S3 Writer's Blogs Burktina Excerpts

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S3 Writer's Blogs Burktina Excerpts
Topic Started: May 8 2007, 07:49 PM (37 Views)
merdermaid	May 8 2007, 07:49 PM Post #1
Posts: 157 Group: Grey Girls Member #254 Joined: April 24, 2007	Thanks for the Memories: In writing this episode, I discovered how much of a gentleman Burke really is. Out of kindness, he takes over the potential turkey-making disaster and finds a way to bond with Izzie. Which tells us a couple of things about him: 1) that he can make himself at home anywhere and 2) that he is in love with Cristina. Because why else would he do what he does on Thanksgiving? He loves her, pure and simple. And no one can tell me otherwise. I do wonder if they’ll make it as a couple. Because, I gotta tell you, it killed me to write that Cristina would rather spend the day in the operating room than with Burke. But it was the truth and I had no choice. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer I also loved that Justin decided to live in the end and that when he did, his health took a turn for the better. I loved that while Cristina wasn’t interested in coming around to Burke’s spirituality, she was desperate to save Justin’s life. And she was the right person to do it, because ultimately, she and Justin shared a belief-system, so she was the one who could say what he needed to hear. Which is another kind of family, isn’t it? It’s the “Tribe” thing I referenced in the end -- Cristina and Justin are in one another’s tribe. Whether or not the same can be said of Burke and Cristina remains to be seen, because as relationships go, I think Cristina was right – it’s easy to differ in terms of cleanliness or age or experience and still have a relationship – but to differ on fundamental philosophical/spiritual beliefs is much, much harder. I’m not saying they can’t overcome it, I’m just saying that when Cristina asked “What are we doing? I don’t know what we’re doing . .. “ that was rooted in a real and valid fear. What Have I Done To Deserve This (Krista’s follow up) The scene with Burke and Cristina dancing is my personal favorite in the history of Grey’s. It was so fabulously adorable and intimate and character-revealing all at once. Blues for Sister Someone [This is the Eugene Foot Episode.]But,the moment when Burke is most vulnerable is when he is in the on-call room with Cristina. See, I’d always thought (and I think that perhaps Burke did too) that Cristina loves Burke because of his composure and brilliance as a surgeon. We all know that Cristina looks down on George, who she is fond of, but doesn’t respect. And in this moment Burke confesses to Cristina that he was George. Things didn’t come naturally to him, he practiced. In this moment he sacrifices his poise to let her deeper into his psyche and Cristina, being Cristina could react in a multitude of ways. While writing the scene, I hoped that she would love him more – and I discovered that she did – and Shonda liked that discovery – but with Cristina you never know. If we the writer’s don’t know, then Burke certainly doesn’t know and I came to realize just how deep his love for her is. Because opening ourselves to the potential of colossal rejection is so very scary and it is the only way true intimacy is built. This is the first time we see them in a truly vulnerable intimate moment and she rises to the occasion. 17 Seconds As for the other thing that might have caught your attention at the end of the episode – namely Preston Burke lying on the ground with a bullet in him – that was a bad thing. At least none of our interns did that. At least, directly. Indirectly’s another story. After all, it was Izzie’s misbehavior that led to him rushing back to the hospital. Of course, he was being bad at the start of the episode -- punishing Cristina for falling asleep during sex by telling her she couldn’t go get the heart. Still, it’s not like he deserved to get shot. It’s funny, you write an episode with a theme in mind (in this case, anger management) and after you’ve filmed the thing, you start thinking about other possible themes. Like, say, “men behaving badly”. Petey the shooter behaves badly, Neal the bullet ducker behaves badly, Brad the boss behaves badly, Burke behaves badly and Derek is still behaving badly towards Meredith (and Addison for that matter). Deterioration of Fight or Flight/Losing My Religion Burktina: this episode is one of my favorites for both Burke and Cristina. If you look at where they began at the beginning of Season Two and how far they’ve come…. You just hate Cristina. You hate her when she walks away from Burke after seeing that he know has a hand tremor. And then you see her give that speech to the Chief (which by the way, Sandra Oh did brilliantly and perfectly EVERY SINGLE TAKE) and you see the struggle. Her struggle to suppress all of her humanity in pursuit of perfection. And in my mind, what we realize is that she is not cold. She is terrified. Scared that if she lets her emotions out, they will overtake her and she will be hurt. And you can’t hate her. Because it’s so incredibly human and understandable. There’s that moment when Burke tells Cristina that he won’t bear a grudge and it’s so sad because he means it. He doesn’t believe she has it in her to stay by his side. And then Denny dies and Cristina watches Izzie grieving and realizes