Meredith Grey

"If there's a crisis, you don't freeze, you move forward. You get the rest of us to move forward. Because you've seen worse. You've survived worse, and you know we'll survive too. You say you're all dark and twisty. It's not a flaw, it's a strength. It makes you who you are."

- Derek Shepherd

Meredith Grey is an attending general surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She is the daughter of the now-deceased Ellis Grey, a famed general surgeon, and Thatcher Grey. She is married to Derek and they have a daughter, Zola Grey Shepherd and a son, Derek Bailey Shepherd.

Early life
When Meredith was young, her father, Thatcher, would bring her to Seattle Grace Hospital to visit her mother, Ellis, at work. The first time Meredith got to see her mother perform surgery, she was extremely young. As a gift, young Meredith received from her parents, an "Anatomy Jane" doll, which contained 24 parts/organs to take out, and extra parts to simulate pregnancy. Young Meredith would bring the doll with her to the hospital. Years later, an adult, and now a doctor, Meredith uncovered the doll while she and Derek were unpacking boxes in their house, which was previously owned and inhabited by her mother and father before their divorce, and by her mother after, until Meredith was forced to place her mother in Roseridge Home for Extended Care, due to Ellis suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's. The doll brought up old memories for Meredith, along with a renewed attachment to the doll that resulted in adult Meredith bringing it to work with her one day. Upon recognizing an Anatomy Jane doll and her own remembered fondness for her own as a child, Dr. Miranda Bailey allowed Meredith to scrub into a surgery that day on a patient being treated for an inoperable tumor. During the surgery, it is obvious that Dr.Richard Webber was quite disturbed, and also feeling a little guilty, at the sight of the doll, as he was reminded of a young Meredith craving her mother's attention and love, yet not getting it since Ellis was not only very focused on her surgical career, but also because he and Ellis were having an affair when they were both interns and residents.

Meredith's parents' marriage was troubled, although a part was due to Ellis spending too much time working and normal everyday problems. But a large part was due to the fact that Ellis was having an affair for years, with one of her colleagues and best friends, Dr. Webber. Their marital issues proved too great and eventually Thatcher left the home when Meredith was five years old. He tried to visit her on several occasions, but eventually after getting nowhere, stopped and subsequently started a new family with his new wife, Susan Grey.

When Thatcher left Ellis, she continued her relationship with Webber, although he still had a wife, Adele. Although Richard tried to conceal his relationship with Ellis, Adele always knew, so if she was in their company, she would just play with Meredith. Eventually, Richard broke off his relationship with Ellis, as he felt he was being the better man, by walking away from Ellis, with Meredith only meters away, riding on a carousel. Shortly thereafter, Ellis accepted a fellowship opportunity at Massachusetts General Hospital. She relocated to Massachusetts with Meredith, and Thatcher lost all contact with his daughter. As an adult, her only childhood memory of Thatcher was giving her cereal in the morning.

In the 8th grade, her English class had to read Romeo & Juliet. Then for extra credit, their teacher Mrs. Snyder made them act out all the parts. A boy named Sal Scafarillo was chosen for Romeo and all the girls were jealous of Meredith who was chosen for Juliet but Meredith was not happy and complained to her teacher that Juliet was an idiot because she falls for the one guy she knows she can't have. Then she blames fate for her own bad decision. She told her that if Juliet was stupid enough to fall for the enemy, drink a bottle of poison and go to sleep in a mausoleum then she deserved whatever she got. Therefore, at the age of 13, she was very clear that love like life is about making choices. Meredith later described her high school years to Cristina by saying "I wore a lot of black. Had the whole angry pink hair thing going on. Wouldn't have been caught dead at prom."

She went to college at Dartmouth, and despite excessive drinking and partying, she graduated. Following her graduation, she had difficulty holding a job, due to her partying lifestyle. Ellis suggested Meredith find another direction in her life, as she told her that she didn't have what it took survive medical school and making it in the surgical world. Following an argument about Meredith's path, Meredith spent two months traveling in Europe with her best friend Sadie Harris, who also hated Ellis. She returned and moved into the old house, when her mother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease, whom she expressedly only allowed Meredith to know, while keeping the news of the condition from all the rest who knew her. Her mother's condition gave Meredith the incentive to go to medical school.

