Feel free to link to my site, but please don’t just copy and paste the stuff into your own site. A lot of work went into this, (yes I have no life) so I’d appreciate getting the credit for it. 
Pilot: A Hard Day’s Night
March 27, 2005
Opening:
“The game: They say a person either has what it takes to play, or they don’t. My mother was one of the greats. Me, on the other hand… I’m kinda screwed.
(Following Chief Webber’s speech about the rate of success in surgical residency…)
Like I said… I’m screwed.”
Closing:
I can’t think of any one reason why I’d want to be a surgeon… but I can think of 1,000 reasons why I should quit. They make it hard on purpose. There are lives in our hands. There comes a moment when it’s more than just a game, and you either take that step forward, or turn around and walk away.
I could quit, but here’s the thing… I love the playing field.
So, I made it through my first shift. We all did. The other interns are all good people, you’d like them, I think. I don’t know, maybe. I like them.
(Meredith’s voice changes from “voice over” quality, to “speaking” quality, and we find she’s speaking to her mother.)
Oh, and I changed my mind. I’m not going to sell the house. I’m gonna keep it. I’ll have to get a couple of roommates, but, it’s home, you know?
Episode Two: The First Cut Is the Deepest
April 3, 2005
Opening:
It’s all about lines. The finish line at the end of residency. Waiting in line for a chance at the operating table. And then there’s the most important line, the line separating you, from the people you work with. It doesn’t help to get too familiar. To make friends.
You need boundaries between you and the rest of the world. Other people are far too messy. It’s all about lines. Drawing lines in the sand, and praying like hell, no one crosses them.
Closing:
At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don’t keep other people out, they fence you in. Life is messy. That’s how we’re made. So you can waste your life drawing lines… or you can live your life crossing them.
But there are some lines… that are way too dangerous to cross. Here’s what I know: If you’re willing to take the chance, the view from the other side… is spectacular.
Episode Three: Winning a Battle, Losing the War
3: April 10, 2005
Opening:
We live out our lives on the surgical unit. Seven days a week, 14 hours a day. We’re together more than we’re apart. After a while, the ways of residency become the ways of life.
Number one: Always keep score.
Number two: Do whatever you can to outsmart the other guy.
Number three: Don’t make friends with the enemy.
Oh, and yeah, number four: Everything, everything, is a competition. Whoever said winning wasn’t everything? Never held a scalpel.
Closing:
There’s another way to survive this competition. A way no one ever seems to tell you about. One you have to learn yourself.
Number five: It’s not about the race. At all. There are no winners or losers. Victories are counted by the number of lives saved.
And, once in a while, if you’re smart, the life you save… could be your own.
Episode Four: No Man’s Land
April 17, 2005
Opening:
Intimacy is a four-syllable word for, “Here are my heart and soul. Please grind them into hamburger and enjoy.”
It’s both desired, and feared, difficult to live with… and impossible to live without.
Intimacy also comes attached to life’s three R’s: Relatives, Romance, and Roommates. There are some things you can’t escape, and other things, you just don’t want to know…
Closing:
I wish there were a rule book for intimacy. Some kind of a guide that could tell you when you’ve crossed the line. It would be nice if you could see it coming. And I don’t know how you fit it on a map…
You take it where you can get it, and keep it as long as you can. And as for rules… Maybe there are none. Maybe the rules of intimacy are something you have to define for yourself.
Episode Five: Shake Your Groove Thing
April 24, 2005
Opening:
Remember when you were a kid, and your biggest worry was, like, if you’d get a bike for your birthday, or if you’d get to eat cookies for breakfast? Being an adult? Totally overrated. I mean, seriously, don’t be fooled by all the hot shoes, and the great sex, and the no parents anywhere telling you what to do. Adulthood is responsibility.
Responsibility, it really does suck. Really, really sucks. Adults have to be places and do things and earn a living and pay the rent. And if you’re training to be a surgeon, holding a human heart in your hands… Hello! Talk about responsibility!
