Friday, May 15, 2009

Grey's Anatomy, "Here's to Future Days"/"Now Or Never": Double-OMG

Spoilers for last night's "Grey's Anatomy" season finale -- and if you haven't watched it yet but intend to, and somehow have avoided being spoiled so far, I strongly advise you to run away from your computer for the day -- coming up just as soon as I cry in front of an authority figure...

The reason I'm usually such a stickler(*) when it comes to people posting spoilers here is because I have one of those brains that, once it possesses even a hint about what might be happening, it can't stop trying to figure out the whole puzzle ahead of time.

(*) Fans of "How I Met Your Mother" might appear to want to take issue with that idea this week.

Last night, I watched the NBC comedies, and I blogged about them, and then I went to sleep. While I was doing the blogging, my wife watched the second half of the "Grey's" finale live, and when she found me after, she looked shaken and said she wanted to be able to discuss it with me after she watched. Then this morning, I woke up to find all sorts of ominous references to cliffhangers and twists and even deaths across the blogosphere, the Twitter-verse, and all my other virtual haunts.

Between that, and all the rumors about Katherine Heigl and/or T.R. Knight leaving the show, by the time I actually was able to start watching the "Grey's" finale a couple of hours ago, I was on alert for something horrible and/or surprising to happen to one or both of Izzie and George. So I assumed Izzie would crash right at the moment she was doing so well with her memory, and I figured out that George was the mangled John Doe practically from the minute the camera went close up on his eyes looking around the trauma room. (And when he tried and failed to write something on Meredith's palm, and I realized we hadn't seen George in a long time, that sealed things.)

Now, none of this is the fault of Shonda Rhimes (who did a long but unsurprisingly vague interview about the finale with Michael Ausiello), or Debora Cahn, or anyone else involved in making that final episode. (Unless you want to say that, because "ER" did something similar to the George thing with Dennis Gant, no other hospital show can ever copy it -- which, considering the number of stories "ER" told over 14 seasons would make life really tough for other doctor shows.) It's just one of the dangers of our information over-saturation age. But it also means that I couldn't experience the finale the way they intended me to. I wasn't shocked by what happened with either Izzie or George, regardless of whether they died or not(**).

(**) And if I had to put money on that, I'd wager that George is dead and Izzie lives. Shonda told Ausiello that one of the reasons George was so absent this season was that she didn't want it to be as noticeable when he was gone for a long stretch in the finale. Whether it was really as by design as that -- and given the way Izzie's condition evoked Mariette Hartley in the season premiere, I'm guessing there was some plan in place for this from the start -- the show seemed to get along just fine not giving Knight anything to do, where Izzie has always been one of Shonda's favorite characters to write for. Izzie drives me nuts, but she seems more integral to Shonda's vision for the show.

And yet, despite not being as stunned or blown away as I imagine I was supposed to, I still greatly enjoyed large swaths of both episodes, which continued the creative upswing that began around late March's "Stand By Me." Great guest stars (Matt Saracen! Paris Gellar!). Great use of the core cast, particularly the Hunt/Yang scenes in the first hour and the Karev/Izzie scenes in both (regardless of my lack of surprise, Justin Chambers and Katherine Heigl were both great). Chandra Wilson continued to stand tall above the rest of the cast with the Bailey scenes in both episodes, particularly her crying in front of the Chief. And Meredith and Derek getting "married" via Post-It note was so perfect for their characters that I really hope, as Shonda suggests to Ausiello, that that's the only wedding we ever get to see for the two of them. (Though I imagine they have to go to City Hall at some point just to get the legal protections of marriage.)

I wish I was able to go into this one pristine, but I wasn't, and I still liked a lot of it. During those fallow periods in the middle of the last few seasons, people kept asking me why I was still watching and/or blogging about "Grey's Anatomy." This last batch of episodes is why. This show is a free-swinging power hitter. When it swings and misses, it looks horrendous. But when it connects with the pitch it wants, all you can do is sit back and admire it.

What did everybody else think?


Will Eidam said...

I'm too forgetful of things from this show, but what was the 007 significance with George? I wanna say he thought he could be a 007 back in the early days of the show when he was going after Meredith, but I can't quite remember. Anyone feeling like filling in the blank for me?

Will Eidam said...

And because I knew I'd start googling after I posted, I'll save time for whoever was going to help me...

007 was the nickname George was given by the other interns from season one, 007 being "A License To Kill." The nickname was given after his first patient died.

I love the internet.

Grunt said...

I would also like to point out that George's face is so mangled that Knight could leave the show and they could recast the part with someone else and claim that McSteamy fixed him up but he doesn't look the same.

Theresa said...

And if I had to put money on that, I'd wager that George is dead and Izzie lives.Me, too. The final scene with Izzie on the elevator and George in his uniform reminded me of Meredith seeing Ellis when they "died," so I predict something similar with Izzie coming back but knowing George is dead.

