Krista Vernoff on "Good Mourning" and "Goodbye"...

Original Airdate: 9-24-09

Below I’ve pasted an email sent to me by our awesome writer’s PA Raamla. She sent it because I was storming around the office ranting about having to write a blog and not having any ideas of what to write and then one of the assistants, Safia, suggested I could do 25 random things about Grey’s Anatomy and the GA writers, which thrilled me – cause I can do that in my sleep!  Like: 

1. During the making of this episode, we tortured the assistants by running a “quiz show” in the writer’s room to see which one knows the show best. 

2. That paramedic you saw in 601 is played by Ray Ford – whom you haven’t seen on our show since he was hanging upside down in an ambulance!

3. In the writer’s room at Grey’s Anatomy, we are obsessed with Friday Night Lights, Project Runway and ordering Pinkberry in the afternoon…

You get the idea. So that was my plan for this blog.  Then, as I mentioned, I got this very thoughtful email from Raamla…

...

Monday, September 21, 2009 6:06:21 PM

From:

Raamla  

Hey Krista 

While I really like Safia's idea about the 25 things, I think that there are so many beautiful moments in your episodes that the fans would want to get some insight into.  As someone who used to read the writers' blog every Friday morning during seasons 2 & 3, I found it interesting to hear the writer's perspective on his or her episode.  And also, I loved to hear that you guys cared as much for the characters as I did!

As far as ideas, I think it would be great to talk about:

1) Meredith's using sex to deal with her grief - like she did when she found out McDreamy was married. 

2) Cristina avoiding her pain altogether - like when Meredith almost died and she was at the bar.

3) Callie's being the first person to break down, yet accepting that Izzie was the closest person to George.

4) The laughing funeral scene.

5) Christina and Owen finally dealing with the choking incident from last season.

6) Derek and The Chief and the Merger - that last look of betrayal that Derek feels by the Chief.

7) George's death - maybe going off what Owen said about him and how brave he was and how George pushing someone out of the way of a moving bus, was SO George.  He was always acting on his impulses (confessing his love to Meredith, speaking up about the drunk doctor, getting married to Callie, joining the army, etc.).

Anyway, these are just some thoughts I had.  Maybe this will inspire much better ideas as you think,  "These are ridiculous!!"  Either way, hope this helps!  :)

Raamla

Hmmmm. I kind of love Raamla for this, cause it’s all thoughtful and smart and sweet and not at all ridiculous and then I kinda think she sucks cause it’s SO thoughtful that now I can’t really justify my 25 things plan.  Except, I can’t stop myself…

4. Our assistants have really good names…Raamla, Safia, Seve, Miguel, Jess, Nancy, Star and Austin. Sounds kinda like the cast of some really great soap opera, right? 

5. I have 64 extra copies of my new book “The Game On! Diet” sitting in a corner of my office. That’s a lot of extra copies.  They’re taking up a lot of room. 

6. Shonda just ordered really great new furniture for our bungalow. And today, we all gave Tony Phelan crap for sitting on it while still sweaty from working out. 

7. Most of us don’t read the newspaper anymore because Allan Heinberg reads everything for us and then just tells us everything we need to know. 

8. Stacy McKee is making a baby! We call it Blueberry. Blueberry McKee. I’m hoping that’s what she actually names it. 

Okay, I’ll stop now.  Cause really, I could finish this list happily but again….Raamla’s email is pounding in my brain like the freakin’ tell tale heart! Except instead of a heart beat, it’s going, “Lazy-ass. Lazy-ass…”

So I think the reason I don’t want to spend any time writing about these episodes is not just that I’m lazy but that it makes me sad.  Watching them made me sad, writing them made me sad and now writing about them will make me sad because, as Cristina finally acknowledges 40 days after the event, “George O’Malley died.”

