Grey’s Anatomy: The One That Died

Every knows Lexie is dead. And I bet no one but bonafide sadist (joke) Shonda Rhimes is happy about that. Shonda, you already have Private Practice to make your characters’s life a living hell, so how about taking it down a notch in Grey’s?

The show’s season finales are well known for the inevitable tragedies they depict: characters getting run over by a bus, dead soon-to-be husbands, people getting left at the altar the minute they find love, STD’s for everyone, and the most sadist of them all, a broken-hearted lunatic randomly shooting people for two hours. They put some breaks on the shock factor at the end of season seven, but apparently regretted it for the Shonda we now is back with a full-on plain crash where six went down, one will die, as they so cleverly advertised. 

First of all, a plain crash, really? That’s the kind of thing I’d expect from 90210 (which, by the way, ended with a car accident), but not from Grey’s Anatomy. Look at a drama series like Mad Men, and see how you can write a season finale that doesn’t rely on the expected, but still manages to leave you craving for the next season. Or True Blood, where action, fantasy and horror are cleverly mixed with creativity, ending every episode with a turmoil of suspense. Sure, Grey’s has been resorting to mindless tragedy more and more over the years, but never in such an evidently inappropriate way. I mean, the timing was so wrong that only newcomers could possibly be pleased with that ending.

But even more stupid than a plain crash, was killing Lexie. Bottom line, they shouldn’t have killed anyone, but they insisted on doing it, then it should have been one the older characters, someone who’s been on the show since the beginning, someone whose path should be ending now. Let’s keep in mind that this was the eighth season. That’s a lot of seasons, one to many when it comes to not changing the main cast. By then, ER had already replaced nearly all of its original cast. Even House, a show that many are starting to get sick of, as kept only four characters throughout eight seasons.

And everything in the last episodes of Grey’s suggested that many characters were getting ready to leave, with all the talk about where they would work next. And they should leave – not all, but some, yes. Karev should go to Hopkins, it’s his chance to be the best, he deserves it. Yang should stay, she still has some unresolved issues with Owen, and they’re the most interesting plot line right now. And honestly, I think Mer and Derek should go. They got everything now, they’re married and they have Zola, so they should take the next step, get a better job, live happily ever after somewhere. The show is called GREY’s Anatomy, not Meredith Grey’s Anatomy. This was the time for Lexie to step forward, for Kepner and Avery to evolve, for a new generation of doctors to arrive and bring some fresh air to the show. The old guys stay, the young guys grow, and the ones in the middle just go.

This is not a cry because one of my favourites characters is gone. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Jimmy Darmody, from Boardwalk Empire, about how despite him being my favourite, I was happy with their decision to kill him. Because it made sense, it’s the difference between good, and bad, desperate writing. Killing her in the first 15 minutes?! Please. I know there have been some rumours about Chyler Leigh wanting to leave the show, but that’s not an excuse: she didn’t decide at the last minute, so they could’ve prepared her departure properly. Let her and Mark ride off into the sunset or whatever. What a mess.

This was the worst ending I’ve seen this year. A shame, because I do believe this is show with a great potential. They’ve done a brilliant job when it comes to exploring human relationships, with a ridiculously talented cast. It’s all very entertaining, until they decide to throw it all away for cheap entertainment. I share your frustration Cristina.