Cristina later helped diagnose Meredith as having a case of 'severe abandonment issues', as the cause of her relationship problems with Derek, due to the fact that Thatcher left her, when she was a child, and that Ellis was absent for most of her childhood, due to her work and the affair she was having with Richard.

Beginning Relationship with Derek Shepherd
After having a one-night stand with Derek, not knowing that he was her boss, she and Derek begin dating, initially discreetly. Meredith soon after learned that Derek was still married when his wife, Addison, came to Seattle to get Derek back. At first, Meredith was angry with Derek for not telling her, but she later admitted to still loving him and begged him to "pick her, choose her, love her". When Addison handed him the divorce papers to end their relationship officially, Derek remained hesitant and soon after decided to stay with Addison, much to Meredith's dismay.

Although the two constantly flirted and Derek still hinted at having feelings for her, they both agreed to remain friends and Addison, too, attempted to be friends with Meredith. When the three's dog, Doc, was diagnosed with bone cancer, Meredith eventually began seeing Doc's veterinarian, Finn, to the annoyance of Derek.

The night of the Seattle Grace Hospital Prom, Derek went with Addison, while Meredith went with Finn. The two soon after met with each other in an exam room where Derek confessed to still loving her and they had sex. Addison discovered Meredith's underwear in Derek's pocket and the two finally agreed to divorce. Meredith, however, was still dating Finn, and issued a contest between the two boys to see which she would settle with. She ultimately chose Derek and they reconciled.

Drowning in Elliot Bay
Meredith, Izzie, George, Alex, and Bailey go to the site of a massive ferry boat accident. After Meredith finishes stabilizing a patient's badly wounded leg with the help of a little girl just by the water, the man panics and pushes Meredith off the edge into the bay. Later, when Derek is shown Meredith's fate by the little girl, he jumps into the water and then retrieves a pale, seemingly lifeless Meredith. He tries to perform CPR in the ambulance, but she does not respond. The doctors all try to revive her, but she flatlines. Then Meredith enters a seemingly state of limbo in her mind, where she interacts with deceased acquaintances like Denny, Dylan Young, Doc (her dog), Bonnie Crasnoff (the patient who had been stuck on a pole), and her mother, Ellis Grey. Finally she leaves this state of limbo, and comes back to life slowly. Meredith recovers, but Derek remains concerned that Meredith was a good swimmer, and perhaps she didn't try hard enough and gave up.

Shooting at the Hospital
At the end of the sixth season, Meredith reveals to Cristina that she is pregnant. She also plans on telling Derek, but the mass shooting intervenes. The husband of a deceased patient, Gary Clark, enters the hospital and shoots many people, killing many, including Dr. Reed Adamson and Dr. Charles Percy. The hospital is in lockdown, because of which Meredith is not able to tell Derek about her pregnancy. Gary Clark also shoots Derek in the chest in Meredith's presence. Cristina has to do his surgery herself, barring Meredith from the OR. When the shooter enters the OR, Meredith enters too and tells him to shoot her. However, he ends up shooting Owen, albeit minorly. While tending to Owen's injury, Meredith suffers a miscarriage.

After the shooting, all involved are made to go through a psych consulting to be cleared for surgery. Meredith is the last one to be cleared. She is cleared by Dr. Andrew Perkins only after she admits her pregnancy and miscarriage.

