Shonda Rhimes Discusses Season 3 Finale

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Season 3 of Grey's Anatomy began with Meredith helping an emotionally wrecked Izzie out of her prom dress and ended last night with Meredith helping a bawling Cristina out of her wedding gown.

Shonda Rhimes, as she puts it, likes symmetry.

Below are excerpts from her blog, in which she discusses the events of last night's finale, "Didn't We Almost Have it All," and what's in store for us in the fall when Grey's Anatomy returns for Season 4, now that she's "burned everything to the ground" in the third campaign ...

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This season was very important to me. It wasn't as light as Season 2 and for good reason. Our characters were in a darker place. I needed to put Meredith's mother to rest, Izzie's grief to rest, and the race for Chief to rest. George needed to grow up on a monumental level and then come full circle to where he was when we first met him in the pilot.

Meredith had to finally try to face the fact that she's damaged when it comes to relationships. I wanted to put Bailey on a path of questioning her standing as The Chosen One. Both Burke and Derek needed to hit a relationship wall, each in their own ways. Then there's Cristina.

Oh, the Cristina of it all.

What Season 3 is about most of all - for all of our women - is the idea of "having it all" is a myth. And that was true for Cristina more than anyone. Slowly, over the course of the season, we've watched as hard-nosed Yang sliced off little pieces of herself to accommodate Burke.

From helping Burke hide his tremor to Colin Marlowe telling her she's not the woman he knew to prepping for the wedding, she slowly morphs from kickass surgeon-girl into a woman we don't quite recognize in that wedding dress with penciled eyebrows.

I wanted you to have the feeling in the finale that she's become this painted doll - beautiful, everyone's fantasy bride, but a painted doll all the same. No longer our Cristina Yang. There's that wonderful moment where she begs Bailey to let her cut because a part of her knows she's becoming someone she doesn't recognize.

And then, just as she's lost almost all of herself standing there in that gown ready to walk down the aisle, Burke is telling her that he can't marry her. Because even Burke realizes that this Cristina is not his Cristina. It's devastating.

I hope you noticed that in the beginning of the episode Cristina talks about a heart as a purely anatomical thing ("it pumps blood") and then Burke's vows are all about the heart as an emotional thing ("I promise to lay my heart in the palm of your hands") and it's so sad to realize that they have completely opposing views of the world.

I feel for Burke and you should too because he knows that, in a way, by leading, pushing, cajoling her down this path to being together, he's done this to her - he's changed her. That the only way to save her from disappearing completely is to set her free.

And then in that wonderfully painful moment (how much do we love Sandra Oh and her incredible talent?) in the apartment, Cristina turns to Meredith and says "He's gone. I'm free. Damn it."

And it's so nuanced and layered and so tragic because she's relieved and terrified and heartbroken and suffocated all at once. Watching her journey back from this is going to be amazing next season.

George and Izzie and Callie: you all have your opinions, very strong opinions, on how you feel about this love triangle. I'm glad â€" strong opinions mean you care what happens.

In the finale, Izzie's declaring herself and Callie's fighting for her rightful territory. That moment when Callie casually lets Izzie know that she's not only been named Izzie's boss but that she and George are trying to have a baby is very interesting.

Callie's saying "don't mess with me" in the only way she knows how. About the baby thing - for the record, I am very strongly against anyone trying to have a baby to save a relationship. It's crazy because it never works and I highly recommend you don't do it.

Plus it goes against every feminist bone in my body. But it is also human to delude yourself into believing that you're not having a baby to save your relationship, that instead having a baby is a way of taking your relationship to the next level.

And Callie gives that great speech about her hormones and her body.

I've been there and I know that it is real, this sudden baby rush that happens and, if you are firmly into your career, it freaks you out. Callie's just being as honest as she knows how to be with George.

Because she can't bring up Izzie again - not when the last time she brought it up, George called Izzie a supermodel thereby suggesting that Callie was, well…not.

Continue reading the rest of Shonda's blog here ...

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.

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Grey's Anatomy Quotes

[walking by Izzie's room]
Meredith: Hot.
Sadie: Horny.

Sexual sorbet? Hahaha! I love it.

Bailey