Followers of “Gray’s Anatomy” had been shocked when, partway by way of season 11 of Shonda Rhimes’ long-running medical drama, Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd — performed by Patrick Dempsey — died on-screen, along with his secret girlfriend-turned-wife Meredith Gray (Ellen Pompeo) by his facet. First launched as a one night time stand who seems to be Meredith’s boss within the present’s inaugural season (all the best way again in 2005 when the collection premiered as a humble mid-season alternative), Derek seems to be some of the necessary characters on the collection as an excellent, world-class neurosurgeon who woos his first-year intern (Meredith), just for the present to disclose that he had an estranged spouse all alongside. (To be honest, Kate Walsh’s entrance as Addison Shepherd, clad in a large fur coat as she says Meredith should be the “girl sleeping with [her] husband,” is superior, even when it makes Derek appear to be an actual smacked ass.)
All through the collection, Meredith and Derek battle ups and downs and date different individuals and argue about their future till, lastly, they get married (on a Submit-It), undertake a baby and have two extra, changing into a cheerful household. So, what may go incorrect? In Shondaland, one thing can at all times go incorrect. However why precisely did Dempsey go away the present, and why did Rhimes select to kill Derek as a substitute of merely writing him off? (The brief reply is that Shonda Rhimes is a vengeful god — however we’ll circle again to that.)
Wherein episode of Gray’s Anatomy does Derek Shepherd die?
Within the twenty first episode of season 11, “Gray’s Anatomy” killed off considered one of its authentic characters in a very brutal method — so here is the way it all goes down. Within the aptly-named installment “Learn how to Save a Life” (a reference to a music by The Fray that soundtracked a significant episode in season 2), Derek is heading to the airport when he sees spots a dashing automotive and, shortly thereafter, a two-car accident on the facet of the highway; as a doctor, he naturally stops to assist. Within the wreckage, he finds mom and daughter Sarah (Che Landon) and Winnie (Savannah Paige Rae) trapped inside their SUV, and after releasing them, he checks the dashing automotive and discovers a teenage couple. The woman, Alana (Allie Grant), is shaken however seemingly unhurt, however her boyfriend Charlie (Robby Rasmussen), who was driving, is not as fortunate. (Additionally, their automotive explodes, as a result of Shonda Rhimes loves drama.)
Like the great physician he’s, Derek helps everybody to security and helps them into an ambulance as soon as it arrives, hopping again into his personal automotive. All is nicely, and he is set to fly to Washington D.C. to surrender a job doing medical analysis on the request of the President of the USA (who is rarely named, however hopefully, it is Tony Goldwyn’s President Fitzgerald Grant from Rhimes’ different present “Scandal”). That is when catastrophe strikes … but once more.
How does Derek Shepherd die on Gray’s Anatomy?
You’ll be able to form of observe Patrick Dempsey’s real-life obsession with skilled automotive racing by way of his character’s arc on “Gray’s Anatomy” — there’s an entire subplot initially of season 7 the place Derek Shepherd retains getting arrested for reckless driving — and it does really feel form of pointed that Shonda Rhimes, the aforementioned vengeful god of “Gray’s Anatomy,” returned to jot down her first episode since season 8 simply to kill Derek in a freaking automotive accident. As he leaves the scene of the completely unrelated automotive accident, Derek will get hit by a semi-truck on the driving force’s facet of his automotive and finally ends up transported to a small, under-equipped educating hospital in rural Washington State.
From the second the truck hits his automotive, Derek by no means says one other phrase out loud on display once more; in voice-over, Dempsey narrates Derek’s interior monologue as he begs his employees of (largely) inept docs to provide him a head CT as quickly as doable. They do not, regardless of the objections of surgical resident Dr. Penelope Blake (Rhimes common Samantha Sloyan), deciding as a substitute to concentrate to exterior accidents, and by the point the neurosurgeon arrives, Derek has blown a pupil and is pronounced mind useless. Alongside together with her two kids, Meredith arrives on the hospital, tells the employees they need to have performed the pinnacle CT, and agrees to have Derek taken off of life assist. (Dr. Blake reappears later within the collection, a lot to Meredith’s chagrin.) It is a actually gut-wrenching sequence of occasions, although the saddest second is, undeniably, when Meredith tells Derek that it is okay; he can go, and he or she’ll be alright.
What Patrick Dempsey stated about leaving Gray’s Anatomy
“Learn how to Save a Life” aired in 2015, and a yr later, Patrick Dempsey spoke to Individuals Journal to advertise his movie “Bridget Jones’ Child” –- telling the outlet extra about his exit within the course of. “I am very grateful for ‘Gray’s Anatomy,'” Dempsey stated on the time. “It is given me the chance to do all the things. However on the identical time, there was a price.”
