S10.E17: Do You Know?

[Lisin]

Cristina thinks about her future; a patient decides whether to live or not.

[kurtz]

Best episode of the season.

[photo fox]

Hm. Don't know what to think about that.

I love Cristina and Owen separately and sometimes together, but that was a strange episode. I feel like I watched an hour of them being miserable for naught. Except I guess she has decided to let him go? Which, good.

It was funny seeing Shane in the future when we all know he won't last the season.

In the future, is there no hair dye?

I swear I can still hear a baby crying. Yikes.

[Lisin]

I liked the episode in theory, but at the same time I also feel like I just wasted an hour because none of this stuff actually happens... I don't know.

[photo fox]

Yes, exactly. It didn't advance any story, but it didn't delve into Cristina's characterization the way a normal character-driven episode would.

I couldn't even get invested, because I knew it wasn't real. I spent the hour waiting for the last five minutes.

[astrocouldyounot]

I think that it showed us why Christina is leaving. She needs to get away from Owen - they're not strong enough to stay away from each other, even when they know its toxic for them. Its just setting up the dominoes that end with decision to move away. 

To be fair, I've never really been an Owen fan. 

[Marigny]

I think that it showed us why Christina is leaving. She needs to get away from Owen - they're not strong enough to stay away from each other, even when they know its toxic for them. Its just setting up the dominoes that end with decision to move away. 

To be fair, I've never really been an Owen fan. 

I agree. This was all to make Christina's leaving make sense. Christina hasn't been right since Burke left. 

[bybrandy]

I like Owen fine, however, they really are a toxic pair.   

Owen on his own or with other people?   It's fine.    

Cristina on her own or with other people?  Great.

Cristina and Owen together?   Toxic.   

But if Kevin McKid is staying what will they do with Owen?   They've never really developed him outside of Cristina. 

[upperco]

As far as the gimmicky episodes of this series go, tonight's installment was par for the course. However, thanks to the expert finesse of Sandra Oh, this episode was a cut above most of the others this season. I will miss both her and her character when she leaves. I don't think the series will ever recover. 

Edited March 28, 2014 by upperco

[omgsowicked]

If this episode were about any other character, I'd be beyond pissed, but because Sandra's leaving, I'm OK with it. She's a great actress and I'm happy to see her get screen time before she leaves.

I liked that we got to see several possibilities for her future, since that's not going to happen for us. Even seeing her pregnant (and not suddenly loving her children and motherhood) was interesting. But it was quite silly to sit through so many different options knowing that none of it was real. Honestly, what was actually accomplished? Because she happened to take a moment and step back, she prevented Jackson from a career-ending injury (really?) and because of that, Meredith had time to prevent her from talking to Owen. We needed an hour and how many alternate realities to get to that? However, this was good set up for why she's going to leave, and it makes me hopeful that she'll actually get a nice send off (please, no buses).

[formerlyfreedom]

I think that it showed us why Christina is leaving. She needs to get away from Owen - they're not strong enough to stay away from each other, even when they know its toxic for them. Its just setting up the dominoes that end with decision to move away. 

To be fair, I've never really been an Owen fan. 

Nailed it. When the episode ended, it was like my eyes opened to why Yang will leave.

However, I respectfully disagree on the 'Owen fan' part - or maybe that's just my crazy love of Kevin McKidd? I've really liked Owen, I think the Owen/Christina thing is what's exhausted me.

[Lillybee]

I think that this episode was a nice send off for Sanda Oh. It was so much better than the crap that she was given this season.

[Arvan12]

I thought that was the best episode of this show in a very long time. And as a huge Cristina/Sandra Oh fan, I though it perfectly showed her reasons for eventually leaving SGMW/the show. I have never liked Cristina and Owen together, for all the reasons this episode made perfectly clear - they are just not good for each other, they want different things, and if they stay together, it will hurt both of them in the long run. I'm glad that, at the end of the episode, it looked like Cristina had finally realized all that as well.

I'm especially glad that it looks like they're going to send Cristina away from Seattle, possibly back to Mayo, possibly elsewhere. I'm with omgsowicked - at least she's not going to get hit by a bus (*poor George...). 

[ramble]

I guess this was for Sandra Oh & her coming departure, but I found it a waste. Granted, I haven't been in love with this show in quite a while, but I was so bored with this episode that I played a game on my phone in between folding clothes. I even kept forgetting to FF through ads because the show just could not hold my attention. The take away for me was no matter what Christina & Owen are miserable in the future. Surprisingly I find I don't care. Thanks show you've pushed me to the point I don't care about Christina, one of the few characters I haven't been persuaded to hate.

[RealityCreator]

I've always loved Christina, and hated her relationship with Owen.  Dragging their inevitably doomed relationship out through all these years has been tedious and frustrating.   At least it was finally acknowledged that their relationship is toxic for both of them, will never work under any circumstances, and the ground work was laid for Christina to leave Seattle without having to be hit by a bus.  Maybe she'll walk off into the parking lot of no return.   

[Chas411]

Great to see the site getting so active.

I agree that that the episode felt like a bit of a waste as we know that none of this will happen..

[Dirndl]

Hated it. It may be because I hate Owen and therefor Christina and Owen with a passion but that episode sucked.

[astrocouldyounot]

 

Even seeing her pregnant (and not suddenly loving her children and motherhood) was interesting.

I LOVED that. It was nice seeing the idea, but I love that they stayed true to Christina and didn't have her being outrageously happy about it. I would have been annoyed if they showed me she suddenly loved being a mom. 

[flyingpeach]

The episode was a waste in terms of anything actually happening, but it was a solid way to explain why Christina will leave.  Sandra Oh is fantastic and the episode seems like a nice way to say goodbye to her.