Adoption of Zola Shepherd
The couple had recently been told that Meredith had a hostile uterus and conceiving a child would be hard. Meredith and Derek met Zola when she was brought to the hospital for a spina bifida operation as part of Alex's program. Derek immediately bonded with Zola and suggested adoption. Meredith took a little longer to bond, but eventually couldn't help falling in love with the child. However, Derek found out that Meredith tampered with his Alzheimer's trial just as the couple was granted temporary custody of Zola. When the social worker on their case, Janet, discovered that Meredith and Derek weren't living together and that Meredith had been fired, red flags were raised in the system. Fearing that she would lose Zola, Meredith hid with Zola in the basement of the hospital for 4 hours. Zola was taken away from them for a time, during which Meredith and Derek rekindled their relationship. They were given a date to see a judge about the adoption after Alex went to the judge directly. That date was subsequently cancelled and Janet told them that it was unlikely that it would end in their favor and suggested that they move on. Then, one night after a long day of work, Janet showed up at their door with Zola and told the couple that they could adopt her.

Plane Crash
In the end of season 8, Meredith along with Derek, Mark, Lexie, Cristina, and Arizona are involved in a plane crash on their way to Boise to help in a conjoined twins case. Lexie dies due to a  part of the plane crushing her, and Meredith is horrified and mourns. But other than that, afterwards, she is the one who is the least affected physically (along with Cristina) and mentally (unlike Cristina). She does not show her feelings towards Mark or Lexie's death very openly.

Derek Bailey Shepherd's Birth
Despite Derek's warnings to slow down, a heavily pregnant Meredith couldn't help but join in on a surgery at the beginning of the superstorm. However, Meredith was forced to leave when there was a risk of explosions in the OR. She talked to Alex about beating up Jason Myers, only to find out that Jo was the one who beat up Jason. She followed Jo into a staircase, where Jo promised she would never let Alex take the fall for what happened to Jason. As Jo left, a construction worker told her that they were done with the grinder in the OR. "Then why aren't I up there?" she angrily asked, and as she ran up the stairs, she slipped and rolled down the stairs. She sent Derek a message and got checked out by Connie Ryan, and she promised that everything was fine with the baby. While the surgeons were preparing the hospital and the storm hit Seattle, Meredith's water broke. ("Readiness is All")

Meredith was admitted, but she had to wait for Connie because she was busy with other soon-to-be mothers. Cristina, who found it typically for Meredith to go in labor during a superstorm, stayed by her side while Derek went to look for Connie. He found her, but as she did a check-up on Meredith, she told them that there was face presentation. As she mentions that a C-section is necessary to deliver the baby safely, the lights went out and the back-up generators didn't kick in. Even though they were first hesitant to have a surgery performed in the dark, they realized there wasn't any other option. The surgery went well, and Derek take his newborn son to the NICU to make surgery everything was fine. While closing up, Connie got called away for another mother in need, and she and Meredith trusted Shane to close up. However, Heather and Shane discovered a lot of bleeding, and Meredith realized that she had an internal bleed caused by the fall on the stairs. Before going unconscious, Meredith instructed Shane, who found out that the spleen was bleeding, how to stop the bleed. Meanwhile, Heather went to find Dr. Bailey to assist them. Bailey overcame her fear to operate and pulled Meredith through. Meredith was kept in the OR until she was stable, and later moved to a room in the maternity ward, where Derek and Zola visited her and their new family member. ("Perfect Storm")

During a board meeting in her room, Meredith was informed by the others what happened during the superstorm. She tried to help out as much as she could, but Derek and the other told her to rest after her major abdominal surgery. While the others left, Cristina stayed behind to chat a little until she got paged. Though it was said at the meeting that the ER had to close, Meredith got confused when she witnessed Stephanie and Jo trading supplies to use in the ER. When a stressed Alex enters her room, Meredith managed to calm him down by letting him hold her son. He told her about Richard and Heather, and he gave the baby back to her so she can get calm again herself. Meanwhile, Cristina and Bailey started arguing over the course of treatment for Richard, only to find out that Richard has listed Meredith as his medical proxy, forcing her to choose between Cristina's and Bailey's plans. She decides to do so by relying on science, and asks to rerun some tests. While waiting for the results, Callie sat down in her room to have a little chat about how she was doing. When Richard's results came back, Meredith decided to side with Bailey and let her operate, which Cristina had adviced not to. While Bailey operated on Richard, Meredith asked Cristina to admit that the decision was right, and Cristina does so. ("Seal Our Fate")

