Grey's Anatomy boss on shocker: "I knew what this story was, what we were doing and why we had to do it"

TVLine

Showrunner Krista Vernoff explained her thought process in deciding that Thursday's Grey's-Station 19 crossover would feature a scene that would leave fans stunned. "Well, it was less a thought process than it was an inspiration," says Vernoff. "I start each season by myself, taking walks in nature, asking the stories to reveal themselves to me. These stories tell themselves, and it’s a writer’s job to just write them down as fast as you can. This one was the first and most powerful one that came to my mind sort of wholly realized. I knew what this story was, what we were doing and why we had to do it." But did she really want to go through with it? "It was really hard. I tried to chicken out several times through the season," Vernoff says, adding that several times she went into the writers' room saying she had changed her mind. "And there was an uprising of like, 'No!' because this story told itself, and it felt important and powerful. As a human being, you’re like, 'I don’t want to do it...' But as a storyteller, you have to honor the story. I don’t know… it’s sort of a magical process."

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• Showrunner Krista Vernoff says the idea came to her while walking on the beach: "It was one of the first creative imaginings that I had as I imagined what this season would be," she says. "It’s like I’ve said before. Like, the stories tell themselves. I just try to write them down as fast as I can, and this story told itself to me as I was walking on the beach imagining the season, and I was like, oh, no, really?! But it felt powerful and important, and I don’t always know why, but that was the story that came."
• Vernoff says her reaction to the story idea was "What?! F*ck! No! Really!? This is what I'm doing?! No!"
• Grey's Anatomy star recalls being pitched a "really beautiful story and an opportunity to highlight a huge issue of human trafficking and its horrible, horrible impact on the world and the U.S."
• Early on, the shocker was like "a dirty little secret" among a limited number of cast and crew
• Grey's fans were upset, but Vernoff warned in advance that Thursday's crossover would be tough