8 Harsh Realities About Meredith’s Character In Grey’s Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey in Grey’s Anatomy is a staple character in the world of TV, but there are some rather harsh realities about her. Meredith kicks off the medical drama TV show on the first day of her surgical residency, leaves in season 19, and has since returned a few times in guest cameos. Throughout the show, Meredith faces all kinds of heartbreak and trauma, as well as happiness and love, making her an interesting character to follow.

However, as the protagonist, Meredith Grey has moments where she isn’t the most likable character in the Grey’s Anatomy cast. With Grey’s Anatomy season 20 currently airing and hundreds of previous episodes for audiences to enjoy, there are several points in the show where Meredith’s characterization is weakened. Although no TV show character is perfect, throughout Meredith Grey’s career timeline, she proves that she isn’t always the perfect person she appears to be.

8 Sleeping With Her Attending

How Meredith And Derek’s Relationship Starts Is Unprofessional

In the Grey’s Anatomy pilot, Meredith is first seen leaving a one-night stand with Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), unaware that he is her attending at the hospital. Although Meredith and Derek’s relationship isn’t pursued any further when she discovers who he is, their fling eventually starts up again. However, her decision to do so also highlights her professional ethics, personal choices, and attitude toward their power dynamic. The fact that Derek is an attending and Meredith an intern raises questions about the appropriateness of their relationship. Although he’s the boss, this doesn’t stop her from continuing to sleep with him.

It also makes Meredith seem very unprofessional. Even though the pair eventually marry and have children together, back in season 1, Meredith’s actions make her appear immature, and she doesn’t think about how their relationship could impact her future. When Addison (Kate Walsh) arrives later in the season, even though their marriage is already on the rocks, Meredith pushes him to pick her. At no point does Meredith think Addison’s appearance is a sign to step away from Derek, let alone realize that she’s only known him for a short time, which is disappointing.

7 Meredith Made Sure Adele Webber Didn’t Get The Placebo

A Huge Disservice To Webber And Medically Unethical

In the season 7 episode, “This is How We Do It,” Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) desperately tries to get Derek to accept his wife, Adele (Loretta Devine), into his Alzheimer’s trial. But after speaking with Adele and realizing how unwell she is, relating the experience to her own mother’s illness, Meredith gets too involved and manipulates the trial. When Meredith discovers Adele is due to receive the placebo drug, she switches the pill packets. Although it’s arguable she did this out of kindness, it’s also highly unethical.

In real life, clinical trials follow rigorous protocols to ensure the reliability of the results, protocols that Meredith directly violates. Although Webber is her mentor and father figure, Meredith’s actions aren’t helpful to him in the long run. Unfortunately, it betrays Meredith’s close relationship with Webber in Grey’s Anatomy. She is also contradictory to the oath she takes as a medical professional. Although Meredith’s dilemma heightens the drama in Grey’s Anatomy, it also proves that she will quickly throw away her morals without thinking them through properly.

6 Meredith Ruined Derek’s Alzheimer’s Trial

The Invalidity Of The Trial Causes Ripples Across The Hospital

Unfortunately, Meredith’s decision to switch Adele’s drug is much bigger than it seems, and her choice to do so ruins the entire trial. Derek is devastated by what Meredith does, and not just because of the ethical issues. Although she is the one who did it, it was Derek’s trial, and his name is hanging in the balance. This shows that Meredith didn’t think about how her sudden decision would impact anyone else, especially the man she loves, and how it could destroy his career. Because of this, it takes a while for Derek to trust Meredith properly again.

Even though Meredith is reprimanded, the damage is done, and she creates a significant amount of friction. Despite Webber wanting the best for Adele, he is disappointed in Meredith for breaking the code of conduct. As the trial seems to be invalid, it also negatively impacts the hospital’s reputation going forward, which delays the possibility of other Alzheimer’s patients gaining access to much-needed treatment.

5 Using Her Own Child For Insurance Fraud

Meredith’s Parenting Is Questionable At Times

Meredith using Ellis to commit insurance fraud is one of her most controversial and ethically troubling actions in Grey’s Anatomy. After meeting a child named Gabby Rivera (Allyson Juliette), who has Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she uses Ellis’ medical insurance to help save her life as her father is uninsured and doesn’t qualify for any aid. Meredith’s willingness to break the law when she believes it is justified is simply baffling, especially as she clearly doesn’t learn anything from what happens with Adele.

