By GDilemma (http://abc.go.com/shows/greys-anatomy) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
You watch a show long enough, and there is bound to be a death sooner or later-unless its Game of Thrones and then you are guaranteed it!
We are used to it happening, and fear it more than any other fate that can befall a character because of the finality of it.
When a character dies, their story ends in the worst possible way. For them, and for us.
As fans, we require the knowledge (when possible) that the story goes on, that they live out their lives and live happily ever after.
We don’t want an ending where the story ends here, and they are dead. That’s not what we watch these shows for, but we understand when it is NEEDED to happen.
Case in point: the death of ‘Dr. McDreamy’, Derek Shepherd in Grey’s Anatomy. Did it NEED to happen?
Now, I don’t normally write about things like this, but this time I am pissed! (Yes, Shonda, at you!)
Derek hasn’t been around this season, which has been annoying enough. Fans of the Meredith-Derek love story, which has been set in stone since the very first episode following their one night stand; have been left angry by this. And then there was the supposed cheating storyline a few weeks ago. Now this happens.
Grey’s has been around a whole decade now, and whilst there is a quality show still in there, with some awesome characters and B storylines outside of the Meredith focus, sometimes it is better to just end the show right there. Before anyone MAJOR is needed to be killed off. Or remove both characters from the show, if one has to leave.
Why not just have Derek and Mere drive off into the sunset? Move away to D.C. like she could have done. They did it in One Tree Hill when Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton left the show because as she said, “the story had been told for their characters”. There wasn’t much left in the McDreamy love story really, so why not conclude it there for them, like what was done with Christina last season?
Killing him off, when things were just getting back on track with them is abysmal to say the least. It ruins the love story and any chance of going back and re-watching it from the start. I only just finished Season 1 again, when McDreamy was still a charismatic character and the love story was blossoming. Having Shonda kill Derek off now made it that much more difficult to watch.
All shows have to end sometime and so do the stories of these characters. But killing Derek-not just by having him in a car wreck, but by the incompetency of a hospital that had him wait 90 minutes for his neurosurgeon…yeah, that’s how we wanted him to die-if you are actually going to do it. It was horrible to watch unfold.
Shonda Rhimes has explained that Derek is a beloved character who will be missed; and that it is how his Grey-Sloan family will move on without him in the forthcoming episodes that will be the focus now.
But what she fails to understand is that millions of people were invested in this relationship, not just the show. Killing off one part of this relationship has only damaged it forever and there is no going back. This is not Denny Duquette or Mark Sloan. It is Derek Shepherd!
As fans, we spend hours watching all of these shows, celebrating the highs and crying over the lows of our favourite characters. But to have a beloved character written out of a long-running show in this manner is appalling.
It really thanks us all for watching all this time, doesn’t it?
Seriously…
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