BigTed said...

Was I the only one who thought what happened to George was so ridiculous as to be hilarious, and a perfectly nasty kiss-off to both the actor and the character?

I mean, the guy takes all of 20 seconds to decide to join the Army, and gets called a hero by one character while all his friends fret about his safety... and then gets hit by a bus on the way home! (And to add insult to injury, it happened while he was unsuccessfully trying to flirt with a girl.)

You can't make this stuff up! Well, you can, obviously... you just shouldn't.

LA said...

Somehow, even though the eyes looking around the trauma room seemed familiar and I figured he was *someone* we already knew, I still managed to be surprised at the "George reveal." And as someone who considers Ellen Pompeo a mediocre actress at best, I thought she was fantastic in the moment she realized John Doe was George.

I don't think it was any surprise that Izzie crashed when she did. I booed out loud when they revisited the prom-dress-in-the-elevator scene, but it was a nice touch having her meet up with George in his uniform. So the question is which direction are they each going? The cynic in me says the answer depends on Shonda's ego and contract negotiations.

That said, of the two hours, I was mostly bored for the first 1 hour and 50 minutes of it. Callie and Arizona were a total snooze for me. I wish they would use Cristina and Owen as the A-story for once.

There's something about the writing that homogenizes everyone. Has anyone else noticed that every character has this terrible habit of stating a thought, and then immediately restating it? (Burke "I have cold hands, my hands are cold.") There was so much of that repetitive filler dialogue last night, that everyone sounded a like to me, and I also realized that they could have told the story in much less time.

Other than the last 10 minutes, I found this a disappointing ending to a good creative upswing Grey's has enjoyed this spring. But I'm pretty much on record as hating Shonda's overblown finales and special episodes, so I may be in the minority here.

LA said...

BigTed, word.

I also think Rhimes held TR Knight responsible for the Isaiah Washington debacle and has been exacting her revenge ever since.

Shannon said...

I didn't see the George-as-John-Doe reveal coming, and as a result, I was very shocked. I truly didn't realize until then that we hadn't seen George in half an hour, so though whether it was really the plan all along or not is debatable, it was certainly advantageous to this story that I was so used to George having almost zero screen time.

I agree that it will most likely be George who dies and Izzie will survive. The set up of the elevator scene seemed to evoke that George had all ready gone to "the other side" while Izzie was on her way there. She hesitated at the end, which makes me think she will come back to life.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what you mean when you talk about how they intended for you to view the finale. Yeah, it sucks when you read spoilers, but unless you live in a cave you pretty much know that there's a good chance Heigl or Knight are getting written out at some point in the near future. I mean, you can avoid spoilers and be surprised by, say, Laverne's death on Scrubs, but I highly doubt Bill Lawrence expected anyone to be "pristine" enough to be surprised by the death of JD's dad after John Ritter died. I doubt being "pristine" in this case means being oblivious to the very public statements made by Heigl and Knight.

Also, from reading her interviews, Shonda really seems a little delusional. I remember when she wrote a blog a few years ago about how she "wasn't exactly playing by the TV rules" during the ferry accident episode. And then it turned out to be a steaming pile of crap where Meredith "died" and then was brought back to life with no long-term health consequences. I don't care if the show is derivative (how could it not be?) but I find the way that she's so permanently impressed with herself and her writing to be a huge turnoff.

Anonymous said...

It's Geller, not Gellar. I know it's being nit-picky, but it drives me crazy that Sarah Michelle's unusual spelling has now seemingly become the norm. It's the same thing with the name Brittany. I can't tell you how many times I see it misspelled as Britney now. NBC even misspelled Brittany Snow's name that way when she was on American Dreams.

Anonymous said...

Guess I was the only one who was really surprised at John Doe being George!

Which makes me a little mad, because I really liked George as a character on the show, and his interactions with stronger characters like Bailey and Cristina. It's not his fault they had that terrible storyline where he and Izzie dated (which, I think was the beginning of the end for George.)

I did like the Meredith/Cristina hug. Nice.

But, good episodes overall, in getting the audience to feel for things they might or might not have known about; though I might have liked them more if they separated the episodes and aired one each week instead. It seemed to have needed that breather room.

btw, we see the Chief trying to taunt Bailey back with the robodoctor, even to the point of stating it in front of Arizona, yet in the next hour, he seemed quite genuine in telling Bailey that he really was ok with her going for the peds program. Did I miss something?

Linda said...

