From Krista Vernoff, writer of "Into You Like a Train"

Originally posted on 10/30/05

So - you saw last week's episode - written by the always brilliant Shonda Rhimes - wunderkind creator of Grey's Anatomy? Okay, yeah, not only written by Shonda, but written by Shonda as a season finale? Written by Shonda to leave such an impact on you that you would wait for four months, salivating and debating all summer long, then come back in the fall to see how it all panned out? So, imagine my surprise, I mean delight, okay HORROR, when Shonda assigned me to write the episode that followed hers, and would air not four months later, when the audience had had time to digest and process Meredith's brilliant "Pick me, Choose me, Love me" speech - but one week later, when all the drama of that beautiful "season finale" was still utterly fresh in the audience's minds. A tall order, to say the least.

Thank God we have an unbelievably talented writing staff and research staff and a writers' room that forever generates good ideas. That's one of my favorite things about writing and producing hour-long television - that every episode is, in a great many ways, a group effort. Stacy McKee, I think it was, pitched the idea of a train wreck - since that's how Meredith, and pretty much every woman we know, would feel after opening her heart to that degree. And out of a train wreck, there's room for almost any kind of medical story you want to tell…

We'd had a doctor in the writer's room several months before who'd told us about his work on the burn unit. He told us about a pregnant woman who was so badly burned that she couldn't touch or hold her baby which had to be delivered in an emergency c-section. He told us how he'd held the baby to the woman's face - the one area of her body that she could still feel… The image made us cry - and we knew we had to find a way to work that image into the show. The train wreck seemed like the perfect opportunity. I think that's the kind of the thing people don't realize - that sometimes a whole story grows out of our desire to include one single image… When I left the writer's room and went to my office to flesh out that story, my notes said "pregnant burn victim, baby on face." That's it. So the whole best friends having babies together came from many dark hours slamming my head against my keyboard, muttering "heeeeeelp" and "I'm sooo tiiiiired" and "whyyyy meeee" to the bear figurine I keep on my desk which, at three am one particularly horrible night, started to look a lot like it was mocking me and this pathetic notion that I could be a writer for a living… But I digress.

So. The train wreck… We had the pregnant burn victim, and we had heard a story, I think from Zoanne Clack, our brilliant writer/doctor/over-achiever, about how sometimes, when people are bleeding internally, and in shock, they die very quietly. We thought it would be funny to spin it - make the dying woman loud instead of quiet and that's where the character we lovingly referred to as "Chatty Cathy" was born. Eventually, she became "Yvonne," after my friend Yvonne, who whined to me one day that I never name any characters after her. That's another little thing we do, give the characters catch phrases like "Mr. Parkinsons" and "Tumor Lady" when trying to track their stories in the writer's room - and name them later in the script stage. Which brings us to Bonnie and Tom - the impaled couple - who, until the script stage, we referred to as Bonnie and Clyde. (Cause they're stuck together, and bloody and, okay, I think you get it. ) Jim Parriott, executive producer/writer-extraordinaire pitched this idea and when he did, I thought, "Fiiiine, I'll stop whining about having to write the damn train wreck episode that follows the brilliant would-be season finale because holy crap how great is this idea?"

I never did stop whining - But I loved the idea because not only is it medically fascinating and emotionally torturous, but metaphorically - and we're big on metaphor here at Grey's - it's awesome. Derek has been asked by Meredith to choose between the two women he loves. And the doctors are being asked to choose between two patients who are still sitting up talking, laughing, very much alive… At the end, one of them will be dead. Which is, I think, how Meredith feels when Derek says "She's my wife." Also, when Meredith asks at the end of an act "How do you choose which one gets to live" - she still doesn't have her answer from Derek about his other choice - so it's doubly loaded. This is the kind of thing a writer loves. Oh - and in the beautifully directed and edited sequence where Bonnie and Tom are separated, it feels, I think, very similar to how it feels for Meredith and Derek to be separated. And for how it felt for the audience to watch Meredith and Derek be separated. Which I know you hate me for. So all I'll say is this: SHONDA MADE ME DO IT!!!

(P.S. Kip Koenig, another of our brilliant writers, pitched the title "Into You Like a Train" - from a Psychedelic Furs song. Before that, the episode was called "You Oughta Know" after the Alanis Morissette song - and because the theme of the episode is actually about being in the know - because Meredith wants to know what Derek's decision is, and because the doctors don't know what will happen when they pull the pole from Bonnie and Tom, and because Alex didn't know Yvonne was bleeding internally etc. But then Alanis did that weird acoustic cover album of her own music and sold it in Starbucks and Shonda found it upsetting and besides the Psychedelic Furs title is just plain better. The End).

Comments

[famousArtist]

Oh. Thank you so much for repeating this episode. I loved it the first time. The second time I saw so much more of its wonder. I especially loved the scene with Derek and Bailey in the elevator.

But the whole thing was brilliant.

Thanks so much.

[Lark]

I missed this episode and was not all that upset about it when I read the trailer earlier in the season. Of course, I did not miss it on purpose...
WOW, WOW, WOW! ( as Randy would say).. What a phenomenal storyline on all counts. I never knew Derek went to the bar. What was he going to say, really? Did he change his mind later? What if Mer had been there?
Tom and Bonnie were reflections of Der and Mer. How profound.
Never knew Mer confronted Alex about his Mojo.
And Der crying in that elevator- I was sobbing. What a touching moment between he and Baily. Best ever. First time ever I cried during an episode.
Krista, I have loved all your episodes. You and Shonda are my favs. But this one ranked up there with the bomb show. Hey you guys are the bombs!

