Isaiah Washington Enters Grey Area

Fri., May. 18, 2007 6:33 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

(SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen the season finale of Grey's Anatomy, back away from the computer.)

Just because he gave Dr. Cristina Yang the kiss-off and cleared out, it doesn't mean Dr. Preston Burke won't be scrubbing in at Seattle Grace this fall.

Isaiah Washington's rep, Howard Bragman, said Friday that the actor, whose fate on Grey's Anatomy has been in limbo since he uttered an anti-gay slur at the Golden Globes in January, expects to return to the hit ABC series for a fourth season.

"The deal's not done but we have no reason to believe he won't be putting on the scrubs," Bragman said. ABC, meanwhile, is not commenting on Washington's status.

Thursday's episode boasted your usual variety of cliffhanger threads, including Burke and Cristina's breakup, which occurred after Cristina's cold feet put their wedding plans on ice.

"I'm up there waiting for you to come down the aisle and I know you don't want to come," Burke tells Yang, who's played by Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh. "If I loved you, I wouldn't be up there waiting for you. I would be letting you go."

Cristina goes home and finds that all of Burke's favorite stuff is missing from their apartment, setting up a tearful exchange between her and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo). "He's gone," Cristina says. Whether she was heartbroken or somewhat relieved is left up to viewers' imaginations.

Another loose end came in the form of T.R. Knight's Dr. George O'Malley, who was the only doc to fail his first-year intern exam and now must not only decide between Callie (Sara Ramírez) and Izzie (Katherine Heigl), but also between quitting medicine and repeating his intern year. As the episode winds down, George is cleaning out his locker.

But don't expect Knight, who was infamously Washington's offscreen target, to be going anywhere. Heigl tells E! News' Ryan Seacrest she expects both her cast mates to return in the fall.

"Well, as far as I know both will be back, but maybe they want me to not say that. I think it's interesting they used what happened in their personal lives to use as a cliffhanger," Heigl said. "If they're not back, I'll be pissed...Either of them...I think both deserve their jobs, so I wouldn't want either to leave."

So with Burke and O'Malley in possible limbo and Meredith and McDreamy embarking on yet another attempt to get it right, only one thing's for sure, really. The fans love their Grey's Anatomy! Before last night's season finale, the award-winning series was attracting 19.3 million viewers a week, making it the most watched show in 2006-07 without the word Idol, Dancing or CSI in it.

Luckily for Washington, he has more to do this summer than sit around worrying about whether he'll be that visible next year, as well.

The 43-year-old actor is heading to Sierra Leone next week to check up on the nonprofit organization he launched last year to improve living conditions in the West African country, from where his forebears hailed.

When he gets back, and before production on Grey's starts up again in August, Washington will be shooting the indie film The Least of These, playing a priest who returns to teach at the same high school where he was molested as a boy.