Mark Wilding on "Stairway to Heaven"...

I am going to tell you something about myself that you probably already suspect.  Which is…I don’t know any serial killers.  None.  Not a one.  I grew up in a small university town in Connecticut and our crimes ran more towards shoplifting, speeding and disturbing the peace.  No William Dunn types hanging out at the local Friendly’s ice cream parlor or exchanging warm hello’s at the Coventry Farmers’ Market.  My brushes with any kind of criminal element pretty much extended to what my younger brother, Dave, was up to that day.  Be it shooting out a neighbor’s window with a BB gun or throwing a snowball at the high school principal – the principal for God’s sake! – Dave was the closest thing to an actual criminal that I knew.  (Of course, to this day my brother denies shooting out the window with a BB gun.  But then, that’s what criminals do, right?  They deny.)

Anyway, you get the idea.  Bucolic small town, God-fearing folks, blah blah blah.  Except that now I’m going to tell you something that you don’t know about me.  Which is that even though I don’t know any serial killers, I do know a killer.  That’s right.  Someone who murdered another human being.  The murderer was someone I grew up with.  He was in my grade.  We went to middle school and high school together.  We even went to college together.   I even had the occasional beer with him in college.  And now he’s sitting in a Texas prison for murdering his wife.  To be more precise, for poisoning his wife with arsenic.  Which, from all the accounts I read, was a pretty horrible way to go.  And guess what?  He really was one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. 

My point being that even though I know a charming, well-mannered murderer, when Shonda floated the idea that we do our own version of a charming serial killer – someone that we couldn’t help but like -- I wasn’t that on board with the idea.  After all, a killer’s a killer, right?  No amount of charm or politeness can mitigate THAT.  But then we got Eric Stoltz and I started to see the light.  Not all the light, but some of it.  Eric’s a great actor and very charming.  But myself and others in the writers room still weren’t convinced.  We argued back and forth about what kind of killer we should have.  Because if Meredith is going to have compassion for him, shouldn’t he at least be a guy who killed for a reason?  To defend himself?  Or to put some poor soul out of their misery?  Does he have to be someone who just killed people for no good reason?  And Shonda said he DID have to be someone who killed people for no good reason.  But, we countered, wouldn’t that reflect poorly on Meredith?  Being best buds with an utterly irredeemable serial killer??  No it wouldn’t, insisted Shonda.  Compassion is compassion.  And as Jenna Bans pointed out in her wonderful episode last week – it’s a lot easier to have compassion for a sick person than for a serial killer.  Well, as you saw at the end of the episode last night, Shonda was right.  As horrible a human being as he was, when it came down to it, when William Dunn walked into that death chamber and looked at Meredith (and looked and looked) I really didn’t want him to be killed.  And I’m someone who’s not completely against the death penalty.  (I go back and forth.  On the one hand feeling that if you deprive someone of their life, shouldn’t you be deprived of yours?  While on the other hand, not being terribly happy about the fact that sometimes they execute the wrong guy).

The first and most obvious relationship that needs commenting on is Cristina and Meredith’s.  Yes folks, the rift is finally over.  And it ended the way most rifts end.  Not with profound apologies on either side but with the sense that this argument has just gone on too long, that life’s too short to prolong the misery.  How many great friends do you get in your life?  Like real soul mate friends?   And do you want to lose that soul mate friend over something that, a month later, now seems trivial?  Meredith and Cristina are a couple of strong personalities.  I don’t know that we could ever have gotten them to offer up mutual apologies – with both of them shouldering a measure of the blame -- and actually believe it as an audience.  And Derek pretty much spoke for the viewers when he said isn’t it about time to wrap up the fighting -- that Meredith and Cristina need each other.  If only to freak out to each other when something really big happens.  In this case, a possible proposal.  And even though it looked like Derek might be so put off by Meredith’s charitable behavior towards William that he would never propose, we got the nice, lump in the throat, surprise at the end of the episode when Derek shows up outside the prison.  A nice surprise because a couple of seasons ago, he might have been so disgusted with her behavior that he might not have shown up.  I think that gestures shows that their relationship is really maturing.  That’s what happens in relationships.  If you want to keep it going, you forgive things that bother the crap out of you.  If you DON’T want to keep it going, you dump the person.  Or divorce them.  You should not, under any circumstances, poison them with arsenic.  That is bad.

