Spoilers for Season 9 Premiere of GA and also slightly for Private Practice Season 5

[bm_shipper]

[...I don't think there are many shows that get rid off SO many of their main characters in that way... (Spoilers for Grey's Anatomy & Private Practice!)]I'm sorry, I can't help, I just have to rant about the death of my VERY favourite character of all - Mark Sloan - and even though I haven't even watched the episode (so I can still live in my "head canon" where he got saved and found a new love -.-), but of COURSE I know that they killey Mark off

Comments

[philstar22]

I don't think that the actor had decided to leave at the point of the season final. A lot of this is based on actors choosing to leave. Mark survived the final, but then when the actor chose to leave Shonda decided to kill him.

And honestly, I can't think of any other way to write him out. He has a daughter who he'd never, ever abandon. So nothing short of death would make him leave Seattle.

[liquidmistletoe]

And honestly, I can't think of any other way to write him out. He has a daughter who he'd never, ever abandon. So nothing short of death would make him leave Seattle.

Agreed

[preciate_ya]

I thought an elevator scene for him and Lexie would have been nice (and a nice way to connect to the comments in the footage they show from C/A's wedding), but maybe it wouldn't work, since she didn't die there.

[philstar22]

Personally, I really don't ship Mark/Lexie, so I was happy that didn't happen. And I doubt Chylar would come back for the one episode anyway.

[snowflake_girl]

first of all, he wasn't alive and fighting, he was nearly dead in the season finale ... and obviously, we're going to get the whole story next week, or at least in the weeks to come. That's not shitty writing, it's actually really GOOD writing, not doing the expected, chronological story, but flipping it and telling it another way.

[museandme]

Have you read Shonda's explanation on why she killed off the characters? Then you would understand as a lot of things have been explained. ;)

I knew when Eric Dane announced that he was leaving (AFTER the finale), he would die. He would never leave SGH because he would never leave his daughter. And seeing what happened to Arizona, he would never leave Callie to deal with Arizona on her own. I think make Mark leave without dying would be BAD writing.

A lot of things that happened was due to the actors contract deals and their decision to be killed off (Chlyer Leigh wanted to be killed off) so it was out of Shonda's hands..

As for Pete, I thought they would send him to jail but then it would be odd that he's in jail but we never see him on screen. At least with him dying, you can explain his visual absence on the show

[willow_lives]

AGREED!

[hefalumpapooh]

I read Rhimes's post too. Nothing she wrote surprises me. Just go back and read her blog postings from Grey Matter. She's always been this way ("the characters made me do it!" I don't think the characters made her write in a plane crash :P).

Yet one thing she could have done is to not have Arizona losing her leg. Then they could have written Mark out. Yes he would have never left his daughter but they could have had him go visit his other daughter or go to Africa or even another hospital across town. Grief can make us do things that are out of character. He could have taken a leave of absence and been a stay-at-home dad (b/c of his grief). 98% of the show focuses on the hospital anyway.

Also I think the Arizona leg storyline is blah. I don't think they are going to do this story justice. From what I've seen in the post-first episode interviews they are going to make this a "Arizona will overcome storyline," which does a disservice (and can be offensive) to those with disabilities. Maybe GA will prove me wrong.