Meredith later talked with Cristina and Alex about Richard's decision to make her his medical proxy, wondering if she was in his will too. After Richard's surgery, Owen came to Meredith's room to tell her that Bailey closed Richard back up once Catherine started yelling at them from the gallery. Meredith also consoled a sad Derek, who lost Heather in surgery. After Meredith ordered Derek to go home with Zola, who had spent enough time in daycare now, Callie and Sofia came in to drop some stuff. Callie told them that she moved out of the apartment and that they were going to stay at a hotel for a while. Meredith decided to let Callie stay at their house, and she later told Arizona, who had no idea where Callie and Sofia were, that they were at her house. While trying to fall asleep, the interns bothered her to ask for help finding Heather stories to tell Heather's mother, and Meredith told them what she had told George's mother after he died. When the interns left, Jackson came in to tell her that his mother was planning on moving Richard to another hospital. Alex and April came in too to talk about their problems, and as they left one by one, they all refused to bring her a wheelchair. However, she somehow got herself a wheelchair and went to Richard's room in the ICU with Bailey. Bailey still thinks they should open him back up, and Meredith made the call to book an OR for Bailey. Later, back in her room, Cristina and Alex talked with Meredith about medical proxies, and it turns out Cristina actually doesn't approve of Meredith's decision for Richard. After Bailey's surgery, Catherine still wanted to have a second opinion. Meredith told her that Richard chose her to make his decisions, and not Catherine. They start arguing as Richard opens his eyes, and Meredith enthusiastically greets him. ("I Want You With Me")

Personality
She is intelligent, compassionate, hard-working, has good medical instincts, and a natural flair for medicine. Other than that, Meredith is also easily distracted and indecisive, and oftentimes outspoken.

And unlike Derek, who saw everything in distinct shades of black and white, Meredith tends sees things in shades of gray, which Carolyn Shepherd remarked to her son that was what he needed, while she was visiting Seattle in Sympathy for the Devil. However, this difference in viewpoints have culminated in what could be a breach in their marriage, at the finale of season 7, Unaccompanied Minor, where she messed up Derek's Alzheimer drug trial. She secretly accessed the pharmacy, where the trial drugs were stored, and subsequently swapped the placebo for the actual drug, for Patient #122, aka Adele. And when busted by a drunk Alex, who had seen her behaving suspiciously, she much later confided in Cristina that she felt that her actions were justified, as Adele was Richard's wife, and she should do something since Adele was about to have saline injected into her brain, and the trial drug sample could help her from becoming a 'vorked out lump', in her own words.The couple subsequently got into an argument in the changing room, where Derek argued that it was Alzheimer's, a disease that she could potentially have, and one whose progression he was trying to stop or cure, while at the same time espousing that everything was black and white, a right and a wrong. Meredith responded that the situation was much more complicated than that, as it was Richard and Adele.

Derek Shepherd
Meredith and Derek first met at Emerald City Bar the night before Meredith's first day at Seattle Grace Hospital. Derek approached her, they got drunk, before ending up at her place, sleeping with each other. When she went to work, she discovered, much to her shock, that Derek too worked at Seattle Grace, so she staunchly refused to date him, although they did manage to sneak by a few stolen sexually charged moments. However, it was eventually at the unexpected house party that went out of control that she finally gave in and the two got intimate in the car. Despite being busted in the act, by Miranda Bailey, who felt that Derek was beginning to show signs of favoritism towards Meredith the following day, the pair began to date secretly, something which her roomies would eventually discover, and thus were mostly not too pleased about. However they came around, eventually, when they did find out the affection the pair had, was real and not a fling. They became public quickly, although Richard Webber discovered and disapproved of the relationship, knowing that Derek was still married to Addison. But their relationship ended when Addison Shepherd arrived at the hospital, for a medical case, and claiming to be Derek's wife, thereby surprising her.

