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Grey’s Anatomy Could Be Killing Meredith — But Here’s Why That Doesn’t Mean the Show Has to End
Monday, March 1st, 2021
Star Ellen Pompeo says the show is deciding her character’s fate “right now.”
With Grey’s Anatomy set to return with new episodes beginning Thursday, March 11 at 9 p.m. ET, fans have only one question on their minds: the primetime sudser wouldn’t really kill off its lead character… would it?
Apparently, they just might. Especially if the show intends for this to be its last season. During an interview on CBS Sunday Morning, Pompeo claimed that she wasn’t necessarily avoiding giving spoilers about her alter ego’s future but rather that Mer’s fate was still uncertain.
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“We honestly have not decided,” she swore. “We’re really trying to figure it out right now.”
Pressed for details, the actress said everyone involved was trying to decide “what story do we tell to end a show this iconic? How do we do it? I just want to make sure we do this character and this show and the fans… I want to make sure we do it right.”
To us, however, the answer is obvious: Even if Pompeo decides to exit the series (from which, by the way, she makes a reported $20 million a year), that doesn’t mean it necessarily needs to end.
What, are we the only people who’ve ever heard the phrase “The show must go on”?
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While it might at first seem odd to even ponder a Meredith-less Grey’s Anatomy, this season has proven more than any other that the series is an ensemble drama. After all, Meredith has spent most weeks bedridden and comatose, most of her very short scenes taking place on a beach where she interacts with faces from the past. Meanwhile, other characters and storylines are actually driving the drama.
In the interview (which can be viewed in its entirety above), Pompeo admits she was reluctant to join the cast, fearing she would become bored after a few months. Perhaps 17 years later, that’s finally happened… in which case she could easily step aside while letting the series itself continue to make viewers — and network suits for whom the show is very profitable — happy.
Should all involved decide that Meredith is simply too crucial a character to be killed off, perhaps Pompeo would be open to the idea of becoming something of a glorified (and very well-paid) guest star. Meredith could accept a position with the Catherine Fox Foundation which requires her to spend much of the year traveling as a guest lecturer but allows Grey — and Pompeo — to return for crucial storyline moments.
Over the years, Grey’s Anatomy has survived the departures of many major players, including Katherine Heigl’s Izzie, Sandra Oh’s Cristina and Patrick Dempsey’s Derek. Like all great soaps, this one has become about so much more than any one character and should be allowed to thrive, with or without its longtime leading lady.
What say you, Grey’s fans? Would you continue watching the show if Meredith was killed off or wound up only appearing a few times a year? Or should they pull the plug when Pompeo decides to leave? Hit the comments with your thoughts, then check out the gallery below in which we pay tribute to one of the all-time best primetime soaps, Knots Landing.
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Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>It all started on December 27, 1979, when <em>Dallas</em>‘ Bobby Ewing and mom Miss Ellie bought a cute little house in the Southern California town of Knots Landing as a wedding present after brother Gary remarried childhood love Valene. Perhaps a little too late, the couple would come to learn why such neighborhoods were known as “bedroom communities.” </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection
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<p>Quicker than you could say “Here comes trouble,” the Ewings were knee-deep in the local goings-on. We’re not saying that Valene was a bit of a doormat, but you’ll notice that we’re two slides into this photo gallery, and already, Karen Fairgate has pushed her out of the front-and-center spot. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>The first people the Ewings met? Karen and Sid Fairgate, who would quickly become Gary and Val’s closest friends. Why, we’re not really sure, given that Gary’s dealings with the Mob would get Sid killed in the Season 2 cliffhanger, and Val was the type who always borrowed a cup of sugar but never had one to give in return. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>The most miserable couple on Seaview Circle had to be Richard and Laura Avery. He was an upwardly-mobile jerk whose emotional abuse and ability to turn every positive into a negative eventually (but not nearly soon enough) became more than his wife could take. </p>