I watch a honkload of television and write this show up every week, and I freely admit I had NO idea it was George until the reveal. I knew Knight wanted out, but I was looking for a million other things -- George getting killed on his first day of training, something like that. I just wasn't looking for that, so I was looking for that guy to be the focus of some OTHER mystery. I feel foolish now, but seriously: no clue it was George. None. And I will say -- not everything in the episode worked on me (like the emotive cover of the Flashdance theme), but even after Meredith was all "Oh God! Oh God!", I STILL didn't know what she was on about. I couldn't imagine why she was so freaked out, because I will credit the Pompeo -- I had never seen Meredith like that. And in that sense, in the way it was intended to work, it was super-effective on me, because I was utterly shocked.

But if it is true, as Shonda Rimes implied in that interview, that they ignored George all season just so you wouldn't think it was odd that they ignored him in the finale? That is a really, really, really terrible way to treat an actor and a character. And an audience. I continue to find it an infuriating show.

Anonymous said...

I ended up watching the show alone last night. Loved the last 10 minutes. After it ended, I thought it was clear both Izzie and George had died. The dream like sequence with the elevator taking them both "up" to heaven. (Not to mentions both actor issues with the show)

But this morning everyone tells me it was a cliffhanger ending.

The theory that makes sense to me... Izzie was still on the elevator (still living) and George was already on the other side (dead). Plus the music swelled at the end and the last moment was them shocking Izzie's heart one more time. So maybe Izzie will live, what do I know.

But my original thought last night was of course they are both dead. That is what we have been building up to.

Christy said...

Alan, thanks for your comments-- this is what I've been looking for all day and haven't found. This is why I love your blog.

I was completely flabbergasted by the George reveal. I had NO idea that John Doe was George and I was SO upset.

And I completely disagree with the person who hated Izzie in the elevator in the prom dress. I am okay with Shonda going back to that again and again. It was THE pivotal moment in Izzie's adult life.

Chaddogg said...

I watched it live, and knew it was George the second they wheeled John Doe in. And yes, I immediately hate it, because it was so derivative of ER.

And to answer your hypothetical Alan, no, I don't think that all plots from ER should be forbidden from being recycled or reused in an interesting way -- it's just that it was so transparently a ripoff that the entire episode I was expecting George's/John Doe's beeper to go off. Go ahead and having Derek and Meredith have to perform live saving surgery/save a life while out to dinner (a la George Clooney and the little kid in the Flood episode of ER)....but having the body of a colleague come in to the ER unrecognizably deformed to be fixed up by his own colleagues, who realize very late in the game that they're actually work on a friend?

And, on top of that, it is the SECOND torn-from-ER plot THIS SEASON: see Derek losing the mom, saving the baby (with Addison), and having the dad played by a well-known actor (Ben Shenkman) be traumatized and sue, only to have Derek lose confidence in his skills, and compare that to Mark Greene, ER, and Love's Labor Lost and its aftermath. TWO ER plots in ONE Grey's season.

(Although I'm sure someone could also draw parallels between Romano's helicopter peril and Hunt's ceiling-fan/helicopter night terrors....)

The rest of the show was good -- Justin Chambers turned in a boffo performance, and I loved seing Saracen and Paris.....

But unfortunately, the obvious George reveal kinda ruined it for me.

Emily said...

Count me in as one that was really surprised about George (but not about Izzie). I feel really dumb about it today because I was sitting there through half the episode getting more and more angry about George not being there. I had heard the rumors of TR wanting to leave, so I just assumed the army thing would be his way out and I was mad because I assumed this was his last episode and as usual this season Shonda couldn't be bothered to give him more than a few scenes, but when he started writing out "0" on Meredith's hand I finally realized it was him.

Honestly, I appreciate in this age of spoilers that they were able to pull that off (The only other show that genuinely surprises me these days is Lost), but if Shonda really made an effort to limit his screen time this season JUST for that one payoff, I have to agree with a commenter above and say what a crappy crappy thing that is to do to the actor and the character.

Up until the Gizzie debacle George was my favorite character and that whole thing just ruined him. If he's dead (and I agree with other's interpretations that he already passed to the other side in the elevator scene) then I'll miss the character, but the writers have screwed him over so much that I'll be kinda glad they put him out of his misery and he at least got to go out in a somewhat heroic fashion.

Pamela Jaye said...

I should have knon Izzie was going to crap out* right after she "got her memory back" but I was distracted by the concept of the impact of emotion on memory (including the Vermont former psychologist/psychiatrist with anterograde amnesia) and loved Alex's little posters (a thought I've had either since the season premiere or the Twilight episode of Enterprise)

*like Lucy Knight and her PE or Alan "the Eel" Birch on Chicago Hope and *his* PE

I'd heard about The Miltary (Baylink didn't realize what he wasn't seeing when Journeyman went to see his mom but I did) but I missed 007 till *after* someone said "where's George?" Till Meredith was between 0 0 7 and double 0 7 and Baylink was still going "huh?" (I don't remember how he didn't get it, but I fall asleep to these eps and I've seen most of them... a lot. except for those intense ones. Pole people, bomb in chest guy, let's drown Meredith and such)

So my spoiler hideage was as complete as I could get it and still... I almost missed the 100th ep as I wasn't watching all the interviews I recorded.

