Ellen Pompeo knows Meredith Grey doesn’t play by the rules.
And that’s why she was appalled by a recent Grey’s Anatomy storyline that saw her character turn in Lena Waithe’s Dr. Evynn Moore for gaming the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) system.
In the March episode, Waithe’s Evynn had lied to Meredith—who has been working to find a cure for Alzheimer’s for several seasons—about her wife’s diagnosis with the neurodegenerative disease in order to get her a life-saving kidney transplant. Pompeo, however, was not sold by what Meredith did next.
“The Meredith Grey that I’ve created would have always been like, ‘I’m pissed that you lied, [but] let’s figure out how to game the system together to get you this f–king liver,” Pompeo explained to Variety in an article published April 29. “F–k the system. The system is broken.’”
Waithe ultimately convinced Pompeo to go through with the episode, saying Meredith might have felt compelled to report to UNOS given that her current love interest Dr. Nick Marsh (Scott Speedman) is a transplant surgeon.
But when reflecting on the scenario again, Pompeo still wasn’t convinced of her character’s choice.
“Meredith has subverted the system for 20 years to do the right thing,” she explained. “She’s done free surgeries, whatever it takes, to actually heal and help people.”
Indeed, Meredith has put her medical license on the line several times for patients and friends close to her heart. In season 16, she was even trapped in a legal battle for committing insurance fraud to help a young girl with cancer.
Love also doesn’t have anything to do with it, either. In season seven, Meredith sabotages an Alzheimer’s trial being run by her husband Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) in order to ensure that the wife of their mentor Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) receives medicine for the neurodegenerative disease as opposed to a placebo.
And while Pompeo admitted she had an “emotional outburst” upon learning about her character’s recent arc, she feels a sense of duty to defend the character that she and Shonda Rhimes—who stepped down as a showrunner for the ABC series in 2015—worked so hard to create.
“I see my job as trying to keep Shonda Rhimes’ legacy as good and solid as we can,” Pompeo added, “and the minute you stop caring or phoning it in or getting lazy, we’re not really doing what we’ve been paid to do.”
Thanks to Pompeo and the rest of the team behind the series, Grey’s Anatomy is anything but lazy. Keep reading for the show’s most shocking moments…
From Booty Call to Boss
Incoming surgical intern Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) was thrown for quite a loop in Grey’s Anatomy’s series premiere when she learned that the hunky one-night-stand she picked up at the bar played by Patrick Dempsey was actually her new boss, renowned surgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd. Oops.
Addison’s Arrival
Fans were just as stunned as poor Meredith in the season one finale when Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) waltzed into Seattle Grace and right up to Mer and Derek, introducing herself with the now iconic “You must be the woman who’s been screwing my husband.”
Bombs Away
When Grey’s Anatomy was given the plum post-Super Bowl slot in its second season, fans watched tensely as Meredith decided to shove her hand into a body cavity containing a live explosive to keep it from detonating. And just as we began to breathe a sigh of relief when bomb squad chief Dylan (guest star Kyle Chandler) began to walk away with the removed explosive, it blew, taking the poor guy out in the process.
Denny’s Demise
Fans watched as Izzie (Katherine Heigl) fell in love with the effortlessly charming Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as he awaited a much-needed heart transplant throughout the second half of season two, falling for him right along with her. And when her wild plan to cut his LVAD wire to move him up the transplant list failed spectacularly, resulting in his death in the season finale, it was confirmed that Grey’s Anatomy was not here to give us the happy endings we wanted.
Meredith’s Near-Death Experience
What was more surprising during season three’s big ferry accident: Meredith nearly drowning after being knocked into freezing cold waters at the accident site or her later admission that she’d given up trying to survive?
Lexie’s Arrival
At the end of season three, a surgical intern named Lexie (Chyler Leigh) arrived at Seattle Grace, first meeting Derek the night prior to starting at the hospital in a moment that mirrored his first interaction with Mer two seasons prior (but, thankfully, did not end with them sleeping together) and then introducing herself to George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) in the intern locker room. Oh, and her last name? Why, Grey, of course. And just like that, Meredith’s younger half-sister, one of two daughters raised by her father Thatcher and his second wife Susan, was added to the mix.
