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Sep 9, 2023 · Running since 2005, Grey's Anatomy is one of the most iconic medical dramas of all time, and Meredith Grey's career timeline has captivated audiences since the beginning. Grey's Anatomy follows the surgeons of a hospital in Seattle, as they navigate extremely high-stakes careers, intense workplace politics, and complicated romantic relationships.
- Grey's Anatomy: 5 Ways Meredith Is A Good Doctor (& 4 She's Not)
Meredith is a fascinating character as she has experienced a...
- Grey's Anatomy: 5 Ways Meredith Is A Good Doctor (& 4 She's Not)
Meredith Grey, M.D., F.A.C.S., is a fictional and titular character from the medical drama television series Grey's Anatomy, which airs on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. The character was created by series producer Shonda Rhimes and is portrayed by actress Ellen Pompeo. Meredith made her first appearance in the ...
- Overview
- History
- Personality
- Relationships
- Career
- Notes and Trivia
- Notable Episodes
- Memorable Quotes
Meredith Grey is the Attending General Surgeon at Catherine Fox Foundation and former Chief of Surgery, former head of general surgery and former Director of the Residency Program at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She is the daughter of the now-deceased Ellis Grey, a famed general surgeon, and the now-deceased Thatcher Grey. She was married to Derek...
Early Life
When Meredith was young, her father, Thatcher, would bring her to Seattle Grace Hospital to visit her mother, Ellis, at work. As a small child, Meredith got to see her mother perform surgery. As a gift, Meredith was given an "Anatomy Jane" doll by her parents, which contained 24 parts/organs to take out, and extra parts to simulate pregnancy. Meredith would bring the doll with her to the hospital. Years later, an adult, and now a doctor, Meredith uncovered the doll while she and Derek were unpacking boxes in their house, which was previously owned and inhabited by her mother and father before their divorce, and by her mother after, until Meredith was forced to place her mother in Roseridge Home for Extended Care, due to Ellis suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's. The doll brought up old memories for Meredith, along with a renewed attachment to the doll that resulted in adult Meredith bringing it to work with her one day. Upon recognizing an Anatomy Jane doll and her own remembered fondness for her own as a child, Dr. Miranda Bailey allowed Meredith to scrub into surgery that day on a patient being treated for an inoperable tumor. During the surgery, it was obvious that Dr. Richard Webber was quite disturbed, and also feeling a little guilty, at the sight of the doll, as he had been reminded of a young Meredith craving her mother's attention and love, yet not getting it since Ellis was not only very focused on her surgical career but also because he and Ellis were having an affair when they were both interns and residents. Meredith's parents had a troubled marriage, though part of this was due to Ellis spending too much time working and normal everyday problems. But a large part was due to the fact that for years, Ellis had been involved in an affair with one of her colleagues and best friends, Richard Webber. Their marital issues proved too great, and eventually, Thatcher left the home when Meredith was five years old. He tried to visit her on several occasions, but he got nowhere. Eventually, he stopped seeing his daughter and subsequently started a new family with his new wife, Susan Grey, and had two children, Molly and Lexie. When Thatcher left Ellis, she continued her relationship with Webber, although he still had a wife, Adele. Although Richard tried to conceal his relationship with Ellis, Adele always knew, so if she was in their company, she would just play with Meredith. Eventually, Richard broke off his relationship with Ellis, as he felt he was being the better man, by walking away from Ellis, with Meredith only meters away, riding on a carousel. Meredith vaguely remembered her mother's pregnancy with Webber's child after he broke it off. In the memory, Ellis made it clear that she did not want to even look at the child. Shortly thereafter, Ellis accepted a fellowship opportunity at Massachusetts General Hospital. She relocated to Massachusetts with Meredith, and Thatcher lost all contact with his daughter. As an adult, her only childhood memory of Thatcher was giving her cereal in the morning. In the 8th grade, her English class had to read Romeo & Juliet. For extra credit, their teacher Mrs. Snyder made them act out all the parts. A boy named Sal Scafarillo was chosen for Romeo, and all the girls were jealous of Meredith, who was chosen for Juliet. But Meredith was not happy, and she complained to her teacher that Juliet was an idiot because she had fallen for the one man she knew she could never have. Then she blamed fate for her own bad decision. She told her that if Juliet was stupid enough to fall for the