Image: Lorimar Film Entertainment/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Early episodes often revolved around troublemaking outsiders visiting the cul-de-sac in which most of the action took place. For example, fresh from having having [spoiler alert!] shot J.R. Ewing, vixen Kristin Shepard swung by long enough to canoodle with local hottie Kenny Ward. His wife, Ginger, presented the bad girl with a handy list of all the reasons she was not having any of it.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>If Karen was weeping, you could pretty much be sure that daughter Diana was lurking nearby. While Sid’s sister Abby Cunningham would become the character viewers loved to hate, that balance tipped heavily in favor of the latter when it came to his and Karen’s eldest child. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Three of the women in this picture saw armed gunmen who’d crashed Ginger’s baby shower. Abby, on the other hand, saw a man, period. Thanks to her seduction techniques and the rare occasion when Diana proved useful (by running to get help), everything turned out just fine. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
8/32
<p>Everyone may be smiling here, but things got rocky when a Season 4 crossover episode found Gary and Abby heading to <em>Dallas</em> for the reading of his his father Jock’s will. J.R. was miffed to learn his black-sheep brother had inherited a small fortune, while Abby immediately began scheming to become Mrs. Gary Moneybags… er, Ewing. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
9/32
<p>Although Gary would find himself attracted to Abby from the moment they met in Season 2, she wouldn’t actually get his ring on her finger until three years later. Had Gary looked closer at their wedding portrait, he might have realized sooner just how seriously his bride had taken <span style="text-decoration: line-through">his bank account</span> her vows.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
10/32
<p>On Gary and Abby’s honeymoon, he was stunned to meet Cathy Geary, who happened to look exactly like Ciji Dunne, a singer he’d briefly been involved with and wrongly accused of murdering. Need we even tell you that Gary bedded the doppelganger… or that Abby had actually brought the lookalike into their lives to keep him distracted from her business dealings? </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Fun fact: Val and Gary were the parents of <em>Dallas</em>‘ Lucy Ewing. Less fun fact: Val’s mama, Lilimae Clements, was basically responsible for J.R.’s men kidnapping the tot. Despite that, Val eventually let not only Lilimae move in but also her nephew/son Joshua Rush (played by a young Alec Baldwin). </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
12/32
<p>Following an ill-advised romance with Gary, Cathy fell hard for Joshua. What’s she looking at on her wedding day, you ask? Probably the dark clouds gathering on the horizon. Joshua, it turned out, was a troubled young man who would eventually fall to his death from a building he was attempting to throw his wife off. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
13/32
<p>A one-night stand with ex-hubby Gary left Val pregnant with twins. Told the children (who were sold on the black market) had died, Valene had a mental breakdown that found her taking on the persona of Verna Ellers (a character from one of her bestselling novels) and working as a waitress in a Tennessee diner. Gary would eventually find Val and bring her home. But not before getting a side of hash browns; they looked amazing!</p>
Image: Lorimar Film Entertainment/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
14/32
<p>Journalist Ben Gibson helped Val realize she could love someone other than Gary… or at least really, really like someone while continuing to not-so-secretly pine for her ex. Once Val’s stolen children were returned, Ben even pretended to be their biological father. Their marriage was both the best decision Val ever made and, ironically, Ben’s worst. </p>
Image: Lorimar Film Entertainment/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Sparks flew the moment widow Karen met Patrick “Mack” MacKenzie. After planning a very big, very messy wedding, the pair instead ran off to Vegas and tied the knot at a gloriously tacky chapel. Mack even sprung for the super deluxe package which, they were told, included not only rice but “someone to throw it.” </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
16/32
<p>Sometimes, a character hits a show and changes it forever. Such was the case when would-be senator Greg Sumner was introduced in Season 5. His arrival would see the show’s distinctly middle-class citizens become movers and shakers thanks to businesses with names like Empire Valley, Lotus Point and Murakame. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
17/32
<p>It’s hard to say which development Karen found more unsettling: the daughter Mack didn’t know he had showing up on their doorstep… or her son Michael falling for too-mature-for-her-age Paige Matheson. (Don’t worry, Karen… Paige will soon develop a taste for older men, and you’ll have a <em>way</em> bigger problem on your hands in her mom, Anne.) </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
18/32