George looked like someone I was reaching for in my head - and that was the running burning guy with an ep named after him, on ER. and *that* distracted me from figuring it out too. I was trying to figure out something else.

City Hall please. As unseen as Ellen and Chris's actual wedding is fine I guess, but fictional though they are, I still want then married. I don't *mind* watching.

Shonda twittered in the last 24 hours to some fan trying to decide which season of DVDs to watch to choose season 2. Perhaps cause that was the last time it was this good.

Has Denny been on mores dead than alive *yet*?

Spoiler free zones last night included the yahoo group I am in, which "referred" to things so many times without explaining them, that our listmom (from L.A.) was screaming WHAT HAPPENED??

We wouldn't tell her. (We did, however, succeed in getting her to actually watch the ep(s) for a change.

The list is still OMGing this afternoon. I believe we have graduated to actual (fictional) facts by now (we did have to explain 007 to someone)

Anonymous said...

I suppose it's possible both characters live, though I agree that Knight is probably done as far as the show is concerned.

I can't imagine George would be in any condition to be much of a doctor for a long time after that. I guess Izzy could be in the same boat.

verification word: astongs: what a proctologist uses.

Whiskey said...

Grunt has a good point... :-)

I loved it when McSteamy told Lexie that he's a better woman than she is, that made me giggle. And I loved not getting a Mer-Der wedding, I hope that they keep that offscreen -- I know many more fans will probably light up the blogosphere with their white-hot hatred if that happens, but I agree that the marriage-by-PostIt was perfect for those two.

Two scenes made me cry like a baby:
* Arizona explaining to Callie WHY she thinks George is awesome for volunteering to go to Iraq as a Trauma Surgeon (SIL is on her 3rd deployment to Afghanistan, so this hit a personal nerve for me);
* Bailey crying to the Chief about how they're all scared. This one really surprised me because they'd been running a clip of that scene all week in the previews, and I'd roll my eyes and think the show would be lame and over the top in a "cheap melodrama" way. And then the scene turned out to be so poignant, it felt so intimate and relatable that I lost it and bawled my eyes out.

The George twist actually worked for me because that young woman was so annoying that I really wasn't paying much attention to the mangled piece of flesh they were working on keeping alive. Which is sad, and the Shonda statement about keeping George off the screen to get the viewers accustomed to him not being around now makes me feel annoyed at her. I've been a huge fan of George and really felt short-shrifted this season, so to have something so major happen to his character and I didn't even really notice till the very last minute? NOT cool! I mostly agree with Big Ted except for the fact that I find it insulting (instead of hilarious) to the GeorgeFans like me. So, I'm with Linda on that one.

And the Izzie twist actually reallyREALLYREALLY ticked me off! An informed patient signs a DNR and the doctors treating her ignore it because she's their friend?!?!? Oh. NO! I hope she doesn't come back next season.

Loved Zach Guilford's performance as a self-assured young soldier (instead of the shrinking violet we're used to), and I always wonder why we don't get to see more of Liza Weil... *love* her!

Overall, a satisfying season finale after an uneven & often frustrating season.

Ed S. said...

I timed it: the ambulence arrives exactly one minute after we last see George. Only one scene, the one where Yang gives Meredith the pen and post-it notes, separates between Comedic George and Roadkill George. That's a brilliant way to keep us from suspecting that it's him, even if we've heard the rumors that T.R. Knight might be leaving the show.

Did anybody notice that Izzy said it is 2009? Time on the show moves slower than real time - they're in their fifth season, but Meredith and Co. are still just in their second year of residency. They've been careful not to mention what year it is. Remember when Izzy read the date of Denny's death in the other heart patient's chart - she said "two thousand and..." and stopped, not saying the exact year.

7s Tim said...

Really glad i told my girlfriend to watch it before she went to bed. Between work people and her mother, i just don't see how she wouldn't have ended up in a situation like poor Alan.

cdg said...

I knew it was George as soon as they paused significantly on his eyes, but I actually think it only went "ping!" for me because of all the discussion here recently about the best ER episodes and the Gant one was mentioned a lot. I then rewound to see where exactly we'd last seen George and watched for him to turn up again soon and he didn't. And then the girl describing ignoring a plain guy on the corner, oh, definitely George. I wish I could have experienced the shock, though.

Totally agree that knowing about the backstage drama makes it look like a big eff-you to T.R. Knight. Surely she didn't REALLY mean it like that, but considering what's been done to his character since the whole debacle: Gizzie to total periphery, to end it with tearing him to pieces - damn.

