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Original Air Date: May 20, 2010

Farrah Kaye – Sr. Editor
farrah@thetwocentscorp.com

If you’re a true Grey’s Anatomy fan, then you know the best episode(s) of the season are the finale and, if it’s a cliffhanger, the season opener. If you’re a super true fan, then you know the best finale ever was when Denny died while Izzie was in the elevator coming to see him in her gorgeous prom dress and Alex had to pry her off his dead body. No one can challenge that. A runner up was last year’s Izzie/George dying cliffhanger, thanks to contract negotiations.

But this year promised to be the best yet. Previews of a positive pregnancy test for Meredith, a shooter on the loose, Bailey being dragged by said shooter, and the hanging story lines from previous weeks (Arizona and Callie’s break up, the Owen/Teddy/Cristina love triangle and Mark still loving Lexie) had me on the edge of my seat before the episode even started. And let me tell you – since I’ve already watched it – it does not disappoint. This finale was, hands down, the BEST SEASON FINALE EVER. Possibly of any show I’ve ever watched. I’ll stop rambling now and tell you why. Enjoy!

Meredith’s voiceover: For most people, the hospital is a scary place. A hostile place. A place where bad things happen. Most people would prefer church, or school, or home, but I grew up here. While my mom was on rounds, I learned to read in the OR gallery, I played in the morgue, I colored with crayons on old ER charts. Hospital was my church, my school, my home; hospital was my safe place, my sanctuary. I love it here. Correction: loved it here.

While she’s talking, Derek is overlooking the hospital on the catwalk, Lexie and Alex are sleeping in the on-call room when Lexie gets paged (he knocks her in the eye in the process), a woman’s husband is taken away after he dies, Webber is at a coffee shop playing with his 6-month sober chip, Cristina and Callie are eating breakfast crying over Owen and Arizona telling each other to stop crying and at the hospital, Meredith takes a pregnancy test. It’s positive! Meredith is pregnant (although we knew this from the preview). In the hallway, a super happy Meredith walks past an angry-looking man. Those who know the show, recognize him. It’s Mr. Clark, the man who sued the hospital over his wife’s death but lost (and he hates Derek for it because it was his decision to pull her plug). Meredith tells Cristina first about the baby and Meredith says she’s happy about this and wants to tell Derek but they both get paged – Meredith by Derek and Cristina by Teddy. Mr. Clark is aimlessly walking around the hospital asking where the Chief of Surgery is. He first asks Alex and he tells him to find a nurse. Arizona is called by Lexie for a consult on a little girl who needs her appendix out. Alex calls Callie for a consult on a little boy who has a fracture and although Arizona is trying to be nice to her, it fails. Teddy and Owen get paged together and Teddy is pissed at Owen. Dr. Bailey has a patient (Mandy Moore!) who needs a surgery but can’t have it until she has a blood transfusion. Dr. Percy is working on the case, too. She’s starving and asks her husband to get her some pizza before her surgery. A woman is looking for her husband, who is being worked on by Teddy and Owen. He has a gunshot wound but the wife thought he was in a car accident. She frantically gets into the room and he tells her he got caught up in a bad scam (fender bender turned shooting while giving insurance info) when he starts to crash and Owen lets her say goodbye to him although Teddy disagrees because there was no time. Teddy asks Cristina to cover her post-ops while she is in surgery. Mr. Clark tries to ask another nurse where Derek’s office but things are just so busy. He walks into a back room and finds Reed and she says she doesn’t know where he is and she has to leave because her patient is having seizures. He shoots her, right there, in the head. Alex comes around the corner and before he can say anything, he shoots Alex in the side. Holy-freaking-moly!!!

