Grey's Anatomy: Allan Heinberg On 'New History'

From this week's writers' blog:

Tonight’s episode, “New History,” is named after a song by Andy Davis, a sly and soulful singer/songwriter, whose protagonist has barely survived a bad breakup and now finds himself unsure whether or not he should embark on a new romance. He doesn’t know if he’s ready to trust his feelings and create what he calls “new history.”

I love the idea of “new history” because it perfectly captures the relationship so many of us have with the past. No matter how hard we try to let go of it –– to learn from it and move forward -- all we’re really doing is creating new history, trying to learn from past mistakes, but inevitably making new ones that will haunt us in the future.

The past, it would seem, is inescapable. Everything we are today is the product of who we were yesterday, last month, last year: the choices we made, the red lights we ran, the things said and maybe shouldn’t have, the people we loved, and the people we didn’t. So, how to make peace with the past? What can be done about the mistakes we made, the lies we told, and the people we hurt to get where we are today?

...

And then sometimes the past doesn’t stay in the past. Teddy’s arrival at Seattle Grace unleashes all manner of complications for Owen, Cristina, and herself. Cristina’s immediately suspicious that Owen and Teddy were more than friends during their time together in Iraq. Teddy confesses to Owen that she apparently misread their mutual history, and walks away from him, mortified. And Owen’s left haunted by Teddy’s confession, now forced to re-examine his own history -- and his feelings for both Teddy and Cristina.

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