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The more unexpected the plot point, the better forGreys Anatomy.
Season one: Ive got cancer.
Season two: Its gotten worse.
Season three: The lie keeps getting bigger.
The story keeps getting bigger because thats how you keep your audience.
The part she left out?
She didnt actually have chondrosarcoma.
The essay caught the attention ofGreys Anatomycreator Shonda Rhimes, who hired Finch in 2014.
(The documentary does not say whether leadership includes Rhimes, but thats a reasonable assumption.)
A horrible disease was both Finchs way onto the staff and a guarantee that she would stay there.
But Donovan believes that Finch blatantly borrowed the plot point from her.
Finch never acknowledged the connection.
According to Donovan, Finch was privately called a trauma vampire because of behavior like this.
The documentary says the treatment-center story line was Finchs idea.
She feels like dressed as Wednesday Addams.
The episode led to her five children being taken away from her and placed in foster care.
But Finch didnt explain that to her colleagues.
If this sounds like something that happened onGreys Anatomy, thats because it kind of did.
Finch wrote the episode that explains why Alex abruptly left Seattle.
Finch declined to be interviewed for the documentary.
So did her brother (understandably) and her parents (also understandably).
Some mysteries will never be solved.
But on a broadcast drama likeGreys Anatomy, people need something more than unhinged plot twists.
They need closure, which is ironically the thing that Elisabeth Finch hasnt been able to give the audience.
But she still has not adequately explained her behavior.
