Despite
a leak that revealed that Patrick Dempsey (Dr. Derek Shepherd) was leaving Grey’s Anatomy before his recently
renewed two-year contract expired, millions of viewers were shocked yesterday
as the iconic “McDreamy” was killed off in an episode the network advertised as
“the most shocking yet.” Of course, I’ve
been studying television too long to have been shocked in the least.
Unlike
the sudden departure of Josh Charles (Will Gardner) on The Good Wife last year, Grey’s
Anatomy laid out all the tell-tale signs that a major cast member was about
to depart its program. When Will was
written off of CBS’s hit show last year in similar circumstances (with over a
year left on his contract as well), it was an extremely sudden plot move that
almost no viewer could have predicted.
ABC’s medical drama, on the other hand, reunited its central couple –
Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek Shepherd (Mer-Der) – in a set of rushed
episodes spending a noticeable amount of screen time on their over-the-top
happiness. (Meredith, known for being “dark
and twisty” rather than sappy and sentimental even waxed on about how “blessed”
she felt). These episodes featured a
heavy dose of flashbacks chronicling the characters’ relationship from the
start of the show (the classic sign of a forthcoming death). And since complete happiness does not make
for an interesting plot, the revelation that the long term couple was even
contemplating expanding their family further suggested that a tragic event was
soon to be coming their way. This is
melodrama after all.
Shonda
Rhimes returned to her writing post on this program to craft this episode – her
first since the season eight finale where other major cast members were written
off the show – and in terms of a fitting exit for a character and actor who
helped make the show, it is probably a success.
While parts of this episode were quite contrived (of course Derek would
die a tragic death after single-handedly rescuing four people from a horrible
car crash), they were in line with what viewers arguably want for an exiting
central cast member. (Who could ever
forget Charlie’s heroic underwater death on Lost?) The episode carefully used a few moments of
misdirection to allow viewers who were slowly realizing as the episode
stretched on that they were likely watching their last Grey’s episode featuring Derek to hope that maybe this was just a
tease. After years of ferry boat
accidents, hospital shootings, bomb threats, and plan crashes, viewers have
been trained to expect a happy resolution after a traumatic tease. Not this time. But these moments of misdirection were relatively
successful. Even I felt their pull. When the little girl Derek saved from the car
crash just happens to find him in the ER, urges him to stay alive in a poignant
scene (quoting him through tears, saying it was “a great day to save lives”),
and reveals to the doctors his first name and the fact that he was a surgeon, my
inner fan thought: “yes, now they’ll
contact his hospital where competent doctors will fly to the scene to save his
life.” And then even after the episode
had made it pretty clear that Derek’s chances of surviving his injury were
non-existent, the show provided viewers with a 30-second fake out as Meredith
imagined reuniting with Derek in a hospital as the police officers tried to inform
her of the real circumstances she was about to face.
What
made the episode touching was not these semi-manipulative moves, but the
horrible irony of Derek’s passing: a
world-renown brain surgeon dies because he lands at a hospital unprepared to
deal with traumatic injuries. He dies
because doctors make the wrong call and fail to order a CT scan that would have
saved his life. All of this is revealed
to viewers through the show’s classic voiceover that usually only frames the
start and end of episodes. Throughout
the last half of the episode viewers hear Derek’s internal thoughts – since he
is conscious but not able to speak – as he recounts his injuries, comments on
the medical staff’s decisions, and ultimately predicts his impending
death. There was something incredibly
sad about the idea that someone would be fully aware of how to save themselves,
but could be unable to do so.
The
scenes that follow are equally as sad as Meredith, with her two children in
tow, has to make the decision to take Derek off of life support. While this part of the episode was sullied
for me by the interruption wherein Meredith has to give a stern pep talk to the
doctor who didn’t fight hard enough to save Derek’s life – telling her to be
better, that her husband was “her one,” the patient that would haunt her and
ensure that she did better in the future – the final scene where she has to
stand by not as a doctor, but as a wife, and watch as Derek slips away, was
very moving. During this scene The Fray’s
“How to Save a Life,” played and viewers with any long-term affiliation with
the show surely remembered that this song was used as the promotional lead in
to the 2006 season of Grey’s Anatomy
which featured a prominent Meredith-Derek cliffhanger resolution. As
the song played, scenes of Derek being taken off the life support were
juxtaposed with more flashbacks of their life together. For a moment, especially when Meredith told
Derek it was okay to let go, I did momentarily think that this episode could
bring tears to my eyes. But they didn’t
come. (Perhaps I’m saving them until
next week when the rest of the staff at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital learns of
Derek’s sudden passing?)
So, why
write about this character send off? It’s
just another big star, hyped up exit episode, right? Well, yes… and no. My problems with this episode have nothing to
do with the episode itself but rather how this choice to write Derek off the
show in such a tragic way is going to affect the recent characterization of
Meredith.
Last
year I praised Grey’s for its final
episode featuring Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh).
