Viewing Single Post From: 3.22 & 3.23 THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS LIFE

Viewing Single Post From: 3.22 & 3.23 THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS LIFE
oncetherewasaway	Apr 11 2007, 12:15 AM
McEditor Posts: 1,625 Group: .Grey Girls. Member #23 Joined: October 25, 2006	[size=7]PODCAST[/size] 05.04.07 - Executive Producers Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers discuss the two-hour episode, "The Other Side of This Life" and talk about the trials the interns face in next week's episode, "Testing 1-2-3" (5/10/07). This is the podcast, minus the spin-off talk: The first thing we have to talk about, which I think is kind of funny and great, and then turns a little sad is poor Cristina and the Mom’s, and wedding dress hell! One of my favorite moments is her asking Callie to be the bridesmaid, and then standing behind the mother’s and mouthing, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’ while Callie is mouthing ‘I’m gonna kill you, I’m gonna kill you!’ It is one of my favorite moments between the two of them, that and also when Izzie discovers that Callie is going to be bridesmaid and says ‘You’re not feeling very bride-y’ and then discovering that in fact, Callie’s going to be a bridesmaid, and she’s going to be stuck with Callie all day. She sticks her foot in her mouth, chews her foot and swallows it! It is pretty great. Also on that, the fact that Preston has to come to terms with his Mother. And also, worse than that, Cristina comes to the realization that she told him she didn’t want a traditional wedding, she’s been saying who she is all along, and he didn’t listen. He thought she wasn’t serious. And then instead of saying, ‘Well, I am serious, and this is who I am,’ what she does, and I think this is what is wrong with the relationship, is she says, ‘Well, what do you want?’ And he says, ‘I’m a traditional man, Cristina,’ and she gives in, which the Cristina that we knew a year ago would’ve never done! She is proving Colin right, because Colin said ‘You’re changing, you are becoming a different kind of woman.’ She is shaving off little pieces of her personality to make Burke more comfortable, which a lot of woman do. We are all guilty of that. It is my personal theory that if you are doing that, you should break up with your boyfriend and move on. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that that is right. And also, Burke says it, because from Burke’s point of view when he talks to his Mother, he says ‘Look, I have pushed every single step of the way, I lead and she follows, and it has been working well.’ And he feels that they wouldn’t even be in a relationship if he hadn’t pushed a little bit. And clearly Cristina loves him, and loves being in a relationship with him. I don’t know if she so much needs pushing, except from his perspective, but he does feel that he has done right by them, that this is going correctly, in his ‘Burke world of logic.’ But I love that he says, ‘She will be happy… someday.’ That to me is such a telling moment, and he is so serious about it and so earnest, and he feels so bad. But also that last scene where…. ‘Are you happy, are you happy?’ and neither of them says it first, and then he finally says ‘Yeah,’ and she says ‘Yeah.’ Let’s give a shout-out to Miss Diahann Carroll who is absolutely fabulous, and is an astonishing actress, and it was wonderful to have her back. I think, obviously there’s just this incredibly, emotionally wrenching thing – the death of fake Mommy, as I like to call her. Susan was…what I loved about this episode is there is this wonderful build. Its hiccups and it’s casual, and its one little thing gets worse, and one little thing gets worse, and it is a horrible, horrible domino effect until they are rushing her into surgery, and then Meredith has to come out and tell her Father that his wife is dead. One of my favorite performances ever by Jeff Perry, who plays Thatcher, is him realizing…it is also one of my favorite performances by Ellen Pompeo. And what I love is that Thatcher, who has always been this meek, sort of quiet person, you watch him, and he can never really look Meredith in the eye. But he managed at a couple of points in this episode to meet Meredith’s eyes. He is making an effort, and he feels like he is getting to know his daughter. He hugs her. Yeah, he hugs her in his stiff little way, and then ends up at a point where he is slapping his daughter across the face, which undoes every little inch they had gained, quite frankly. But also, it is so sad because you realize that really, for him, Susan was all he had. Susan was the glue that had been holding him together since the relationship with Ellis ended. And Susan was his conduit to the outside world, because he is so in his head, and bumbling, and sort of strange and introverted, and Susan was this person who made the world okay for him, in this very, very basic way. And it is just heartbreaking for him, but also that Meredith actually started to let this woman in, to the degree that she did. She started to let this woman in, and because of it, she also started to let her Father in. And now this woman who was the only link she had with her Father is dead. And her Father is lost to her in a way that she is not going to know even more until later. But it is just so sad, and what I really loved was that by the time you get to the end, you know, Meredith said to Derek ‘I want to be better, I want to let you in, and I want to do that,’ but her natural instinct is to go to the place of ‘leave me alone, I’m going to drink tequila, and protect myself as best I can with the veneer of everything’s fine.’ And what I love about it is that by the end of the day, I mean, Izzie’s had the moment with George, Alex has had that wonderful moment with Ava where she says, ‘What’s wrong with you, what happened to you that you can’t let anyone it?’ and he says ‘Maybe I don’t remember,’ which I love. Best delivery ever! And the three of them are sitting in that room, talking about crappy friends, and crappy family, and drinking tequila, as if they have each had just a little bit of a bad day, as opposed to a massively bad day. To me, the show always comes back to the friends, and the one thing I wanted you to feel was that Cristina is alone, and should be sitting there drinking with them, but she is isolated right now. And that, Meredith and Izzie and Alex are all isolated in their tequila haze, and that poor Derek is standing outside the window, which I just felt was so poignant, and, frankly, if you were wondering what is going to happen next, an interesting point for things to come. And you are right, I hadn’t thought about it that way, but you are right about Cristina, because Cristina is there with Burke, and Burke is quietly drinking a glass of wine, by himself, and Cristina comes in and she is all snuggling into him, ‘Are you happy?’ and you are like, ‘oh, my god.’ I love the moment where she says, ‘The dress is too tight, and I can’t breathe but a wedding is just one day.’ Well, in a resonance for her, but also a resonance for Callie where a wedding is not just one day. It is not just one day, and the look on Callie’s face which is her world crumbling, and in her eyes ‘it’s not just one day.’ Yeah, she can feel…….or what George says to Burke in that initially funny section where George and Burke get pushed away by Bailey to go and have a conversation, and they end up talking about the nature of marriage. And George actually says, ‘I don’t believe in divorce, but also I didn’t really think about it.’ He admits it seemed like the right thing to do. It is the most revealing conversation for both of them on where they are in their relationships. ‘Can you love two people at the same time?’ And in Burke’s case, well, Burke said himself he’s hoping you can love one, he’s not talking about himself he’s talking about Cristina. So, it is sad, but I really understand both people’s perspective, which is part of the reason I like this show. So Mark and Alex….Mark is pissed. He is confused, but he also trying to be a better man in the face of not being able to be a better man, and part of it is, he’s still blaming Alex for his own flaws. And yet he has this wonderful moment where he comes clean with Derek. And Derek has that great moment where he’s like, ‘that must have been so difficult for you.’ I love the look on his face, which is just wonderful. So next week our episode is ‘Testing 1-2-3.’ It is one of the final two episodes of this season. It is a fine episode. The one thing I can tell you is that the interns take their interns test. We will be back next week to talk to you about ‘Testing 1-2-3.’ So, this is Shonda Rhimes, and Betsy Beers, and this is Grey’s Anatomy. Posted: May 4 2007, 02:51 AM - jenlou1986


3.22 & 3.23 THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS LIFE · SEASON 3