Grey's Anatomy -- A Death And A Departure

Shonda Rhimes took to Twitter to tweet her side of the story to justify the fact that the Mark and Lexie fans she's been stringing along all season would be getting no kind of pay-off. What she doesn't seem to get or understand is she had plenty of time to have Mark and Lexie get back together. In the episode two episodes before the finale, Lexie told Mark she loved him. Rhimes could have had them get together in the next episode and give Mark and Lexie fans some moment of happiness seeing them together. Instead she wasted the entire episode with having Mark not knowing what to decide. Rhimes knew what she was going to do to them in the finale, and by not having them reunite before she did what she did just added insult to injury. So she can tweet all she wants to justify what she did in the finale, but it's not in the finale that she wrong Mark and Lexie fans. It's by stringing them along and not giving them any kind of pay-off.

I have to say the way Meredith woke-up in the jungle or woods was a little too Lost's Jack Shephard for me. Only thing missing was the extreme one eye close-up. Cristina shakes Meredith out of her staring stupor and Meredith pops up wanting to know where Derek is. Cristina says Derek got sucked out of the plane when they hit the trees. Meredith goes running off to try and find Derek, calling for him. Derek hears her, but she can't hear him when he yells back. He doesn't seem to have the strength to yell louder. His hand has gone through a piece of metal and he uses a rock to hit it. For some reason Meredith doesn't hear his blood-curdling scream. I think we can see a mile in advance where this story is going. Derek won't be able to perform surgery any longer.

Mark finds Lexie trapped under a section of the plane. Cristina needs Mark to pop her shoulder back in place. When she asks Lexie about her injuries she knows it's hopeless and Lexie is going to die. And I'm hoping that Cristina is just being negative and that there's still hope. I mean, Mark and Lexie never got back together and the show has been teasing about it all season. I mean, what kind of shitty writer would kill Lexie off before she and Mark even got together. Where would the pay-off be for the fans who had been hanging on patiently waiting for Mark and Lexie to reunite? This is why I believed Arizona would be the one to die.

Unfortunately, I failed to take into consideration that Callie and Arizona are Shonda Rhimes lesbian poster couple. I don't mean to offend anyone, but it's the truth. You look at the way Rhimes tortures couples like Derek and Meredith and Owen and Cristina and then you look at Callie and Arizona who hardly have a bubble of trouble. So, even though it would have made more stories to kill off Arizona, Rhimes will never do that. Calzona are sacrosanct as far as she's concerned.

Arizona has a nasty leg injury and coughed up blood, but otherwise she's fine. She's keeping the pilot company whose trapped in the cockpit. He has no feelings in his legs. When Cristina walks by looking for supplies she goes to examine the pilot and it typical Cristina fashion she answers his question about the paralysis being temporary. She jabs him in the leg with what looks like a pen and he can't feel it, then she walks away.

Cristina finds Meredith who is still looking for Derek and she tells her she should come and see Lexie who she feels doesn't have much time left. And Cristina is right. Mark and Lexie declare their love for each other and Mark says they were meant to be and she repeats that and dies. She's dead before Meredith can ever make it to where she's trapped under the plane. I was pretty shocked how fast Rhimes killed off Lexie and if the woman thinks that short scene of Mark and Lexie declaring their love is any kind of pay-off for Mark and Lexie fans, she really needs a reality check.

Meredith goes back out in the woods looking for Derek and this time she finds him. But the minute they see each other, he falls to the ground and passes out. They tie a tourniquet around Derek's arm to stop the bleeding, but he says they need to remove it or he's going to end up losing his arm. He tells Meredith to bring his skin together by sticking a safety pin through both gaping ends. She prays he passes out and he starts screaming as she does it.

Cristina gets pissed off that Mark is just sitting by Lexie's side holding her hand looking totally out of it when they need help. She stomps over to him to have it out with him. When she tries to shake some sense into him he falls over and that's when she discovers Mark is wounded and has blood all over his chest.

Cristina, Meredith and Derek have to do surgery on Mark using whatever items they can find to substitute for the real thing. They manage to save Mark's life and Arizona looks after him. At one point, Mark is about to let go so he can be with Lexie, but Arizona convinces him to hang on for her, Callie and the baby. And he says he will.

The group hears a helicopter flying overhead, but it doesn't see them, and hope for being rescued is dashed. Meredith tells Owen even though she's married to Derek, Cristina is still her person. She's still a bit stung from Cristina saying Owen was her person now. Cristina says she's sure Owen will find someone to rescue them. They use their last match and no longer have a fire. Cristina is trying to get everyone to stay awake and not fall asleep, but hypothermia may be starting to settle in on them. And that's how the finale leaves the plane crash victims.

Back at the hospital Richard plans a goodbye dinner for all the residents and none of them want to go. Alex is pissed that Arizona made sure he couldn't see any patients in pediatrics before she left on the plane. Jackson tells April he's going to take the job in Tulane. April says she loves what Jackson made her when they slept together, but also hates the fact she won't be a virgin for the man she marries. They're the only ones who show up at Richard's dinner as Richard says they'll wait for the others to show up. No one still has no idea about the plane crashing.

Owen learns Teddy turned down a prestigious job offer and figures that's why Teddy was so desperate to get Cristina to stay at the hospital, so she could take the job. Teddy admits she's staying out of loyalty to Owen, because his life is in a total mess and she can't desert him. Owen's having none of that, however. He fires Teddy so she'll leave and take the job. After they share a tearful goodbye, where Teddy urges Owen not to give up on getting Cristina back, Owen gets several messages about the residents not showing up at the hospital. So in the final moments of the finale someone is finally alerted that something is wrong.

Despite the fact that Ben took a job that will make him and Bailey have to have a commuter relationship, Bailey agrees to marry him.

I thought the plane crash victims would be rescued before the credits rolled. That they weren't, I can see just what Rhimes would have done to Derek, Meredith and Cristina if the actors hadn't renewed their contract. In the new season she would have written that they all died from their injuries in the plane crash. Good thing the actors renewed their contract. As for Chyler Leigh, after so many actors had to renew their contracts at the same time, with raises in pay no doubt, I'm guessing their wasn't enough money left to pay Leigh and that's the real reason Lexie got crushed under a plane. Kind of similar to what happened to April on the show.

Speaking of April, I bet Lexie's death will be how she gets rehired at the hospital. In short, April will be the new George. Always behind the other residents because she failed the boards. Watch out for buses, April, since George eventually got crushed under a bus.

A guess at next season's stories are: Cristina takes over Teddy's job at the hospital. Meredith stays at Seattle Grace-Mercy West because Derek can no longer perform surgery. April will feel guilty for having a job because Lexie is dead and Lexie's love ones may resent April for being there becaus Lexie is gone.

As finales have gone, I think this has been one of the weakest to date.