Grey's Anatomy's Fitting End to George O'Malley
Viewers Get an Apt Farewell
Oct 19, 2009 Becky Sheetz-Runkle
Viewers learned with the season six premier or Grey’s Anatomy that the five seasons they spent with the beloved George O’Malley, played by T.R. Knight, would come to an end. This gives viewers an opportunity to bid farewell to a character whose climax pointed to a somewhat unexpected heroism. And it’s a chance to see how the conclusion the Grey’s Anatomy writers created for George was the only option for this character.
The Journey of Dr. George O'Malley
When the show premiered, we followed five brand new surgical interns as they tried to find their way at Seattle Grace Hospital. We watched their triumphs and failures, mostly failures, as they transitioned from textbooks and cadavers to real live surgical patients. George was, in the words of Christina Yang, “the weaker kid.” George didn’t command respect and was easily bullied by other interns and more senior doctors. He earned the moniker “Bambi,” because of his assumed weakness when compared with the “hardcore” interns.
This was the George watchers grew to know and love during those first few years. He was understated and he was an underdog, but he was honest and kind. He had to repeat his first intern year, as his peers moved on to become residents. But that was George. He was good, but he didn’t quite make the cut. In fact, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have been standing after the rounds of cutbacks from the merger.
Fans watched George go through the heartbreak of loving a woman who didn’t love him. Then they watched him go through the sadness of not loving a woman whose world revolved around him. Fans were there when his father died and when he told his mother his marriage was over. All these experiences, and his personal and professional growth as a young doctor, made George increasingly relatable, even to viewers who aren’t underdogs.
George O'Malley Dies
In a bit of a twist, as season five was drawing to a close, George O’Malley decided to put his newfound specialty of trauma surgery to test, join Uncle Sam and head off to Iraq. This isn’t the same George first seen at Seattle Grace Hospital.
But the George viewers did first see, and saw all along, was the George at the end of season five. This guy, with his life ahead of him, and great accomplishments before him, leapt out in front of a bus to save the life or a woman he didn’t know. George had been a hero all along. But it took that—his most courageous moment—to exhibit it to those closest to him who never would have seen it.
Grey's Anatomy Writers
The writers of Grey’s Anatomy see the world through the eyes of story arcs—long story arcs. Whether they saw this as the end of George O’Malley from the very beginning, before the contract disputes, is unknown. But with this violent end to this character, the story of George O’Malley has powerfully, beautifully and finally been told.
T.R. Knight played Dr. George O'Malley.
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