An elevator opens and Alex is dragging himself into it. Meredith goes in to Derek’s office and is all happy about 1) scrubbing in on a surgery the night before and 2) being pregnant! She wants to tell Derek about the baby later that night. Teddy and Owen are in the OR operating when Cristina comes in to update Teddy on one of her patients. Owen offers Cristina to scrub in on the surgery and she says no thank you. Owen leaves the surgery to confront Cristina and when she asks him which one of them he loves, he can’t answer. So, she says “she’s done” and walks away. Creepy Derek stalker (her name is April) is walking in the back room where Reid and Alex were shot and isn’t paying attention when she trips over Reed’s body. She runs into Derek’s office covered in blood and is in shock. She is rambling about growing up on a farm and slaughtering pigs and how much blood they have and finally Derek shakes her out of her shock and she tells Derek about Reed being shot. Cristina gets into an elevator, all sad from the breakup and – UH OH – she’s in there with Mr. Clark. He asks her where Derek’s office is and she gives him precise directions. Mr. Clark thanks her and they stand in silence. He gets off the elevator first and tells her to have a nice day. Yah, that’s probably not gonna happen.

Alex is on the elevator floor convulsing while Derek is on the phone with security and police are on the way. The hospital needs to go in to lock down mode. Derek needs to leave April to warn everyone and she is freaking out. Webber is still at the coffee shop and it’s not that far away, so he sees all the cops driving by and figures out something is going on at the hospital. He frantically leaves. On the peds floor, the lock down call comes in. Callie and Arizona are now stuck together and Callie is NOT happy. Bailey goes to visit Mary (Mandy Moore) when she gets her lock down page and in the Teddy/Owen surgery, Derek calls Avery over and tells him the situation. However, he tells him to keep it to himself until after the surgery is over. When Avery goes back to the table, he lies about what Derek told him but can’t keep a steady hand. Meredith finds Cristina in a hallway and they make a joke about the lock down (“maybe there’s an axe murderer on the loose.” Not funny girls, not funny.). Cristina wants to know how Derek was when he found out about the baby (she wants to know if he had “b*tch baby tears”…not sure what they are…) and tells Meredith about her breakup. They go to find Derek to tell him. Lexie asks Sloan to sign off on a chart and he’s telling her how much he misses her. Mr. Clark is there and starts walking up the stairs and when a nurse tells him to stop he turns and shoots her. Sloan protects Lexie and gets her out of the way. When the elevator opens, Alex is in it, unconscious. Of course they would find him!

Outside the hospital, cops are everywhere and have set up a command post when Webber walks through the barriers to find the lead cop. He tries to explain his position in the hospital which is hard to do considering his current circumstances. He just says “this is my hospital.” The cops won’t let him in but they are “his people!” Mary’s husband shows up at the same time, too. Webber just stands there, helpless. Sloan and Lexie take Alex into a conference room and put him on the table to stabilize him. It’s pretty bad but Sloan is definitely in charge. Callie comes up with the idea to put all the kids together in the playroom and Arizona agrees it’s a good idea. Cristina and Meredith are walking around the hospital going towards Derek’s office (HELLO! LOCK DOWN!), talking about Cristina being the baby’s godmother. Do they not realize they’re the ONLY ones around?? Derek finds them and wants to know why they’re walking around and explains the whole lock down procedure, shoves them into a closet, tells them not to move and there’s a shooter on the loose. Bailey is with Mary and keeps looking at her pager and Mary asks her to tell her the truth. Bailey doesn’t know much, just that there’s a “situation.” Percy comes in and tells them the shooter is on the floor. He’s coming their way. Bailey tells Mary to play dead and for Percy to get in the bathroom. Bailey hides under the bed just as Mr. Clark walks in. OH EM GEE!! He sees Mary, thinking she’s dead and says it’s too much. He’s pacing when he hears a noise from the bathroom. Oh damn Percy! He goes in and asks Percy if he’s a surgeon and when he says yes, he shoots him. He falls to the floor facing Bailey and she’s trying to keep it together. Then all the sudden, Bailey is being dragged out by her feet. She’s panicking and when he asks her if she’s a surgeon she says she’s a nurse. I’ve never seen Bailey so unglued like this! He says he’s sorry for the trouble and walks out of the room.

