Tell Me Sweet Little Lies/Grey Matter

From Joan Rater, one of the writers of "Tell Me Sweet Little Lies..."

Original Airdate 1/22/06

Since the theme of last night's episode was lying, I'll start out with a little bit of truth here - writing this blog kind of terrifies me. It's clear from comments Kip got about his episode last week that some fans are getting frustrated/upset with the whole Derek/Meredith/Addison triangle. I mean, he said he was going to try to work it out with Addison, but he keeps being McDreamy with Meredith. What's that about? In last night's episode he told Cristina that he can be nice to Meredith without being McDreamy. Right. He gets near Meredith and he's dreamy as hell. So is he just a big liar? I'd like to offer my two cents on that question, but first, let me introduce myself ...

My name is Joan, and my writing partner, Tony also happens to be my husband of twelve years. We’re the new kids on the staff, having just started this season. We come from writing much more procedural type stuff, like Law and Order, so it was a big shift to move to a show where we get to explore the personal lives of our characters. And I must say we love it. This group of writers is so passionate and committed about staying true to these characters. Even if the truth isn't pretty. So when we started work on this episode, we obviously looked to our own relationship for inspiration. Now, I haven't had an affair with Tony's best friend, and as far as I know he hasn't slept with an intern on the show, but since Tony and I work together and have been married roughly the same amount of time Addison and Derek have, we have a little insight into their relationship. There isn't a conversation that Tony and I haven't had; a subject that hasn't been covered; a story that hasn't been told, retold and then told again. I'm just saying, the day to day of a marriage can get a little monotonous sometimes – especially if one or both partners don’t constantly work at keeping things fresh. So … Addison slipped, Derek bolted across the country to start over, and he met Meredith – the woman who is quite possibly his soulmate.

Derek and Meredith were still in the exciting “getting to know you” stage of their relationship when Addison showed up. And once Derek made his choice and decided to try to work it out with Addison, his break with Meredith was abrupt … almost violent. Almost as if, like Rick the guitarist who lost his fingers, Derek and Meredith were forced to go cold turkey. And for any of you who have tried to quit smoking, there’s always that little voice in your head telling you, “C’mon, just one more cigarette. You can quit whenever you want. What harm is one more gonna do???”

Derek is telling the truth when he says he wants to work it out with Addison. But let's face it, he's not over Meredith. So here he is torn between two competing desires and so he does what we all do in these situations - he lies. And not just to Addison and Meredith. He lies to himself. “I can be friends with Meredith. Help her get her mother into the Alzheimer's clinical trial. Take her dog. I mean, it's just a dog. It doesn’t mean anything.” And the tragedy of the situation is that Derek actually believes it.

We all lie. More than any of us is comfortable with. And the joy of working on a show like Grey’s Anatomy is to explore characters we love, people we all recognize, as they struggle and fight and win and lose and take three steps forward and two steps back.