[picklesprite]

While watching, I thought, "This is my least favorite episode of the whole series," but I'm softening to it now. I do think it was kind of interesting to watch Christina play with possible alternate realities for herself, and that must have been fun for Sandra Oh to do. Maybe I hated it so much at the time because I can't stand Begging Owen. I was just starting to like Owen as he toughened up as Chief, and now I can't get his pathetic, begging face out of my mind. Please, Shondra, I pathetically beg you, don't bring back Begging Owen ever again.

[thewhiteowl]

I liked it a lot. I was so glad Cris took a moment to actually ponder the future with Owen and realized there was no way to make it work. Sometimes love is not enough.  I'm glad I got to see the process and as much as I hate that she is leaving I can understand why. I hope she makes it out alive.

[DrLar]

Maybe the worst episode of the season, since it didn't go anywhere, only good thing I got is a lot of Sandra Oh... that's it

Are we in the point of making more "what if" episodes? I hated the last one, was it last season?

[stopthestatic]

Last night's episode was a bit confusing at parts (I want to rewatch) but I liked it. It just goes to show that even though Crowen have a great love, they just aren't meant to end up together. Which is more than okay with me since I haven't liked them since season 5 and find that their relationship can be super toxic and abusive at times.

It wasn't as good as the last 'what if' episode they did in season 8, but that one got a lot of extra points for all the nostalgia they jammed into it (i.e. songs from the first two seasons, the bar scene at the end). The only thing about these kinds of episodes is it feels like there wasn't an episode at all. I already am ready for next week's to pick up where we left off in the story.

[stabby joe]

Originally I came here to ask if I was the only one who didn't get this episode. I mean, I got it in the sense that different paths in life can be traced to one decision, but I felt like I was missing a bigger point the whole time I was watching. Then I come here and I am shown the light--that Christina realizes, finally, that she and Owen can't be together and it is paving the way for her leaving.

I have always disliked Owen's character and HATED he and Christina together, so I knew they were toxic but I guess she didn't. The benefit of being the observer in someone elses life but not having the ability to use the same perspective on your own life I guess. At any rate, the less I have to watch those two kiss, the better! They look like people with no teeth mashing together in a brother and sister kind of way.

[Lyo]

So wait, you wake someone up from a terrible traumatizing accident and give him 30 seconds before they have to decide if he wants to die? I know it's really time sensitive because it's legally harder (impossible?) to disconnect him later, but man... give the guy a break.

[faceupandsing]

I enjoyed this episode. I'd been thinking for years that there was no possible way for Christina and Owen to be happy together, and after seasons of breaking up, getting back together and rehashing the same exact issues over and over, it was nice that Christina is finally realizing it too. Both Christina and Owen can be good people, they just can't be good together.

I'll admit the new scrubs with weird accents in the neckline and semi hologram looking phones threw me out of the episode a bit in the "future" scenes-- just felt a little too much like the Jetsons for me. 

[hotspurious]

I appreciated the point behind the episode, to set up Cristina leaving. However, I got frustrated with the episode as well, because, honestly, we all already know this. And it reiterated for me how destructive and harmful the relationship was. It makes me think Owen might not be capable of any other kind of relationship except one that is destructive. I wouldn't mind seeing him exit as well, at the end of the season. I thought it was interesting that, in terms of motherhood, she recognized that it would be a mistake but that she would choose to help her child at the expense of her career, if it was there, and that, if she concentrated on her work around Owen and didn't have children, her lack of extra empathy to a patient would be something else she and Owen would not have in common, and that he would judge her for it.

[Coxfires]

I thought it was interesting that, in terms of motherhood, she recognized that it would be a mistake but that she would choose to help her child at the expense of her career,

 

I found it pretty interesting compared to what Meredith said back to Owen, that she had been "raised by a Cristina". I know by the time she said it to show Owen he shouldn't push Cristina into motherhood, but she is/was IMO not like Ellis, who clearly wasn't as motherly as Cristina would be if she was a mom. It also reinforced what she said when Owen suggested he would take care of the kids while she would concentrate on work, that she was not a monster and would be there for a kid if they had one.

Globally, I agree that it wasn't an interesting episode, since what was shown there was basically something we knew for a long time now, but I really liked that the show devoted a complete episode to Sandra, whose acting truly is superb. She is sure gonne be missed.

[Madison]

Despite the fact that I agree that the episode might have felt like a cheat because we knew it wasn't "real," I very much enjoyed it. Most of the reasons have already been listed above: Sandra Oh's acting, how the plotline seemed to be working to set up her exit, and how it finally resolved her back-and-forth relationship with Owen. More than all of those things, though, I just thought the episode was really touching and a tribute to Cristina, Cristina/ Owen (both the good and bad), and Cristina/Meredith. I loved getting to see things that will never happen (like Cristina as a mom and Meredith standing by Cristina at the awards ceremony) and I loved the (heavy-handed) parallel between the patient choosing to live or die and Cristina choosing a path that will let both herself and Owen live. Grey's Anatomy is big into the heavy-handed patient/ doctor plotline parallels and this is usually somewhat hit-or-miss for me. However, in this context, I thought it seemed to speak more to a general human plight that everyone can understand: "Do you know who you are? Do you want to live this way?" I wish Sandra Oh wasn't leaving Grey's, but I'm glad she got to be the center of an episode first--an episode that celebrates her long-lasting friendships, capacity for love, and passion for her career. I guess part of the reason I was able to embrace the episode is because I once 'shipped Owen/Cristina and have been a lot more patient with that story than many other viewers. For me, it wasn't always clear that they would never work out, particularly when Owen seemed to realize that he didn't want a wife who would stay home and raise kids, but once who would come home and share "war stories." 

Edited April 2, 2014 by Madison