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‘Grey’s Anatomy’: It’s not a finale without a body count

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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ has a history of strong finales. With the exception of Cristina’s wedding -- which I’ll excuse because that was the year of the writers’ strike -- each season-ender has been poignant enough to move me to tears. This year, I was too stunned to cry.

The finale, ‘Sanctuary / Death and All His Friends,’ turns the hospital from a sanctuary into a battle field. Mr. Clark returns, still upset by his wife’s death at the hand of Webber, Lexie and McDreamy despite the board’s ruling that the doctors made the right decisions.

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This time, he wants revenge of the ‘eye for an eye’ variety, and he’s got the jacket full of ammunition to prove it.

It’s been 11 years since the Columbine High School massacre, and only three since the Virginia Tech massacre. Despite the fact that ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ takes place in a hospital, not a school, the episode couldn’t help but recall those memories. Like a school, a hospital is a safe place. It’s somewhere people go to be taken care of and nurtured. To be honest, this episode was hard for me to watch.

Death is a common occurrence on ‘Grey’s Anatomy;’ someone dies in nearly every episode. However, it’s never been a violent, intentional death at the hand of another human being. I don’t know what the body count was from Mr. Clark’s shooting spree, but I expect we’ll find out next season. What I do know is that Seattle Grace will never be the same.

The good

Even in the midst of hospital chaos, the Seattle Grace doctors never lose their signature ‘Grey’s’ style of speaking. Arizona’s line, ‘Do not alarm the makers of the tiny humans,’ was spot on. Later, when things got more dire, Cristina still sounded like Cristina. ‘I can’t do this if you’re in there staring at me with big, sad, don’t kill McDreamy eyes.’ The best thing about ‘Grey’s’ is that the characters remain consistent. They may be consistently childish or consistently boring ... but they’re consistent.

As always, Chandra Wilson blew this episode out of the water. The range of emotion Bailey experienced in tonight’s episode was epic, for lack of a better word. The work that Wilson puts into her role really comes across on screen. You get the impression that the emotions are genuine, when in actuality, an enormous level of thought and commitment must go into each scene.

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I was thrilled to see Callie and Arizona reconcile. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I think Sara Ramirez and Jessica Capshaw are the strongest actresses on the show, and their interactions make for some of the most emotional scenes, and some of the most funny. My only concern is that a reconciliation in such a time of crisis can’t last.

Dr. Webber really shined tonight. At the beginning of the season, I was so disappointed in him. We’d invested so much in his character just to see him let the hospital down. Tonight, he proved himself a Chief again, and I hope that while Derek is recovering, he cedes the throne to Webber. When he told the officer, ‘I’m the Chief -- I’m the former -- look, this is my hospital,’ I truly believed him.

The bad

I’ve been a fan of Mandy Moore’s for years, but I don’t think her performance added much to the episode. As this week’s big name guest star, all eyes were on her. So why was her dialogue so unnatural and so exposition-heavy? Though the writers remembered to keep the regular characters witty, Moore’s character fell flat. I hope she returns for an episode or two next season to redeem herself. After enduring a trauma like this, it would seem odd for her not to forge a relationship with Bailey.

I’m probably going to get reamed for saying this, but I think that the episode would have had more emotional weight if one of the regular doctors had died. Reed and Charles were the only people killed that we recognized, and not only were they the new alien Mercy Westers, but they were also our least favorite Mercy Westers. It almost feels like they were introduced just to be killed.

After Columbine, rumors spread that the shooters asked victims whether they believed in God, and shot them if they said yes. Those rumors were later disproved, but when Mr. Clark asked the hospital staff whether they were surgeons and then shot them if they said yes, it hit a little bit too close to the mark. Since when is ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ the show that’s ‘ripped from the headlines’? There are ways to establish fictional tragedy without borrowing so heavily from real tragedy.

This season has been jam-packed with big changes. It seems like a lifetime ago that we were wondering (well, sort of) whether Izzie and George would live or die. Certainly, such a tragic and traumatic event will make even bigger waves. I have a feeling that the Seattle Grace we return to next season will be a very unfamiliar, very scary place.

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What are your thoughts on the episode? Were you as shocked as we were by the death toll? Who will you miss the most? Chime in with your expectations for next season in the comments below.

--Carina MacKenzie
twitter.com/cadlymack

Photo: (top) Ellen Pompeo, left, as Meredith and Sarah Drew as April.

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