It’s heartbreaking. I fell in love with George, like many of you did, Season One. The first episode of Grey’s Anatomy that I got to write was the one where George is kind to Annie, the lady with the 60 lb tumor.  In an attempt to comfort her about her procrastination in seeing a doctor, George talks to her about his love for Meredith and how he has yet to confess it. And Annie says something like, “Seriously? You’re equating your love life with my record-breaking tumor?? Seriously??” I loved George because he was doing that; because his love for Meredith was as big as that tumor; because, like Izzie, George led with his heart.   Like Raamla said, he was impulsive, big-hearted, and yeah, it’s that heart that had him jump in front of a moving bus to save a life.  It’s a devastating end to a beloved character, but I would argue with anyone who said it wasn’t a fitting end. He was brave and noble, like Owen said. He was a sweet, beautiful boy, just becoming a man.  Sucks. Sad. Crappy. So crappy.  Ugh, I’ve had enough of sad, seriously.

9. We call Mark Wilding “The Hammer.”  As in, “Hey, Hammer, what do you want for lunch?”  I feel his credit should read Executive Producer: Mark The Hammer Wilding. 

10. One of our writers, Bill Harper, once did a puppet show for the writer’s room with home made Balinese shadow puppets. 

11. One of our other writers, Debora Cahn, works from New York. 

12. Kevin McKidd plays a mean guitar. 

“Lazy-ass…Lazy-ass…” 

Fine. 

What else…? 

I think I’ll just work my way up the rest of Raamla’s list, which brings us to…

Derek and The Chief and the Merger - that last look of betrayal that Derek feels by the Chief.

Yeah – this is a thing that won’t be going away any time soon. Derek was pretty freakin’ noble. So noble! Cause you KNOW how much he wants that job. It was the promise of the Chiefdom that brought him to Seattle from NYC to begin with. Okay, that and his love for ferry boats. Oh, and the Mark/Addison messiness but y’know, mostly, it was the promise of becoming Chief.  And right here, the job was his for the taking. And out of loyalty and friendship, he went to the Chief and warned him.  So what is up with the Chief that in response, he completely shut Derek out? Pride. He’s all proud and hurt and threatened. Really, really threatened. And people are flawed. Even the Chief, whom I adore, is deeply flawed.  And the phrase, “No good deed goes unpunished,” was coined for a reason. I don’t subscribe to it. I do good deeds anyway. But I have had the experience of occasionally having them bite me in the ass.   So I relate to Derek on this but I also have great compassion for the Chief, because he has sacrificed a lot for this job. He has done his very best. And this – even though it’s actually loyalty on Derek’s part, I get that somehow it feels like a betrayal. Certainly it’s humiliating. And feeling angry with someone is often easier than feeling indebted.  Either way, like I said, don’t expect the emotional fall-out from this to go away any time soon.   

Christina and Owen finally dealing with the choking incident from last season.

How brilliant are the actors in that scene???? Seriously – how freakin’ good are all three of them? If I could hand some kind of award to Kevin McKidd and Sandra Oh and Amy Madigan today, I would.  Y’know what? I just might. When I was nominated for an Emmy and didn’t win, my best friends made me an Emmy out of tinfoil. I might do something like that – that’s how good they all are. And here’s what you don’t know… I handed them that scene 20 MINUTES BEFORE CAMERAS ROLLED. Swear to God.  The scene was something totally different. It was actually a funny scene right up until the last minute.  I had been desperate to find humor anywhere I could in these two hours and because Sandra is a pretty reliable source for comedy, I had leaned on the funny. And I got a call from the set after they rehearsed the scene. Sandra and Kevin had smart questions – and what became crystal clear to me instantly is that this storyline could not be resolved in a humorous way. It had earned weight. Indeed, it required weight.  I knew what the scene had to be and I frantically wrote it and ran it over to the set and Kevin smiles and goes, “Great. I better go memorize this.” Sandra thanked me, Amy thanked me. Huge 11th hour rewrite and no one flinched. And then I saw the dailies… When I say I handed them a completely rewritten scene 20 minutes before cameras rolled I am not exaggerating. 20 minutes.  So I was stunned by the dailies. The work is so beautiful, I would’ve been stunned by what they delivered regardless of when they got the scene --  but in this case, I was double extra stunned. Tin foil emmys all around, I say.  Or, y’know, real Emmys. Just sayin’. 

