Grey’s Anatomy caps sixth season with a blood bath

I entered this sixth season Grey’s Anatomy finale with great trepidation. You see, I was gun-shy, burned by last season’s emotionally manipulative finale where both George and Izzie coded simultaneously after George was hit by a bus (after the actor who played him had griped about his lack of screen time) and Izzie’s cancer took its toll. At the end of the episode, it was unclear as to whether either or both had died.

Previews for this year’s finale promised three things: 1) Meredith Grey would have a positive pregnancy test 2) A shooter would be on the loose at Seattle Grace and 3) Someone would “fall.” So I steeled myself, determined not to be manipulated again. I came prepared, with tissues. And I certainly used them.

“What was that horror show?” That was my immediate, visceral reaction when the credits started rolling after Meredith tossed out her positive pregnancy test as she went to see Derek as he recovered from surgery … surgery made necessary after a distraught husband, Gary Clark, who’d filed a lawsuit against Derek and Seattle Grace for the wrongful death of his wife, shot McDreamy and a whole lot of other folks who worked at the hospital.

For the bulk of the two-hour, edge-of-your-seat finale, I admit that I was entertained and more than a bit jumpy, what with the shooter just, well, you know, shooting people with ruthless brutality. Two Mercy Westers — characters fans hated anyway — were gunned down, one of whom died immediately after being shot in the head. The other had a tearful, elongated death scene in which actress Chandra Wilson gave another butt-kicking acting clinic. Nameless others — nurses, security guards and the like — were mortally wounded by Clark en route to locate Derek, Lexie and Richard, all of whom were on his wife’s case when she died.

Among the injured was Alex, who lost a lot of blood and was barely hanging on. He started hallucinating that blond Lexie was Izzie as he said he was so happy that Izzie had come back to him. It was a surreal scene because I kept thinking about what happened last year at this time when Izzie appeared to be dying in Alex’s arms. Owen was another prominent injured party, shot in the shoulder as he tried to protect Meredith and Cristina from the gunman who was demanding that Cristina stop operating on Derek and let him die on the table.

But it was the Meredith-Derek storyline that proved most compelling, particularly with the finale starting with the promise of new life, a Mer-Der baby, and Meredith, for once, was excited. Cristina even seemed genuinely happy for her friend and joked that she hoped the baby would have Derek’s hair.

Alas, Clark eventually tracked down Derek, his chief target, the one who he held responsible for his wife’s death. (Read the review of the episode where Clark called Derek a cowardly killer during a deposition for his lawsuit.) Derek told Clark about his experience watching his own father die a violent death in front of him at the hands of two men who wanted to steal his dad’s watch. Derek said he was flawed, made mistakes and that he could tell by Clark’s eyes that Clark was a “good man” who’d just made a mistake. Clark lowered his gun. But that was just Shonda Rhimes teasing us. Upon seeing April come through the door, Clark raised his weapon and shot Derek in the chest.

The ER scene where Clark was holding Cristina at gunpoint as she operated on Derek was, I think, the toughest scene of the entire episode, once you got past the images of Reed’s body laying there, with a bullet wound in her forehead. What got to me was Meredith heroically offering herself up to Clark on a platter, telling him that killing her would give him the “eye for an eye” revenge he was seeking. As Clark’s gun was aimed at Meredith, Owen played action hero and rushed the shooter, only to get shot himself, just as Jackson had the brilliant idea of disconnecting some wires to make it look as though Derek had died. It was heartbreaking to watch the once suicidal Meredith crumple to the floor sobbing. That heartbreak was exponentially compounded shortly thereafter when Meredith miscarried.

Up until this point, I’d been on board. Sure, this was an atypical Grey’s episode, but it was teeth-grindingly dramatic and well done. It was aptly tense in the right moments and had just the perfect level of emotion in others. But to have Meredith miscarry the baby seemed gratuitous.

Amid all that carnage, the only true moment of happiness — other than having Derek survive — was the reunion of Callie and Arizona after Arizona said she’d be glad to have lots and lots of kids with Callie. This was the one time I smiled during these two anxious hours.

So Grey’s watchers, what say you about the two-hour, shooter-on-the-loose finale?

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on May 21, 2010 @ 07:41 EST5EDT