Totally enjoyed the whole finale, though! The metaphor I like to use for this show is the little girl with the little curl rhyme: when it's good it's very, very good, and when it's bad it's horrid.

Jason said...

If you're going to suggest that George's fate was comparable to that old ER episode, you need to mention MASH as well. Writing a character out of a show by sending them off (_to_ a war, no less!) only to have them suddenly, shockingly killed in a vehicular accident? Paging MacLean Stevenson...

HautieTx said...


I completely agree... TR Knight might have had a job and a check... but he has been given little to do.

Anonymous said...

Poor T.R. Knight....

Who was he before Rhimes put him in Grey's?

Anonymous said...

I didn't know it was George until the moment when Meredith said he was spelling out "O." I had this horrible moment when I realized. It worked for me. I wish that neither of them were dying since I like both of them at this point but I think George is definitely dead but maybe Izzie will be back.

I do think it was kind of funny that Shonda has kind of been throwing TR Knight under the bus since Isiah Washington and now she literally got to throw him under the bus.

Tabs said...

I tend not to think about it too much when I see similar plotlines and things in television and movies since I see them all of the time and they're mostly in my head.

But to me, the Callie/Arizona scenes in the second half seemed lifted, pretty much beat for beat, from a "Sex and the City" episode near the end of it's run.

In the episode I'm thinking of, Carrie's significant other at the time kept trying repeatedly to relate his experience with breast cancer to her but every time he said the words "she died," Carrie would irrationally and immaturely start screaming and throwing fits and wouldn't let him finish a sentence.

Unfortunately, that makes Callie be Carrie Bradshaw and Arizona is Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Anyone else see that?

Fixin' To said...

I, too, thought both Izzie and George died until I read "cliffhanger" comments today. I disagree that that was a mean ending for George... if he did die, he died doing something very kind and heroic, so it sweet, in its way.

To totally change the subject, was anyone else afraid Owen was going to strangle Cristina when they were in the dark room with the huge fan? Seems like she'd have avoided that as a meeting place... just sayin'

fabarati said...

I knew it was George as soon as they rolled him in. It was such a typical US TV/movie plot that i actually got annoyed at the characters for not knowing.

What I don't get is why no one checked his wallet. His pants seemed to be in fairly good condition, so an ID card (or something) should've survived. That plot hole nagged at me the entire episode.

Ariadne said...

I will forgive Shonda Rhimes a great deal for the Owen/Cristina storyline. The writers, Kevin McKidd and Sandra Oh have made this the one storyline this season among all the shows that I watch that I can't wait to get back to again and see what's going to happen next.

I thought it was Owen going to re-enlist so when it turned out to be his mother's door, I was very relieved. Okay, I loved every Owen and Owen/Cristina scene.

Even though I was spoiled that TR Knight would leave, I didn't know it was George until they were looking for him at 6 o'clock.

I agreed with the Chief about ignoring Izzie's DNR because she meant it in case she was a vegetable. She's not so her assumptions don't apply any more. Good job by both Heigl and Chambers.

I liked the post-it note wedding because they had established previous episodes that Meredith didn't care about fancy stuff, just the commitment.

The Chief continues to remain a tool. The Leonardo machine is owned by the hospital's surgical department, every surgical sub-specialty should get a shot at using it.

Other bad things were Arizona crying instead of being intelligent and Bailey expecting sympathy because her husband had finally had enough of her working insane hours and expecting him to take care of their child and then signing on for another 2 years of it without even talking to him about it.

erin said...

I had no idea it was George until until Mere screamed out "IT'S GEORGE!" and I was really impressed (either at my stupidity or how well Grey's flowed last night) that a secret like that, even knowing that TR Knight would probably leave the show, was revealed so well. So for all of you who figured it out or were spoiled beforehand, I'm sorry! It was really terrific to be surprised. And when I figured it out, I was just an emotional wreck--it was good I was alone. I was embarrassing. I rewatched the last 10 minutes this morning, and I choked up again and got goosebumps. For me, that's great tv.

I thought the entire show was pretty great, and i for one really hope that TRK comes back (even though that looks unlikely). He has such great chemistry with so many of the characters, and I'm sorry Rhimes has used him so poorly. I actually hope they both come back. The show lost something keeping him out of the loop. i don't buy that the finale was the reason he hasn't been in the show much...I think Isaiah-gate is closer to the truth.

I actually liked the elevator scene. I thought it could be scene in a couple of ways, and if they're killing off KH, it could be that it's she's going up in the elevator, ascending into heaven, and stopping for George, who hasn't decided whether he's ready to go or not. Hmm.

But TRK looked so incredibly handsome in his army uniform.

And I loved Alex's like Alex ("your memory sucks.")

Just really good performances and a good story all the way around.