As for the storyline, I feel like this is just the beginning for Owen and Cristina. It’s a really interesting beginning because it’s sort of like, okay, we’re dealing with the PTSD, with all the damage. And the damage has, strangely, been a lot of the driving force in the coming together of these two very different people.  So now…if the damage is being treated…if the damage is not the focus…what is? Who will they be together? I, for one, am really excited to find out. 

The laughing funeral scene.

I have to admit that this is one of my very favorite scenes ever.  That’s a dangerous thing to say because I wrote it and it may sound braggy so I need to point out that television is a collaborative art. I may have written the words on the page, but in the writer’s room, the writers all pitched on it and our assistant Austin took a lot of good notes to help me remember things (cause being the mother of a two and half year old, my brain is like swiss cheese,) and after the table read, Shonda gave me smart notes that enhanced the writing and then the wonderful director Ed Ornelas and the amazing DP Herb Davis and the whole crew that support them made it visually beautiful and then the actors… damn, did they all bring their A game to this scene.  And then there are the editors and music folks and the people who color correct everything and mix the sound… It’s a collaboration. What it takes to make good TV is a huge coming together of a great many artists. What it takes to make great TV is all that plus a little magic and a little luck. And that’s what I feel like we had with this scene.  It’s so funny and so bittersweet and so, so sad. Because despite the fact that they are laughing at a wholly inappropriate time (remember in Season 2 when Mer had her hand on a bomb and Izzie was laughing and she admitted that she laughs at funerals?) they all seem so grown up. They came together fresh-faced kids and now one of them has cancer and one of them is dead and damn, life is freakin’ like that, y’know? Growing up is crazy hard. Friends get sick and friends die and marriages begin and end. It’s so complicated and so beautiful and so painful and the best any of us can hope for, I think, is to have friends who will stick by us and laugh with us and cry with us and just be with us through it all.  

As a side note – who noticed the creative staging designed to disguise the fact that Ellen was very, very pregnant when we shot this scene? She’s standing with her back to us in the beginning, and then when we face her, we only see her beautiful, glowing face. Veeeery clever, Ed. 

Callie's being the first person to break down, yet accepting that Izzie was the closest person to George.

Sara was so beautiful in every frame of these episodes. She always drops my jaw – but when she’s wailing to Mark, “…and Arizona keeps bringing me doooooooonuts,” I just loved her even more. And as for Callie, here’s the big question: If faced with having to decide what to do with your brain-dead ex-husband’s organs, would you rise above and turn to his ex-mistress for help? …Yeah, there’s nothing like an unexpected death by bus to help bygones be bygones.  I think she does the right thing there. And part of why I think she’s able to do the right thing is that she’s healthy enough to feel all of her feelings. She IS the first one to break down and let her tears come and she lets her tears come more than once in the weeks following George’s death. Even though she looks like the biggest mess, she’s actually the healthiest among them – and maybe that’s because she wasn’t close to George anymore when he died, she had a little distance – so she could feel her grief without feeling like it might kill her.  Unlike his closest friends…

Meredith's using sex to deal with her grief - like she did when she found out McDreamy was married. 

Mer using sex to avoid her feelings is not, as Raamla points out, unchartered territory.   What I love, though, is that Mer is now healthy enough to actually TALK about the fact that that’s what she’s doing.  I LOVE the “cancer-pop” scene – where Mer points out that Cristina’s not processing her grief AT ALL and is therefore on uber-Cristina mode – wholly abrasive and insensitive and inappropriate. But Mer knows that she herself is using sex and work to avoid her grief and that that’s working for her. Until that janitor cleans out George’s locker and it stops working for her.  When Meredith finally cries for George…I cried again for George. And I’m about to cry now just thinking about it, so…y’know, moving on…

Cristina avoiding her pain all together - like when Meredith almost died and she was at the bar.

