Didn't We Almost Have It All?

This article is about the Grey's Anatomy episode. For the Whitney Houston song, see Didn't We Almost Have It All.
"Didn't We Almost Have It All?"
Grey's Anatomy episode

An episodic screenshot displaying Burke leaving Cristina at the altar.
Episode no. Season 3
Episode 25
Directed by Rob Corn
Written by Tony Phelan and Joan Rater
Production code 325
Original air date May 17, 2007 (2007-05-17) (ABC)
Guest appearance(s)

"Didn't We Almost Have It All?" is the third season finale and the 61st overall episode from the medical drama series, Grey's Anatomy. The episode runs for 53:05 minutes, making it the longest episode of the series, excluding two-part episodes.

The episode marked Isaiah Washington (Dr. Preston Burke)'s final appearance to the series until Season 10, Episode 22 entitled 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together'. It was Kate Walsh (Addison Montgomery)'s last episode with regular billing who became a main character in Grey's Anatomy's spin-off Private Practice and Chyler Leigh (Dr. Lexie Grey)'s last appearance with recurring billing as she would be upgraded to a series regular in season four. Loretta Devine (Adele Webber), Diahann Carroll (Jane Burke), Tsai Chin (Yang's mother), Elizabeth Reaser (Rebecca Pope), Steven W. Bailey (Joe), Jack Yang (Walter) all reprised their role as guest stars.

Plot

The episode opens to a voice-over narrative from Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.). Addison gets to the ER with the woman from the bar, the previous episode. Burke starts treating her and decides that the babies must be born. Joe and Walter adopt them. Derek, Mark and Bailey start treating the climber. The other climbers eventually talk to the police. Cristina tries to write her vows. Callie writes them on Cristina's hand. At work, Cristina discovers that the wedding has given her the day off. Jeff Pope arrives and hugs Rebecca. Alex asks Jeff why he didn't search for his wife before. Rebecca wants Alex, but he tells her to stay with her 'decent guy'. Derek tells Meredith that he met a girl in the bar. Meredith seems confused. Meanwhile, Adele has a miscarriage, revealing Richard was the father. Mama Burke forces Cristina to remove her eyebrows; she panics and convinces Bailey to let her scrub in. Bailey agrees, having found out that Callie is the new chief resident. Derek removes the axe from the fourth climber while Burke treats the new babies. Callie and George agree to have children, but Izzie tells George she's in love with him. The interns receive their test results. George hides the fact that he didn't pass. Derek feels Meredith is taking him for granted. She evades responding and goes to the chapel. Mark, Addison and Burke are rejected as Chief candidates. At the chapel, Burke finds out Derek is not the new Chief, though Derek doesn't explain. Addison tells Alex to fight for Rebecca. Outside SGH, Bailey and George talk. She thinks that she failed him, but he says: "I failed you". Alex decides to find Rebecca. Callie tells Izzie she is planning to have a baby; Izzie is stunned. Cristina realizes that she washed her vows off when she scrubbed in, and freaks out. Meredith convinces her to go on. Burke sees the delay and calls off the wedding, feeling he has forced her to change. He walks away. Meredith tells everybody that it is over. She looks at Derek, and leaves the Chapel. Cristina arrives at Burke's apartment. He's gone. Cristina starts shaking uncontrolablly and crying. To calm her down, Meredith squeezes and hugs her. George runs into the new interns, and meets Lexie Grey, Meredith's half sister. Richard tells Derek he is the new Chief, but Derek suggests he start over. We see the Chief looking over the Hospital.

Production

A photo of the First Baptist Church, in Los Angeles
The First Baptist Church of Los Angeles is the place where the wedding was shot.

After an off-screen incident, in which Isaiah Washington aimed a homophobic slur at gay actor T.R. Knight, ABC chose not to renew Washington's contract, making "Didn't We Almost Have It All?" his final appearance to the series.[1] It was also the last episode to feature Chyler Leigh as a guest star, since she was promoted to star billing in the season four premiere[2] and Kate Walsh's last regular episode as she would only make guest appearances in the future, due to her being a main character on the Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice.

The wedding scenes were filmed at the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles.[3] Kenneth Pool designed the Amsale wedding dress worn by Cristina.[4]

Music

Reception

Maureen Ryan from the Chicago Tribune wrote that the episode was "as overstuffed as a clown car at the circus." She added: "That finale was just too much for me. Too much padding, too much repetition, too many characters forced into ridiculous situations", citing as example Adele Webber's pregnancy at 52. She criticized Shepherd for being arrogant and condescending.[5] Salon.com's TV critic Heather Havrilesky found that Shepherd's threat to break up with Grey came in a bad timing after what she went through during the season and wondered why he did not so when she questioned their relationship. She then wrote: "Grey’s Anatomy has countless charms — snappy yet moving dialogue, nice-looking humans, fast-moving story lines. But lately one of those strengths — those hurtling plotlines — seems to be killing creator Shonda Rhimes’ golden goose." Havrilesky cited Sandra Oh as one of the episode's highlight deeming her "fantastic" and "believable", and named the moment when Yang goes home to find Burke and breaks down the best scene of the finale.[6]

Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Gregory Kirschling thought that "as a finale, maybe the show lacked a defining happy, warm-gooseflesh moment" but that in comparison to normal episodes, this one was "well above average". To him, Shepherd's speech to Grey before the start of the wedding was the highlight of the episode, explaining he likes to see "these two flailing hot people — he soft, she hard — trade well-turned TV wooing dialogue. It still works; it's still romantic." However, he considered what followed, Grey's non-response, not romantic and though he likes their goo-goo courtship scenes together, he wrote it was time for them to be happy together. Kirschling criticized the choice of Torres as Chief of residents instead of Bailey. He praised Oh's performance in the episode, especially during Burke's dumping speech calling it "so affecting" and in her last scene, which he described as "an amazing breakdown".[7] Commenting on the finale, Andy Dehnart of MSNBC wrote that the stories were completed "in mostly unsatisfying, occasionally depressing, and sometimes illogical ways that will leave the show decidedly changed."[8]

References

  1. ↑ Finn, Natalie (June 7, 2007). "Isaiah Washington Fails Anatomy, "Mad as Hell"". E! Online. NBCUniversal. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  2. ↑ Ingrassia, Lisa (July 11, 2007). "Grey's Anatomy Welcomes New Cast Member". People. Time Inc. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Shooting In Church". Sandra Oh News. May 2, 2007. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Amsale bridesmaid gowns in Grey's ceremony". Onewed.com. May 11, 2009. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  5. ↑ Ryan, Maureen (May 22, 2007). "The 'Grey's Anatomy' way: If some is good, then way too much is better!". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Company. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  6. ↑ Havrilesky, Heather (May 18, 2007). "Finale wrap-up: "Grey's Anatomy"". Salon.com. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  7. ↑ Kirschling, Gregory (May 20, 2012). "Yanging Our Chain". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  8. ↑ Dehnart, Andy (May 21, 2007). "The 'Grey's' we've known is over ... so over". MSNBC. Retrieved August 14, 2012.

External links

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