There are two other relationships that I want to comment on.  First, Mark and Lexie.  A couple that I grow more and more fond of every week.  I loved that the humor of him breaking his penis – it really does happen, people, you can look it up – becomes something very moving at the end, when Lexie ignores his request to get out of his room and, instead, crawls into bed with him.  Mark has never been in such pain and she’s going to be there for him, whether he wants it or not.  On paper their relationship looks like it can’t possibly work.  He’s an attending and a man whore.  She’s an intern and all sweetness and light.  But time and again we’ve shown that Lexie’s also a lot stronger than she looks.  If she wants something, she’ll eventually figure out a way to get it.  In this case, that something is Mark.  At this point we’re not sure where this relationship is going but I promise you that this is one of those story lines that we, the writers, really want to get right.  We’re enjoying it too much not to.   

And finally, we get to Izzie and Denny.  Now here’s a story line a lot of folks have had a strong opinion about.  Starting with Denny coming back (WHAT?), Izzie finally breaking the ice and talking to him(REALLY?  REALLY??), Izzie having long conversations with him (NO WAY!), Izzie having imaginary, albeit spectacular, sex with him (OKAY, THIS CHICK IS CRAZY), and Izzie pulling a sort of modern day “Jules and Jim”, balancing the two men in her life (REALLY, HONESTLY, SHE NEEDS TO BE COMMITTED).  Anyway, I’d say that since we started the story line, opinions have run two to one against the whole thing.  Or at least they were before this episode.  Maybe now some of you doubters will be swayed.  I’m not saying EVERYONE will be on board, just maybe a few of you.  We didn’t bring back Jeffrey Dean Morgan just because he’s a super looking guy who can act the hell out of stuff, we brought him back for a reason.  Izzie is sick.  We don’t know how bad it is or whether Denny is some sort of hallucination or weird manifestation of her sickness, but now at least the thing’s on her radar.  Now she can do something about it.  So stick with us.  It’s going to be a fun ride.  After all, if I was able to come around on the whole charming, serial killer thing, you guys might just come around on this.

Comments

[JackieS]

You didn't sway me. I hate this Denny garbage and I always will.

Mer was great.

[B]

Another excellent episode. You all have been firing on all cylinders these last few weeks. So many examples of compassion - and so meaningful, because they didn't occur just when it was easy to be compassionate.

Call outs: Bailey broke my heart. Mer being so wrecked after her act of compassion was also very emotional and real (loved Derek being there). And while it wasn't as overt, accepting someone's care can also be a big deal for some, and so I liked the scene between Mark and Lexie.

I'm still not sure about Denny as the vehicle for Izzie to find out she's sick; I think it went on too long and he does seem like a jerk at this point. I'll wait and see where it goes, and if there is some final resolution between them (other than some sappy thing where she dies and they go off to heaven together - blech).

Couldn't deal with the mom having to say goodbye to her son, even if it worked out OK.

Keep up the great work!

[S.Cali]

Honestly, I thought most of this episode was just "ok." I was getting really sick of hearing Denny say "I'm here for you" so I'm glad that's finally over and done with.

However, that final scene with Eric Stoltz/Ellen Pompeo/Patrick Dempsey made me cry hysterically (in a good way) - something that hasn't happened since the second season.