Like many critics, I read this episode as solidifying the idea that the
true love story of the show had been the friendship between the two female best
friends – Cristina and Meredith – who had been each other’s “person” throughout
ten seasons, many plot twists, and plenty of men who existed as their
backdrop. (In a recap of yesterday’s
episode one writer referred to Derek as Meredith’s “true person” and I rolled
my eyes.) Cristina’s closing advice to
Meredith was to not stand in Derek’s shadow and give up her life and career to
follow in his ambition. This scene set
up for a terrific 11th season where I expected the show to tackle
this important issue: how women often
have to put their own career aspirations aside in order to support their
husbands’ (especially when in the same field).
Consequently, I was disappointed when this season started and – at first
– it didn’t reveal a realistic plot wherein the couple separated, divorced, or
struggled to maintain a long distance relationship. The season started, instead, with Derek
choosing his family over his prestigious appointment by the White House and
resenting Meredith for it. But then the
narrative shifted again and Derek did, indeed, take the job and the couple attempted
to have a long distance relationship.
After four months of fuming, I was happy. Here was the realism I wanted.
I liked
what this plot move did for Meredith. It
showed her increasing bond with Alex and her efforts to begin building a
relationship with her half-sister. It
showed her loneliness and insecurity and fear of losing her marriage, while
also showing her ability to exist and thrive without him in Seattle at her
side. In fact, during his four month
absence, she went on an unprecedented “streak” that gained her the attention of
all the residents as she approached the 90-patient mark without a single
death. When Derek returned and it looked
like things were going to return back to normal for the central couple, I wasn’t
necessarily devastated – as these are the ebbs and flow of serial television –
and I was at least comforted with one exchange they had during their reunion. Derek told Meredith that he couldn’t live
without her, buy in return she said the following: “I can live without you; I
just don’t want to.” For me that was a
moment of dialog that seemed to align perfectly with the third-wave feminist
movement and the notion of feminism as the independent, personalized choices
that strong women make that fit their own particular life circumstances.
So that’s
where we were. And then Derek died. Now I’m left asking what’s next. It will be impossible for the show to portray
Meredith as anything less than a grieving wife for quite some time and that
will undoubtedly unravel any feminist-tinged characterization I saw in the
works this season. It doesn’t preclude
some terrific moments to come for the character as she struggles to be a single
mother and a doctor now completely free of the shadow of her hot shot
husband. And it opens up the possibility
that (eventually) the show will write in a prospective love interest giving
Meredith her first new romantic relationship in almost nearly a decade, which
will be good for the show as a melodrama.
The show doesn’t have to die with Derek, but I do worry about the
feminist utility that it used to have.
Recently
I’ve been struggling with what I want from network primetime dramas. As a media critic I am well aware that we
often have to watch our favorite television shows and films as if we suffered
from dissociative identity disorder.
Like many, I have learned to toggle between consuming popular culture
with the critical eye of an academic to turning off my scholarly switch so that
I can simply be awash in it. I realize,
as problematic as it is, that I simultaneously want a television show to dazzle
me with over-the-top narrative feats and stylistics and deliver me the
realistic social commentary I feel we need.
It’s impossible to do all of this all of the time.
At a
conference last month I spoke about how I struggled with the ways in which melodramatic
narratives seem to systematically undermine feminist characters and plots. At the end of my talk I humorously noted that
perhaps I wasn’t really calling for perfect feminist characters (as if such a
thing existed) because that probably would result in very boring
television. So as I write this essay, I
am again pondering what my exact call to action might be. Do I really wish that Grey’s would have just written Derek off in a low-key divorce
storyline that wouldn’t have made for good TV?
Maybe not. And if not, what does
that mean I do want? If I’m not calling
for shows to attempt to broadcast unwavering feminist messages, then can I be
satisfied when they present flawed (sometimes-) feminist characters and the
occasional (mostly-) feminist storyline?
Is it perhaps better to subtly embed social commentary that aligns with
the women’s movement into mainstream texts so that it is more easily palatable? Or does it get diluted by the surrounding narrative
content when we do this?
We
watch contemporary television programs today across a variety of screens and
these programs are literally “screening” feminism in every sense of the
verb. Some shows conceal the work that still needs to be done in terms of feminism –
projecting utopic depictions of worlds where women have gained as much prestigious
and success as men, worlds where sexual double standards and pay gaps are
rarely addressed. Through sexualized
storylines the feminist qualities of star characters are often hidden, eclipsed, and veiled due to the often heteronormative,
patriarchal romance prerequisite plots of primetime melodrama. But, aligned with the other definition of “to
screen,” contemporary television programs also broadcast feminism load and clear, airing plots that explore women’s issues, showing characters who (although not always consistently) embody
what it means to be a feminist in the 21st century. Perhaps I can want nothing more of television
than for it to do at least both types of this screening. Or, maybe, all I really want is for viewers
to know that this dueling screening of feminism is happening as they watch
their favorite shows on their television sets, laptops, and smartphones so that
they can be aware of how they might be affected by the conflicting messages we
receive.
