Spotted: Kate Walsh in Hollywood

Grey's Bloggers on Shock to the System

Over the summer, the question I was most often asked about Grey’s was: “How do you come back from something like that?” These people weren’t asking me about the show, or the writers, they were asking about the characters. The characters they know and like as if they were their own friends: How will they come back from that? Well, as of last week, Grey’s is back, but for our doctors, I think that question is still valid. If you’ve ever lost someone, or been terribly hurt, I think it’s fair to say that no matter how good a job you’ve done grieving, no matter far you’ve gotten past the pain, you’re never really safe from feeling that loss again. You run across a picture. A thing they gave you. You hear a song, or someone says a phrase, and suddenly that loss and pain is as present and immediate as if it was happening right now. It’s a shock, a complete surprise and, like the original event itself, something you can never see coming, never prepare yourself for. Because a trauma this immense doesn’t heal quickly. It creates wounds so deep they won’t make themselves known for a long time to come. And when they do, they blindside you. Last week, we saw how our doctors were trying to come back : From rushing at life to grasping at love, to going mad, to posturing, to hiding from the pain, we saw the ways they were trying, and sometimes failing, to push through and heal. But they’re not even really healing yet. They’re coping.