Cristina, who as a young child, held her father’s heart in her hands as it stopped beating, is perhaps the least “processed” of our core group, the least “healthy,” the least able to handle the impact of George’s sudden death. Mer is using sex, Cristina is using her frustration around her lack of sex. So when she finally gets in bed with Owen and she finally has the tension release that comes with that kind of, um… tension release… She can’t hold the truth off anymore.  

That’s the thing about the five stages of grief. They truly are different for everyone. Cristina clung to the Denial stage for 40 days. And then she let in the fact that George died. And as much as Mer’s tears got to me, that intake of breath from Cristina got to me even more. The sudden realization that George really did…die. 

I still do that sometimes. Sometimes I’ll be driving in my car and I’ll see a poster for a movie that’s about to come out and I’ll think, “Oh, I should totally see that with Dad.” And then I remember, in a split second, that he’s gone. That he died 8 and a half years ago now.  Grief is funny thing. It comes and goes. Except, in my experience, it never really goes…

There’s more to say about these 2 hours for sure. Mark and Lexie are pure joy for me in these two hours and I don’t mean to skip over them because Mark saying “Was he hung?” is maybe my favorite thing ever.  And there’s Arizona and how much she cares and her awesome diagnosis and the exquisite Martha Plimpton who fights so hard, the way we all should, for her son. And there’s the beautiful, beautiful Bailey and her pain around the loss of George and the fact that Derek stops the elevator for her just like she stopped it for him so long ago after he had to let Bonnie (and Meredith) go.  (Did you notice Shonda used the same song there as she did in the elevator scene in Into You like a Train? First time in our series we’ve reused a song.) Also Clara and Lexie and the beauty of that journey – of moving through the five stages of grief around the life you once had, (which is, by the way, exactly what Clara’s doing in case you want to watch again and clock the stages ) and the moment where she lets Lexie call her Mom which brings me to tears every time.  And there’s Alex Karev and Izzie and what I consider to be one of the most brutal moments of all time when he goes, “I miss George.  Nice, real seductive.” God, does that hurt to watch. And then there’s Justin’s amazing performance when he finally admits everything he’s scared of.  And there’s Katherine Heigl’s exquisite vulnerability as she tries to imagine a) living and b) living without George. There’s so much – and I know I’m missing stuff.   But I have to go home now and see my daughter, who is a million times more awesome than anything you’ll ever see on TV, so I’ll say bye for now.  Except, I really can’t help myself…

13. Writer Jenna Bans’ husband writes for The Office.  There is a weekly Thursday night war in their home. 

14. Shonda’s birthday and Patrick Dempsey’s birthday are the same day which also happens to be the same day as my sister, Kaili. 

15.  Chandra Wilson and Allan Heinberg both worked as word processors at Banker’s Trust in New York at the same time!

16.  Writers Tony Phelan, and Joan Rater are married to each other.  And a long time ago, they were roommates with Allan Heinberg in New York City. Also, Tony was a theater director in New York when I was a struggling actress there. We are pretty sure I auditioned for him and he didn’t call me back. 

17. Writer Pete Nowalk co-wrote a funny book called The Hollywood Assistants Handbook and if you want to know how to be an assistant, you should read it.

18.  Executive Producer Betsy Beers is getting married in Venice, Italy next month and  Austin Scarlett of Project Runway fame designed her gown.

19.  Best-Boy Grip Tim Day is also a professional screenwriter.

20.  There is a Grey’s Anatomy softball team that plays the teams of other shows including CSI.  We’re currently in first place.

21.  Script Supervisor Nicole Rubio often plays a paramedic on our show and was once a Raiderette.

22. When someone has a great idea in the writers’ room, someone else will shout BANG.

23.  Shonda drives around the lot in a hot pink golf cart that says SHONDA across the front. It is her pride and joy.  

24. Writer/Doctor Zoanne Clack, Writer Stacy McKee, Director of Research Meg Marinis and Chandra Wilson are all from Houston, Texas. They say “Y’all” a lot.

25. We have used 7 guest actors who regularly appear on Friday Night Lights. 

Okay, I’m going now.  Thank you for watching.  Really, thanks, it means a lot.  

