On Thursday night time, ABC’s long-running medical drama “Gray’s Anatomy” stated goodbye to its titular character, Dr. Meredith Gray.
To some extent, it was a long-anticipated event. Star Ellen Pompeo has mentioned the potential of leaving for a number of seasons. At first of the present’s nineteenth season final fall, ABC introduced she would solely seem for a handful of episodes as she prepares to maneuver on to new initiatives, together with starring in and government producing an upcoming Hulu collection.
In preparation, the primary six episodes of the season laid the groundwork for Pompeo’s exit, inserting Meredith in a second of main life transitions. First, she grappled with whether or not to simply accept a dream job away from her beloved Seattle, and her relationship with boyfriend Nick (Scott Speedman) reached an deadlock. Then, following a collection of hysteria assaults, her daughter Zola (Aniela Gumbs) fell in love with a brand new faculty in Boston that was a greater match for her. And in a cliffhanger, earlier than the present went on mid-season hiatus till Thursday’s episode, Meredith’s beloved dwelling caught on fireplace.
So, how would the hit present pull off a becoming exit?
Earlier forged departures and main milestone episodes have pulled out all of the stops, like huge visitor stars, stirring monologues, callbacks to the present’s early seasons, and plenty of tears. Nonetheless, the farewell to Meredith was surprisingly understated and, frankly, underwhelming. Principally, it felt like a typical “Gray’s” episode. Meredith’s impending departure from Seattle was simply a typical plotline amongst a number of different plotlines that have been largely enterprise as standard.
Going down on Meredith’s final day of labor at Gray Sloan Memorial, the episode begins with Meredith’s standard voiceover narration. As longtime viewers know, it typically references among the themes of the episode to return, bookended by extra voiceover narration on the finish of the episode, which sums up these themes.
“Typically, surgical procedure is only the start of the therapeutic fairly than an finish. As a result of for weeks or months post-op, individuals need to discover ways to reside with out the a part of their physique we’ve simply eliminated. And that’s not at all times simple, and it’s by no means painless,” Meredith says right here. “So surgical procedure just isn't the ‘fortunately ever after’ our sufferers hope it will likely be. Like every little thing else in life, it’s an evolution.”
We be taught Meredith is coping with the logistics of the transfer whereas assessing the injury to her dwelling. It’s nonetheless standing, however the fireplace burned a large gap the place the attic as soon as was. Additionally, issues proceed to be tense with Nick, who stays offended he was not knowledgeable of Meredith’s transfer. Later within the episode, the 2 function on a affected person, a well-known creator named Tessa, and find yourself unable to avoid wasting her. Usually, this might be dramatic. However over the 19 seasons of “Gray’s,” the place many, many sufferers have died throughout surgical procedure, it was fairly run-of-the-mill.
On the finish of the day, her colleagues throw her a shock farewell occasion with cake and glowing cider. It was touching to see Meredith’s mentors, Bailey and Webber (performed by Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr., the 2 remaining members of the present’s unique forged), struggling to seek out the fitting phrases to bid her farewell. But it surely was rather more temporary and abrupt than anticipated, given the historical past these three characters share.
At times, a “Gray’s” episode will give viewers some intelligent callbacks and parallels to basic episodes. Nonetheless, these have been briefly provide right here. Towards the top of the episode, former Gray Sloan surgical resident-turned-Joe’s bartender Taryn Helm (Jaicy Elliot) tells Nick to go after Meredith and make amends. In the same cadence as among the present’s signature speeches when a personality offers an impassioned protection of one other character, Helm says of Meredith: “She’s good, and she or he cares, and she or he could be imply typically, however solely when she must be, and she or he could be egocentric typically as a result of she has earned that proper.”
And within the episode’s most direct callback, giving us a touch of what may have been an even bigger and extra full farewell episode, Meredith broadcasts to Nick that she is selecting herself, her children and her profession over a person.
“I’m not going to beg you to like me,” she tells him, a reversal of her well-known “choose me, select me, love me” speech to Patrick Dempsey’s McDreamy in Season 2.
It’s proof of how a lot Meredith has grown and altered because the begin of the present. But apart from that, there was not a lot fanfare on this episode. It’s particularly stark in comparison with earlier character farewells, just like the multi-episode goodbye for Dr. Cristina Yang when star Sandra Oh left the present in 2014, and even the departure of Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery two seasons in the past.
Two moments on the finish of the episode may function metaphors for the function of this farewell episode. First, a trio of the present’s latest surgical interns have now taken up residence in Meredith’s previous home and have been tasked with managing the repairs. It’s parallel to the early days of “Gray’s,” when Meredith opened up her home to her fellow interns on the time. It additionally marks the present’s present transitional interval. The brand new intern characters have performed a a lot bigger function all through the season than earlier units of recent characters launched in previous seasons. The present has made a concerted effort to develop their backstories. For instance, Meredith has bonded with new intern Simone (Alexis Floyd), who, like Meredith, has skilled the painful means of progressively dropping a member of the family to Alzheimer’s. Handing the home to the brand new interns indicators that the present is now of their palms.
As well as, Meredith’s last scenes are additionally like a handing-off. In a nod to a type of rom-com airport chases, Nick drives to the airport to catch Meredith earlier than she and her children take off. When he realizes he received’t make it in time, he declares his like to her on the cellphone. However Meredith, who's already on the airplane, says her cell reception is unhealthy, tells him she’ll name as soon as she’s settled in Boston, and hangs up. On the airplane, she reads a draft of Tessa’s last novel to her children, which incorporates some traces which are fairly clear references to her trajectory on the present.
“I’ve saved lives, and I’ve had my life saved. I’ve been via damaged bones, and a damaged dwelling, and the loss of life of individuals I really like, however I’m nonetheless right here,” she says. “If there’s one factor I’ve realized in all my adventures, it’s that there’s no such factor as a life lived fortunately ever after except the ‘fortunately’ means merely that we’re nonetheless alive, that the solar is rising on one other day… So the top of my story isn't any form of ‘ever after’ as a result of I’m nonetheless alive. I’m nonetheless right here, and the solar nonetheless rises on my life.”
It’s potential that no ending would have felt passable for such an iconic and enduring TV character. However for a present with a lot drama all through its 19 seasons — stunning character deaths and myriad traumatic occasions befall Meredith — it’s a wierd feeling watching its titular character quietly exiting into the background. However maybe it’s additionally a reminder of what we’ve identified for a very long time coming: “Gray’s” is a unique present now. It’s the top of an period.
Like Meredith’s home, the present nonetheless stands, however we’re left with an enormous and doubtlessly irreparable gap.
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