Grey's Anatomy: Mark Wilding on 'Invasion'

From this week's writers' blog:

The theme of the episode was “Invasion”. It seemed appropriate. New doctors were coming over from Mercy West. Callie’s Dad was paying an unwelcome visit to the hospital with the family priest in tow. Billy the Burglar got beat up after he broke in to or “invaded” a golfer’s house. And Arizona based her whole speech on the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor – which was also an invasion of sorts. All sorts of folks were coming from the outside and invading our people’s space. The first time we see Jackson Avery, he’s jogging towards the hospital, almost running into Cristina. And then the next thing you know he’s leaning across Alex in the elevator to choose his floor. Annoying! Invasive! Just plain…rude! And from her sick bed, where she’s recovering from her liver donation to Thatcher the previous week, an undaunted Meredith has taken charge. “This is our ship!” The question is, are our people up for the fight? Well first, let’s talk about those new residents, the doctors they’re going up against…


Reed, Charles, April and Jackson. The Mercy West crowd. Who are just as insecure and uncertain about their new situation as our people. And our residents are understandably nervous because, like any invader, these MW guys are a threat. They’re smart, they fight dirty if they have to and, like our residents, they’re not going down without a fight. Of course, our people don’t know that at the beginning of the episode. But they sure do by the end. They’ve been in a helluva dog fight. When we see Mercy West’s orange-clad foursome at the end of the episode, surveying their surgical domain from the exact same place where our people were at the beginning of the episode, we know that they’re here to stay. They’re just as determined to make this their new home as our people were when they first came to the hospital.

The new actors – their real names are Nora, Robert, Jesse and Sarah -- were a blast to work with. I probably should have known all their credits and what shows they’ve been on before we started shooting but I didn’t. And none of that mattered because they were all so strong. And then when I saw them on screen, they looked great and were wonderfully believable as real doctors. Which was a great relief and should make for a fun rest of the season. So, let’s talk about the pairings.

Jackson and Cristina. I liked them going toe to toe and especially loved Cristina finally deciding to hold up the white flag of surrender. Throwing in the surgical towel. We’ve been hinting in the previous episodes that without a Cardio God, she just doesn’t have her heart in it anymore. And as for Sandra Oh -- in the scene when she’s crying with Meredith (and pining for Burke), well, my God, she was superb.

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