However, Meredith’s insurance fraud is so much more than just saving a little girl’s life. She fails to recognize how this may impact Ellis in the future or that if she is caught, her children will lose their mother. Even if she doesn’t go to prison, Meredith is likely to have her medical license taken away, leaving the family without an income. Although Meredith clearly follows her heart and does what she thinks is right, she also does so without thinking about the bigger picture or how it’ll affect her children, who are already fatherless.

4 Meredith Pushes Unauthorized Medical Care

Dr. Grey Acts Like She Is In Charge At Times, When She Is Far From It

On several occasions throughout Grey’s Anatomy, Meredith takes the power of life and death into her own hands and often gives unauthorized or inappropriate medical care, either directly or through someone else. While she is technically qualified to do so in an emergency, some of these times are either unwarranted or are done by going over the heads of her superiors. For example, Lori Bosson’s (Chelsea Harris) tumor is removed by Lexie (Chyler Leigh) despite Derek’s claims that it is safe, and she doesn’t need surgery. Meredith is initially hesitant but, in the end, prompts her sister to remove it.

What’s so wild about this moment is that Meredith expects Derek to be happy about this and is confused when he’s angry. It’s even worse, considering Derek has only just started to trust Meredith again after what she did with the trial. However, this isn’t the only time Meredith seemingly forgets her bedside manner as a doctor. In “Shake Your Groove Thing,” she first fails to tell anyone she has popped the glove, damages the patient’s heart during surgery, which leads to their death, and then later blurts out to their family her mistake before an investigation begins.

3 Meredith Relies On Others Way Too Much

Meredith’s Friendships Are A Blessing And A Hinderance

Although Meredith’s loving relationships with her coworkers, family, and friends are one of her strengths, they can also be one of her biggest downfalls. For example, in the aftermath of the plane crash in season 8, Meredith leans on Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) for support despite her best friend experiencing the same trauma and also needing help. When Cristina leaves Grey’s Anatomy, Meredith finds the loss difficult and shifts her focus to Alex Karev (Justin Chambers).

Throughout Karev’s relationship with Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington), Meredith is generally supportive and a sounding board for her friend but sometimes oversteps boundaries in her efforts to protect him. However, Meredith’s obsession with her loved ones also makes her a bad friend. When Cristina calls Meredith out on her treatment of patients in season 10, Meredith focuses on the comment so much that Karev has to forcibly remove her from the OR because of her erratic and unsafe behavior. Even when he tries to be understanding, Meredith is so sure she is in the right that she pushes him away.

2 Meredith Struggled With Derek’s Success

Meredith’s struggles with Derek’s success are complicated and layered. While she loves her husband and wants him to do well in his career, her own ambitions often overshadow this. For example, in season 7, Derek becoming Chief of Surgery brings up some unresolved feelings for Meredith, and throughout the storyline, several little moments highlight this. However, the most obvious example of Meredith’s issues with Derek succeeding is in season 11 when he is offered a job in Washington, D.C.

As Derek moves back and forth between Seattle and Washington, tensions rise because of Meredith’s frustrations over not getting to kickstart her career. Meredith also confronts Derek about being present in their kids’ lives and his priorities, which is odd, considering how often she does something without thinking about their children. Derek ends up in a crash that leads to his eventual death on the way to quitting his job, which could have been avoidable if not for Meredith. As they have the same aspirations, Meredith should have been able to relate to Derek’s dilemma between healthcare and their family.

1 Meredith Revived A DNR Patient

Her Rushing Causes The Death Of A Woman Already Slipping Away

While Meredith makes some questionable decisions, her worst is when she revives patient Grace Bickham (Dona Hardy) without realizing that she has a DNR. A DNR form tells a practitioner that the patient should not be resuscitated, and in the chaos of the nurse’s strike, Meredith intubates Grace when she declines without checking for consent. As Grace is a hospice patient and has end-stage COPD, she has no chance of getting better and is content with being let go. While this is a sad storyline, it is a little funny when one of Grace’s friends hits Meredith with a handbag.

Although Meredith eventually helps Grace die with her daughter’s permission, it is still awful that it happened in the first place. Rather than letting Grace reach her natural end, Meredith’s actions mean that Grace’s daughter has to make the conscious decision to allow her mother to die. Even though Meredith is still an intern at this point, checking for a DNR is a basic process that she does daily. This incompetence is easily avoidable if she simply bothers to check the chart more thoroughly, and it is, unfortunately, one of Meredith Grey’s worst decisions in Grey’s Anatomy.