Viewing Single Post From: 4.15 Losing My Mind

Viewing Single Post From: 4.15 Losing My Mind
oncetherewasaway	Aug 12 2007, 09:01 AM
McEditor Posts: 1,625 Group: .Grey Girls. Member #23 Joined: October 25, 2006	[size=7]PODCAST[/size] Losing My Mind – 4.15 BB: This week we’re here to discuss episode 4.15 Losing My Mind. Which kind of describes the two of us right now. We are losing our minds. Actually, losing my mind is kind of a good description. I think it’s accurate, I think it’s apt. BB: We actually in truth…I absolutely love this episode because this is a real turning point for Meredith. SR: I was really excited by this episode because we’d been talking, as you know the writers had been talking in creating these last episodes of the season just about how to grow Meredith. And sort of see her come to a place where she was a little bit more whole and healed. And what I really love about this episode is in the previous episode you know she’s had this great moment with Dr. Wyatt where she suggested that Dr. Wyatt is calling her a coward and she stormed out. And in this episode she sort of wants to quit. She wants to quit her therapy and she wants her file back. And she wants Dr. Wyatt to go away. And the thing is is Dr. Wyatt is perfectly happy to let her go away, but Meredith won’t admit that she’s quitting therapy she wants it to be clear that she’s fired Dr. Wyatt. And Dr. Wyatt’s not having any of it so Meredith can’t let it go which I love. BB: Well and then there’s the first of I think two to three scenes which are sort of penultimate for Meredith where actually she continues to try to fire Dr. Wyatt into the ladies room and Dr. Wyatt tries to pee in peace but then of course she’s confronted by Lexie who lays out every single problem Meredith has ever had in her life but still forgives her at which point even Meredith can’t deny that it (therapy) would be a good idea. And then of course that amazing final scene where she’s been through… SR: To me there are two amazing scenes. There’s the scene where she goes back to Dr. Wyatt, and Dr. Wyatt basically nails Meredith to the wall with the truth about Meredith waits for things to go wrong in a relationship so she can say “See you messed up” and walk away, but also the idea that Meredith is careless with her life. And brings up her mother and I think she calls Meredith’s mother a monster and Meredith says “Don’t ever talk about my mother again” and for me I always felt like you realize there’s something a little very wrong there and so in that last great moment when Meredith comes back in and sits down and says “My mother tried to kill herself when I was a child after the love of her life disappeared” it’s the first time Meredith’s really ever talked about that but it’s also sort of the first time Meredith’s ever admitted that..to me it’s the first time Meredith’s ever admitted that she plays a part in any of the stuff that’s gone wrong with her life. Any of the reasons why she can’t have a relationship, she’s always been sort of toughing it out. And blaming other people. But this was sort of the moment when she really comes clean. BB: I think that’s absolutely true and I think the weird thing about Meredith is that she sort of built an entire life on stoicism on being stoic but then quietly dying in different ways, which is this incredible combination and it’s also when you think about the fact that she has been hiding this from us you know for four seasons. SR: We do that on this show - I mean we’ve done it a lot. Derek hid his wife. We hide information but to me this was a detail that was really interesting and clearly sort of laid out from the beginning. From the whole idea of her mother telling her to be extraordinary to Meredith trying to drown herself in a bathtub to Meredith sticks her hand in a body cavity. BB: Well and also frankly to the point that from the very, very beginning of her story where she comes back to Seattle to take care of her mother. And when you think about most kids even with Alzheimer-ridden parents would not necessarily take a residency or an internship in the city so that she could take care of her there was something else going on and you never knew what it was. And also there had to have been something deeper fueling why she can’t commit. You know there’s that feeling why she has such a hard time loving. And just that one sentence is pretty devastating. SR: Yea, that pretty much tells you everything you need to know. Everything you needed to know about Meredith Grey in one sentence. BB: In one sentence, wow. That would have saved you a lot of writing! SR: That would have saved us about 75 episodes! BB: Around minute 10 of the pilot you could have said… everyone could have kept speaking their subtext and all would have been great. It would have worked out very, very differently. But I also…I love that, it’s one of the most horrifying moments ever and I remember actually when you came in and you told me what the whole idea of Greta and the imaginary love. And everyone believing that the love is imaginary. And this hideous fight that goes on between Derek and Meredith which is symbolically all about Derek and Meredith which is Derek believes and Meredith doesn’t, and then when Andre walks in and you can not believe that Andre has walked in, and he’s so beautiful, by the way. Just a side note. SR: I love the look on Meredith’s face when she’s standing there and they’re trying to talk to Andre like she can barely even glance at him. BB: It’s when she said, “We thought, I thought”. SR: Yea, it’s, it’s the whole point is that it’s everything she…for Derek the fairy tale comes true but it ends horribly which is what really happens to him. And for Meredith the very fact that