Love, 

Krista   

p.s. Thanks again, Safia and Raamla!  You both rock. *(and it was Raamla who won that contest I mentioned in fact #1) 

Comments

[Kiki]

I so agree with what you said about your dad and grief. I lost my dad five years ago and while I don't miss him every minute of every day, I miss him all the time.

[Cara]

Mark and Lexie are pure joy for me, too, so thanks for having her address Callie's boundary issues instead of dragging it out over several episodes. I'm sure there will be other weirdness, but it was great that she brought it up and that she knows he really doesn't look at other women.

Way too sad about the George thing, KH is great but I'm over the cancer story, Meredith and Derek are not really married and I wish they were, and while I like Owen a lot, I've never really cared for Cristina (though SO is excellent, of course).

Overall - happy Grey's is back, looking forward to the upcoming stories, hoping you'll keep the couples together and fairly happy as they deal with real life obstacles instead of constant on-off behavior. yay :)

[Irena]

Hi there, nice blog you've posted :)
I just wanted to say that here, in Serbia, you're a really popular show. Thumbs up! It has all, drama, emotions, humor. In fact, even though some characters are described as 'dark' I think there is no series right now which is healthier, especially now with all that growing up happening to all of them. I'm hoping that you, your team and the entire cast will keep them episodes coming for years to come.
Wishing you all the best and many awards to come. After all, you deserve it! Greetings from Kragujevac, Serbia!

[Iris]

It was a great start! I love everything, especially Owen and Cristina, they are beautiful and hot together!

I cried for George, I will miss him! Thank you!

[DrAnnie]

Wonderfully written and acted episodes! Thank you thank you thank you for finally having a physical therapist on the show! I do find it funny that you had a male PT considering about 75% of us in this profession are female.
I loved the laughing scene at the funeral - it reminded me a lot of my family - laughing through the pain.

[Anne]

Well the Premiere ep was very dramatic and sombre intone most of the time naturally due to George. When I think of what made George who he was it was his heart - he was a very caring person at work or personally. I loved Mark's scenes with Callie they play off each other so well. Mark and Derek also really excellent - love those two. Chief was an ass in most of the episode ( could he alienate any more hospital staff??? and betray Derek too) and seems to look like he will continue to be from the promo I saw tonight. The scene with Arizona and Derek in the xray room - loved that. The moments we did get with Meredith and Derek were worth it but I was jealous of all the screen time Christina and Owen got together (which was very good)and wished it was Mer/Der. The scene with Derek and Meredith in locker room was very moving. I wished we had a scene with Derek talking to Mer about the chief offer. I'm glad Izzie spoke with the girl on the bench - maybe the girl can name her child George if she has kids or Georgina. It was a dramatic packed episode but I wasn't so keen on the days flying by. Thank you for the question and answers - you made me very happy to know there will be lots of juicy happy married Mer/Der - bring it on!!!

[Ana]

Krista,

Love, LOVED this blog (and the episode too). Great to get to know all the people that make my favorite show.

As for the episode...

I liked the different ways that everyone deals with grief. There isn't a book of telling you how to do it, so it's quite interesting to see everyone dealing with such a huge loss.

I found the 40 day thing kind of odd (I don't know if it's the 'mourning' period...where I live it's usually three months, so maybe something like that is?) but at the end really really liked it. It gave the episode the feeling of processing grief.

Best moment of all: Bailey and Derek in the elevator. I can't even describe the feeling that I got. Back in S2, it killed me to see Derek so broken and now Bailey...beautiful. Just beautiful.

Also heartbreaking: Mer breaking down to Derek and Cristina realizing George's death.

Very well done. Really, really good.

Congrats. You're awesome. :)

[Kelly]

With the death and turmoil Grey's has gone under, it wasn't until Derek paused the elevator for Bailey that I got an excited chill. That moment made me certain Grey's was back and better than ever.

I think the ENTIRE cast did a phenomenal job.

