Mark Wilding on "Life During Wartime"...

Original Airdate: 10-30-08

First things first.  No animals were harmed in the filming of my episode.  None.  I know ABC ran that thing before the show started that told you that, but I figured you should hear it from me too.  Those four pigs were entirely and utterly fake.  Fake, fake, fake.  From their little piggy tails to their glistening piggy snouts, they were nothing but plastic and fiberglass and possibly straw for the whiskers.  Even their breathing was fake.  It came courtesy of some guy who stood just off camera and pumped an air hose (or something similarly technical that I couldn’t explain in a million years).  What WAS real is the issue of using animals to teach and perfect surgical technique.  Like Derek says in the episode, it’s not ideal, but a lot of hospitals in this country use live animals for procedures where surgical mannequins have yet to successfully replicate trauma to humans.  Things like blood volume loss – something else I probably couldn’t explain in a million years.  Anyhow, I thought we were pretty evenhanded in dealing with the issue of animal testing.  I heard from both sides as we were shooting the episode (boy, did I hear).  Compelling arguments were made on BOTH sides -- including one surgeon who told me that a day after learning to do open heart surgery on a pig, she used the same technique on a human being THE NEXT DAY.  She told me point blank, without a doubt in her mind, that if she hadn’t learned that procedure there’s no way she would have saved that person’s life.

At any rate, I thought it was a cool way to bring back Major Owen Hunt.  Even if people were appalled by what he did, his goal in the wet lab was to teach people.  And to teach them the best way he knows how.  Teaching, incidentally, is one of our major themes this year.  See one, do one, teach one.  You want to move up from being the number 12 hospital in the country, you’ve gotta fight that fight on all fronts.  Be it operating on pigs, hiring better doctors or doing a better job with the doctors who are already here.  Anyway, I think we came to understand Owen’s attitude toward the pigs at the end of the episode when he tells Cristina about losing all his army buddies in the RPG attack.  If you’ve seen 19 of your friends die in one day, it tends to make other things in your life not seem quite as important or dramatic.  My wife really doesn’t care what Owen (Kevin McKidd) does or doesn’t do to pigs.  She’s just glad to see him back at Seattle Grace.  REALLY, REALLY GLAD.  Much like Cristina, she just thinks he’s cool and sexy as hell (I’m not either of those things so I just make up lame excuses why she can’t visit the set and meet him -- he’s a leper, he’s got TB, he’s allergic to blondes – whatever will keep her at bay).  At any rate, he and Cristina make for a really interesting couple – even if he didn’t remember her name!

Speaking of names, I loved Meredith remembering the silly names she gave Anatomy Jane’s organs.  But if unearthing Anatomy Jane brings out Meredith’s playful side, it does just the opposite for the Chief.  He, like Owen, is fighting his own set of demons.  Always lurking somewhere in the back of his mind is the fact that his behavior as a young man somehow destroyed Meredith’s life.  She never had the army Tori Begler has.  She never had people looking out for her.  People who could protect her from life’s vicissitudes.  So when that doll suddenly re-appears, so does the Chief’s guilt.  I don’t know if that’s something he’ll ever be able to resolve because I don’t think those kinds of things are easily resolved, even in real life.  There are some things you just can’t forgive yourself for.  In my wife’s case, it’s her attraction to Kevin McKidd.  I’m sure, at some point in her life, she’ll feel very, very guilty about that.   

As for some of our other couples…I can never get enough of Izzie and Alex.  He’s trying to be a good boyfriend and going about it in a typical Alex way.  So that when Owen tells Derek and Mark that he wants to know what he did wrong with the scalp patient, Alex is all ears.  As well as he knows Izzie, in many ways she’s still a foreign country to him.  She has different customs and ways.  You can either dismiss those customs and ways or try to learn to do things differently.  In much the same way, Callie and Erica have yet to…calibrate.  If that’s the word.  They’re moving at different speeds into their relationship.  Callie’s more hesitant, maybe not sure she wants to throw herself one hundred percent into this thing.  While Erica sees the leaves on the trees for God’s sake!  Meanwhile George and Lexie have reached a truce of sorts.  I have to say, I loved that last scene where she made him a dinner of macaroni and cheese. 

