From Shonda Rhimes, creator, Executive Producer and writer of "Bring the Pain"

Originally posted on 10/23/05

When I was searching for a title for this episode (all of our show titles are derived from songs with the exception of the 7th episode of Season One - I have a thing for music, if you haven't noticed already), I was looking for a song title that spoke to the theme of the episode, which is pain management. Oddly enough, there are a lot of songs titled "Bring the Pain." But the song I chose - the song the episode is named for - is Bring the Pain by the Wu-Tang Clan. Just in case you wondered.

"Bring the Pain" was originally conceived, written and shot to be the finale of Grey's Anatomy's first season. But then we aired after "Desperate Housewives" and, well…everything changed. Ratings, timeslots, a really great audience following…it was mind blowing and humbling for all of us. The network made a decision -- our first season needed to end in conjunction with DH's season. And so suddenly, the arrival of Derek's wife became our perfect season-ending cliffhanger. And this episode became one of a series of big episodes to launch our second season.

But if you watch it with that in mind - the fact that this was the final episode - you can see me trying to bring the characters full circle from the pilot. Meredith began the show throwing Derek out of her house after a one night stand. In this episode, she's admitting that she loves him. Saying "pick me, choose me, love me" in a desperate attempt to keep Derek by her side. George started out the pilot as "007" - he's the guy who can't get through an appendectomy without choking and humiliating himself in front of Dr. Burke. In "Bring the Pain", George earns his manhood by performing heart surgery in an elevator. And Alex is back to being humiliated - just as he was in the first episode. Cristina, the girl who can't connect with anyone, forms an odd, twisted bond with Porn Guy and then truly connects with Burke. Izzie, so vulnerable and underestimated when we first meet her, is the girl who removes her heart from her sleeve in "Bring the Pain". And, Bailey, the tough "Nazi", shows her softer side - we learn the first bits of information about her personal life. Plus, the word "seriously" - the most overused word on our show - is purposely uttered a zillion times.

I also really wanted to use this episode to give McDreamy a chance to explain why he's waited so long to sign those divorce papers. Here's the thing: Meredith may not understand why he's waited but Derek is a married man and he's a good guy - so he can't sign those papers without really thinking about it first. That was important. In order for McDreamy to be McDreamy, he has to be the kind of man who takes the end of his marriage seriously.

In the end, however, what this episode is about most - what all our episodes are about most - is friendship. The interns form this odd, dysfunctional family with one another to get them through each day. That's when I think the show is working at its best - when our interns are lying in bed together complaining about their lives, when they sit at the bar together complaining about their lives, when they stand around the nurses' station complaining about their lives. Complaining to people who understand is key to friendship, I think.

And so, in the end, when Meredith is sitting at that bar, waiting and hoping for Derek to show up, the other interns are there. Waiting and hoping right along with her...

Comments

[Sheri Mathey McDonald]

I can't believe I did not start watching this show until April of this year!!!!!!

Lots to catch up on!!

[Gloria]

It's me again, Gloria from the Philippines... I only discovered this blog recently and hope against hope that you still check recent comments.

Anyway, here goes...

I'm seriously rooting for Meredith and Derek but honestly, I hated Derek for his "pause" speech. By itself, it was excellent. In that moment, Derek sounded like a noble, decent guy who you could sympathize with, while Meredith came across as being unreasonable.

But recalling how Derek all but promised Meredith that Addison had absolutely no reason to stay in Seattle and that they could "be free" seriously p***** me off. What makes it so bad is the fact that he had just given Meredith hope. She had no idea that he was having second thoughts because he never gave her any reason to think that he did. So he went from being this giddily happy soon-to-be-divorced-from-Satan -boyfriend to this shmuck who is suddenly tormented by the thought of leaving his wife who he once said "no longer existed to (him)." As my sister-in-law angrily pointed out, didn't he already decide to "cut her out" by leaving her in New York?

I've seen the rest of the season and think that Derek has some serious apologizing to do. He's apologized to Addison, but he hasn't to Mer since the night Addy showed up. Just because he's, well, dreamy and quite possibly the love of her life, she shouldn't take him back so easily after all the (insert expletive here) he's put her through. Seriously.

Oo, galit ako, haha. (Tagalog for "Yes, I am mad, haha) But I'll get over it. :)

[David]

To Shonda and the entire GA team, thank you, thank you for taking the time to write a show reflecting all the hip, funny, serious, heartbreaking realities of life. Seriously, it's the kind of show I could sit back and watch ad nauseum, seriously. I had some significant loss last year, three close family members passing, not at the same time, a divorce, etc., the writing, music and acting helped me to keep perspective.

And speaking of music, ahh the music, a lot of my feelings canbe driven by music, your selection is superb. Every song matches perfectly with each scene and carries me through a rollercoaster of emotion. My favorite of course is the last 15 minutes of S2E24 Damage Case, seriously how F’in true is that, seriously; seriously! The woman whom I thought I just experienced love with for the first time broke up with me, so I was certainly damage case. I cried, cried, and then perked up at the dialogue and music between Meredith and Finn(?)

That is what the show does to me, it’s almost a bit embarrassing, me a 33yr executive single Texan man’s man, crying to a freakin TV show, my huntin buddies better not find out; seriously!