that she has no other option but to go to Burke and cover his hand with her own. Because you can lose someone you love if you’re not careful. . . . . Burke’s Tremors: yeah, they were there. You saw them. It was a tough choice to make, maiming a surgeon, maiming BURKE for God’s sake, but it was necessary. What’s a hero without a few stumbles? And you know that it’s not the fall that is so interesting. It’s watching whether or not someone chooses to get back up and, when they, how they choose to rise. That’s what we’ll be watching for Burke to do –get up and rise well. Time Has Come Today It was a conscious choice on my part to not show Burke until the end except for the flashback at the mixer because I wanted you to watch the episode and either 1) pine for his presence or B) forget about him – until Cristina walks into his room at the end of the day. Then I wanted the power of what he means to Cristina to overwhelm us when he asks her how she is and then she begins to cry. “Don’t ever die” is one of my favorite Cristina lines ever. Look at how much she’s changed since that night at the mixer. I am a Tree I loved that Cristina stripped for Burke. Because all appearances to the contrary, she really isn’t all that selfish. Well, she isn’t only selfish. (And btw – how amazing is Diahann Carol? I don’t feel qualified to blog about her. So that’s all I’ll say. Just…Holy crap, y’know?) I loved when Burke brought his Mama a scone and just stood around stuttering like George. Sometimes a Fantasy Cristina’s decided she’s going to help Burke get back on the horse after his hand surgery, (so sweet, so generous, so unexpected from Cristina) and she’s going to do it by having him practice operating on dead chickens. What I Am And Burke’s single-minded determination to get back in the O.R. ends up taking his relationship with Cristina to an entirely unexpected, intensely intimate, and morally complicated place. Oh, The Guilt You didn’t think I’d forgotten about the Burktina of it all, did you? It was Burke’s first surgery… he HAD to go in. He could either live with the guilt of watching Mr. McStuckey quickly exsanguinate (doctor talk for “bleed to death”) on the table while they waited for another surgeon to come in or he could get in there and do what needed to be done. There’s that lingering question of “is he ready.” Cristina assures him she’ll be there. On his right side. They saved this life together. They pulled it off. They are in love, they’ll make this work, but when do you draw the line with love? Kind of makes the decision of which wallpaper to pick a little less life-altering, doesn’t it? Let The Angels Commit Until that final moment when Bailey sees Cristina writing and erasing things on that OR board…. And it hits her. There’s more to this than meets the eye. Which tells us all that clearly – things are about to get even more horrible for Cristina Poor Cristina. Seattle Grace’s own Lady Macbeth… what can I say about Cristina? She’s (barely) holding it all together. She and Burke have started this thing – they have become a team, a well oiled machine, only… how long do they really think they can keep something like this up? Theirs is a temporary fix to potentially very big problem… they’ve barely been able to put their system into place and already, it’s beginning to unravel. But the thing to remember is this – Cristina is the definition of Ham. She is doing precisely what she has to do to protect Burke – whether it earns her points or burns bridges with her friends or her colleagues – she’s doing what it takes. Because she’s committed. Where the Boys Are Burke’s not happy with Cristina and how she’s coming to dominate his life. That’s why the camping trip. But he sees the anguish that George is putting himself through with Callie and thinks he may have been a little rough on Cristina. Which was a mistake. He returns and they’re reconciled. At least for now. Staring at the Sun Cristina and Burke are certainly heading for some kind of showdown. She’s helped him get back in the game, but it’s pretty obvious that Burke’s ego has taken a bit of a beating. That being said, he still does have the tremor and Cristina really is stepping it up in his surgeries. Just how long can these two keep it together? Who’s going to crack first? Can they keep their secret a secret? George and Burke’s friendship seems to be caught in the crossfire. But can you blame George for worrying about who’s going to operate on his father? That last shot of Cristina and Burke, in bed, and the simple “George knows” speaks absolute volumes. As they say, you can run, but you can’t hide. The truth always has a way of revealing itself. From a Whisper to a Scream And at the wheel, driving this betrayal band wagon is Cristina. And Burke. And their frickin crazy ass secret. That secret is such a big honking betrayal. Think back over the course of this season; it makes your head spin how many of our people were betrayed because of it. Bailey, Richard, Derek, Meredith, George, everyone, take a number and get in line. And the thing is Cristina and Burke know this. And it is killing them. And so it has to end. Choice and circumstance got them into this. They became a team and the team piled up victories in surgery after surgery. They saved lives, lost none. But the cost outside surgery kept going up. The walls started closing in on Cristina. She may be a part robot but she is