Grey's Anatomy

Pete Nowalk, the head writer on "Give Peace a Chance," shared some thoughts on last night's terrific episode of Grey's Anatomy on the show's official writers' blog.

Below are some excerpts from Pete's column, with a link at the bottom to the full entry ...

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Do surgeons really wear diapers? Well, depends who you ask.

Either way, it wasn’t that big of a leap for us to go diaper. Our doctors are hard core by nature. Combine that with the threat they're feeling from the Mercy West residents and you can understand while they'll do anything to win.

As Lexie tells Jackson, if she needs to pee in a diaper to help Derek get through his impossible surgery, she'll pee in a diaper. Which of course just drove Cristina crazy jealous.

Cristina was a shoe-in to win that pen-in-a-cup contest...but then she choked. Happens to the best of us. That left Owen having to cope with the fact that his girlfriend was fiending to put on a diaper. Admittedly, it's not the sexiest thing to picture.

But I think it speaks to Owen's overall good nature that he found a way to be okay with it, even gifting Cristina her very own marathon surgery to cheer her up.

And then, when Derek thwarted that plan, he went as far as to sexily teach Cristina the right way to work the microscope. You gotta admit, the dude's a pretty awesome boyfriend.

Speaking of awesome boyfriend...  I'm sorry, I mean awesome husband...

Derek Shepherd.

This episode felt different. As you've probably noticed, we’re trying to experiment more this season. And that’s probably uncomfortable for some of you. It was for me.

Derek gets some encouragement from his doctor, Lexie Grey.

In retrospect I’m really glad we told this story this way. As Derek says in the voiceover, what drew him to surgery was the quiet. The deep, intense, long-ass focus it requires.

And this episode really reflects that. It’s quieter than a typical episode. More single-minded. Derek is our sole focus. And really, what an amazing character to spend an episode with.

Watch Patrick Dempsey on your screen and you can’t help but be struck by how much he says without saying anything. The guy can pretty much give you an entire soliloquy with one look.

That’s a rare talent, and we really wanted to use that to our advantage.

It also seemed like the perfect time to do our Derek-focused episode since we had little time to shoot with Ellen Pompeo (8 1/2 months pregnant at the time we shot this one).

Typically, if Derek's doing a once-in-a-lifetime surgery, Meredith would be at his side. But since we couldn't physically do that, we had her be there for him in a different way.

There's still no sign of Izzie. She's still god knows where and not telling Alex squat. Which is just harsh. Sure, the guy tried to pretend that he didn’t care whether she’d show up for her IL-2 treatment, but we all know that's just his way of coping.

Who doesn’t show up for their life-saving IL-2 treatment?

Last but not least, I'd like to applaud Chandra Wilson. She acts, she sings, and now she directs... and sometimes all at the same time. I have a feeling Chandra’s the kind of person that’s good at everything she does. You know the type from high school.

Follow the link for the entirety of Pete's blog ...