Bailey, of course, is pretty much trying to drive up Seattle Grace’s ranking by herself.  From her domino surgery to removing six organs at one go, she’s on fire.  She’s not letting anything or anyone (namely Erica Hahn) get in her way.  When Tori’s father talks about hospitals and how doctors ignore you or don’t talk to each other or somehow lose sight of what they’re here for – to do the best they can for the patient – it’s hard for me to clump Bailey in that group.  But even she can occasionally get sidetracked (only to be set back on course by the Chief).  Still, at the end, when the Chief is looking in at the Beglers all crowding around Bailey, we get the impression (or at least I hope you got it) that she’s well on her way to succeeding him as the best general surgeon at Seattle Grace. 

As for getting back to being one of the top hospitals in the country?  Our doctors have a ways to go and lot of battles to fight.  Like my wife’s latest Seattle Grace crush, Mr. Owen Hunt tells Derek and Mark, this is still pretty much Day One for them…

Comments

[Felicia]

The episode was fine, but the lack of screen time for Meredith and Derek was once again disappointing. This couple is solid gold, with enormous chemistry, and we got maybe 90 seconds of them on screen together. Very disappointing.

Your ratings were high last season during the second half of the finale - because people knew Meredith and Derek were reuniting. Little did they know that what they saw in the finale was just one big tease.

[Christine]

Amazing, amazing episode. Everything tied together and I loved the parallel between the human surgery and the pig surgery. It was dramatic but not overly dramatic and I am so happy to finally see emotion in Cristina. I'm also psyched that Major Hunt is bringing some change to the hospital--teaching instead of being the hotshot--and for the chief setting some ground rules. It's serious business (since the hospital is trying to get from 11th to 1st in the nation) and I love it--enough of the overly melodramatic stuff. This is real and this is exciting. Furthermore, I also loved this entry. Everything just got me so psyched up! Thank you thank you thank you. Keep up the great work!

[Christine]

P.S. More passion and more REAL emotion in everyone in this episode-- AWESOME.

[su]

Great blog, great episode. Owen Hunt/ Kevin McKidd has come on the show and added a new energy. I love his work and the Owen/ Cristina storyline. I can't wait to see where you take them-just make it fast. It's pretty much the only reason I watch. McKidd is awesome.

[m]

I have to say I'm a fan in general, but enough with the nasty people already. You've got Hahn who's a witch, Alex who's emotionally stunted, and now Hunt who believes in 'tough love'. At the end of the episode he tries to redeem himself with "teach me" to Derek and Mark, yet when they offered to help the first time, he kicked them out. Conflict is necessary of course, but does everyone need to be a jerk?

[Miss Kensington]

Really interesting episode. I've alwasy been a big Kevin McKidd fan, so nice to see him back, and with some very good scenes. Liked the Mark and Callie friendship, loved Alex and Izzie! Need need need more MerDer!!!!!

[Isabella]

Loved Callie/Mark tonight. And Alex/Izzie.

Great work!

[aNiCe]

i laught the hell out of me with the Meredith's face when Cristina tells her to run... GOD, just hilarious! couldn't have been better!

I like this new season so far, it's shiner and brigther, and i looooove learning, and people who learns (by any means, let's call it by their mistakes, from other people, when accepts they need someone to teach them the way)

Meredith is happy, i like her happy, and actually i felt very much like her, when she was with the boxes of the creppy past, i felt the exact same way when i look at my old toys or my ugly hats, so so so happy from my own memories and childhood... and i just love Derek...

I like it, I LIKE IT!

Cristina with mayor Hunt gives me hope, i mean like she said "it's been a long time since..." well, you know, and i like Cristina even if she is the way she is, just make me laught...