Callie and Izzie moved me. Arizona and Lexie are phenomenal doctors. Doctors I want at my bedside. But I hope them being nice girls, doesn't mean they will get walked on. Love it when they get to be rock stars.

I love the Mcfamily (Derek&Meredith/Lexie&Mark). My favorite siblings and favorite two pairings rock. I love the chemistry in those relationships and Derek&Meredith and Mark&Lexie's love stories move me.

Ouch to Owen and Alex. Izzie trying to seduce Alex to forget George hurt. Didn't blame him for getting mad. He always felt like third best after George and Denny. And the first thought after sex with Owen, is George is dead. Harsh.

Hate seeing Derek and The Chief at odds. I also hope the merger doesn't mean new characters to take the focus away from the already large current cast.

[Shannon]

Sad has never felt more like 'home'. After watching [and crying through] last night's premiere episodes, I honestly feel that Grey's is home again. For some odd reason, although I never stopped watching, the last year or so Grey's Anatomy seemed to have gotten lost. But I'm glad I stuck with the show. I guess we could call it a marriage, me and Grey's Anatomy. And, we just went through our seven year itch, ok..ok...so it's not technically seven years...but that's not really the point. The point is there was an itch, and it's gone. There was a search for my lost 'Thursday night at 9 friend' but no more. You've been found. Welcome back.

[Pamela]

That's *really* the first time you've reused a song? Wow. I did recognize it.
And now I have the question I've had for so long, but it's too late for you to answer it, as you've already written all this wonderfulness. I wondered back then, in that elevator - was he crying for Bonnie or for Meredith? I've always wondered that, and I've always loved Derek and Bailey scenes. There are many. Oddly, Derek is more McDreamy when he is with Bailey, than he is with anyone else. But I just love their scenes together.
And I've wondered, for so long, about that one.

[Karen]

i totally loved the second episode.. how everyone had a chance to do a voiceover part... you guys should do that more often!!

[JW]

You killed George. Shonda created him, T.R. Knight breathed life into him, and you killed him. I love George, the laughter at the funeral broke my heart, the absence of his brothers was inexcusable. He was there for every major character on this show, and yet I don't feel like anyone lost their world over his death ( ok I will give you Balley and Callie). Maybe I am just a freakish George fan, but if I lost someone like George, my world would shake, and cease to turn.

[RM]

Hi - love the show, have never commented before. Just want to say that, although I am a George fan and am very sad that he is no longer on GA, the way the season premiere handled it really demonstrated how death affects everyone differently.
Others have commented that the laughing funeral scene was contrived....I cannot judge, all I can say is that I reacted in ways others felt was inappropriate when each of my parents died, and I feel it was my way of handling the situation at the time. Don't judge til you've been there, and even if you've been there...every person is different.
Looking forward to the rest of the season, and I do love these blogs!
Blessings to you all!

[Asher]

That funeral scene was the most hideous thing I've ever had to sit through. It wasn't poetic. It wasn't a great contrast to their younger selves. It was flat out bad writing, and came across as the most inappropriate thing I've ever seen. Alex saying "O'malley got hit by a bus" and everyone laughing was the tackiest thing you could have ever committed to film. Poorly played, writers. If this is what you're bringing this season, I don't want to be around to see it. Thanks for the TRAINWRECK.

[Pamela]

"It's almost a soap opera. All we need is an evil twin or someone coming back from the dead (okay, I mean "really" dead--not just clinically and recovers right after)."

Susie, you forget Denny so soon? (I need to compare the number of eps he did alive to the ones he did dead. I think alive is still winning.)

[Rachel]

I have to say this has to be my favorite episode hands down. Previously it was the bomb episode. I loved the elevator scene with McDreamy and Bailey. That song is unforgetable. I knew it as soon as I heard it. My Boyfriend isn't too much of a fan but he even watched it and that says a lot. George dying was so sad but the performance by his mom on the show was fantastic! I couldn't believe the pose she was keeping during the funeral. Speaking of the funeral Izzie laughing was perfect! It takes me back to the bomb episode when Mer is the one with her hand in the body cavity and she just starts laughing and Karav and George just look at her. The last scene with Christina finally realizing that George was gone was so powerful. It reminds me of one of those pictures that are so sad but moving. They never leave your memory. BRAVO! To the writers and to the actors. I love shows that make me cry happy or sad tears they are just powerful! Thank you for making a great show and I look forward to the rest of the season.