also part human (that’s in fact true). She’s exhausted, scared and trapped. And it gets worse everyday. Burke is a man of such integrity, even if he believes he is recovered – and he absolutely does – not being completely forthright with Derek, or Richard, or Bailey, or anyone, is wrong. He’s betrayed all of them and that eats away at who he really is. And so it has to end. Burke is about to tell Derek the truth when Derek presents him with an emergent surgery. Then Alex interrupts with another emergent case. Choice and circumstance force them into surgery one more time but in this surgery Burke orders Cristina to the other side of the OR table. The team is done. Burke is done. Cristina is done. We don’t know what Cristina says to Richard. All we know is that she beat Burke to it and that breaks Burke’s heart. And probably Richard’s as well. He was going to step down, go back to Adele. He’d chosen a successor. This was a huge decision. He loves Seattle Grace and would only leave it in the hands of someone he trusts completely. Now what? Don’t Stand So Close to Me Speaking of Burke, let me address the Burktina of it all… So Cristina did this thing… she told on her attending, on her boyfriend. She told on him because she thought it was the right thing to do. But Burke disagrees. He feels like he was going to handle the situation and that Cristina just got ahead of him, and that by doing so, she betrayed him. So now this stubborn pairing has reached an impasse. Neither is talking to the other. They are existing in close proximity… they live in the same apartment, they work in the same hospital… but they’re keeping their emotional distance. And for a while, we think that maybe this is IT for them. Caput. The End of Burktina. But then, when Derek says he’s going to go take another look at Burke’s shoulder… Cristina gets on the elevator to go with them. The relationship may be at an impasse, but this is her Preston Burke, and she’s sticking by him. And so Burktina continues on… limping… but alive. In his effort to come to grips with his own problems, Burke has caused much trouble around the hospital. He’s damaged not only his reputation, but also the self-assurance of some of his fellow surgeons. Great Expectations (the proposals) Lets talk about the fact that Cristina and Burke are probably still having a lot of sex, despite their silent situation. Walk on Water . . . [A]nd Cristina and the notion that, in choosing to marry, she fears that she is LITERALLY being left behind in more ways than having to stay at the hospital while everyone goes to the accident site. They were all about Derek and Burke and their conversation about “these women” and Richard and his badly dyed hair. My thoughts were all about disappearing. Sometimes a Miracle For me, what emerged were the love stories. Not just between Derek and Meredith, but between Cristina and Meredith. That essential friendship. Cristina walking out was something that was hotly debated here. Apparently – that’s not good doctoring (I’m new!) But it felt right. If not now, when? Meredith is Cristina’s person. Scars and Souvenirs I’m not going to get into the Meredith, and the Derek, and the dinner, and the father, and Cristina and Burke and Colin, who we love, not just for his dashing British accent, but it certainly doesn’t hurt, . . . My Favorite Mistake Let’s not forget about Burke and Cristina. Tonight, we got a glimpse of Cristina’s first ever musings on her upcoming wedding. Hey, at least it’s good to know that the wedding is still on. Because when Colin Marlowe showed up in the last episode, things got pretty intense in Burktina-land/ Colin’s arrival threw a serious wrench in Cristina’s plans. And, over the course of this episode, no matter how bad Cristina wanted things with Burke to go back to normal, she realized that they can’t. Because Burke isn’t interested in that. He wants to move forward. He wants Cristina to commit to this wedding. He basically wants Cristina to change her ways. And, she does. A little. Because, much like Cristina’s diabetes patient, Doug, she doesn’t have much of a choice. When Cristina tells Doug that, even though he lost his foot, he still has a lot left to lose – she’s talking about herself. She realizes she’s got to give Burke something, because she’s in grave danger of losing him if she doesn’t. So, that’s what Cristina’s doing with all of that talk about City Hall and mosquito netting. Desire And finally Burke and Cristina. Burke wants his relationship with Cristina to work. He wants her to choose that wedding cake. We know what that cake means to him when he sits down with Izzie in the conference room at the end of the episode. This cake. For this day. With this woman. And in the end, Cristina does choose a cake. The red one. The red velvet. And Burke has hope again. He’s wanted this wedding all along. And he’s thinking, hell, maybe now she’s finally on board. Maybe she finally wants this thing just as much as he does. Maybe, just maybe, they’re finally heading in the right direction. The question, of course, is does Cristina feel that way? She loves the guy enough to have made little compromises along the way. But is this whole wedding thing her P enis-Fish ? The Other Side of This Life Cristina’s facing the fact that she’s going to have to compromise what she wants yet again for Burke.



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