Lexie and George are just a pair of cute cute cuddle bears, i mean, i think there's so much honey between them, it's coooorny, but i mean, that's the way they are, and it feels good with them... all the honey...

on the other hand, we have Alex and Izzie all spicy they're like salt and pepper in water with oil, so different! yet they go good together (like salt and pepper) to be honest since season 1 i have liked them as a couple, but it had to be hard for them, so i could work out later (well, Denny is [or was] Denny, if he wasn't dead i woulda love to seen them together).

And last but no least, Bailey, she's getting everything she's up to and more, and she deserves it. She's finally receiving the acknowledgement she deserves, i love her too.

Everything is in its right place now =) Great Season, but i'm still thrill about the final season Shonda talk us about in the last final season, remember?

what's gonna change? i'm so curious!!!

Great episode!

[Liz]

Seriously?!

That's all the MerDer we're going to get? I'm hating the bookend scenes (except last week).

The episode was a complete filler. Except the chief talking to Mer and Alex and Izzie, it was so "blah".

Can the main characters communicate and have an actual conversation like all the other characters seem to be having, instead of just having 60 - 90 seconds of meaningless screentime?

I don't want to sound negative, but I don't get all the hype around Hunt. I just don't like him. And this is beside the fact that the cast is getting so crowded, that instead of giving more screentime to the original characters, we see less and less of them every week and you give more time to people I don't care and I don't plan on caring about.

I always love your episodes, but tonight it just didn't feel like Grey's. Oh, the lightning needs to be fixed ASAP, all the scenes were so dark, and maybe is what you were going for, but still, a little lightning wouldn't hurt.

Thank you for your time. Hoping for better episodes to come.

[Sally]

Tonight was pretty good, but too may different characters and storylines. I feel lost. There are probably 50 characters on the show now and each storyline gets so little attention and development, I have a hard time caring about them. And, I want to care.

But, let's start with what did work.

Kudos to Brooke Smith. I know a lot of fans probably hated her revelation to Callie, but I thought it was beautiful. So authentic. And her lashing out all episode was also interesting and well done. Despite myself, I like Hahn.

Meredith -- I love her. She is just adorable and I love seeing her lighter and happier and acting NORMAL with Derek. What a delight.

Wha't not working

Speaking of Mer/Der - WHY, WHY, WHY don't they get any screen time together. Why don't you give them more hotness, more lovingness, etc. Oh it pains me. I have to watch recaps from season 1 & 2 to find any good mer/derness. Seriously guys, you've GOT TO DO BETTER. These bookends in the episode are driving me crazy.

Also, speaking of Derek. He gets no screen time either. The man needs some juicy storylines. Yes, I want to see more that involves Meredith, but how about also seeing him deal with some professional issues. How meeting the family or dealing with any of his internal issues. Christina's INTERNS (nameless, faceless intersn) get more screen time than Derek. It is a crime.

I know your wife likes Owen Hunt (and Kevin McKidd), but I'm not sold yet. He's okay, nothing special. I feel like you guys are shoving him down our throats a little. What I miss about Burke is that he was strong (like Hunt), but also multi dimensional. Not seeing that yet with Hunt.

Also, and this is critical. you guys have got to address and fix the bloody TIMELINE.

Look, we fans are demanding. We know every detail and the timeline sloppiness gets worse and worse.

[andreas]

This was the worse episode of Grey's in this season A few seconds of MerDer it isn't enough. Where is the couple moments? What happened with the brilliant neurosurgeon, where is he?

[Sarah]

Can you blame your wife? That man is all kinds of hot.

Seriously though, Kevin McKidd has brought new life to this show. He made it fun and exciting to watch again. You guys need to sign him as a series regular.

[Gina]

Good show.

Wish we got more mer/der time, but I am glad they are becoming a real couple. I can't wait to see more. Please can we see more, especially a wedding.

