What Happened On Grey's Anatomy Did Izzy & George Die On Season Finale?

“Grey’s Anatomy” ended Thursday night with two characters’ lives in jeopardy. Viewers will have to wait until next season to see if Izzie Stevens and George O’Malley are alive.

Izzie, who suffered a brain tumor this season, underwent a risky surgery that threatened to take away her memory. Prior to the surgery, she told new husband Alex Karev she wanted to put a do not resuscitate order in place if anything went wrong. Izzie came out of the surgery and suffered short-term memory problems, which eventually disappeared. As she hugged Karev to celebrate gaining memory, she lost consciousness. Despite the DNR she requested, Karev urged doctors to try to resuscitate her and they did.

George, meanwhile, was inspired early in the two-hour episode to become an Army doctor. Later, friends planned to change his mind with an intervention. In the meantime, they operated on a dramatically wounded John Doe, who was bloody and near death after literally sweeping a woman off her feet to save her from an approaching bus. As Dr. Meredith Gray prepared to operate on the mysterious hero, he drew a “007″ into her palm. With that, she realized with horror that John Doe, tragically, was George.

The two-hour show ended Thursday with the doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital scrambling to save both lives. Izzie entered a flashback in which she stepped inside an elevator. The elevator doors opened and she was greeted by George in his Army uniform. [source]

Katherine Heigl who play's doctor Izzy has publicly expressed her unhappiness with the writing of her role last year when she withdrew her name from Emmy Awards consideration.  Katherine had also said she wanted to pursue movie roles full time. The result of Katherine's public complaints about her chararcter is a terminal diagnosis of brain cancer. There is industry buzz that Katherine Heigl's performance this season may earn her an Emmy.

The Grey's Anatomy creator and executive producer spoke to Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly about all these issues and much more, including the "ghost sex" controversy, Katherine Heigl's Emmy chances, and T.R. Knight's alleged unhappiness.

Here's the text of EW's interview with Shonda ...

EW: Rumors have been swirling all year that Katherine and TR wanted off the show. The season ends with both their characters' lives hanging in the balance. Purely coincidental?

Shonda Rhimes: I don't think there are any coincidences. I think Katherine's stated publicly that she's happy to stay. I think that there have been lots of rumors about T.R., but T.R.'s never said anything. Take from it what you will.

EW: This kind of cliffhanger almost seems tailor-made to capitalize on some of those headlines and generate buzz.

Shonda Rhimes: You have to remember, I have two shows. It's not as if I spend a lot of time reading the press. We talk about stuff in the writers
' room that other people have read, but, mostly, we were really moving on character. Every year at the beginning of the season I pitch what the end of the season is going to be. And I literally sat down and pitched the last 10 minutes of this season at the beginning of the season, so we were headed towards the place that we knew we were going to go.

EW: Do you know which one of them lives and which one of them dies?

Shonda Rhimes: Yes. And I don't know that you should be saying "which one of them lives and which one of them dies." I know what happens to the characters.

EW: Have you shared this information with Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight?

Shonda Rhimes: [Crickets, then...] I don't want to answer that. I don't want to talk about my private conversations with the actors.

EW: Katherine said in a recent interview that she was as much in the dark about Izzie's fate as anyone. Do you keep this stuff close to the vest in order to prevent leaks?

Shonda Rhimes: There was a joke for a while there that if I got hit by a bus [no one would] know how to end the season. I do feel like a secret's not a secret if anybody knows about it. It was really about trying to keep the storyline as secret as possible, because I wanted the last moment of the season to be a real surprise.

EW: Did T.R. ask to be released from his contract?

Shonda Rhimes: I absolutely am not going to talk about any private conversations I had with the actors. I feel like that invades their privacy.

EW: Why haven't we seen very much of George this season? I understand that there are ebbs and flows on ensemble dramas but…

Shonda Rhimes: There are ebbs and flows. Every character this season has had a lot of ebbs and flows. And every season is shaped differently. With George, I really wanted you to not notice that he wasn't there for most of this episode. I don't think anybody noticed because of the way we laid it out this season. He's an incredibly talented actor. And, actually, he was really lovely and elegant about lying there in all that very painful makeup and prosthetics for much of the episode with no words. That moment where he grabs Meredith's hand is one of the most affecting moments of the episode, and it was without words. [source]

• Q&A With Shonda Rhimes on Grey's Anatomy's Season Finale (greysanatomynews.com)
• Tears All Around For 'Grey's Anatomy' Finale (huffingtonpost.com)
• The curious case of George O'Malley (tvsquad.com)
• 'Grey's Anatomy': Who Died? (socialitelife.celebuzz.com)