. blaine tries to be strong for kurt who is in turn hiding his grief from blaine. blaine is also taking on a lot of finn’s cases and questions himself daily on what the best course of action is while seriously struggling with his mental health. enter a 14 year old who is gay bashed by school bullies that blaine, puck, and santana have to treat. during surgery puck is candid about being a bully and so is santana and they regret the times they would taunt kids about being different. blaine, who is already feeling this case is too personal, starts to spiral and confides in his colleagues that he was gay bashed at the same age and it caused him to become a surgeon. he vents his frustration about what happened and how it changed him. the kid pulls through and blaine breaks down post-surgery. blaine texts kurt to head home without him and blaine heads to the local bar. matt the bartender ends up calling kurt to come pick up blaine hours later when he passes out at the bar. blaine starts to lash out at colleagues at work, he spends a lot of time at the bar, and kurt and blaine have trouble communicating and they consider taking a break (they are currently engaged at this point). there's a turning point in one of their arguments when blaine makes a comment about him taking too many risks and how even finn thought so. kurt figures out that blaine needs to talk to a therapist more than just the hospital mandated sessions. kurt goes back to therapy as well and learns to share what he’s feeling regarding finn’s death.