I’ve been doing a Grey’s Anatomy marathon for the past week, watching episode after episode of GA drama round-a-clock (yes, even while I work). I was hoping to finish all 5 seasons before Season 6 pilots today, tomorrow in the US, September 24.

Watching T.R. Knight in the previous seasons made me feel both sad and sentimental, knowing he won’t be in Season 6 anymore. Especially since they *killed* George’s character in the story, unlike the other former GA characters — Preston Burke, Erica Hahn — who just left the hospital but not died. Shonda Rhimes has given George a grand exit, something that comes with finality, no possible comebacks in the future, no resurrecting the dead (I’m pretty sure they won’t do another Denny Duquette).

Which is sad, because I’ve always loved George, and losing one of the original “interns” in the show is just.. tragic.

Tomorrow on Grey’s Anatomy Season 6’s 2-hour pilot episode, George O’Malley’s burial:

Christina Yang (Sandra Oh), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers)

Alex and Izzie

Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo)

Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey)

Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd)

Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) and Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh)

Amanda, the girl George sacrificed his life for (Shannon Lucio)

*Weird that I couldn’t find Chandra Wilson in any of these spoiler photos.

Looks like this one’s going to be one sad story.

I know it’s crazy to be mourning over a fictional character, but if you’ve been following a TV series and wasting bandwidth over downloads for the past 5 years, it just doesn’t feel right to not be sentimental over fictional deaths, and to not feel like you know them, and to not miss their clumsiness, and loyalty, and laughter, as if they’re real people.

George O’Malley’s death aside, I thought Season 5 was Grey’s Anatomy’s best season so far, and it would be interesting to find out how Shonda Rhimes and the GA writers would follow through, with Izzie Stevens’ continuous battle with cancer, and Alex Karev (the jerk who’s been sleeping around and once transmitted syphilis to a bunch of people) now being married, and Derek & Meredith together forever at last, and Christina Yang’s new relationship with Owen Hunt, and Lexie Grey and Mark Sloan, etc, etc.

I’m excited to find out what’s next.