Episode Report Card Lauren S: C+ | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Breaking Up Is(n't) Hard to Do
By Lauren S | Season 3 | Episode 25 | Aired on 05.16.2007
Outside, Meredith keeps saying it's going to be okay, and Cristina finally yells at her to shut up and say something helpful. Mere's at a loss, since this wedding is possibly more important to her than it is to her best friend, so Cristina tells her to say whatever she would say if they were reversed. It's a good starting point; they assume their positions and Cristina tells her to go. Meredith: "Stop whining! This is your wedding day. You will go down that aisle, and you will get married." Izzie and Callie look a bit scared; since they each claim that George is their best friend, they've never gotten the idea of tough love, or even mildly stern love, especially of the Cristina variety. It's a brilliant performance by Meredith. "If I have to kick your ass every step of the way to get you there. You will walk down the aisle, you will get married, you hear me, Cristina? We need this. We need you to get your happy ending." Cristina ponders this, and gathers herself up, announcing she is ready, totally calm.
Inside, at the same moment, Burke decides he needs to check on her. He begins the longest, most drawn-out walk down the aisle, which seems to have tripled in length given how long it takes him to get to the door. Once there, he pauses a moment and then pushes through.
Cristina reassures him; she had a brief freak-out but she's ready, and she tries to send him back. But Richard's words clearly sunk in; he's ready to admit he's in over his head. "But you don't want to do this. I'm up there waiting for you to come down the aisle and I know you don't want to come. I know you don't want to come but that you will come anyway because you love me. And if I loved you, if I loved YOU, not the woman that I'm trying to make you be, not the woman that I hope you'll become, but you, if I did I wouldn't be up there waiting for you. I would be letting you go." He admits he's in over his head, but manages to still keep the old Burke flavor to it, with that air of Cristina not being good enough -- that she's not the right person, and that it seems it's still her problem more than it is his. Cristina is completely dumbstruck. "I am wearing the dress. I am ready. And maybe I didn't want to before but I want to now. I really think I want this!" Without her even realizing it, that's the nail in her coffin. Burke tells her, "I only wish that you didn't think. I wish that you knew." I grudgingly agree. Girls, if you think but don't know, hold off. Don't let someone else determine your life's direction. And…now apparently I'm a self-help book.