enemy, drink a bottle of poison and go to sleep in a mausoleum, then she deserved whatever she got. Therefore, at the age of 13, she was very clear that love, like life, was about making choices. Meredith later described her high school years to Cristina by saying, "I wore a lot of black. Had the whole angry pink hair thing going on. Wouldn't have been caught dead at prom." She went to college at Dartmouth, and despite excessive drinking and partying, she graduated. Following her graduation, Ellis suggested that Meredith find another direction in her life, not being convinced that her daughter had what it took to survive medical school and make it in the surgical world. Following an argument about Meredith's future, Meredith spent two months traveling in Europe with her best friend Sadie Harris, who also hated Ellis. But during that time, Meredith's mother Ellis Grey was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease and placed into a nursing home in Seattle. Ellis's diagnosis gave Meredith the push she needed to go to medical school. After graduating from Dartmouth Medical School, Meredith moved back to Seattle from New Hampshire and into her childhood home in order to begin her internship at Seattle Grace. Meredith was the only one who knew about her mother's condition outside the nursing home staff, whose personnel were bound by contract to keep Ellis's condition confidential. Ellis also made Meredith promise not to tell anyone. Cristina later helped "diagnose" Meredith as having a case of "severe abandonment issues," as the cause of her relationship problems with Derek, due to the fact that Thatcher left her, when she was a child, that she had to suddenly leave her childhood home when she was five, and that Ellis was absent for most of her childhood, due to her work and the affair she was having with Richard.
Beginning Relationship with Derek Shepherd
After having a one-night stand with Derek without knowing that he was her boss, she and Derek began dating, initially discreetly. But soon Bailey, Meredith's resident, caught her and Derek together and made it her mission to make Meredith's life at work as miserable as possible, as she was involved with her boss, who was also Bailey's boss. Meredith soon learned that Derek was still married when his wife, Addison, came to Seattle to get Derek back. At first, Meredith was angry with Derek for not telling her, but she later admitted to still loving him and begged him to "pick me, choose me, love me." When Addison handed him the divorce papers to end their relationship officially, Derek remained hesitant and soon after decided to stay with Addison, much to Meredith's dismay. Although the two constantly flirted and Derek still hinted at having feelings for her, they both agreed to remain friends, and Addison, too, attempted to be friends with Meredith. When Derek's best friend, Mark Sloan, visited Seattle, he was quick to realize that Meredith was "the one" for Derek and tried to persuade Addison to stop fighting for her marriage as Meredith was Derek's, true love. Meanwhile, Meredith rescued a dog, Doc, in an effort to move on, but after her housemates, Izzie Stevens and George, gave her an ultimatum to choose them or Doc, she gave the dog to Derek and Addison. Doc was taken to the vet and diagnosed with bone cancer. Meredith started to date Finn the vet, much to Derek's annoyance. Meredith dating Finn also caused Derek to end the friendship with Meredith and call her a whore. On the night of the Seattle Grace Hospital Prom, Derek went with Addison, while Meredith went with Finn. The two soon after met with each other in an exam room where Derek confessed that he still loved her and they had sex. Addison discovered Meredith's underwear in Derek's pocket and the two finally agreed to divorce. Meredith, however, was still dating Finn and issued a contest between the two boys to see which she would settle with. She ultimately chose Derek and they reconciled.
Drowning in Elliot Bay
Meredith, Izzie, George, Alex, and Bailey went to the site of a massive ferry boat accident. After Meredith finished stabilizing a patient's badly wounded leg with the help of a little girl just by the water, the man panicked and pushed Meredith off the edge into the bay. Later, when Derek was shown Meredith's fate by the little girl, he jumped into the water and then retrieved a pale, seemingly lifeless Meredith. He tried to perform CPR in the ambulance, but she did not respond. The doctors all tried to revive her, but she flatlined. Then Meredith entered a state of limbo in her mind, where she interacted with deceased acquaintances like Denny, Dylan Young, Doc, Bonnie Crasnoff, Liz Fallon, and her own mother, Ellis Grey. Eventually, she left this state of limbo and came back to life slowly. Meredith recovered, but Derek remained concerned that Meredith was a good swimmer, and that perhaps she had not tried hard enough and had given up.
She is intelligent, compassionate, hard-working, has good medical instincts, and a natural flair for medicine.