I loved Alex and Izzie three seasons ago. I can't get into them anymore. Izzie is officially ruined for me.

Overall, I'm concerned that there are way, way, way too many characters on the show and more on the way. I think season 1 worked because it was a tight cast and everyone got a lot of screen time. Now, all my favorites get 10 seconds here and there and the Chief, and Hahn and others dominate. Blech.

By the way, why is everyone a budding lesbian. Don't get me wrong, I can support a gay storyline, but now Meredith may be bi and there are new interns on the way who are bi or lesbians or whatever. Sounds gimmicky to me.

[ali]

I'm not really sure how I feel about this episode... I think that it's going to take some time to process.

The hour certainly got me thinking. And so about the pigs, which is defiantly what I'm fixating on now:
I really appreciate that you're covering critical, contemporary biomedical issues, and, in doing so, are making an attempt to depict both sides of the controversies. Honestly, with this pig-issue, I thought that this show was rather weighted towards the pro-animal testing/usage side--perhaps just a little more demonstration of or details on the alternatives to animal testing could have been provided (to flesh out Izzie's speech to Hunt)? Again, I saw both arguments articulated tonight, which defiantly means something, but I feel like everything was just so... okay for Izzie, Cristinia and Lexie at the end of the episode that the pig issue became almost a non-issue. I mean, I kind of forgot about Izzie's speech when she was kissing Alex, and maybe that's kind of the nature of the show--but it did, then, take some of the kick out of that speech (in comparison, we leave Hunt and Cristinia in the hospital--Cristina sad but okay, Hunt having just defended his position).

I really don't know where I stand on this issue--I go back and forth. For those of us who are still--continually--finding our ground on such biomedical issues as animal testing, it's just so, so, critical that both sides are heard. Tonight, the show generally demonstrated its recognition of this responsibility--but maybe the next time such an issue is depicted, the sides could be even more evenly argued.

Thanks for the other moments of the episode, for using fake pigs, and for sparking this debate.

[dear MerDer fans..]

Please Mark, you shoul dpost my message

Dear MerDer fans, Grey's writers love to mock us. MerDer will have screentime when these people will write another triangle. It's their game for our couple. End of the story. It's so sad. I have zero interest for Alex/Izzie, Owen/Cristina and about Callica, they hurt my stomach. Internet!

[And Mer/Der?]

Where is Mer/Der?? This season was supposed to be about them being a couple, but we just get 15 secs per episode. At this rate we will have a whole 30 min by the end of the season.
Please, give them some more screentime together.

[B]

I know they were fake, but the pig story was very disturbing. And hypocritical. Izzie's speech was good - but - she eats animals ... what about animals in the food industry? I guess their hideous treatment is all right in her eyes? As long as she doesn't have to see it, I guess. Oh - and as for filming, what about those organs in the girl's surgery? You use animal organs, yes? But they were already dead so it's OK? Not! It's really gross. If you can make a realistic fake pig, you can make realistic fake organs.

Moving on. Other than the pig stuff - I like Owen a lot. I liked his humility in saying he was open to learning. And I really liked that Alex took that lesson and immediately used it with Izzie.

I appreciate that Owen and Cristina will take their time, and I'm looking forward to their development. He really does need to heal after his horrid experience and get back into a civilian mindset, and she needs time to trust again. Loved her running away with Mer when she saw him again. Very funny.

Speaking of Mer - and Der - I'll echo others' comments: we need more of them, please.

Alex & Izzie = greatness.

Bailey rocks, as usual.

I liked Erica when she first came on, but the character isn't clicking for me. She's always so negative, so I was glad to hear Bailey tell her so. I can't really get into the relationship with Callie, either. Erica may have had a revelation, but the pairing feels forced.

The Chief's guilt was an interesting revelation, but maybe a little misplaced. Mer's mom is responsible for maybe 95%, and the Chief for maybe 5%. Or something like that. It wasn't just the affair that messed up Mer. Her mom cared more about surgery than her daughter, too, and was still too selfish to let her see her father.