[KJ]

The serial killer plotline was intriguing, not forced, and riveting to follow, even for three straight weeks. He has the mystery of a character like the Joker in Batman- one can't help but feel the need to know more about them, and their past, to try and figure out just how they turned out so bad. Those types of characters are fascinating, in a way. One feels the need to know more about them, despite the fact that they have done so much wrong in their life, and oftentimes, killed simply for the feeling of killing.
That said, when they finally executed the serial killer, I felt so much inner turmoil and the overwhelming sense that it was a wrong thing to kill him. I was hoping for a more intelligent discussion of the death penalty in this blog, and the unshakable wrongness of taking a life from someone who took lives. Does killing those who kill bring back the dead? No. I felt that this episode was trying to send a message to viewers about the hypocrisy of the death penalty. Having the people there watching, and Meredith crying, felt like a hard hitting message. But all that is said about the downside of the death penalty is "sometimes they kill the wrong guy". As Derek said " Am I a surgeon, or am I an executioner?"
An eye for an eye solves nothing, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

[Devik]

The last scene with Meredith watching the execution was amazing!

I am happy that Meredith and Christina made up, and that Izzie is finally realizing something is wrong.

All of the acting was great tonight.

I love Mark and Lexie, but I didn't like them as much as I have in the past. I liked that Sadie covered for Lexie I think if anything Sadie is a friend to Lexie.

I still want to see Lexie and Mark actually interact without sex. Actually see their relationship.

I also think that there needs to be some sort of resolution to Lexie/George. Or at least some sort of scene between them.

...I love Owen and Christina too...

[mamaloa]

Wow!! Just Wow!!! This was by far the best ever episode ever written next to the bomb squad episode!!! All the actors did a good job. The Lexie Mark scene was a bit crazy. I guess that kind of thing runs in the Grey sister's family. Anyway, that actor who played the serial killer should get an award for his acting. OMG, he was fantastic!! FANTASTIC!!!! I get that Izzy's sick, and I'm hoping that she won't be leaving the show, but I'm looking forward to how this story plays out. Bailey was wonderful tonight, and I can't wait to see the cross over. I love that Addie can still call Derek and that he would help her. OH, do we have to have a proposal? Meredith's character was a lot better in this episode, I must admit. I think Ellen did a fearly good job with her character in this particular episode. That's what I want to see. Not so much MerDer as a couple, but definately a stronger Meredith. I am glad that the rift between Christina and Meredith is over. Keep up the good work with Owen. He's marvelous. Still love Sloan and Derek. Actually all the characters were pretty remarkable. I didn't see to much of George and Callie though???? Oh and last but not least, I'm glad the little boy made it.

[Sarah]

Please post it!

I loved this arc a lot! Meredith and Derek made this show! No doubt. And now this crossover crap. WHY? I won't watch PrP. Carol and Doug will appear on ER this february and, without my MerDer, I will watch them.

[MindyM]

Well, I must say that I cried for about the last ten minutes of the show. I haven't done that in a long, long time. It was extremely emotional for me to see Mer with the serial killer. I always identify with her. I am older than her, middle aged, divorced with a lot more life experience, but I KNOW her in a way that is amazing. She and I have a similar emotional history and I enjoy watching her journey. I totally understand what she was feeling for the serial killer. I hate what he did. But once upon a time there was a person inside him, someone who might have actually had feelings and some potential in life. Somewhere along the way it went terribly wrong. So maybe Mer's connection is to this flawed man who didn't end up resolving his issues. She has struggled so much in her own life to find herself. She got help and was able to pull herself together. This guy either couldn't or just didn't want to deal with the pain. So he heartlessly killed five women. I do not think for one minute that Mer condones or even understands what he did. She knows that he has to die for what he did. But maybe she thought he could redeem himself in the end by dying to save a little boy.

I knew Mer would go to his execution. I do understand why she did it. Totally and completely. I love that Der was waiting for her outside the prison. I was already crying at this point in the show and my emotions were just pouring out of me. The whole thing was amazing. This is why I can't let go of this show. With all the crap about dead Denny, the absurdity of Lexie and Mark, and then you give us scenes like the one with Der and Mer and then with Cristina and Mer and I am overcome. This is what makes this show worth watching. I love Der for being there and letting Mer know it's okay. There really are worse things than having sympathy for a serial killer.