Again thank you for the rich experience of being able to watch, laugh, get angry and make fun of other peoples pain (Addison’s poison oak hehe) if only for an hour.

Shonda, no questions for you girlfriend, I want to be surprised, I want to be left hanging after every episode, I want to have that feeling of looking forward to turning off the phone, blackberry and PC just so I can watch undisturbed for 42 minutes. You are AMAZING, I love the way you and the other writers think, I always think wow, they talk and discuss the same kind of silly crazy stuff my friends and I do.

Have a great and successful time writing and shooting season 3.

(Regards,

David Gaspar

yes I work for AA, so if ever given the blessing to be on set I can get there for free ;-) )

[Joy]

i`d just like to compliment this show.
it is truly one of the BEST show`s i`ve EVER seen.
i`m totally addicted to it.
i TVO all the episodes & i rewatch them a gazillion times.

i`ve seen other doctor shows & they`re aren`t even close to being as good as this one.

i cannot begin to describe how much i LOVE this show.
i love the music; the great acting; & the unique cases.
but i enjoy most about this show is how you didn`t have all americans play these characters.
i love how you put Sandra Oh [ i think she`s AMAZING ]in this show. how often do you see an asian in a popular t.v show ?
you really don`t.

basically what i`m trying to say is. this show rocks & i hope it NEVER ends. because i`ll have nothing to watch if it does. (:

by the way i think you`re really awesome (:

sorry thise comment is so poorly written
i`m only thirteen.
:D

[Barb Drake]

Hey Shonda! Just wanted to say I can't WAIT until the next season starts and I can escape into Meredith's world again. Not exactly to be her cuz if anyone, I'd probly be Izzy...not losing Denny and all...I cried a lot at that part...but anyway! I was just wondering, what is going to happen with Chris O'Donell? I remember having a bit of a crush on him as Robin and when I saw him on the show and nearly jumped off the couch! I didn't recognize the unshaveness or anything but I knew there was something about that smile! Haha! I know you don't like to say stuff about the future but will he be making any more appearances?

[Mary L Quillin]

Hi Shonda,
Well, I was wrong to be so upset about the thought of the end of MerDer! Today (at a doctor's appointment), I read an article in O magazine about emotional affairs. I was wrong about my reaction of McDreamy and Meredith not getting together according to the Monday, 9/4/06 news report on Channel 7 ABC, LA, CA 6 pm news. He's either married to Addison or not; if he is, he can't have an emotional affair with Meredith; the looks in the elevator have to end with Doc gone there is no more dreamy dog watching in the morning. Or he needs to end the marriage, and then ...
I really enjoy the show. I still can't how I've gotten involved with your program. I just spoke to my therapist; she's gotten involved too. When she was on vacation this summer I sent her several of the scenes from the show from YouTune, we both enjoyed the sex scene in the exam remove.

Keep up the good work; but make sure you enjoy your life; as a 57 year old disabled woman (14 years & now with 2 diseases) you can be stopped in your tracks. So keep a balance in your life!

Mary L Quillin

[Katie]

I need addison and Kate Walsh info!!!!! She is my hero (and you of course, duh) i love Kate Walsh sooooo much she is my idol please shonda???

i am 15, i need an idol...please?!?!?!?!?

[Shelley]

I am a former Music Therapy Student. Alzheimer patients tend to remember better, when they hear music from when they were between the ages of 15-30 yrs of age.

Maybe Derrick could suggest this therapy to Mer? Or perhaps if Ellen and Mer were in a room with a MT, music therapist for a nursing home event - they might have another chance to reconnect, and voila! the perfect opportunity to have another great guest star.

[dana]

thank you

that's the best way to sum up how i feel re-watching "some kind of miracle"

i started watching this show just this season as the weeks have gone by, i become more and more obsessed by it the only other shows that i've gotten into like this have been sex and the city and the sopranos i think that's a huge complement to your writing

but these last few shows have accomplished something i didn't know was possible in television: i've never seen or read or heard anything that touched so completely the death wish, the subtle giving up on life that lead to a near death experience that changed everything for me ten years ago

tears are streaming down my face how you show the relationship between meredith and her mother, that chasm of pain and the intense love that reaches across ellis' inability to be the mother she would have wanted to be to meredith if she could have different words, but the same sharp, heartbreaking melody of the song of me and my mother and my girlfriends' and their mothers i've never seen something so complicated be captured so eloquently not in tv not in books (not even the divine secrets of the ya ya sisterhood....)

so: thank you

i think you may have accomplished something that was before impossible maybe word for what it is that you have created in these last three episodes healing i'm sure it could be a lot of other things as well (fricking amazing entertainment for one) but you could be doing something for people that may be actually really powerful and transformative totally weird to say that about a tv show, but you really are doing something awesome

what i would say, if you are reading this, is that it would be great to see meredith become a more self-actualized character and even more interesting would be if meredith developed more of a deeper relationship with miranda miranda is the strongest individual on the show it would be neat to see how miranda came to be who she is, as self-determined as she is, through meredith's inevitable questioning that will emerge out of her swim in the bay

that would be awesome

again, thank you