[Amy]

Loved this episode even more the second time around! Was pure torture watching Meredith try to read Derek--even though I knew what was going to happen. I found myself hoping against hope that he'd find her in the bar or walk right into the ER and kiss her or something! An amazing episode! Can't wait 'til Sunday!

[PaulM]

I watched the re-run of "Into you like a train" and it's still my favorite, especailly the part about Bonnie and Tom.

Your description of the episode, especially when you talk about the use of images and metophors, is what makes the show so special. I look forward every week for that moment, a look from a character or spoken word which brings me full circle to something earlier in the episode. It usually evokes great emotion and makes me glad that I watch.

Thanks again for a great episode.
-PaulM

[Tara]

This was an absolutely awesome episode, I believe I cried the entire time and cannot wait for it to come out on DVD so I can watch it over and over. Thank you.. you ROCK!

[Vijayjay]

Um, can we all just chill out for like one second and sweat Monica Keena, the guest star who played Bonnie? I mean, from Dawson's Creek to this incredible cameo? Damn, GA, y'all direct the bejizzles out of your guest cast. George? Stop looking at my vijayjay. Thanks.

Thanks for showing this again. This was the ep that got me hooked on Greys. I remember the Bonnie/Tom scene the first time I watched it and I remember falling asleep crying.
I did not realize the Bon/Tom symbolized Mer/Der.
I thought they symbolized Mer/Addison.
What an awesome connection.
Yes, it was awful to watch Mer and Der to be seperated.

BAILEY and DEREK in the elevator at the end, has to be one of my favorite Greys scenes.
I get a lump in my throat everytime I watch it.
Incredible writing.

[Kristin]

When Derek says to Bonnie's fiance, "She wanted you to know.... If love were enough, she'd still be here," is my favorite line ever: movie, TV, or book. I tear up to this day just thinking about it.

[Kerry from Germany]

Hello, you brilliant writers!!

I have to tell you that this episode got me a sleepless night! The case of the impaled couple was so hard to watch because I cared for them both so much and I didn't want one of them to be killed off.

When Bonnie lay on the OR-table and Meredith had to give up on her I cried because of Meredith's desperate words. She didn't understand why they had given up on Bonnie. And that was so heartwrenching for me. Meredith would never give up a patient, no matter how bad they are injured.

Even though this epi was so sad it also was funny. Seeing Meredith with her banana-bag made me laugh out loud.

I just love her and Derek and I must say that I enjoy them struggling. What's the fun watching them happy together? It would get boring. But seeing them miss each other, look in that way at each other, hurting and wanting to make it all better but not being able to, ist for me the best on the show.

Of course I whish them to be together eventually, but I won't mind it to take a little more time.

So, go on with the wonderful work and give us a third season that we will enjoy as much as the second!

[m. in milw.]

Hey, congratulations re: the Emmy nod, Krista! Such a great ep, am glad it's being acknowledged.

[Novita from The Netherlands]

This was one of the best episodes I've ever seen of any show I've ever seen:) I've cried and laughed all in one episode. The girl who was stuck on a poll with that man really touched me. She could be me but only much braver! Every other show that involves a hospital seems very fake to me now that I'm watching GA. Keep doing what your good at actors, writers and producers from GA!!!! I'll keep watching...
Greetings from The Netherlands!
Novita

[Gloria]

A very hearty "Mabuhay" (a traditional Filipino greeting which loosely translates as "long live") from Quezon City, Philippines!

Kinda ironic considering Bonnie died in this episode, and in a way, so did Meredith. I watched IYLAT for the second time earlier, and cried even harder than when I first saw it. My tears started to well up when they broke the horrible news to Bonnie and Tom, and by the time Derek was in the elevator with Bailey, I was sobbing uncontrollably.

I keep thinking about the whole choosing-who-gets-to-live metaphor and how Derek arrived at his decision to dump Mer. When the surgeons first analyzed Bonnie and Tom's situation, Derek argued in favor of saving Bonnie since she was more damaged. So at that point, was he still considering choosing Meredith, who was so pathetically broken that she actually said PICK ME CHOOSE ME LOVE ME?

Even though it was pretty clear that they would prioritize saving Tom in the O.R., Derek and Preston did still try to save Bonnie. The turning point was when Preston said that her heart (although he said aorta) was too damaged and she'd just bleed out.

Poor Meredith. I mean, Bonnie. Her heart was too broken, she was beyond saving, so they left her to die.

So... what was the turning point for Derek? What was it that made him decide that his relationship with Meredith wasn't worth fighting for anymore? Was it actually her "Pick me" speech a few hours before?

Anyway, I don't even know if you'll still be able to read this Krista, Shonda, and all you amazing GA writers, but I'd like to thank and congratulate you for the wonderful job you did on this episode.

[Kachiri]

I know this is an extremely late response, but the message that the impeled lady gave to her fiance was just heartbreaking. Patrick Demsey as Derek says "If love were enough I would still be here with you" (forgive me if I misquote) Oh, how my heart ached for Meridith and Derek. The methaphors in this show never strike me as corny or cliche. They just strike me. You guys a re brillant.

[zoozoozing]

i absolutely love Grey's ANatomy.

Js wondering, did Derek cry becos of the death of Bonnie or is it becos he's breaking up wiht Grey