I do have to say that I think you guys kind of copped out in the end by conveniently finding someone else to donate the organs for that little boy, and just in the nick of time. Kind of hokey. It also got everyone off the hook. I am not sure about that. You presented us with a truly difficult moral and ethical dilemma. Then the chief breaks his own ethical rules by pressuring that woman to donate her husband's organs. Of course she does it just as the boy is dying. Everyone gets off without any real consequences, even though there were some serious lapses of medical judgment. What if Mer's decision to tell the serial killer and then let him bang his head, resulted in him dying? But I guess I really shouldn't go there. After all, it's not real life. In real life there wouldn't have been a happy ending and there would have been some serious trouble for the doctors involved.

I am not sold on the whole Denny thing. I guess I will someone who never really gets it or even wants to get it. I am that disgusted with the whole thing. I was ready to scream when Denny kept badgering Izzie. I also was very confused. For a moment there, I kind of thought that Denny was sent back to take Izzie with him, like the grim reaper. But I guess Izzie is really sick and finally realizes it. What this is going to do to Alex, God only knows. I just can't wait for you guys to wrap this whole story line already. It's been a long time coming.

Owen and Cristina continue to just light up the screen when they are together. What a pair of magnificent actors! I just sit back and watch them do their thing so beautifully. They don't need a lot of dialogue. It's wonderful. Sandra Oh's eyes say so much. Owen is really starting to come out of his shell and trying to reach out and connect with Cristina. He was so disarmingly honest with her. So different than Burke, who never really accepted Cristina for who she was.

I just want to say that Mer and Der were so moving together. It's heartwarming and endearing to see them together in this way. They are really accepting each other, warts and all. Der has come a long way. This is what true love is all about - being with someone who knows your weaknesses, yet still loves you.

I have really given it to you guys recently. I was insulted by the dead Denny story line. I still don't like it. I still think it was wrong to go there. I am just relieved to see it going somewhere. I just want to see this show be the best that it can be. If I didn't care, I wouldn't waste my time writing such long blogs. So I will raise my symbolic glass and toast you writers for giving us a lot of truly worthy drama and some really sweet moments.

[huntina fan]

Overall an excellent episode with touching moments. I was a bit disapointed with the lack of Huntina scenes though. I'm not asking for much. I don't want straight to bed scenes(Mark/Lexie - yuck!) but at least give us a first date scene, holding hands, cuddling, something. Huntina couple is developing so slow at this pace and I and many others are getting a bit impatient. You guys have been giving more air time to Izzy/Denny which everybody seems to hate and less time to Huntina which everbody seems to like. Please pick up the pace for this couple. They are a gold mine. I am so glad that Mertina are back together, finally! GA just wasn't the same without good Mertina scenes for awhile. Can't wait to see more of those two together in the upcoming episodes. Thank you for bringing them back together and keep up the good work.

[Fatimah]

BEST EPISODE OF THE SEASON.THE WHOLE EPISODE WAS SO BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN I WAS IN TEARS HALF THE TIME (THANKS MARK). LOVE CHRISTINA AND MEREDITH.

[Leslie]

Ellen Pompeo was amazing this week. I'm not even going to comment on the rest (good or bad), b/c her performance just left me awestruck at the end. I wish she got more recognition.

[Helen]

One of my favorite episodes of all time. Great work. YOU keep writing!!

[mer_grey]

great episode ! thnx !

thnx God ! the fight between mer and cris is over..its good to see that mer and der are maturng now.

Izzy and denny ? thats the part that makes me bored but at least this time they are talking wd sense.

i miss george..he has only less than minute of screen time.
But over all..i love the episode...Ellen is amazing.

[yrol]

one of the best episode !
thnx !

its nice to see that the rift between meredith and cristina is over..

love to seederek and meredith.

GREAT EPISODE ! except the denny part.

