What Did Grey Say?: 2009

Episode 6x10 "Holidaze" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

The best gift I ever got was for Christmas when I was ten.
My very first suture kit. I used it until my fingers bled.
And then I tried to use it to stitch up my fingers.
It put me on the path to becoming a surgeon.
My point is, sometimes the best gifts come in really
surprising packages.

Closing monologue: Meredith Grey

Everyday, we get to give the gift of life.
It can be painful. It can be terrifying. But in the end,
it's worth it; Every time. We all have the opportunity
to give. Maybe the gifts are not as dramatic as what
happens in the operating room. Maybe the gift is to
try and make a simple apology.
Maybe it's to understand another persons point of view.
Maybe it's to hold a secret for a friend.
The joy supposedly is in the giving. So when the joy is
gone, when the giving starts to feel more like a burden,
that's when you stop.
But if you're like most people I know, you give till it hurts...
and then you give some more.

Episode 6x09 "New History" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

Doctors live in a world of constant progress
and forward motion.
Stand still for a second and you'll be left behind.
But as hard as we try to move forward, as tempting
as it is to never look back, the past always comes
back to bite us in the ass.
And as history shows us again and again; those
who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

Closing monologue: Meredith Grey

Sometimes the past is something you just can't let
go of.
And sometimes the past is something we'll do
anything to forget.
And sometimes we learn something new about the
past..that changes everything we know about the
present.

Episode 6x08 "Invest in Love" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

It's impossible to describe the panic that comes over
you, when you're a surgeon and your pager goes off
in the middle of the night.
Your heart starts to race, your mind freezes, your
fingers go numb, you're invested.
There's someones mom, someones dad, someones
kid; and now it's on you.
That someones life is now in your hands.
As surgeons, we're always invested in our patients.
But when your patient's a child, you're not just invested,
you're responsible.
Responsible for whether or not that child survives, has a
future.
And that's enough to terrify anyone.

Closing monologue: Meredith Grey

They say the bigger your investment, the bigger your
return.
But you have to be willing to take a chance.
You have to understand, you might lose it all.
But if you take that chance, if you invest wisely,
the payoff might just surprise you.

Episode 6x07 "Give Peace a Chance" monologues

Opening monologue: Derek Shepherd

Ask most surgeons why they became surgeons
and they usually tell you the same thing;
it was for the high, the rush, the thrill that comes
from cutting someone open and saving their life.
For me it was different, maybe it's because I grew up
in a house with four sisters.
No, definitely because I grew up in a house with four
sisters.
Because it was the quiet that drew me to surgery.
The operating room is a quiet place, peaceful, it has
to be in order for us to stay alert.
And to stave complications.
When you stand in the OR, your patient open on the table,
all the world's noise, all the worries that it brings..disappears.
A calm settles over you.
Time passing without thought.
For that moment you feel completely at peace.

Closing monologue: Derek Shepherd

Ask most surgeons, why they became surgeons.
They usually tell you the same thing; the high,
the rush, the thrill of the cut.
For me, it was the quiet.

Peace isn't a permanent state.
It exists in moments.
Fleeting; gone before we even knew it was there.
We can experience it at any time; in a strangers
act of kindness.
A task that requires complete focus.
Or simply the comfort of an old routine.

Everyday, we all experience these moments
of peace.
The trick is to know when they're happening.
So that we can embrace them, live in them...
and finally let them go.

Episode 6x06 "I Saw What I Saw" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

In order to get a good diagnosis, doctors have to constantly
change their perspective.
We start by getting the patient's point of view, though they
often don't have a clue what's going on.
So we look at the patient from every possible angle.
We rule things out. We uncover new information,
trying to get to what's actually wrong.
We're asked for second opinions,hoping we'll see something
others might of missed.
For the patient, a fresh perspective can mean the difference
between living and dying.
For the doctor, it can mean you're picking a fight
with everyone who got there before you.

Closing monologue: Meredith Grey

When we're heading toward an outcome that's too horrible
to face, that's when we go looking for a second opinion.
And sometimes, the answers we get just confirms our
worst fears.
But sometimes, it can shed new light on the problem.
Make you see it in a whole new way.
After all the opinions have been heard and every point
of view has been considered, you finally find what you
were after.
The truth.
But the truth isn't where it ends.
That's just where you begin again.
With a whole new set of questions.