Sloan tells Alex he needs to insert a chest tube but the pain is so intense Alex can’t stop screaming. Lexie doesn’t know what to do so finally she shoves gauze in his mouth. On the peds floor, Arizona wants to talk to Callie about why they can’t be friends. Callie tells her she’s tried the whole being friends route but instead she’s going the hating her route. As they’re arguing, the nurses bring them the appendix girl from earlier. In Mary’s room, Percy is bleeding really bad and Bailey asks Mary to help her. Bailey tells Percy he’s fine and asks Mary to look at the window to see if there’s anyone outside the room that can help them. The floor is empty except for a dead security guard. Bailey asks where the water she sees is coming from and Mary tells her she’s crying. Bailey…Mrs. No Emotion…is crying so hard she thinks there’s a water leak somewhere! In the operating room, the surgery is finally over and Avery tells them what Shepard told him. Owen says he NEEDS to bring the patient to the ICU so he and Teddy decide they’re going to move the patient while everyone else stays back. Callie is upset with Arizona for not willing to change for her but asking her to change instead and Arizona doesn’t trust Callie because she flip flops from being a lesbian one day to not being one the next. Cristina and Meredith are in the closet not too far from Derek’s office and Cristina sees Mr. Clark. Cristina figures out that the he is going after Derek.

Derek is walking on the catwalk when Mr. Clark sees him. He stops him and Derek tells him to find a safe place when Mr. Clark pulls out the gun. Alex needs blood and Lexie offers to go since Sloan knows what to do and she doesn’t. Meredith and Cristina, ever so smart, leave the closet and see Mr. Clark holding the gun at Derek saying he’s the man and the man looks after his wife. He didn’t look after his wife before but he is now. Bailey is still working on Percy with Mary as an assistant and Percy asks Bailey to promise to tell him the truth about him dying. She says he’s not dying. On the catwalk, Mr. Clark is going on and on about Seattle Grace not being safe and how Derek thinks he’s god (he does? I don’t think so…). Derek gives a little speech. I’m just gonna put it in here because it’s great: “I know your loss. I lost my father when I was a kid. Two guys killed my father for his watch right in front of me. Right in front of me. I didn’t become a doctor because I wanted to be god. I became a doctor because I wanted to save lives. Look at me. Please look at me in the eye. I’m a human being. I make mistakes, I’m flawed, we all are. Today, I think for you, is just a mistake. You want justice, you want somebody to pay. You’re a good man I can see that in your eyes. Can you see in mine? Can you?” Just as Mr. Clark lowers his gun, stupid April comes running out and breaks the moment. Mr. Clark shoots Derek in the chest as Cristina holds Meredith back.

The second hour begins with Derek’s voice over: The human life is made up of choices. Yes or no. In or out. Up or down. And then there are the choices that matter. Love or hate. To be a hero or to be a coward. To fight or to give in. To live. Or die. Live or die. That’s the important choice. And it’s not always in our hands. Mr. Clark goes to shoot April but she spouts off facts about herself and he tells her to run. And she does. Derek is bleeding out on the floor just as the SWAT team comes in and Mr. Clark runs. Meredith and Cristina are back in the closet and Meredith wants to save Derek. Cristina says she’ll have to push her way through her first. Meredith knocks down Cristina (I know, right???) and runs out of the closet. Teddy and Owen are still making their way to the ICU while Teddy is blabbing about Owen needing to choose between her and Cristina and he says he chooses no one. When they reach the ICU, they finally get a grasp of what happened after finding a dead doctor. Outside, the cops are only bringing out civilians instead of the doctors and Webber is asking all kinds of questions to the cop when tapes of the 911 calls finally come in and Webber hears all his people on the radio. The cop sees Webber’s face and I think he finally gets it. The last call is Cristina calling in about Derek. Meredith goes old school while trying to keep Derek awake with her “I pick you. I choose you. You don’t get to die.” Cristina decides they’re going to take Derek to the OR where Teddy and Owen are. She pulls April out of shock (again…man, this girl bugs me) and brings her along. Alex tells Sloan to eat more bacon and have more sex and be happy in his life. That’s great advice there. Lexie is on her way back from the blood bank when she runs into Mr. Clark. He says he didn’t plan to shoot all the people he did but that he came for just three: Derek, Webber and HER. He holds up the gun to shoot her. She unplugged the machines, her hands killed his wife. A gunshot goes off and both of them fall to the ground. Only this time, it’s Mr. Clark that has been shot – by the SWAT team. They point to Lexie to get out of there. She runs.

