Grey's Anatomy: There Can Be Miracles When You Believe

We mentioned in an earlier post that season 8 could be Sandra's final season on Grey's Anatomy if she chooses not to renew her contact. Grey's boss, Shonda Rhimes, addressed this issue in an interview with TV Line, saying that because next season could be the original cast's final season, season 8 will be spent "doing nothing but telling stories about the originals". Sounds too good to be true, non?

Read more about this and her take on Cristina/Owen in the season finale in the interview below:

Fans of Grey’s Anatomy‘s grand Meredith-Derek romance need to know — in the wake of the unsettling events of Thursday night’s season finale — that series creator Shonda Rhimes aims to have the end justify the means, as the ABC drama enters what may be the final season for Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey, whose deals expire in a year.

TVLine spoke with Rhimes the morning after the assorted emotional bombshells were dropped, solidly rattling Meredith’s newly official marriage, Cristina’s future with Owen, and Alex’s latest (and failed) bid to move past Izzy.

TVLINE | Do you think you steeled yourself enough for the blowback from Meredith/Derek fans? Or did you feel you had some “capital” to spend, having just given them a wedding?

I don’t know if I steeled myself for the blowback. I’m sure there’s going to be some, but I’m not even sure I thought about it. I was busy thinking about setting us up for next season, which might be the final season for the [original cast members]. I wanted to spend next season doing nothing but telling stories about the originals, and I felt like in order to do that, we wanted to put everybody in a place where the focus was squarely on Meredith and Derek, Cristina, Alex….

.....


TVLINE | I was going to bring up Ellen’s quote from a year ago, where she said she would “probably not” renew her contract after Season 8. But it sounds like you’re preparing for next season to be her and Patrick’s “last hurrah.”

It might be the last hurrah for a lot of them; you never know. I really don’t know and I don’t presume to know. Everybody [including Chandra Wilson, Justin Chambers and James T. Pickens] has an individual choice to make and I get that. It’s been seven really amazing years. Everyone has a choice to make. All the originals are in play.

TVLINE | You’ve done an excellent job of having Cristina stick to her guns on the baby issue – do you think you can hold your ground and in fact have a lead character on a Big 4 network’s pride-and-joy terminate her pregnancy? Or realistically are there other factors in play?

No one’s ever told me I couldn’t, so it never occurred to me I couldn’t. It is a polarizing issue, and we deal with a lot of polarizing issues. Addison performs abortions on Private Practice all the time, and she’s had one herself; Violet has had two herself. I don’t feel like that’s the point. Every woman has her legal, God-given right to choose.

TVLINE | Are we counting Cristina and Owen as a “Break-Up”?

[Thinks for a moment] I don’t know. That one, I don’t know. I’m still debating what’s going to happen with Cristina and Owen, in my own head. Every day I change my mind about what’s going to happen with them.

There are enough cast members on Grey's Anatomy to make up two shows, so a spin-off for the rest perhaps for this to actually be possible? :D We'll believe it when we see it.

Here is a reminder what was said in another interview last year before season 7:

Shonda Rhimes: "My feeling is, let's spend time telling some amazing stories about Derek, Meredith and Cristina while we have them. I only want our originals staying as long as there are compelling stories to tell for them."

So peeps, what's your take on this?