Glad George and Lexie are speaking again. I hope he sees more in her than he has previously.

Please, get Mark Sloane a story of his own. Been saying that since he came on the show.

[Lexipedia]

Thank you for the absolutely fabulous writing this season! My family gets together every Thursday and watches Grey's, and each time we find ourselves laughing, getting teary-eyed, and just having a great hour of television! This season just keeps getting better! Keep it up!

PS.I LOVE the character of Lexie Grey this season. Her interactions with George and Cristina are the best! Go Lexipedia!!

Looking forward to an awesome season.

[SJ in Mpls]

Hey Mark - great episode! I love Owen and what he brings to the show. The only problem I see is that there are so many characters we don't get to see as much of George and Mer/Der. I personally cannot stand Callie and Erica. They don't have any chemistry and I think you're taking the whole "who do I like better and/or how can I BE better at sex" too far. YUK! If they both left the show I can't say that I'd miss them. They've been given WAY too much screen time. I love Mark. You guys are writing him better and better. I love his interactions with Derek. Use them more! Bailey is fabulous as ever-Anatomy Jane was great. Tonight's episode was very entertaining. I just wish that we'd see more interaction between Mer and Derek. I was waiting for Derek to find out how great Mer did on Bailey's case-especially since he scolded her in the last episode. Anyway...I really enjoyed the show. Thanks! Oh and why didn't see a preview for next week's episode? I was surprised to see the credits and hear the theme song!!

[McIce]

I just dont know how to thank for the Izzie-Alex scene in the end!! Cute,funny and hot!! Great episode!

[YES AWESOME I SAY!!]

Mark and all Greys Anatomy people, you all are yes a good example of the overused word, but not in this case AWESOME!! THANKS FOR BEING AWESOME!!

Love this Season,Loved Last Season HAVE LOVED EVERY SINGLE EPISODE SINCE THE FIRST. KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK. Oh yeah, one more thing, how bout that new show starring Jeffery Dean Morgan. Now that WOULD BE AWESOME!!!!!

[Piri]

It was an ok episode, but one question: Are Meredith and Derek going to get an storyline this season or are they going to keep on being 30 seconds bookends to the rest of the show? Just to know if I should keep on waiting or move on.

[kay]

While I am still not 100% sold on Maj Hunt- he's just a bit to bad a$$ for me- I do like he and Christin-AH together. And I have rooted for Izzie and Alex for as long as I have been watching, so I am extremely pleased that they are coming together. Thanks for letting MerDer take a bit of a back seat. While I love the two of them together, the saga of their romance has worn a bit thin. Knowing that they are together and happy (at least for now) is enough for this viewer. Loving Callie's conflict with her feelings. I'd be conflicted too with McSteamy (keep him on my tv screen as much as possible please!). George and Lexie are adorable. Hooray for Bailey! And poor Chief - when will the poor guy catch a break. His eyes say it all...

[Michelle]

Seriously, way too many cast members, way too many unnecessary storylines. Where's Meredith and Derek?! Give them an actual conversation! They are the heart of the show! The Callica relationship, ok it's complicated, but I'm not sure if all the viewers are so thrilled that it takes up half the screentime. And Sara Ramirez is such a great actress, she deserves better than just hopping from one bed to the next. And George, only when he came home at the end of the episode I rememberd that he was also on this show. I missed him and I don't even like him. It's wrong when all those annoying interns have more screentime than the original cast.

[Yogi]

I was totally into this episode, and yes like your wife I like super sexy Kevin McKidd! I was kinda hoping there were some Slexipedia scenes this eppy, but I wasn't too surprised there weren't. Eric Dane was so great last nite, and he deserves better than being the go between between Callica. Will the Lexie and Sloan chemistry be explored more during November sweeps? One can hope. Keep up the good work Mark. One of the better episodes of the season.