<p>Gary didn’t have much interest in dealing with businessman Paul Galveston, but Abby was all in. Sure, he was a chauvinistic pig, but he also promised her that “five years from now, Gary Ewing is going to make J.R. seem middle-class.” The reason Abby’s not looking into the camera? She’s already got her eye on the <em>next</em> prize. </p>
Image: Lorimar Film Entertainment/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
19/32
<p>When Paul Galveston died, widow Ruth — played by Hollywood legend Ava Gardner — appeared in a puff of (cigarette) smoke. She convinced son Greg to take over his late dad’s empire, which he renamed The Sumner Group. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
20/32
<p>Age difference be damned, there was no denying the chemistry between Paige and Greg. Unfortunately, despite clearly being head over heels for the younger woman (whom ex-lover Anne tried to pass off as his daughter!), Sumner believed she’d be throwing her life away if he agreed to marry her. So while they’d always have those sexy games of strip croquet, he set Paige free and found a more, er, suitable partner… </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
21/32
<p>Abby liked being married to the very rich Gary but liked even more the idea of getting a big divorce settlement from him and exchanging vows with the far wealthier Greg. Hearing of the nuptials, Paige sent the pair a special wedding gift: a croquet set! </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Unable to have Greg, Paige settled for sexy (and corrupt) cop Tom Ryan. But on what was to be their wedding day, she found herself standing solo at the altar. What she didn’t know was that Greg, having silently done the whole “if I can’t have you, nobody will” thing, had blackmailed Tom into becoming a runaway groom. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>You’d be hard-pressed to find a more duplicitous pair than Greg’s sister, Claudia Whittaker, and her Italian lover, Nick Schillace. These two considered everyone they met to be sheep they’d happily fleece. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>At the point where Gary fell for Jill Bennett, someone really should have had a dating intervention for the guy. Perhaps had he been looking her in the eye instead of gazing lovingly at the side of her head, he’d have noticed that she was bat-guano crazy. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Though not a perfect mother by any stretch, when daughter Olivia got hooked on drugs, Abby took decisive action. Demanding the girl’s house keys, Abby snarled, “I”m not going to lock you out. I’m going to lock you in… with me!” </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Like viewers, Jill realized that a part of Gary would always love Val. Unable to have that part surgically removed, she instead opted to subtract Val from the equation by breaking into her home and making it appear she’d committed suicide. When Val said nobody would believe she killed herself, Jill — fully aware of the heroine’s troubled history — laughed. “Everyone will believe it,” she declared. “Just listen to how trippingly the news rolls off the tongue: ‘Poor Val committed suicide!'”</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
27/32
<p>When Laura left the cul-de-sac, she sold her home to a new family… that was keeping a major secret. It turned out that Frank, Pat and Julie Williams were in fact Jerry, Samantha and Janelle Sollars, who’d gone into witness protection after Samantha/Pat helped bust an illegal drug ring operating out of the Chicago hospital in which she’d once practiced. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
28/32
<p>Despite pretty much everyone on the planet getting a bad vibe from Danny Waleska, Val went ahead and married the guy. Just to keep things interesting, Gary got involved with Danny’s ex-wife, Amanda. After a reign of terror which found Danny beating Val, trying to do away with Gary and actually killing Pat by running her down while drunk, the baddie was found face down in a pool. His killer? Teenager Julie, whom he’d attacked while drunk. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
29/32
<p>In one of the show’s most heartbreaking storylines, Laura found true love with Greg… only to discover she was dying shortly after giving birth to daughter Meg. When Laura left Knots Landing to shuffle off this mortal coil, Greg shut down emotionally, handing Meg over to Karen and Mack on the condition that they never reveal the child’s true parentage. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
30/32
<p>Sumner got a half brother in Peter Holister, whose mother was Sylvia Lean (movie star Ruth Roman). Except it turned out she wasn’t Peter’s mom and he wasn’t actually related to Greg at all. Following secret trysts with both Paige and Abby, Peter died after falling on a spindle while arging with Mack’s daughter. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Paige’s supposedly-dead mom Anne returned and threw her hat into the ring for Greg’s heart — or at least his bank account. The fact that her daughter and Greg were clearly in love mattered not one bit to the materialistic mom. </p>
Image: Warner Bros./Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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