Greys Anatomy: Season 8 Finale Recap -- MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Read no further unless you don't mind reading some major spoilers from tonight's episode (or unless you've already watched it, of course).

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

So... Lexie died. I wish Shonda Rhimes would stop killing off my people. Almost more maddening than that though was that this episode treated her death like it was no big deal. It occurred w/in the first 20 minutes of the show, with no real build-up or anticipation, in between cutting back and forth to Seattle Grace doctors laughing and sniveling at each other and carrying on with their everyday lives. It all just felt very anticlimactic, despite stellar performances from Ellen Pompeo and Eric Dane.

Normally I find that the deaths of major characters on this show are very dramatic and well executed. I'm not sure what happened with this one. I almost felt like they were trying to cram a dramatic episode and a normal episode together and this is what happened.  There really wasn't a lot of continuity in the storyline and because of the heart wrenching stuff on the one side, I wasn't paying attention to the normal stuff, instead just wishing it would hurry up and get back to the heart wrenching stuff. And likewise, I wasn't given enough time to properly grieve the heart wrenching stuff because we only got about 20 minutes tops to deal with all of that in between all the other normal stuff. Why didn't they devote the entire 40+ minutes to the heart wrenching stuff??? That would've made a lot more sense to my mind and my heart.

When George died, we had a terrifying "what just happened and how did I not see this coming?" moment in the last few seconds of the episode. Though heart-shattering, it was a brilliant piece of writing. When Denny died and also when Noel, I mean, Henry died, it was a little more drawn out but was still properly climactic and dramatic. Oh yeah and when that one intern whose name I can never remember was shot in the most horribly horrible episode ever, it felt very real and sad and dramatic. But... when Lexie died... we have to wade through Jackson and Kepner arguing and Dr. Webber making dinner plans and all this mundane everyday stuff that I might ordinarily care about but today it just gets in the way of SOMEBODY DYING AND WHY ARE WE NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS? Or maybe that's just me...

In other news, apparently Dr. Altman is outta here? And possibly also Drs. Avery, Kepner, Karev, Yang, Grey, Shephard, Bailey, and whoever Bailey's person's name is. They can't all be leaving, right? Right? RIGHT?

And did I almost miss it or did Bailey get engaged? I was totally distracted wondering if the Smoke Monster had gotten my favorite doctors. Oh wait... Was it just me or were you expecting the other engine to explode and suck some poor guy into it? Yes? No? I think maybe someone has been watching a little too much Lost...

Oh, also, I fully expected Mark Sloan to kick the bucket there at the end. Maybe Shonda's saving that for next season's premiere? Wouldn't that be a joyful way to begin? Arizona's little pep talk seemed to bring him around a bit, but he was looking pretty green, wouldn't you say? They wouldn't kill off two characters at once, would they?

On the bright side, if there is one, I just remembered one main character that they got rid of but didn't kill... Izzie! Maybe they'll bring her back? Please, oh please, oh please? We need some happiness around here, and besides, aren't her and Karev still technically married? She left too quickly and abruptly; we need a happy ending for those two, especially if half of Seattle Grace is migrating elsewhere next season. Sigh...