With No Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy Will Just Be Gray

A Whole Season to Prepare

Sure, we knew at the end of last season, or at least by the beginning of this one that Sandra Oh had announced her departure from the venerable series at the end of its tenth season. Sure we've had 22 or 23 episodes to get used to the idea. Still, it kinda stinks that Dr. Christina Yang will no longer be among the ranks of our doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial f/k/a Seattle Grace.

Top 10 Moments . . . Not!

I was all set to spend a few hours of happy research via Netflix or Hulu Plus reviewing past seasons and episodes of  Grey's so as to create a definitive list of the best Christina Yang moments on the show. So as to give new, potential and reluctant viewers a guide to the cream of the GA crop, season and episode numbers complete with summaries was a plan that never came to fruition and was tearfully scrapped. The tears, however, were not bad tears or even really sad tears. What inspired the waterworks and prompted their downward journey from my eyes to places unknown was the gallery of pictures presented by TV Guide.com featuring Sandra Oh's Grey's Anatomy costars providing commentary on the actress's imminent departure.

Sandra Oh's Co-Stars Farewell Love Letter

Oh do they love her -- and we do too!

The only other time I've heard people speak so very highly of a celebrity was on an episode of Biography featuring Don Knotts, the laughably hapless Barney Fife of the Andy Griffith Show. He was so well liked by all who spoke, I wanted to meet the guy myself. Well, the same goes for Sandra Oh, whose Grey's Anatomy co-stars were so complimentary and enamored of her personally and professionally, that in my book, she is even higher than the highest heights, reserved for artists whose work I will receive no matter what.  You see, I already have placed her character near the top of my list of the 10 most outstanding of prime time television's best dramatic characters ever. After reading what Ellen Pompeo, Kevin McKidd, Justin Chambers and others of Oh's Grey's Anatomy colleagues have said of her presence, her impending departure and her person, I daresay that Miss Oh is someone with whom I would love to have a beer -- and I rarely drink beer!

Thanks for the memories!

Until motivated by some future Grey's storyline to imagine what Christina Yang would do in a similar situation or recall enough of what I've experienced by watching the series in its entirety at least three times, I'm happy to remember the one when she and Mer became each other's person, the one when she collapsed in the OR from a pregnancy gone awry, the one with the icicle which introduced Owen Hunt, the one when she softly told the

doctors to try again to revise Meredith and then forcefully ordered them to when they hesitated. I'll also remember the first time she referred to George as "Bambi", first called Alex "Evil Spawn" and almost tearfully asked Chief Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) to tell her what he does to keep his edge. The upside is, if I really get to missing double Doctor Christina Yang, I have somewhere around a deuce and a quarter’s worth of episodes with which to console myself.

Colors, Good Luck and Godspeed

I predict that Season 11 episodes of Grey's Anatomy without Sandra Oh will sort of give me the blues, at least in the beginning. With all due respect and admiration for Shonda Rhimes and the other writers, I’m guessing that plot lines may be fuzzy and not so black and white. In fact, I’m willing to bet that in a few episodes, gray will be the predominant color, at least in underlying, unstated mood. So while the doctors of Grey Sloan Memorial are awash in their navy and light blue scrubs, the hardworking actors going on with the show, the actress who for 10 seasons was Christina Yang has a golden show business future, and I plan to watch her in anything she chooses to do. Break a leg, Sandra Oh and thanks for 10 seasons of character extraordinaire!