there’s a possibility that a fairy tale could come true that you could actually have a happy ending is startling to her. BB: Absolutely. SR: And she feels like she ruined their happy ending. BB: Well and I think the morale of the story is don’t let your sister talk you out of things. Cause it’s that sister who just… SR: Or, you know, don’t believe anybody else. Follow your heart. It’s possible. But I loved just how beautiful it was, the idea that this woman truly believed in something. And I think that you as the audience kind of believe that there’s no Andre. BB: Oh you totally, I didn’t believe there was an Andre and you told me there was an Andre and then I kept not believing there was an Andre even though I knew there was an Andre. SR: When we did the read through the cast reads the script a lot of times for the first time at the table and when we did the read through with the cast when they said when Meredith had to say Andre’s here the entire table liked gasped in horror that he actually was there cause they all believed that poor Greta was just crazy. Because Ava’s obviously got some issues and it seemed like an episode called Losing My Mind about people with some issues so they pretty much assumed that Greta had some issues but it turned out Greta was not wrong. BB: Greta died thinking she was crazy. Which was the worst part. SR: Which was the worst part is that they took her ability to believe away from her. That horribly painful scene with Derek where she’s sitting there going “my tumor did this how can it not be real” and even Derek has to let it go. BB: Which just, you feel like it contributes to somebody’s lack of will to live. SR: Which tells you exactly why he then runs to the arms of Rose, basically. BB: Rose who’s like hopeful. Whose name is Rose for God’s sakes. You know? SR: There’s a simplicity about Rose. Things with Rose are not going to be complicated. BB: That’s what he says. Can we get a little happy? SR: He needs a little happy. SR: We don’t need the big fairytale thing we don’t need all the, the… You know cause like in Sleeping Beauty, that poor guy; he has to like fight a dragon to get to his girlfriend. I mean, think about it. BB: He does? SR: Oh yea, he literally has to fight a witch, and a dragon with the help of three fairies to get to his girlfriend… BB: This is what happens when you don’t have children, gentle listeners. Not a clue about this, I just sort of felt she fell asleep and that was bad… SR: Snow white all those dwarves are in the way and the apple and stuff… BB: Well the dwarves, and the apple and the mean woman with the dark hair. SR: Cinderella, mean stepsisters, glass shoe, whose gonna where it… BB: That story I know. That’s a good story. Cause they have mean sisters and there’s the whole thing of the scullery stuff. I like that. SR: He didn’t need any of all that. Yes, they all find great love in the end but the truth is, it’s hard to get there. What you need is like the nice girl next door. BB: You know, I gotta say, more and more this is getting like Dr. Phil. This is actually really great. It’s like I want to ask you some questions and maybe you can solve some problems for me today. Does this, do these shoes go with this top Shonda? SR: Sometimes they do. BB: Ok, good to know. SR: Follow your heart. Follow your heart. BB: It’s true, follow your heart. And also by the way Rose is sweet. I mean she eats nothing but candy; of course she’s sweet, by the way. SR: Hilarious. BB: Which I think is just hilarious. But there is something so incredibly straightforward about her. SR: That’s her biggest vice…Rose’s darkest vice is that she eats a lot of candy. She’s a simple girl with a dream. BB: She doesn’t drink tequila and screw boys like whores. SR: She doesn’t have random sex. She doesn’t try to marry them or drown herself. BB: No, precisely. SR: So she’s good. Umm…there are other things…George being the chief’s intern. BB: Which seems to actually be going somewhat well. SR: I thought so. It’s one of my favorite George episodes cause I love just I love that moment when he flies into the chief’s office and he’s got Tuck on his hip and he’s got the arms full of files. BB: Said “what are you doing with the baby”. SR: Yea, he’s juggling the baby and saying Dr. Bailey and I are in love and we’re off to Vegas and he tells the chief that the typo isn’t a typo, that Adele’s flirting with him. BB: It’s a wink. SR: I love all that stuff. It’s this very sort of wonderfully, charming moment. And then there’s this great moment when he’s walking down the hall with Tuck and he says you’re going to get the biting under control and I’m going to get my act together. You know you and me it takes us awhile… BB: I also love the “atta boy” SR: Yea BB: Like the whole idea of “I got an atta boy…that was an atta boy!” SR: It was just adorable. And what I love is that George, being the Chief’s intern, is sort of, he’s doing every job imaginable. He is babysitting. He is helping Bailey with her husband. He is helping the Chief with his girlfriend. He is running from here to there to here to there. He is dealing with Cristina who is angrier than I’ve ever seen her. BB: He’s dealing with Walter Tabot too. SR: Yea, Walter Tapley. Calls him O’Leary. BB: Which, you know Tapley never gets his name right, but he is the most highly respected and famous heart surgeon in the world and the hospital. And pretty much George is… SR: …Telling him he’s doing a nice job. And what I love is that George gets vulnerable enough to say to him “do you think you could say something nice to the Chief about me because you know I got left back.” And that’s the one moment when you realize that George really wants something very, very badly. That he is pushing