Praise for Sandra for the season finale of Grey's Anatomy:
- But at the chapel, pre-march, Cristina freaked out because she had accidentally washed off the vows written on her hand, and the lag time spent talking her down was enough to convince Burke that she didn't want to get married. So after another big speech from him to her in the entrance to the chapel, he dumped her! No kidding. And I wonder if, when the writers wrote the scene, they realized how good Sandra Oh was going to be at pleading with Burke; it seems to me no real groom who'd written vows as loving as Burke's would give up on his bride in that moment, especially if she could do that worried tick-tocking thing with her eyeballs that helped make Oh's performance here so affecting.
Sandra Oh had an amazing breakdown on screen in her last scene, as Cristina got home and realized Burke had taken his trumpet, vinyls, and picture of Grandma and moved out. ''I'm free!'' she cried, before she started yanking off her dress and freaking out with such amazing fury that it became impossible to know quite what Cristina meant by that line. The ambivalence of it was electrifying — in that respect, it resembled something you might see on The Sopranos — and it's the single best thing to mull over while you're waiting for the show to come back again for season 4. - Entertainment Weekly
- Can we say "Emmy moment" with Sandra Oh's final scene when Cristina realized Burke had moved out? "I'm free! Take this off," as she tearfully removed the Burke family heirloom choker and her tight wedding dress. - TV Guide
- 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 so 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. - Shonda Rhimes
- I love Cristina's insistence that Mer get the dress off her right away as she rips at the Burke family heirloom choker she's wearing. How awesome is Sandra Oh? Every time Cristina has a catastrophe of some kind, she nails it -- always a bright spot in what's otherwise a lackluster episode. She says a lot of things, but the one that I pick up on is "I'm free." Huh. Maybe she will make it through this after all. - Houston Chronicle
- Well I've got to hand it to Sandra Oh because damn that woman can act. Like the ever-fabulous Felicity Huffman, Oh can shine no matter what her surroundings and script. The final moments when she realized she was free but now that she was she didn't want to be were heart-wrenching and so believable. - TV Gal, zap2it.com
- I will say I was blown away by Sandra Oh's performance as she melted down after being left at the altar. - Matt Roush, TV Guide
