This post does contain spoilers from the 4/23 episode.
I was very unhappy with this episode. Sondra Rhimes has just killed off too many characters. It’s depressing. There was George, Mark, Lexi and then some lesser characters who were sacrificed to her hospital shooter episode. It reminds me of when Christina left Seattle Grace to go back east briefly and said something like, “People get hit by busses, held up by guns in the OR, etc. Why would anyone want to stay here?” So true.
The foreshadowing for this episode was as heavy-handed as it gets. Derek suddenly finding himself content with clipping an aneurysm and gazing adoringly at his wife while she operates and finding out that he needs nothing but home and hearth was too pat. Amelia’s heavy-handed “Get back to me when you’ve lost the love of your life”. All of it.
Then there is the weird timeline. He leaves in the morning, presumably traveling all day to get to the east coast and then misses his meeting the next morning and Meredith worries until 5:00 p.m. Everything happens the first day and evening and it takes a full day for them to find her? Was he traveling without a wallet? Did his car not have a registration in it? All of that was completely unbelievable. As was the fact that he was alone on that road and all the police had left and he was the last person there. The police would be there for a long time figuring out what happened because they would probably be bringing charges against the young man. And Derek had a plane to catch (or another plane to catch) so you’d think he’d have left before they did.
Many of the hospital scenes were implausible. Meredith delivering sage pronouncements on growing as a doctor just seemed utterly ridiculous. Of course, he’d be an organ donor and it was ridiculous to try to say there was nothing to salvage so they could have the final exhale. About the only emotion I felt from the whole thing was anger that this was the choice that was made for his character and that he received less-than-stellar medical care. The bad call here was to have him die.
I have long recognized that this guilty pleasure was extremely unrealistic. I also could see the seeds were being planted to kill Derek, but the way she did it was completely absurd. I wish they would just pull the plug on the show. Poor Meredith has had more misery in her short life than anyone deserves at twice her age. Also, the idea that Meredith would not call Amelia to meet her at the hospital was unrealistic.
The show has to be on the way out at this point. Too many major, major character deaths/disappearances. I find it incredibly hard to believe that Cristina wouldn’t still be in Meredith’s life, especially with FaceTime, Skype, etc. All I remember is one brief discussion about time difference.
I also find it unbelievable that Meredith would choose to end care without at least consulting Amelia, his just-as-capable neurosurgeon (and sister, hello?!?) I feel like Shonda is setting up Meredith to be resented by everyone at the hospital, ultimately prompting her to either quit and follow Cristina to Germany or go somewhere else.
I agree with OP–how many tragedies can someone suffer in one place before they can’t stay there anymore? It’s not about the medicine or even the people anymore, it’s about what big tragedy is coming next. I think I will watch through the rest of it, just to see what happens, but at this point it’s getting ridiculous.
I hope Meredith brings legal action against at least the neurosurgeon if not the hospital as a whole. I have a feeling we’ll see more of those doctors.
And who asks about who’s going to babysit her kids when Derek is dying. It was an absurd episode. I wondered if the direction changed to explore how a single mom manages her family and career. It could be an interesting angle.
Stopped watching after the plane crash, but saw people talking about it on Facebook/Twitter yesterday. Wow. Shonda is worse than GRR Martin and that’s saying a lot. I get that he needed to be written out of the show, but damn, even ER let docs just move.
I wasn’t surprised by what happened. I’d been hearing that Patrick Dempsey wanted to leave for a couple of years. I guess Sandra Oh got first dibs on leaving, and her character was one of the few not killed off.
This obviously opens up new storylines (Meredith coping as a single parent, the reactions of other doctors to Derek’s death and Merdith’s decision to pull the plug, will she sue the other hospital/doctors), but I’m not sure we haven’t seen some of these storylines with all the other deaths that have occurred on this show.
Alot of what happened in the episode was unbelievable, but I’ve come to expect that on TV.
The neurosurgeon wasn’t the problem. The male doctor who refused to let the female doctor get a CT scan was the one who screwed up. Derek’s voice over said it was too late.
I just watched it this morning, and to tell you the truth, I never thought about her calling Amelia.
I think that they just wanted to keep the focus on Meredith and Derek, which is why she didn’t call anyone else.
That’s true. One can’t take storylines in TV shows seriously. There are a few things I still like about this show, like Meredith not packing up to move to DC. Or how she chose not to fly to DC and stayat a motel. I was interested in how the long distance relationship was going to work out until Derek moved back.
Well this show has been my guilty pleasure for a long time. It was obvious that they were easing Derek out of the series and it seems that they were unsure initially which direction the story line would go… have him relocate to Washington and leave Seattle and his family behind and that did not seem to work and so they came up with this scenario. While I agree it was implausible that he would be left behind after the ambulances and tow truck left the scene to set up this accident I liked the juxtaposition that he saved all those lives at the accident only to become an accident victim.
Agree also that Meredith would have called in Amelia… not only is she a neurosurgeon she is also his sister. This does set up next week’s two hour funeral finale… will Christina be there to support Meredith? What about Addison? Guest roles for many…I still miss T. R. Knight and Kathryn Heigl but I guess that they cannot be resurrected either.
I agree with everyone’s criticism of the episode. So disappointing. They should have left him in DC (where I live!). Without him and Cristina, there’s not much left.
The only good thing on the episode was the young girl from the accident. She played a bratty kid on Parenthood, and it was nice to see her in another role. They only killed off one character on that show at least!
I disagree with the idea of leaving him in DC. That would make Meredith an abandoned wife, a different story line. It would have meant that he just moved on to another chick, which would invalidate the depth or their relationship, his feelings for his children…
They didn’t have to have him move on. They could have just created a storyline where he couldn’t work in Seattle Grace any more for some reason (or took a position in a different hospital in Seattle). That way, he wouldn’t be in the hospital or on the show, but he would still be alive and a part of his family.
But they didn’t have to do anything with him - I just read an interview today where Patrick Dempsey said he had just signed a new two-year contract, last year. So it was a choice that the show made to write off his character. Not that the actor was leaving and they had to figure something out. Why? It’s not like the canvas is so crowded with compelling new characters.
Thought I’d posted this earlier…I read where he’d been causing some issues…acting out, and such, and Shonda apparently just wanted him gone. Some friends of mine have been calling her George RR Martin in disguise.
I am interested in how Meredith deals with the aftermath. If Shonda shows creativity in wrting that story, I don’t have a problem with killing Derek off however awkwardly it’s done.