Pamela Jaye said...


don't love the internet too much. George was called 007 after he futzed up his first surgery. The patient didn't die, as Burke stepped in and finished the appendenctomy (being a cardio-thoracic surgeon and all).
George did have a patient die in the the premiere, but Burke was operating on him at the time, and George was not present (he was in the scrub room, drinking a juice box, I think) and George's only failing in that matter was to promise the wife the husband would not die.

Still, thanks for the research. It was close :-)

Pamela Jaye said...

meant to add I heard TR wanted to leave cause he had no storyline. now, lately, he's had one (being good at trauma, among other things)

I think Shonda dropped the ball on him after his becoming a resident and not Lexie's "love" and hope the recent ball pickup will change his mind. He was written *out* on the "corner" on having to go to Iraq, by the "accident." So, if he wanted to, he could stay and I wish they both would. Alex deserves a break.

Pamela Jaye said...

Actually Meredith and Derek never saved someone during dinner - it was Cristina & Burke.

But yes, I did not miss the Love's Labor Lost recently. What I did not understand was the lead up to it, when Derek was seeing the 16 year old die and saying that they don't tell you in med school that so many people are going to die. I thought that was just stupid. Of course a lot of patients are going to die - especially if you are a neurosurgeon, especially if you are a top neuro and get all the terminal hopeless cases (without ever publishing or going to a conference and speaking) and especially if you do a clinical trial on terminal brain tumor patients. Good grief. Or rather - naive grief. But burnout maybe, I could take.

The story it led to, in any case, was interesting.

Pamela Jaye said...

was George supposed to be "in surgery till 6:00"? I didn;t realize he was missing, and isn't that why they were waiting?

throwing TR under the bus. now that's funny.
Where *are* Linda's writeups?

I could have read Dan's, but I was waiting for Alan's.
I love that you included your wife's reactions.

and yes, the Chief is frequently an idiot. I was wondering if the new robot was going to cause another elevator to fail due to lack of a backup generator.
(well except for his recent apology to Meredith which was awesome)

As a fan, I'd like to point out another Meredith moment from - season 4. When her dad came in drunk, and told her he was so proud of her - a lifetime worth of proud.

This was something she'd waited so very long to hear, and it meant so much to her (trust me, I know; I got my father's "pride" secondhand) and then only to hear Lexie recite the same exact words back to her, when explaining Thatcher's recent drinking (induced?) mood swings.
The look on Meredith/Ellen's face went right through me.

Sadly I had to sit thru high schoolers (including Anna Wu, she's been in everything) and kids with pencils in their eyes, to get to that scene.

Pamela Jaye said...

Crap. I need one page open just to comment.
sorry. Yes, when Shonda said she was "breaking the rules of television" while everyone here described Howie Mandel's barely remembered (by me, and I said *barely*) journey to The Great In Between in St Elsewhere, I definitely felt she was loony toons and narcissistic.

I'm happier now. I remember season 2 or so, re: Mer & Der, Shonda said to trust her. And I did - up until the middle/end of season 3, with Mer and Der taking turns waffling. (and George & Izzie. ick!)

I think she's back (if only in my good graces and trust) and I hope she stays.

Aside from Denny, this season has been good.

(oh and yes, I did notice the big fan blades in Owen's favorite hideout. though not till last night. Baylink calls it The Steam Trunk Distribution Venue. did I get that right?)

Pamela Jaye said...


someone said "I think Izzie will be back next year"

and someone replied
"God, I hope not like Denny!"

Lorrie said...

I can't hear even the vaguest of spoilers without figuring out the big twist. It's irritating. I didn't watch more than an episode or two of Grey's Anatomy this season, but I watched the season finale. I knew the patient who was hit by the bus had to be George, even before we saw him. As I always say, this isn't the first time I've watched television.

Pamela Jaye said...

brief note about Liza Weil - she played the wife of the guy (Krumholz?) who killed Lucy Knight (who was just on Grey's, come to think of it. Last week? Week before? as you already know)

Pamela Jaye said...

Ed, I totslly missed Izzie saying the year! (yeah, I did notice the trail off in that previous ep.)

Oops again.

Along with the two Octobers in Lexie's intern year (and many other time mistakes I can't think of right now. Shonda can remember tiny details as long as they don't involve *time* (she was all squee when someone noticed the last ep ended with Mer and Der on the living room floor "like in the pilot" - well except that Mer was on the couch in the pilot...)

blearl: how you feel waking up on the couch, in the pilot

Pamela Jaye said...

Remember when Izzy read the date of Denny's death in the other heart patient's chart - she said "two thousand and..." actually, I think that was Mer reading the chart. (just checked. it was. May 14th. time for proms! alas July was another year away)
Sorry to be such a Ted.

Pamela Jaye said...

Erin, you made me giggle. I'd forgotten what the notes *said*
(only seen it once in total. gasp.)

