If y'all have been keeping up with all the links I've been faithfully posting at the QA Facebook page, then you know that Shonda promises that this season's finale will be a real tear jerker. If you had "liked" QA on Facebook, then you wouldn't have missed any of the links that support this story. I'm not gonna add 'em here - go dig on FB. And be sure to "like" our page while you're there so you don't miss out again!
But getting back to Grey's, the finale this year is so sad that the cast cried at the script read-through. For the love of all ducks - the writers cried when they read it! Do you know how hard it is to make a bunch of hardened writers cry? What is Shonda doing to us? I hear she just adopted a new baby. Maybe Shonda is thinking that if she doesn't get any sleep this Summer - none of us will either! To achieve this mass emotional break-down Rhimes "kills off' a major character in the finale and ends it with the lives and fates of many of our faves in jeopardy.
So which of our favorite Docs is heading off to give the Angels a hard time? I hate to even guess. Seriously. Seriously. I love all of them in different ways for different reasons. I've watched Grey's since the episode it debuted and most of the Docs have grown to feel like old friends. For that reason, if I had to pick one to die, it'd be April or Jackson. I haven't grown as close to them as the others. Jackson's a cutie pie, but he's no McDreamy and despite her last episode "bad girl" turn, my history with April is mainly finding her annoying. So my first choice in the deathstakes would be April with Jackson coming in at number 2.
But we really can't always get what we want, can we? (The fact that I'm still trying to get to a point where I write romance full time proves that one to me.) If someone else has to die - someone I know and love - my first choice for that would be Chief Webber or Alex Karev. I'd cry for either one, but both of them really feel kind of at the end of an arc. Yeah, I'd like to see Webber kick up his heels with Jackson's Mom some more and Alex's peds turn has gone a long way towards making him less terrible, but neither is so intimately involved in the show that I'd miss 'em each time I watched.
What scares me the most is imagining that Shonda would do away with one of the real core-crew. If Mer or Der dies or their contracts aren't renewed then the show is over for me. I don't think it could survive the loss of either and I wouldn't care enough to stick around and watch the others try to muddle through whatever 1 or 2 seasons they might manage without Mer/Der. I'd hate to see any of the others die, either. Okay, Shonda says a bunch of the others will be in jeopardy at the end of the finale - I get that. But there's a big difference between having some fly off to practice somewhere else and having them die. A BIG DIFFERENCE. I've seen hints from Rhimes that some of our faves may fly off and then come back after they find that the grass really wasn't greener after all.
Like I said Mer/Der leaving would be a deal breaker for me -- either of them dying is unimaginable. It's hard, so very hard, for me as a writer to picture Rhimes killing off the couple she built the show around. If she does it I'll see it as assisted suicide. To me it would mean that Rhimes really wants to go off and work on her other shows but can't leave Grey's in anyone's hands but her own. The other death that would be almost as hard as Mer/Der would be Cristina. I understand that Sandra Oh wants to leave, but if she must - let her fly off to start somewhere else, giving the viewers hope that we'd see her practicing in another City and that she might return. I could possibly even tolerate that with Mer/Der - provided they weren't gone too long. A character I can logically see going out in some heroic manner is Owen -- his bravery under fire would ring true to character.
Bravery under fire - did I say that? Yes, I did. Shonda has hinted that the finale - titled "flight" - will be reminiscent of the ferry crash or the hospital gunman - though it won't be either of those things. A lot of people think it may involve a plane crash. That's possible, but this week's epi precedes the finale and it's called "migration." That seems to mean that people will be heading off to other places. But they're all heading off to different spots for interviews and it's unlikely - possible, but unlikely - that so many would be on the same plane. That makes me wonder if its either 2 planes colliding with each other on a runway - or possibly a plane or more crashing into the airport. The latter makes the most sense to me. Another possibility is that it's a terrorist take-over of the airport where most of the residents are waiting for flights and friends or family are there to see them off. That would involve some very tense scenes, gunfire, and the possibility that someone would die a hero - which is the only death I can imagine Shonda choosing for one of her main characters. I've even given some thought to the possibility of an earthquake or a tsunami following an earthquake - either might allow for a kind of "flight" that would end a life.
The only thing I'm certain about is that I'm stocking up on tissues for the finale. If it turns out that there's terrorism or some kind of show down at the airport - I only have one question: HAS ANYONE HEARD WHETHER BRUCE WILLIS HAS BEEN BOOKED FOR A CAMEO?