Lexie gets back to Sloan and Alex and begs Alex not to die because it was her fault. She tells him she loves him … yes, right there in front of Sloan. Ouch for Sloan! Callie and Arizona are working on appendix girl when Mr. Clark walks in. Arizona tells him only children are there and falls on top of the little girl to protect her. Mr. Clark tells them he’s been shot and Callie stands up to give him bandages and what to do to stop the bleeding. She slowly hands him the bandages and tells him to take them and go. He does and says thank you. A polite gunman? Tells people to have a nice day and says thank you?? Callie shuts the door and reassures the little girl that everything’s going to be okay because she has Arizona as a doctor. While doing so, she also realizes her love for her. The cop asks Webber about Gary Clark and without telling him, Webber figures out he’s the shooter. Meredith is with Derek in the OR while April and Cristina go to get Teddy. Derek promises Meredith he won’t die. Well that’s a good thing. Percy’s situation has gotten worse and Bailey decides he needs to get to an OR. Without transport, she decides to make a makeshift gurney out of a sheet. April and Cristina are walking through the halls and while April is freaking out, Avery comes out and scares them. Cristina explains Derek has been shot and they need to operate. Avery tells them Teddy and Owen both left which leaves Cristina to do the operation. Man, Cristina has really been proving her worth this season!!

Cristina is prepping herself for the surgery and tells Meredith she can’t be in the room. She tells April that she is in charge of being with Meredith. She has to sit on the floor and not move. Alex is in shock and thinks Lexie is Izzie, begging her not to go and thanking her for coming back for him. As Sloan watches. As this whole sad scenario is going on, the SWAT team comes in and clears them to leave. When the cop leaves Webber for just a minute to ask another cop a question, Webber has run inside. When Teddy and Owen are cleared to come outside, they find out Cristina is still inside and he wants to run back in. Guess he made his choice. Teddy tells him it’s okay to choose. Webber is inside walking the halls of HIS hospital. April is crying and Meredith is trying to make her feel better by telling her it took her a long time to find Derek, blabla. April says Reid was her best friend. They hold hands and wait.

Sloan and Lexie bring Alex out and it’s not so clear on what’s going to happen with him. During Derek’s surgery, it winds up it’s pretty difficult. Cristina has to make a decision about what to do and she references the “pig and cow” situation and goes for it. Bailey and Mary have pulled Percy to the elevators – only the elevators have been shut off now. Bailey has a freak out as she realizes she can’t save Percy. Mary tells her to be quiet so the shooter won’t find them. Percy looks up at her and she walks away to have a cry. She has her cry, wipes away her tears and sits down on the floor next to Percy. As promised, she tells him the truth: he is going to die. But she won’t let him die alone. She rests his head on her lap and strokes his hair. Mary, Bailey and Percy all hold hands as he starts to die. Owen comes in to the OR and sees Meredith and April on the floor and he has a look on his face. Uh… uh oh. Meredith wants to know why he’s not scrubbing in? He tells them to stay down and not move. Owen walks in and Mr. Clark is holding a gun to Cristina’s head, telling her to stop fixing Derek. Cristina is still operating and tells Owen she has to keep going. Owen tells Mr. Clark if he shoots the woman that he loves he will kill him. Finally! A real choice!

Mr. Clark has decided he’s just gonna shoot everyone. He wants justice – an eye for an eye. But he wants Derek and Derek only so everyone needs to make it easy for him. Meredith walks in and tells him to shoot her. Her reasoning: “You want justice right? Your wife died, I know what happened. Derek told me the story. Lexie Grey is the one that pulled the plug on your wife, she’s my sister. Dr. Webber, he was your wife’s doctor. I’m the closest thing he has to a daughter. And the man on the table, I’m his wife. If you wanna hurt them, the way that you hurt, shoot me. I’m your eye for an eye.” He goes to shoot her and Cristina begs him not to shoot a pregnant woman and when Owen goes to attack him, he shoots Owen. Avery tells Cristina to raise her hands and that in a few moments, since they’ve stopped, blood will pump in Derek’s chest and his heart will stop. He’ll see it on the monitor. Derek flat lines and Meredith loses it. Mr. Clark leaves the room and Avery plugs whatever he had unplugged back in. It was all a trick!! AVERY IS MY HERO!!! Cristina asks Meredith if Owen is breathing and to operate on him. “I’m trying to save your guy now go save mine.” Percy asks Bailey to find Reed and tell her he had a crush on her. Maybe they’ll find each other in the hospital in the sky? Bailey feels like a coward for telling Mr. Clark she was a nurse but Percy tells her she was smart for doing that. Percy tells Bailey she was always his favorite doctor … and then he dies. Owen is fighting against Meredith in the OR and she is cramping. Right there, standing over Owen with April next to her, she has a miscarriage, blood running down her thighs. Owen finally stays still. Are you bawling? Because I haven’t stopped. This just breaks my heart!!