Episode 6x05 "Invasion" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

When you get sick it starts out with a single bacteria;
one lone, nasty intruder.
Pretty soon the intruder duplicates; becomes two.
Then those two become four.
And those four become eight.
Then before your body knows it, it's under attack.
It's an invasion.
The question for a doctor is, once the invaders have
landed, once they've taken over your body...
How the hell do you get rid of them?

Closing monologue: Meredith Grey

What do you do when the infection hits you?
When it takes over?
Do you do what you're supposed to and take your
medicine?
Or do you learn to live with the thing and hope that
someday it goes away?
Or do you just give up entirely and let it kill you?

Episode 6x04 "Tainted Obligation" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

We begin life with few obligations;
we pledge allegiance to the flag, we swear to return our
library books.
But as we get older we take vows, we make promises,
we get burdened by commitments to do no harm, to
tell the truth and nothing but, to love and cherish till
death do us part.
So we just keep running up a tap until we owe everything
to everybody and suddenly think..
what the...(Alex's girly scream)

Closing monologue: Meredith Grey

The thing about being a surgeon, everybody wants a
piece of you.
We take one little oath and suddenly we're drowning in
obligations; to our patients, to our colleagues, to medicine
itself.
So we do what any sane person would do, we run like
hell from our promises.
Hoping they'll be forgotten.
But sooner or later, they always catch up.
And sometimes you find the obligation you dread the
most..
isn't worth running from at all.

Episode 6x03 "I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watchin'Me" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

Paranoia gives you an edge in the OR.
Surgeons play out "worst case scenarios" in their heads.
You're ready to close, you've got the bleeder, you know
it, but there's that voice in your head asking..
what if you didn't? what if the patient dies and you could
have prevented it?
So you check your work one more time before you close.
Paranoia is a surgeon's best friend.

Closing monologue: Meredith Grey

We're all susceptible to it.
The dread and anxiety of not knowing what's coming.
It's pointless in the end.
Because all the worrying and all the making of plans
for things that could or could not happen, it only makes
things worse.
So walk your dog or take a nap.
Just whatever you do, stop worrying.
Because the only cure for paranoia, is to be here,
just as you are.

Episode 6x02 "Goodbye" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

The dictionary defines grief as keen mental suffering or
distress over affliction or loss.
Sharp sorrow, painful regret.
As surgeons, as scientists, we're taught to learn from and
rely on books, on definitions, on definitives.
But in life, strict definitions rarely apply.
In life, grief can look like a lot of things that bare little
resemblance to sharp sorrow.

Closing monologue: The Cast

Grief may be a thing we all have in common,
but it looks different on everyone... Lexie

It isn't just death we have to grieve, it's life, it's loss,
it's change...Mark

And when we wonder why it has to suck so much sometimes,
has to hurt so bad, the thing we gotta try to remember is
that it can turn on a dime...Alex

That's how you stay alive. When it hurts so much you can't
breathe. That's how you survive...Izzie

By remembering that one day, somehow, impossibly, you
won't feel this way. It won't hurt this much...Derek

Grief comes in it's own time for everyone.
In it's own way...Bailey

So the best we can do, best anyone can do, is try
for honesty...Owen

The really crappy thing, the very worst part of grief,
is that you can't control it...Meredith

The best we can do is try to let ourselves feel it, when
it comes...Arizona

And let it go when we can...Callie

The very worst part is that the minute you think you're
past it, it starts all over again...Meredith

And always, everytime, it takes your breath away...Cristina

There are five stages of grief.
They look different on all of us.
But there are always five...Meredith

Denial...Alex

Anger...Derek

Bargaining...Bailey

Depression...Lexie

Acceptance...Chief

Episode 6x01 "Good Mourning" monologues

Opening monologue: Meredith Grey

According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, when we are dying or have
suffered a catastrophic loss, we move through five distinct
stages of grief.
We go into denial.
Because the loss is so unthinkable.
We can't imagine it's true.
We become angry with everyone.
Angry with survivors, angry with ourselves.
Then we bargain.
We beg, we plead, we offer everything we have,
we offer up our souls in exchange for just one more day.
When the bargaining has failed and the anger is just too
hard to maintain, we fall into depression, despair.
Until finally we have to accept that we have done
everything we can.
We let go. We let go and move into acceptance.

Closing monologue: Meredith Grey

In medical school we have a hundred classes that teach
us how to fight off death.
And not one lesson in how to go on living.