'Grey's Anatomy': Tear of rage or tear of joy?

So are they firing Isaiah Washington or what? No doubt, the final scene of the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” left many viewers wondering if the tears Cristina was crying after being ditched at the altar were of heartbreak or relief, but some of us were more curious if her anguished “He’s gone” referred to Burke, her former fiance, or the man who plays him.
Washington, of course, was the center of a scandal earlier this year after he referred to cast member T.R. Knight, not once but twice, by a homophobic epithet. Since then, rumors have flown over whether he would be allowed to remain on a show that prides itself on love and tolerance and diversity.
Thursday night’s season finale certainly left that, and a few other things, pretty much hanging. Or not hanging, as the case may be.

In a way, the finale returned the blockbuster drama back to its starting point. Burke and Cristina are definitely not married, and Cristina, mercifully, is once again her obsessively ambitious and most admirable self. After weeks of consideration, the Chief may have offered his position to Derek but in the end, he remained the Chief. Meredith and Derek are back at square one with him being gleaming and open-“You are the love of my life,” he tells her - and her being skittish and closed-“I have to go,” is her reply. Karev once again is too late in realizing that if you like a girl, you should treat her nice and tell her so (first it was Izzie, then Addison, now former Jane Doe patient Ava/Rebecca.)
The only person truly up in the air is George, who apparently flunked his intern exam and now must choose not only between Callie and Izzie but also between quitting medicine and doing his intern year all over again. (In the most tantalizing development, another Grey girl-Meredith’s step-sister - shows up at the tail end as one of the new interns.)
As a season closer it was rather unsatisfying, like having the “Lost” guys peering down another hatch. If you were looking for a church vestibule show-down between Callie and Izzie, you were sorely disappointed.
But then wedding episodes are always so hard to pull off on TV-too much acting within acting and wedding dresses just don’t film well for some reason. As a wedding episode, Thursday’s “Grey’s” was fairly illuminating, reminding us (and any aspiring TV writers in the audience) that marriage, in dramatic terms anyway, is simply a dead-end proposition. Everyone from Jane Austen to Candace Bushnell knows this, which is why so many novels, plays and movies end up in tulle and lace, emphasis on end.
In TV drama terms, two people swearing devotion shuts down many more options that it creates-the actual inner workings of the institution are far too subtle and nuanced (read: boring) to hold up as a prime-time plot line alongside the frisky doings of singletons; writers really can’t go anywhere with marriage but kids and adultery. Witness the Callie/George/Izzie triangle. And that marriage was what? Six days old?
So you either have to base the show on the union, like “Mad About You” or “thirtysomething,” or keep the whole nuptial thing to a minimum. Divorced spouses are okay; actually, divorced spouses are great, because they have all kinds of potential-objectionable partners, irritating demands, babysitting options. But happily married? Yawn.
So Cristina should consider herself well out of it. She will not be forced to disappear, like her eyebrows (how great is Sandra Oh for allowing herself to be seen by millions sans eyebrows?) into married bliss and “being a Burke.” The Avid Viewer heaved a sigh of relief because even if Isaiah Washington has entered anger management/homophobia recovery, Burke is still an arrogant jerk. And Cristina isn’t.

(Photo courtesy ABC)

Comments

[C. Ivey]

I think Christina saying, "He's gone. I'm free," and then collapsing into a fit of tears was used as an example of the character's fickleness and stoicism destroying something real. And she realizes it immediately after getting something she thinks she wants - Burke leaving.

Always the superlatively self-reliant woman, the one thing she thinks defines her kills the one thing that could bring her joy. It took her to say, aloud, "I'm free," to realize her terrible mistake.

Maybe there was a double meaning w/r/t Burke/Washington and the fate of both, but this could open up room for more complexity in the Christina character, the one good thing that could come out of the finale.

[John]

I've got to tell you that when living in Costa Rica, it takes a lot of work to make sure we see Grey's. As to the final episode, I should have taken notes to better understand what happened. Apparently I am not intellectual enough to get it. For me the show was a big bummer!

Am I right here?

Derek and Meredith = Kaput
Christina and Burke = Kaput
Alex and Rebecca = Kaput
Addision and et al = Kaput
Izzie and George = Maybe
Chief and Adel = Back on
Chief and Chief = Back on
George and Callie = Who knows?
Mark and himself = Another who knows?
Baily = One more who knows?

Too much demasiado for me.

[Kate]

Derek was gleaming and open? Sure, if you don't count the part where he pitches a fit if Meredith doesn't do what he wants in the way that he wants it. In some ways, he and Burke are very much alike. In the past year, Meredith has dealt with an internship, the death of a manipulative and emotionally abusive mother, the death of a loving and accepting stepmother, the revelation that her boyfriend was hiding a marriage, the germination and death of a relationship with her father, and her own near-drowning.

But what's most important to Derek? That she deal with it on his terms and timetables. He's not as oppressive as Burke was to Christina (what was with those vows, which were all about him and his surgical magnificence?)--Derek does, after all, love Meredith for who she is. He has much more awareness and acceptance of her identity than Burke showed with Christina. But, and it's a big one, he shows very little understanding of what she's been through. For the past few episodes he's been ping-ponging from kind and supportive to cold and demanding. Then again, that's probably indicative of the dip in the writing this season. Here's hoping that Grey's can be successfully rejuvenated next season--right now it seems to be having an allergic reaction to itself.

[Richard D.]

Good, He needed to be fired. Now he can get a job as an extra on Ugly Betty.