Holy hell. OK, so yeah, now I am writing about Grey’s Anatomy. Another tv show. What? I spent all last year on heavy political topics, can’t I have some time spent on shallower things? Not that I write this FOR anyone mind you. Oh yeah, then why are you apologizing for your chosen topic? Bah! Fine.
You see, normally I watch Grey’s, then get up Friday morning and read Grey Matter which is the writer’s blog postings about the episode. It helps to complete the story for me. Trouble is, last week Shonda (series creator, writer, producer) wrote that there would be NO MORE POSTS this week! No blogs. No tweets. No podcasts. Nothing. Utter silence about the finale. Of course, now that I have watched it, I understand why they need to keep quiet but….I need my closure! So now you get MY blatherings about what happened. (scheduling this to post for a little later)
If I can be coherent since it is almost midnight. Oh, and if you don’t watch the show just forget it because I am not taking time to explain back story and character interactions or to find links. This is a brain dump so that I can sleep!
Wow. So, part way through this season we knew Katherine Heigl and TR Knight were potentially leaving after this season. They had already started writing Izzie off with her visions of Denny courtesy of her growing brain tumor. Fine. Nice twist last week to have her marry Alex and get her dream wedding. So you knew she would die, just not quite how long it would take and the circumstances or details. But you were prepared. George? Well, he couldn’t die plausibly right? And he wasn’t unhappy at Seattle Grace. So why would he leave? Well, they had the ex army doc start to notice his talent for trauma. Which we’ve always known about so that made sense. He was the guy who saved the guy stuck in the elevator back in Season 1 when Alex Karev froze. George was always cool under pressure so trauma was a good fit for him. Part way through the first half tonight I saw it. His way out. He was drawn to join the military and serve as a trauma surgeon in Iraq. So, then, there’s his out.
But he doesn’t die like Izzie so that maybe he can be one of those who comes back now and then to stir things up like Addison does now and then. Now, you wont believe it, but when they first brought the bus guy in, I thought it could be George. But they had set it up so well that I talked myself out of it. George was leaving after his shift ended at 6pm. The gang was planning an intervention. We weren’t seeing him in the hospital anymore because they were shifting their stories to Izzie and Bailey and jsut using the bus patient to pull out the “tell everyone you love them when you can” story line. To lead Meredith to tell Cristina she loves her. To lead her to ‘marrying’ Derek via post it (that was so sweet!). To lead Cristina to meet Owen half way. I thought it might be George when he first went to grab Meredith’s hand and communicate, but talked myself out of it again. I *didn’t* think of George when the gal he saved said “he literally swept me off my feet” but that is SO George! It was also SO George to save someone like that. Like he wanted to save lives in Iraq. And so the moment the words were out of the Chief’s mouth “I sent him home to spend the day with his mom” I KNEW. And that is when the sobbing began. And when Meredith figured it out? Oh, well, the cat freaked because I yelled out loud “It IS George!! Oh Gawd!” And I am not quite sure if I breathed any more until it was over. Ellen Pompeo was so stunning in her moment of that reveal. The raw realization reflected in her eyes and in the George’s one eye that you could see. Her character running, screaming out into the hall to tell everyone in earshot who he was. Well, knocked my breath right away.
The sight of him with his hair short and in his uniform gazing at Izzie in her prom dress while the reality was all of their friends desperately trying to save them as they crashed…..just breathtaking. So beautifully written. So NOT expected. So RIGHT for those two characters.
Wonderfully written. Exquisitely acted. Emotionally draining, yet satisfying. Damn you Shonda Rhimes! THAT was a freaking powerful season finale! And I will hate you until September for it 😉
Trees & Flowers & Birds! 
Adventure Guy doesn’t think George died because he didn’t get on the elevator with Izzie. His point is he’s in the uniform because he lives on to make it to Iraq. Interesting…
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No way…in what physical condition?? Really? Well now, something to ponder. Seemed to me the injuries they were treating would leave someone rather permanently disabled and disfigured.
There was a look on Izzie’s face in the elevator. She kind of ‘twitched’ at the end as they flashed back to the efforts to resuscitate her. As if she was responding to the call back. George’s expression never wavered.
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I’ve long since stopped trying to guess what will happen between the season finale and the season opener on TV. They didn’t leave together on the elevator. She was on the elevator, not George.
That leaves it wide open. Izzie could have made it and will still leave but not be written off…as in maybe she’ll take off for specialized treatment and/or to contemplate George’s situation. Or she could die.
George might not make it, then again he might. That would leave open the possibility that he will be sent off for treatment and it would also make sense that his surviving this kind of trauma would underscore the importance of him being a trauma doctor. Owen did say about John Doe that he had seen others come back from worse trauma.
So I think we still don’t know anything. We’ll have to wait. They could both make it and be written off temporarily. Then again, they could both be gone. We just don’t know.
I think it was a fantastic show! Like I tweeted last night, the ending made me smile. It was very fitting, given George and Izzie’s history. And very fitting that we really don’t know.
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Oh yes Corina -I agree completely. Very well done, perfect for the characters and the road they were traveling down and no way do I speculate too seriously on what it all means. As you mentioned, there are many plausible outcomes for both characters.
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I’ve avoided your blog until I could watch the finale (cos I knew you wrote about it). Just finished watching.
Powerful is almost an understatement, but then, I’m still a little in shock. It was so well done.
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I just got to it tonight. I think Izzie lives–just a feeling. It was pretty amazing alright.
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