Mer/Der

Season 11, Episode 21: How to Save a Life

This article discusses the most recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy in its entirety so if you’re not all caught up don’t read this because it’ll ruin it for you.

The beginning of the episode shows Derek on his way home. He’s driving toward the airport when he suddenly hits an area with poor cell reception that cuts off his call with the surgeons we know and love back home at Grey-Sloan. Well, Bailey we love, Kepner is pretty lovable now though it certainly took awhile, basically she sucked until her hair turned red. The jury is still out on she-Shepherd. The rest of the events play out as rapidly as the racing car that causes two cars to roll over, but of course Derek hits the brakes in time and runs to the rescue. Art imitates life here since Dempsey left the show to pursue a career in racing.

Super surgeon Shepherd consoles a child, frees a mother and then fixes her dislocated hip, just in time to run back across the road and grab the teenager who caused the crash and endured a bad head injury right before the sports car massively explodes (another bit of irony towards Dempsey’s departure, the kid could’ve been driving an F150) which sends up the perfect amount of smoke to attract help. C’mon Grey’s, why so cheesy? Oh, and he puts a young girl’s intestines back inside her body with plastic from the laundry mat, while miraculously repairing her insides he’s also able to give the young woman advice about love. He tells her about Meredith, about kissing his wife, how that was “the right kiss.” It’s hard not to write sarcastically about all that unravels so lamely within the first twenty minutes. It was just so rushed, and so obvious, sadly much of season 11 is so not Grey’s.

What is Grey’s? Grey’s is….

this,

and this,

and stuff like this.

Los Angeles Times recap: In Thursday’s episode, titled “How to Save a Life,” neurosurgeon Derek stops to help the victims of a car accident, gets hit by a tractor-trailer, and dies of a brain injury when doctors at the hospital fail to treat him properly. (Irony duly noted.) He’s not in Seattle but that doesn’t matter because only Derek could’ve saved himself. He can’t talk but we hear the narration of his mind diagnosing his own symptoms. I guess if you aren’t as turned off by his ego as you are turned on by his eyes and charm it would be hard to hear him think; look at my head. Get a head CT. They don’t do it because the hospital is ill equipped, the doctors aren’t trained well, and Patrick wanted to end his contract early. Instead of playing off the characters viewers know, love, and possibly idolize-Grey’s is now reaching for depth in the wrong places.

He hasn’t been McDreamy for quite some time, he looked worn out and was not very committed to his McFamily but still, almost a dozen seasons of raw emotions, and then to end MerDer-the heart of the show-in mere minutes minutes? Meredith, who said, “I’m scared as hell to want you.” The one who took so long to let herself love and be loved and never wanted to be as as cold as her mother, signs termination papers without even blinking, let alone calling someone first….like her person.

Derek shouldn’t have gone out like that. Why did he even have to die? He could’ve left for the woman he cheated with in DC. Haven’t we mourned enough beloved surgeons? I guess when you skip out on your contact that was supposed to go to season 12, the writers aren’t happy. Still it was pretty rough to see Mer have to unplug the love of her life while Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol played just like it did for Callie when she was in a car wreck in season 7, episode 18. If there were any justifiable teary moments in this episode it was the MerDer flashbacks, the history, the milestones, the pain and the bravery. If anything hurt is was that Meredith who survived so much; drowning, a bomb, a gunman, a plane crash, and an uncertain pregnancy, Meredith, child of darkness who said; “Look, it took me a long time to find him. A long time. And even then it took me a long time to even know that I wanted him. To be married, to be his wife, to have his kids. And now that I realized that, he’s lying on the table in there and my best friend’s hands are inside his chest.”-Season 6, ep. 24. He won’t “always show up” now. If there’s no coming up for fresh air, that only leaves drowning.

She deserved more. We deserved more. No Cristina, no guy in a bar, how can there be anything more after this? No matter how lame it was and how irked we feel, come Grey’s Day we’ll be watching. Have fun weeping everyone. It’s okay Grey’s Anatomy tears do not count as real crying.

Who will carry us now?