'Grey's Anatomy' 300th Episode Writer 'Devastated' by Opening Credits Spoiler
The "Grey's Anatomy" 300th episode was seriously fantastic. However, Krista Vernoff --co-showrunner and writer of the 300th episode -- said she actually cried seeing one particular name in the opening credits. She wanted that cameo to be a nice surprise for the end of the November 9 episode.
*Spoilers ahead from Season 14, Episode 7, the 300th episode*
As you know if you watched the emotional episode, the hour ended with Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) winning the Harper Avery award. As everyone at Grey Sloan cheered for her, she had a vision of her mother, Ellis Grey (Kate Burton). It was a beautiful moment for our Mer. But Vernoff wanted that Ellis Grey cameo kept a secret, so she was very upset to see Kate Burton's name in the opening credits. Any fan who paid attention to the credits would've already been expecting to see Meredith's mother.
The credits didn't seem to spoil the moment for most viewers, but Vernoff deep-sighed over the issue in a post-episode talk with TVLine.
"I'm not going to lie — I was devastated when I saw her name in the opening credits. I didn't spot it until the crew screening Thursday afternoon. And I actually started to cry. It's one of those things that slips through the showrunning cracks. You are doing 1 million things on any given day and you think everybody knows that Kate Burton shouldn't be credited on this episode. Everybody knows that this is the biggest surprise of the episode, and you assume that they would've made a deal with her that allows it to be an uncredited cameo. [...] By the time I saw the credits it was 3:30 pm in Los Angeles. It takes them days to burn the episodes that the affiliates are screening. There's no opening the show back up on the same day."
It shows how much she cares that she got so upset over it.
Many fans had hoped for other cameos besides Kate Burton, and Vernoff said they did make a lot of calls to other stars, but they were busy. There's also the budget to consider. Bringing back past stars is expensive. We're still hoping to see, say, Sandra Oh return as Cristina, but by now we know she's unlikely to come back to "Grey's" until the series finale. Which may not come for a while.
"Grey's Anatomy" Season 14 continues Thursday on ABC.
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