Are you Facebook friends with many women? Did you sign on last night and wonder what, what was going on with all these "OMG Grey's! Don't leave me hanging all summer!" status updates? Well, we will tell you -- but it involves spoilers, death, angry actors, and a lot of strained diplomacy.
Last night, on the ABC program about sexy doctors moping, showrunner Shonda Rhimes appeared to kill off the two actors who'd been angling to leave the show all season: T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl. Knight's George O'Malley was revealed to be the bloody John Doe brought into the hospital after being dragged by a bus, and Heigl's Izzie Stevens survived a risky tumor operation, only to flatline in the show's final moments. Seemed pretty clear to me that both kicked the bucket, on account of the flatlining and also a dream sequence that closed the show where Dream Izzie and Dream George, dressed in their finest "fuck this show" regalia, prepared to board the Dream Elevator to Dream Heaven.
Perhaps, though, some fans wouldn't believe that the characters were really and truly gone until Izzie was beheaded on-screen, her body buried underground in a salted grave as her head was lit on fire (even so, an Ellen Pompeo voice-over and a soothing Adele ballad might leave certain segments of the audience asking, "OMG Izzie - headless next season???"). To get to the bottom of things, EW's Michael Ausiello went to Grey's showrunner Shonda Rhimes.
Rumors have been swirling all year that Katherine and TR wanted off the show. The season ends with both their characters' lives hanging in the balance. Purely coincidental?SHONDA RHIMES: I don't think there are any coincidences. I think Katherine's stated publicly that she's happy to stay. I think that there have been lots of rumors about TR, but TR's never said anything. Take from it what you will. [...]
Do you know which one of them lives and which one of them dies?RHIMES: Yes. And I don't know that you should be saying "which one of them lives and which one of them dies." I know what happens to the characters.
Have you shared this information with Katherine and TR?RHIMES: [Crickets, then...] I don't want to answer that. I don't want to talk about my private conversations with the actors.
Did TR ask to be released from his contract?RHIMES: I absolutely am not going to talk about any private conversations I had with the actors. I feel like that invades their privacy.
Why haven't we seen very much of George this season? I understand that there are ebbs and flows on ensemble dramas but...RHIMES: There are ebbs and flows. Every character this season has had a lot of ebbs and flows. And every season is shaped differently. With George, I really wanted you to not notice that he wasn't there for most of this episode. I don't think anybody noticed because of the way we laid it out this season. He's an incredibly talented actor. And, actually, he was really lovely and elegant about lying there in all that very painful makeup and prosthetics for much of the episode with no words. That moment where he grabs Meredith's hand is one of the most affecting moments of the episode, and it was without words.
In other words: "Heigl is def. dead, dudes. T.R....well, maybe we'll put him in some injury makeup and give him a two-episode arc at the beginning of next season, at which point he will be eaten by a murderous crocodile that reminds Meredith Grey that sometimes, in marriage, you bite off more than you can chew."
ยท Exclusive: 'Grey's' boss on finale's Izzie-George shocker, Mer-Der 'wedding,' and more! [EW]