Richard (Webber) is walking through the halls and finds Mr. Clark in the room where his wife died. He’s gone nuts. I mean, the shooting was nuts but he’s really lost it. He tells Richard about buying the gun and how much ammunition he bought because it was on sale. So much, in fact, there wasn’t enough room for it in his pockets because he wanted there to be room for his flask – his liquid courage. He asks Richard to open it since he’s been shot and also doesn’t want to let go of his gun. He has one bullet left and he’s not sure if he should kill Richard or himself. I vote for him. He gives Richard the flask and he empties it. Richard tells him he’s got a choice to make. Who will he shoot? “I’ve lived. I’ve really really lived. I’ve failed. I’ve been devastated. I’ve been broken. I’ve gone to hell and back. And I’ve also known joy. And passion. And I’ve had a great love. See death for me is not justice. It’s a … end of a beautiful journey. And I’m not afraid to die. The question is, are you? A life in prison or an afterlife … with your wife. Me or you? Your choice.” As the SWAT team comes in the hospital, they hear a gunshot. Cristina finishes operating on Derek and he flat lines (for real this time). At the other hospital, Sloan brings Lexie in to visit Alex, who made it through surgery but isn’t awake yet. Mary makes it out of the hospital to her husband and Bailey is trying to find Reed, just as promised. Callie and Arizona decide they love each other…Callie says she won’t have kids so she can be with Arizona and Arizona says no, they’ll have kids. They can’t live without each other. Derek’s heart finally starts beating again. Meredith is in the locker room and finds her pregnancy test and throws it out. Cristina tells her Derek is awake and asking for her.

“Yes or no. In or out. Up or down. Live or die. Hero or coward. Fight or give in. I’ll say it again to make sure you hear me. The human life is made up of choices. Live or die. That’s the important choice. And it’s not always in our hands.” – Derek

WOW. A lot, A LOT, happened in this episode. We lost a lot of Mercy people and saw our favorites stand up when times got tough. Bailey and Cristina truly shined in this episode. I’m just gonna make a list of things I have to say…
– Owen finally making a choice is great. But doing it in a time of devastation isn’t really the greatest time to decide. This may come back to bite everyone in the butt.
– While Lexie “loves” Alex, him calling out for Izzie during his shock obviously shows he’s not done with the Izzie chapter. I hope Lexie opens her eyes to this.
– Sloan proved how much he’s changed by operating on Alex despite his feelings. Also proves he truly is a good doctor. Loved it.
– Meredith losing the baby. I can’t even handle that. But that she lost the baby while working on her best friend’s “guy” proves how much she treasures her friends.
– Cristina operating on Derek shows just how great of a doctor she is.
– Avery. The man. PERIOD.
– Bailey finally showing weakness was great. She’s gone from stone cold to human over the years. And did you notice her man was missing and she didn’t care? That’s because he’s got his own show now. You’ll see it next year. 🙂
– Having April spend the whole day with Meredith, and standing with her as she lost Derek’s baby, will hopefully get her out of her stalker phase. PLEASE. I’m done with that story line. Although kudos to the actress that plays her. She had to dig deep for those emotions.
– With Derek shot and Richard having 6 months sobriety and having stopped Mr. Clark, I have a feeling he’ll be getting his spot back. Plus, Derek hates being Chief.
– I’m thankful there weren’t many true cliffhangers, like Derek’s heart stopping and it ends. Thank you writers!

What did you think? Leave your two cents below!

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