Why I will never forgive Shonda Rhimes for killing Derek Shepherd

Shonda, where was your sense of novelty when you decided it was time to let go of Patrick Dempsey?

The previous episode of Grey’s Anatomy had hints that this may happen, but I said to myself that Shonda Rhimes, the writer, cannot do this.

Meredith has already been through way too much. Name any tragedy and mishap in the world and she has been through it. Mom had Alzheimer’s, dad was an alcoholic. Her best friend George died. The plane crash killed her sister Lexie and friend Mark Sloan and mangled Derek’s hand, and he was unable to do surgeries for months. Before that, in 2010, Derek was shot in the chest. And Meredith nearly died so many times and had a near death experience and gave birth to her baby boy in candlelight under very unusual circumstances. And you took away her person, Christina Yang. Tragedies make the best stories, but even Shakespearean tragedies have limits.

Killing the man with those melting eyes, Dr Derek Shepherd aka McDreamy, is beyond it all.

Smug Facebookers and weeps who need a life went on about how they had moved on from Grey’s to Game of Thrones and Sherlock Holmes etc.
“I gave up at Season 10.”

Then why must you, oh kill joys, confirm to the world that you are inherently evil by giving out feeling-less spoilers that Derek had died? We would have found out eventually, but may be the next many hours or even a day could have gone by without knowing that he is gone.

While I have moved on to watch other shows too, I have loyally stuck to Grey’s since 10 years. It is something me and my daughter bond over. The characters have grown and so have we. Some seasons have been amazing, others have been mediocre. But the quotes, the symbolism and the evolution of the characters has kept us glued. But today, I am not so sure.

Shonda, I will never forgive you for doing this.

The first reason is simple – you could have done away with Derek’s character more creatively. After all, you are the person behind one of the world’s most watched shows. You creatively designed the life and times of these doctors and came up with amazing stuff. Where was your sense of novelty when you decided it was time to let go of Patrick Dempsey? As my daughter rightly said,

“So disappointed in Shonda Rhimes! After 11 years of showing us the constant ups and downs of Meredith and Derek, this is how you choose to end it? This was by far the most disappointing episode I have ever seen. The writing of the episode was purely lazy and everything went by too fast.”

But more importantly, Ms Rhimes, you have made it hard for us, the viewers, to continue believing in the fact that good things happen to good people. The character you killed off was a good person whose mantra was
“It's a beautiful day to save lives.”

https://soundcloud.com/mrsfredweasley/how-to-save-a-life-greys-anatomy-cast

He was saving lives and you killed him off. You killed off hope in a world that is becoming too cynical that a love like Mer-Der can last. They were meant to grow old together. Their marriage vows included
“We’ll take care of each other, even when we're old, and smelly, and senile.”

We wanted to believe that it still happens.

McDreamy is no longer there to make us believe. He said,
“I'll be back before you know it.”

But he won’t.

Serial shows, when they lose the punch and creativity, and stop understanding what the viewers want, should end gracefully with finesse.

You could have done better, Shonda.
WRITTEN BY: Farahnaz Zahidi

farahnaz-moazzam

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.