down in the hopes that if he does all this work, he’ll get there. BB: It’s such a weird combination moment cause Tapley basically says “ You know he had a reason to do it if there was a reason and keep running.” And I feel for George cause you really want this guy in bed to basically say “Yea sure I’ll make a phone call for you son.” SR: To solve your problems and make things easier. BB: But no such luck. SR: And Cristina’s dark place is great. I loved the very idea that Cristina’s cleaning anything is unbelievable. BB: That she doesn’t understand that her vacuum won’t eat a shoe. SR: She was happy for her vacuum to eat a shoe. BB: She was trying to get the vacuum to eat a shoe. SR: She’s in this sort of dark place where she’s being incredibly mean. My favorite moment is when she and Meredith are sitting at lunch and she yells at Lexie and says all these horrible things and then she and Meredith sit there for a moment and then Meredith says, “it’s going to be ok.” And Cristina says, “wanna bet.” Cause to me, like Meredith’s still her friend Cristina is probably the only person – Meredith is probably the only person Cristina can look at without wanting to kill – cause that’s how it is when you feel that way, your best friend is really the only person you can talk to when you’re in that space. BB: It’s also the moment near the very beginning which I can certainly identify with when she looks at her and says “Are you in the dark place?” and she says “yea” and she goes “Yea, me too.” There both in their own dark places but it’s sort of the same dark place. Which is the one comforting thing. And also the weird thing is Cristina’s really, really mean. Cristina’s really honest. SR: That’s the thing… BB: She’s mean but honest. SR: Her meanness she’s true. Like when she tells Lexie at the end - Be a force of nature. Be, you know, somebody amazing. There are no teams here, be on your own, you’re on your own. That’s basically what she’s learned from Burke. BB: I also…there’s something happening too, which we haven’t talked about that much but I think the expectation for me was that Lexie and Meredith would have this thing which was Lexie and Meredith and then with my sister. Cristina and Lexie have started to have this incredibly interesting strange sisterly relationship which is much more what a sister relationship is like. SR: That Meredith can’t have with her. BB: Absolutely not. But also because Cristina is her intern, I mean her resident. Also by the way Sloan, Sloan and his new leaf. SR: Oh my God. I love that he has decided…that Bailey in the last episode said this man is a whore and he’s decided that he’s gonna sort of try to be a better man and it’s very hard for him. BB: Well especially when you got like two chicks kissing in front of you. SR: Well especially when you got two chicks talking about threesomes. Talking about sapphic salads and stuff. BB: The whole thing…the whole thing just seems like a big torture chamber for a man… SR: Cause I don’t know a lot about guys but I’m pretty sure that for guys girl on girl is pretty big. BB: This is what I’ve heard. That’s the rumor. SR: Anyway, the point is, is in the end when Hahn kisses Callie, and very much kisses her sort of because she can and she knows it’s going to make Mark Sloan crazy, I love that Callie is left stunned cause I don’t know, I think she might have felt something and I love that Mark is so turned on. BB: That last moment is the elevator is great. You don’t know who is more screwed up by it… SR: Yea, Callie or Mark. BB: Exactly, it’s just really, really wonderful. SR: They’re a very interesting triangle. Callie, Mark and Erika. BB: They sure are. They sure are. And you know what? I hold out for Mark Sloan. I still think that last season he did the right thing too. Like he actually… SR: He’s a good man. BB: He let Addison off the hook. I think he’s a good guy. Underneath all the crap, it’s interesting. SR: It’s very interesting. BB: But you know the thing is this is all leading up to our massive, massive… SR: Massive! BB: Double episode season finale Both: Huge Thursday 9 – 11 p.m. finale BB: Which is chock block full of a lot of stuff that you guys have been waiting for… SR: End of Season 4. Lots of kissing. BB: BTW, a lot of kissing. SR: A lot of kissing. BB: Serious kissing episode. SR: I’ve been in the editing room and you wouldn’t believe how much kissing I have to watch. BB: You know what? It’s a big box o’ kiss. SR: I got to watch a lot of kissing. BB: You did actually. You watched a ton of kissing. SR: People were kissing left and right and sideways…yea; it was just a lot of kissing. BB: I don’t think you even cut any kissing. I think all the kissing’s in there. SR: No all the kissing’s in there. BB: And there’s some kissing. SR: There’s a lot of kissing. BB: I’m not kidding about the kissing. Cause there’s some good kissing. SR: And there’s some surprises. BB: There are, some big surprises. Both: And after you’re done watching the big, giant two hour finale, Thursday 9-11 p.m. we will be back here to actually talk about it. We’ll be back. You’re gonna come back right? The two of us are gonna come back and we’re going to talk about it. But we’re not going to do it in editing. No. We’re going to do it back in our office where the phone rings and maybe a glass of wine and a little chat. Join us for wine cheese and chat. BB: Or some champagne to cheer the end of the season and the upcoming season 5. SR: Yes, season 5. BB: Thank you so much for actually listening to this. SR: We’re sorry… BB: Because it’s always astonishing when you do and umm… SR: This is Shonda… BB: And Betsy… Both: And this is Grey’s Anatomy! Posted: May 21 2008, Bright_N_Shiny/Ann


4.15 Losing My Mind · SEASON 4