Warning: If you aren't fully caught up on "Grey's Anatomy," then be prepared for a spoiler alert.
Shonda Rhimes left her "Grey's Anatomy" fans in utter shock when she decided to kill off fan-favorite Derek Shepard. I've yet to get over the fact that our beloved "McDreamy" is no longer on the show. E! Online got a chance to sit down with Rhimes to find out why Derek had to die on "Grey's Anatomy." Although "Grey's Anatomy" is known for its devastating season finales, this one hit home. George, Lexie, Mark, Burke, Cristina and now Derek? We need answers. Luckily, Rhimes finally gives them to us so we can put our hearts to rest.
Rhimes stands by her reason to kill off Derek. "The decision to have the character die the way that he did was not a difficult one in the sense of what were the options," Rhimes said at Summer TCA press tour in 2015. "Either Derek was going to walk out on Meredith and leave her high and dry, and what was that going to mean? That was going to suggest that the love was not true, the thing we had said for 11 years was a lie and McDreamy wasn't McDreamy. For me, that was untenable," she explained to E! Online.
Fans can scarcely fathom the idea of McDreamy not being on the show, but she could have at least killed him off in a better way. He died with dignity, saving lives. I get that. I mean, he is a doctor after all. The typical car crash is what bothers me because it's been done so many times on so many shows. Where is the originality? We then have the incompetent doctors who basically let him die. How were they not fired? Thinking about the episode just sparks anger into my soul. It's unfair. As loyal "Grey's Anatomy" fans, we deserved more. We deserved a better ending, but that's not what we got. "It's a beautiful day to save lives," remember? You should've saved his life. We had one more year of their sticky note love, and she took it away from us. It wasn't his time to go.
Rhimes continued to explain why it was time for Derek to go and why ended it the was she did. "Meredith and Derek's love had to remain Meredith and Derek's love. As painful as it was for me as a storyteller, because I had never really thought that was going to happen, it preserved what felt true to me, was that Derek was going to have to die in order for that love to remain honest. Because I really couldn't have the idea that he just turned out to be a bad guy who walked out on his wife and kids be a true story. To me, it felt like that was the only way to make Meredith and Derek's magic remain true and forever frozen in time."
What does this mean for Season 12? Meredith and Derek were the highlight of the show, so now what? According to Rhimes, they're going for a much "lighter" season, which is a relief because I don't think I can take another bomb being dropped on me. She finished her interview saying, "Meredith Grey has never been defined by her relationship with a man." This brings excitement to my soul, and I look forward to seeing what this show has in store for us.