Meredith and Derek have been described as polar opposites. She described herself as "dark and twisty" due to her negativity, in contrast to Derek's charismatic optimism. And unlike Derek, who viewed the world in distinct shades of black and white, Meredith tends to see things in shades of gray, which Carolyn Shepherd remarked to her son that was what he needed, while she was visiting Seattle.[109]
RomanticFamilialFriendshipsProfessionalAfter attending medical school, Meredith secured a spot at Seattle Grace Hospital as a surgical intern and moved from Boston to her mother's house in Seattle. She attended Dartmouth College.
Because of her mother's reputation, Meredith was often treated differently from other doctors, sometimes favored and sometimes disliked. Meredith showed promise as an intern, she made a difficult diagnosis on her first day and during the rest of her internship, she assisted in several advanced procedures, particularly neurosurgical cases.
After correctly diagnosing a patient with a brain tumor, she approached Derek Shepherd with the idea of a clinical trial. On their thirteenth patient, they had a success and the clinical trial was published in a medical journal and named The Shepherd Method. But she was not too pleased, to find that she was not mentioned in the article and was somewhat upset to hear from Derek that he was the one taking the risk, despite her doing all the work.
Soon after, Meredith discovered numerous journals belonging to her mother, while she learned more about her and also picked up some surgical skills and even a doll from her past, Anatomy Jane, which helped her save a young girl.
On her wedding day, she was given a colon removal operation, from Derek, as her first solo surgery, as a wedding present. Without any intervention from other doctors, she successfully completed the surgery, despite Richard and Mark observing in the background. Richard Webber informed her that her mother would have been proud, while Meredith said that her mother was likely to have been glad that she didn't kill anyone instead.
She later also performed a solo neurological surgery by herself, as Derek, the attending doctor, was occupied by another patient in another OR. When Derek was setting up the Alzheimer's trial, Meredith was there to assist him. But she was not entirely pleased to find out that he chose Alex, over her, to help him. It was only later, that Alex explained that Meredith was more suited to be his assistant, as she had personal experience, in dealing with the patients and family. But when she tampered with the sample that Adele was supposed to get, Alex suspected that something was amiss. That culminated in him outing her, while he was drunk, and her being suspended, before being fired by the board. Richard took the fall for her, but she and Derek agreed that they shouldn't be close at work too, so Meredith decided to leave neurosurgery.
•Meredith's Catch Phrases/Running Gags:
•1. Commonly using well-known phrases, but trails off at the end and replaces the last word with "whatever" e.g. "You're my knight in shining whatever"[142]
•2. "Mc" Labeling: "McDreamy, McSteamy, McGuilty, McVet, McAss"
•Meredith loves tequila.[143]
•Meredith states that Duran Duran, The Go Go's, and The Eurythmics are right answers to "What's your favorite 80s band?", suggesting that she enjoys their music.[144]
•Meredith does not like big weddings.[145]
These episodes are Meredith-centric or are otherwise very informative about her life.
Meredith: 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. I can't think of any one reason why I'd want to be a surgeon. But I can think of a thousand 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.[190]
Meredith: Okay, here it is, your choice...it's simple. Her or me, and I'm sure she is really great. But Derek, I love you, in a really, really big pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window, unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you. So pick me, choose me, love me.[191]
Derek: Ok. What do we wanna promise each other?
Meredith: That you'll love me...even when you hate me.
Derek: To love each other, even when we hate each other. No running. Ever. Nobody walks out. No matter what happens.
Meredith: No running.
Jul 5, 2021 · Meredith is a fascinating character as she has experienced a lot of tragedies, which does affect her adult life today, and it also drives her desire to work hard and do well. While there are many moments on Grey's Anatomy when Meredith is a solid, excellent doctor, there are also times she has made some big mistakes too.
Sep 14, 2023 · Despite facing numerous obstacles and setbacks along the way, she never loses sight of her goals. Meredith's determination to succeed is evident in her relentless pursuit of knowledge and her unwillingness to settle for anything less than excellence. She pushes herself to the limit, always striving to become the best doctor she can be.
May 16, 2019 · In season 14, Meredith finally achieved her lifelong goal of winning a Harper Avery (as complicated as that award would become), and cemented Meredith Grey as the sought-after surgeon her mother ...
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How did Meredith Grey become Chief of general surgery?
Aug 19, 2024 · Richard Webber, Preston Burke, and Derek Shepherd each aspired to be Chief, facing their own challenges. Miranda Bailey, Alex Karev, and others took on the Chief role with varying successes and challenges. Many Grey’s Anatomy doctors have been chief of surgery, and their legacies still live on. At the beginning of the series, Richard Webber ...