“I feel after a sure time period, irrespective of how a lot cash you make, you need management out of your individual schedule,” Dempsey stated, which is sensible; because of the time commitments required to play Derek Shepherd, the actor hardly ever received to see his spouse and kids. “It had been lengthy sufficient. It was time for me to maneuver on with different issues and different pursuits. I most likely ought to have moved on a few years earlier. I stayed a bit longer than I ought to have.”
Dempsey additionally stated one thing attention-grabbing, which is that he and Shonda Rhimes made the choice to kill Derek collectively and saved it a secret from the remainder of the solid and crew, to the purpose the place they did not even maintain a desk learn for Derek’s ultimate episode. “It was clear we had been each prepared. However we saved it very quiet,” Dempsey revealed. “I knew he was going to be gone, however I did not understand how she was going to deal with it. Shonda simply stated, ‘I’ll do it in a extremely great way’ and he or she did her factor. I believed it was actually attention-grabbing. It positively woke individuals up. And it was superbly symbolic in some ways.”
Was Patrick Dempsey’s on-set habits the true cause behind his Gray’s Anatomy exit?
Regardless of Patrick Dempsey’s feedback concerning the “superbly symbolic” ending that Shonda Rhimes wrote for Derek Shepherd on “Gray’s Anatomy,” rumors have swirled for years that Dempsey’s on-set habits might have had one thing to do with it. In an excerpt from Lynette Rice’s oral historical past of the present — “Learn how to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Gray’s Anatomy” — obtained by The Hollywood Reporter when the e book launched in 2021, Dempsey was an absolute terror behind the scenes.
“There have been HR points. It wasn’t sexual in any method. He form of was terrorizing the set. Some solid members had all kinds of PTSD with him,” govt producer James D. Parriott stated within the e book. Interviews with writers, Rhimes, and Dempsey himself clarify that due to Dempsey’s star energy and the truth that Rhimes wrote Derek as an idealized man, he was form of an intimidating presence, however sadly, that does not seem like the top of the story. Whereas co-stars like Tina Majorino and Brooke Smith praised him and stated he was an incredible colleague, others did not really feel the identical method.
Apparently, Dempsey began complaining that he needed to keep late on set, which made the opposite actors irritated, particularly star Ellen Pompeo … and govt producer Jeannine Renshaw stated that it was actually apparent that Dempsey needed to be out driving or spending time along with his household. Different actors on the present would then complain about Dempsey, and an nameless “longtime crew member” stated it clearly received to him. “He was simply shut out within the chilly. His habits wasn’t the best, however he had nowhere to go. He was so depressing. He had nobody to speak to.” In the long run, Dempsey realized he’d stayed partly for the beneficiant paycheck provided by ABC, and it was time to maneuver on — however he did reappear on the present years after his departure.
Does Patrick Dempsey return to Gray’s Anatomy after season 11?
Season 17 of “Gray’s Anatomy” aired within the fall of 2020, so it is protected to say it was a extremely bizarre time for each the present’s narrative and the viewers at dwelling due to the continued lockdowns and the raging COVID-19 pandemic. Frankly, the collection dealt with it in addition to it may; dressing the characters in full protecting medical gear made sense for the story, and a medical drama was, in some ways, obligated to handle the real-life pandemic. The present did not have to place Meredith Gray right into a COVID-related coma and create a dream seashore in Meredith’s thoughts the place deceased characters return to the fray … however for no matter cause, it did.
That is how Patrick Dempsey returns to “Gray’s Anatomy” — in a dream sequence the place he seems on a seashore and reunites with Meredith (the 2 actually have a actual “marriage ceremony,” one thing that by no means ended up taking place in actual life). In an interview with Selection, Dempsey stated that it was extraordinarily emotional (in a optimistic method) to reunite with Ellen Pompeo, and that he liked the best way the then-showrunner Krista Vernoff discovered a strategy to convey him again on board. “”I believed it was an exquisite strategy to shut it,” Dempsey advised Marc Malkin. “The intention was to essentially give individuals some hope as a result of they’re such an iconic couple. We have misplaced so many individuals this yr, the thought that we might have angels hovering round us taking good care of us is an effective message to ship out in such a bleak world that we’re dwelling in. So for all of us, it was an exquisite ending to this story. I am so grateful that I did it and completely happy that the followers actually liked it.”
“Gray’s Anatomy” is accessible to stream on each Hulu and Netflix.