Pamela Jaye said...

one typo can totally lose your point

He was written *out* OF the "corner" on having to go to Iraq, by the "accident." So, if he wanted to, he could stay

Mike F said...

More ridiculous turns for what has become a mostly ridiculous show. This show is too careless with the emotional integrity of its characters and too careless with the real-world-ness of its events.

word id: ouslurp which is what happens to your brain when you take too fast a swig of your slurpee

Anonymous said...

Come on mean to tell me last week that they put Izzie through an MRI/Brain scan and could barely detect a tumour, and this week, Dr. McDreamy is claiming that they got it all out??? Yeah, right.

Ron said...

I don't get it. I found the episode entirely uninvolving. There was a spike of interest in the show for mew a few months ago, but since then Heigl and pretty much everyone else has driven me nuts with their ridic behavior. Even the chief! I knew that Knight and Heigel might die, but the reveal that this was George was ruined by the whole George joins the Army plot and the emotionally manipulative way they had Callie and the blonde discuss it. Really that pedes doc, Arixona or whatever, is wasted on this show. That one scene with the chief was so stupid. I was not moved by any of the cancer stuff either, or the Karev, Izzie crap. I am deleting my season pass.

Daryl said...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned what a blatant propaganda piece for military enlistment this episode was. I found it to be quite disgusting. Really ... did Shonda Rhimes get some kickback from the U.S. Army? Grey's spinoff, Private Practice, has seemed to be in bed with Big Pharma recently with its rabid endorsement of immunizations (I might as well have watched an hour-long commercial for Gardasil). This sort of storywriting is really getting out of control. Does anyone have ANY integrity anymore?

fabarati said...

You mean Vaccination, not immunization. Being made immune to a disease means that the disease won't affect you. The only possible side-effect to that (that I know of) is an Auto-immune disease.

And to be fair, vaccination is good as well. I know a lot of people are still under the impression that children can get autism from vaccination shots. Even ignoring that the study proving that was pretty much rigged, the substance that supposedly causes autism is not used in shots anymore.

Now, there are people who react adversely to vaccines, but that's true for any type of medecine, and the side effects are generally better than actually getting one of the diseases in question.

Anonymous said...

I really liked the one scene George DID have, with Izzie, though it also made me realize even more how much I've missed him. Or maybe just how much I love him....

I'm surprised no one else has mentioned that scene.

Daryl said...

Well, actually, immunization can be alternatively used for vaccination ( I am not a supporter of vaccination, which I admit is a more precise term, and I am especially against Gardasil. Private Practice recently aired TWO very biased episodes heavily promoting vaccinations, including the one I'm referring to in which a young man gets oral cancer that is blamed on HPV which he supposedly got from his girlfriend (oh, if only Gardasil had been available when she was younger - BARF). In another episode, a child dies after he contracts the measles; his mother had not vaccinated him after another sibling had been diagnosed with autism following an MMR vaccination. In reality, children in the United States RARELY die from the measles if they contract it. At the end of the episode, the children's doctor, Cooper, even commits malpractice by forcibly vaccinating the woman's third child without her permission. Cooper is then portrayed as a 'hero' ... it was absolutely disgusting and an excellent example of fear-mongering.

In the season finale of Grey's Anatomy, Shonda wants us all to believe that it is incredibly noble to sign up to become a trained killer or to serve as a doctor to support an illegal and immoral occupation of a foreign country (how admirable it is to even permit the cutting off of a healthy limb just so that one may return to the killing fields!). Goebbels would have been proud!

Dave T said...


Don't worry. You still have eleven SEASONS of MASH to give you the anti-military position... to balance one EPISODE of Grey's. And even in this episode, with one exception, everyone was CRITICIZING his decision and plotting to stop him.

But to hear ANYTHING pro-military on TV (aside from news programs), other than the perfunctory "I support the troops yada yada" was refreshing for a change.

(Insert Colonel Jessep's testimony: "Son, we live in a world that has walls...")

The problem was they were going for the "big surprise reveal" at the expense of everything else. Did George really feel like such an outcast and misfit that he'd make a life-changing decision without at least TALKING to even one person in his life?

Alan Sepinwall said...

Okay, I think it's time to invoke the No Politics rule, which I think in this case can apply to both the war in Iraq and vaccinations. Talk about the show, not about the war, or Shonda's politics, or each other. Period.

Clevelle said...