Kind of makes bikes and cookies look really really good, doesn’t it?
The scariest part about responsibility? When you screw up, and let it slip right through your fingers…
Closing:
Responsibility… it really does suck. Unfortunately, once you get past the age of braces and training bras, responsibility doesn’t go away. It can’t be avoided. Either someone makes us face it, or we suffer the consequences.
And still, adulthood has its perks. I mean, the shoes, the sex, the no parents anywhere telling you what to do… that’s pretty damn good.
Episode Six: If Tomorrow Never Comes
May 1, 2005
Opening:
A couple hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. “Never leave that ’till tomorrow,” he said, “which you can do today.”
This is the man who discovered electricity. You’d think more of us would listen to what he had to say. I don’t know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I’d say it has a lot to do with fear.
Fear of failure, fear of pain, fear of rejection… Sometimes the fear is just of making a decision. Because, what if you’re wrong? What if you’re making a mistake you can’t undo?
Whatever it is we’re afraid of, one thing holds true… that, by the time the pain of not doing a thing, gets worse than the fear of doing it, it can feel like we’re carrying around a giant tumor.
(on screen, the interns walk into Miss Conner’s room and see her very large tumor…)
And you thought I was speaking metaphorically.
Closing:
The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can’t pretend we haven’t been told. We’ve all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day.
Still, sometimes, we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today’s possibility under tomorrow’s rug, until we can’t anymore, until we finally understand for ourselves, what Benjamin Franklin meant:
That knowing, is better than wondering. That waking, is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst, most intractable mistake, beats the hell out of never trying.
Episode Seven: The Self-Destruct Button
May 8, 2005
Opening:
Okay, anyone who says you can sleep when you die, tell them to come talk to me after a few months as an intern. Of course, it’s not just the job that keeps us up all night.
I mean, if life’s so hard already, why do we bring more trouble down on ourselves? What’s up with the need to hit the self-destruct button?
Closing:
Maybe we like the pain. Maybe we’re wired that way. Because without it, I don’t know… maybe we just wouldn’t feel real.
What’s that saying? “Why do I keep hitting myself with a hammer?” “Because it feels so good when I stop.”
Episode Eight: Save Me
May 15, 2005
Opening:
You know how when you were a little kid, and you believed in fairy tales? That fantasy of what your life would be. White dress, Prince Charming, who’d carry you away to a castle on a hill. You’d lie in bed at night and close your eyes, and you had complete and utter faith.
Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Prince Charming, they were so close, you could taste them. But eventually, you grow up. One day you open your eyes, and the fairy tale disappears. Most people, turn to the things and people they can trust.
But the thing is… it’s hard to let go of that fairy tale entirely. Because almost everyone still has that smallest bit of hope, of faith, that one day they’ll open their eyes, and it will all come true.
Closing:
At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don’t really expect it. It’s like, one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed.
The castle… well, it may not be a castle. And, it’s not so important that it’s happy ever after. Just that it’s happy right now. See, once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you. And once in a while… people may even take your breath away.
Episode Nine: Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
May 22, 2005
Opening:
Secrets can’t hide in science. Medicine has a way of exposing the lies. Within the walls of the hospital, the truth is stripped bare. How we keep our secrets outside the hospital… well, that’s a little different.
One thing is certain. Whatever it is we’re trying to hide, we’re never ready for that moment when the truth gets naked.
That’s the problem with secrets. Like misery, they love company. They pile up and up until they take over everything. Until you don’t have room for anything else. Until you’re so full of secrets, you feel like you’re going to burst.
Closing:
The thing people forget, is how good it can feel when you finally set secrets free. Whether good or bad, at least they’re out in the open, like it, or not.
And once your secrets are out in the open, you don’t have to hide behind them anymore. The problem with secrets is, even when you think you’re in control… you’re not.