[Betty]

I really liked the episodes. I'm glad that the mourning period is over and the other characters will move along with their storylines. I liked George and am sorry that the actor decided to leave but the show and the other characters go on. I loved Cristina & Owen and Alex & Izzie. These 2 couples are my favorite part of the show. Also love the Mark & Callie friendship and am still hoping for more. I loved how all characters had screen time/storyline and that the episodes was balanced. Loved all of Derek's scenes and always enjoy seeing him with Bailey, Mark and the other doctors.

Fantastic start! Can't wait for the rest of season 6.

[Felicia]

WORD to those who said that MerDer fans want a CONVERSATION. I know, we have a bad rap because we "never get enough" but the truth is, y'all never let them talk. Conversation, please.

Other than that, I enjoyed it. Mark and Lexie: Just say no.

[Brighton]

Loved the show. I will really miss George. I thought the scene with the fab five survivors at the funeral was great, because in life sometimes we do laugh at the most unlikely times.

I really do enjoy all the characters on this show. Callie has become a favorite. My absolute two favorites though are Owen and Cristina. The writers have done such a great job with these two characters. Last night I could see they have become a real couple in every way. They are a good balance to each other. They are each other's support system. They want the relationship to work. They are in love and accept each other as they are. Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd are so amazing in these roles. More Owen and Cristina!

[M Hamilton]

For some reason, your blog seems as disconnected from your audience as the episode. I miss Grey's and am trying to reconnect. Can you try to meet us halfway?

[anonymous]

I have to agree that these blogs have become so self congratulatory. I mostly read them when I am angry or disappointed with the show and all this "I love this character" and "I love that character" and "such and such writer is so awesome" just seems like a desperate attempt to gloss over parts of the show that didn't work. I'm not saying that I don't love the show or the characters, or that the staff doesn't work hard at making a show that cannot possibly please all the people all at the same time. Obviously, I do, otherwise I wouldn't bother to watch or read or post. But last night's episode was a let down after such a climactic season finale. It just did not have the heart that the last episode did. I felt the laughing seen was awkward as well. I understand (from what entertainment weekly reported) that there was an original plan to show what happened to george on his last day but had to be scrapped as t.r. knight was done with the show. i wish that could have come to be, but i understand why it could not. I wish that character could have gotten a better send off, but that is just my opinion.

[Tamara]

For those of you mourning George, you have an INKLING of how those of us who (STILL) miss Preston Xavier Burke feel. And that's REAL TALK.

[Heather]

The scene where everyone was laughing at George's funeral was so rude, insensitive and downright disrespectful. How would his mother have felt if she had seen them laughing?????!!! How could anyone who was a true friend laugh at the way George died?! I would never make fun of a friend at their own funeral! That's horrible! Very BAD writing. You just lost a dedicated viewer who's been there since Day 1. Hated the direction of the show last season with dead Denny, and now you've lost me for good.

[Leslie]

I love Alex/Izzie and hope that you explore more their relationship without any more references to past lovers.

I still don't get Christina/Owen. They bore me.

I like Callie/Mark friendship. Don't really care for Mark/Lexie.

[Leanajh]

I have to say this:

In the scene where Derek went into the elevator with Bailey and stopped the elevator for her to breakdown! I have been waiting for a moment like this between both of them because one of my favorite moments EVER in all the seasons, was when she did the same for him YEARS ago in season two when he chose Addison over Mer, and lost the girl that was in the train accident with the pole running through her and another guy. The same song (Today has been okay) was playing and everything. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT!!! You have no idea how great that makes the fans feel! I LOVED IT SOOO MUCH. and the episode was awesome too! lo LOVED IT!
THANK YOU ! THANK YOU!