Meredith and Cristina, the spotlight is yours. As we previously reported, Grey’s Anatomy will center the Nov. 8 episode almost entirely on the longtime BFFs — but there’s a catch: As the following exclusive images from the change-of-pace outing make abundantly clear, the two characters barely interact during the hour.

As Ellen Pompeo recently explained to TVLine, the installment takes on a parallel structure in that it will split its time between Mer at Seattle Grace and Cristina (Sandra Oh) at the Mayo Clinic. “They’re individual storylines,” the actress points out, “but in our own storylines it’s sort of all us.”

In Pompeo’s half of the episode, Derek is out of town and [Mer] is forced to juggle taking care of Zola with a super-critical patient. “The underlying subtext of my case is dealing with issues of [Lexie]‘s death,” explains Pompeo. “Emotionally, things that I haven’t dealt with, I sort of play out through taking care of this patient.”

Cristina, meanwhile, assists Dr. Thomas (William Daniels) on a challenging heart surgery.