[Ashley]

Finally!!!!!!!! This was the best episode in a long time, really great! I'm still not on board with the whole Denny thing, it confuses me and I don't get it... but I'll stick with you if you keep writing episodes like this!

[McHot]

The episode was just WOW!!!

I LOVED the whole episode, it feels like old greys times, even better!

Now my feeling, that I can't wait to see the next episode, is back!! I'm so happy, I can't believe that they are back on the right way!!

Loved MerDer - their relationship is just amazing now - I can't wait for more :D

Loved Mark & Lexie - they are cute together, Mark needs someone like her =)

Izzie - great, it was very heartbreaking to see her finding out that she is sick, really sick - I hope she isn't dieing

Chris and Mer - I hope they will be friends again

Loved Bailey, Arizona and Alex on their whole case.

THANK YOU writers!! Please keep the following episodes like this!!

[Faye]

I really loved this episode. I was crying through the whole thing. The ending was perfect! I'm so glad Meredith and Cristina are friends again. And that Meredith's and Derek's relationship is maturing - it IS really starting to show.

A comment said to kill of Lexie and Mark! I kind of have to agree and disagree. I'd love to see Torres and Mark get together in the end though.

Oh, and please pleaseeeee don't kill off Izzie and George!!

Loved the episode!!

[DR]

Hats off to ELLEN POMPEO
AMAZING EPISODE. SIMPLY AMAZING.

Thank you for writing something so intense.

[Mary]

Best episode in two years!!! I have stuck with these characters out of sheer love for them and last night...the Grey's I hold near and dear to my heart was back. THANK YOU!!!

[No Longer Watching]

I skipped last night's episode...and reading this blog, I can't say I regret it one bit.

What do the fans have to do before you writers get it through your heads that we don't want Mark with Lexie? It's all kinds of nasty and wrong, and you do a huge disservice to Eric Dane by putting him in such a horrible story line. Lexie is such a waste of space, and while I know that you all are setting her up to be the NEXT! TITULAR! GREY!!! OMG!!!!1111 I personally can't tolerate her. I hate her with Mark, and I'm just irritated that this whole show now revolves around mousy, gullible Lexie. Ugh.

Anyway, I'm out. Not even shirtless Eric Dane can keep me around for the hot mess that is Mark and Lexie.

[Adam T.]

Ellen Pompeo brought it all back. thank you for such amazing writing Mark. and amazing acting everybody.
Please keep it like this.
It'a all about Meredith first then come the rest. and when Ellen gets stories like these... WOW. it's a home run. She's brilliant. I was in tears at the end. Well done.

[Ruby]

I'm sick of Denny. This whole storyline is just so stupid. I just want Izzie with Alex. Denny needs to get lost. He's so irritating. I can't take any more of him. He makes me want to puke.

[Leslie]

The second you brought Denny back (what, like 10 episodes ago), I knew. I just wish it hadn't taken you TEN EPISODES OF CRAP to get to the point where Izzie finally cottons on. For the past 10 episodes, I've been saying things like "GOD. JUST KILL HER AND GET ON WITH IT." It's been annoying me so much that I almost would have rather that Izzie was just GONE than watch the horror that was her and Denny. I hope that this isn't just some grand way of getting her off the show. That would be...a bit low.

Other than that, it was a great episode. I was really concerned through most of it that Meredith and Derek were going to have a huge huge fight, and was so pleased by the end. And by Cristina and Meredith making up. And by Cristina and OWen. :) So good work. ANd hopefully we've seen the LAST OF DENNY.

[lilli]

This time I have nothing to say but good things....I cried,I laughed,I was scared...ths episode was simply AWESOME!!!Simple perfection!You really did a great job!And congratulations to Chandra,Ellen and Katherine for one of their best performance ever. Keep it up guys!A big kiss from Italy and...thank you ;)

[Kate]

Well, from one Nutmegger to another (I grew up in Tolland) - I loved this episode & am starting to come around on the whole Denny/Izzy storyline. I was starting to think you writers were just punishing Katherine Heigl for trashing last season's writing to the press!