I couldn't get into ER and I was probably a baby or damn close to being one when MASH went off the air, so the George reveal was a nice surprise for me. Sucked to not be me, especially at that moment. I don't know that I buy Shonda's explanation about reducing the character's screentime over the season so he wouldn't be missed. But the reduction in screentime worked for me. Speaking of which, I see a lot of conspiracy theorists pulling out the pitchforks for Shonda regarding the lack of screentime for George's character as some sort of revenge for Isaiahgate. Here's a conspiracy for you: Back in the sunny days of Grey's, George was the nice, plain guy who was the perfect sidekick for most of the main cast. I think the worst thing that happened to his character was turning into some super-stud that a Callie, or even more unlikely, an Izzie would lose her mind over. And I've mostly believed that GIZZIE was a way to give T.R. Knight more screentime due to Isaiahgate fallout and probably something that the actor himself pushed for. Unfortunately, Knight wasn't believable as a role and while I wish the best for him, I can't help but think he'll fade to the relative obscurity that he enjoyed before GREY's.

I thought it was a solid finale, and the "TWISTS!" worked for me. I could take or leave the Izzie character and from what I hear about Katherine Heigl, it might be better if she leaves the show.

Pamela Jaye said...

what I didn't understand (and still don't) was how tumor could be too tiny to remove.

especially after 8 worm larva in the ventricles..

Pamela Jaye said...

did I already say that there was no reason to "reduce George's screentime over the season to make us miss him less" when, in the beginning of the ep, someone said "George is going to be in surgery till 6"? *If* anyone was running around *before* 6, wondering why they hadn't seen George all day, they didn't get the memo. I wasn't missing him. I hadn't noticed he was missing, but I had a reason when the question finally hit me. Everyone is waiting for 6pm. Gotta be a reason they all chose that time.

I thought the story was - TR has had such little screetime this season *that he wanted to be released from his contract.*

I'd say the last few eps have fixed that (he was clicking with Hunt on trauma) and now there is no reason to want to leave.
But I can only hope that's true.

HansundFranz said...

Honestly I have no idea how I still managed to watch Grey's Anatomy after the 3rd season, it's gotten more ridiculous each episode and this 5th season final is the epitome of ridiculousness (if that's even a word). I suspect me being a medical student is what has drawn me to it in the first place and kept me by its side, I have no other explanation for why this drivel has stayed me with all these years.

It's a mystery to me, Alan, what has put you off Heroes (equally ridiculous after the 1st season) but has yet kept you watching this garbage. Was it maybe only wanting to see McDreamy and Ms. Whiney end up happily ever after?

I admit that I had no idea that John Doe was George (who seriously remembers that 007 crap?!?) but in the same breath I also admit that I couldn't have cared less. George used to be one my favorite characters but what they did to him in the last 2 seasons is beyond shameful (no wonder the actor wants out).

First time Izzy (whom I liked!) started seeing that guy whose wire she cut (beyond ridiculous that whole story!!! but lets not go there) I was puzzled and thought it was a joke, then it dragged on for what felt like a million episodes and after some more disbelief I started telling myself that what I was watching was a parody of Grey's, a spin-off of sorts, but alas no hope.
And please people, who DIDN'T guess that after Izzy's miraculous recovery she wouldn't fall back into some sort of coma (in GOB's words: Como? GOB: Oh, you'll be in a coma alright!) and they'll try to resuscitate her after she signed off to the DNR, that was so cheap, really the cheapest of sorts, cheap, cheap drama.

And I know people like Christina and Owen Hunt as a couple but that whole story is beyond me, it reached it's cringeworthiness (another wordcreation? I'm on a roll here!) when they stood on top of that idiotic ventilator thingy, a totally lame attempt at copying Merediths' and Shepherds' elevator days.

And don't even get me started on Callie Torres, her turning lesbian and all that being bad enough (and I mean really really REALLY bad), but no, they have to top it off with her suddenly having money problems, a friggin resident having problems paying the rent or paying for dinner at a restaurant, seriously? Yeah Shonda, I bet a lot of people can relate to that, let alone believe an ounce of it.
Best part is, Christina can pay for it but Torres can't? Yeah whatever.

I could go on and on, but to at least say something positive, Karev is seriously the only thing that has keept me going there, I love this character and it pains me to see him suffer although I'm afraid that he alone is not nearly enough to keep me involved, as dearly beloved he is by me.

I forgave Meredith and the bomb, Meredith drowning and being saved by Derek Shepherd (of all people), and god knows what else, but this whole thing just put me over the edge. Mabye it's those feel-good voice-overs that keep people liking but they just won't do
it for me anymore, whatever it is, I'm not here to offend anyone, those are just my 2 cents, however in the future me thinks that in the future I'd rather be sticking to quality television like Breaking Bad, Dexter, Californication and LOST rather than this O.C. for adults type melodramatic crap disguised as a medical drama.

Grey's anatomy has lost me with this last season, and to put in Richard Marx words, they've lost me "Now and Forever", not that anyone cares.

hansundfranz said...

one last thing i just remembered, what's up with matt saracen wanting to hack off his leg? he don't wanna be QB1 anymore? to much pressure? does he just want to go fight alongside his dad? what about grandma'? and what about coaches' daughter?

man that guy does buckle under pressure ;)