Meredith stayed away from Derek, but later asked him to make a choice between her or Addison, saying "pick me, choose me, love me". Derek tried to make a decision, but it was a hard one, as he had been married to Addison for eleven years. He eventually chose Addison and Meredith was left heartbroken. Addison stayed at Seattle Grace and Meredith was left alone and when news of the scandal leaked out, she became much of the hospital's talking points and gossip. After avoiding each other, they attempted friendship, but on the night of the Seattle Grace prom, they had sex in an exam room despite the fact that Meredith was dating Finn Dandridge and Derek was married to Addison. An unexpected event of the secret rendezvous, Mereditih had lost her panties, when Derek pocketed them. The next day, Addison found Meredith's panties in Derek's pocket and realized her marriage was over. After Derek caught Addison and Mark Sloan together again, they both admitted their relationship was finished. He told Meredith that if she wanted, they could date and that he loved her. Meredith tried to choose between Derek and Finn but couldn't decide between the two men. So, to help her make up her mind on who to chose, she decided to resort to having both men date her. After Derek decided to be a better person and let her go and be with Finn, she realized she wanted Derek and broke up with Finn. She didn't tell Derek immediately, because he was going through his divorce with Addison but when she finally did, he didn't care because he was suffering from Addison's secret about her and Mark living together for months, after he left her.



They started dating again but Derek later complained that she was constantly leaving him and that she should be worried that the highlight of his week was meeting another girl at Joe's. When Cristina and Burke called off their wedding, she didn't think relationships could work and broke up with Derek. They tried to stay apart but began having break-up sex, and mockery. Later, Derek kissed a nurse in the scrub room and when Meredith found out, she severed all ties with him. Derek and Meredith started a clinical trial but Derek began dating Rose and her feelings for him started to come back as the clinical trial continued. After their last clinical trial patient survived from surgery, Meredith and Derek celebrated and she showed him a house of candles she made. He kissed her and they got back together. Trying to take steps forward, Meredith asked him to move in and he accepted. They stayed together and after his mother's visit, Derek decided to propose with his mother's engagement ring. Meredith originally thought he was avoiding her because of a conversation they had about babies but he insisted that he wanted to have all her babies. Derek planned to propose to her, with a ring from his mother, but remarked to Mark that the timing had to be right, otherwise she would bolt. Derek's plans to propose left his mind after he accidentally killed a patient. Richard told Meredith about the ring, but the despondent Derek hit the ring into the woods, with a baseball bat. He apologized and she forgave him and he proposed properly to her later. They planned a wedding, but when they realized that Izzie was suffering from stage 4 cancer, they eventually gave their wedding to Izzie and Alex. With very little time to get married, they went to the locker room, wrote down their vows on a post-it and "married" each other. After their post-it marriage, they continued to refer to each other as husband and wife and in the days immediately after their wedding, they had sex frequently, while often getting caught in the act, in different places in the house, by those living there. In the season finale, she found out she was pregnant. The shooting that happened  in that episode after the death of a patient of Derek's, when the patient's husband shot numerous people, also shooting Derek was traumatizing for both of them, especially as Meredith miscarried because of the events of that day. She waited to tell him about this long after his recovery wondering how he would react. Then they proceeded to try to conceive, but as it turns out Meredith has a hostile uterus and they continued onto adopting Zola.

Eventually, the two did formally marry, as it was a requirement, for them to legally adopt Zola, an African girl Derek got to know while treating her spina bifida. Derek engaged Meredith in his Alzheimer's clinical trial, trying to find a cure for her mother's disease. When Adele Webber became part of their trial however, Meredith emotions started to cloud her judgement, she switched the placebo with the active medication, so Adele would get better. This caused Alex to become suspicious when he saw her acting weird. When Alex was drunk, he told Owen Hunt about this incident, who continued to alarm Derek and Richard. Derek then continued to become really angry at Meredith, stating that she doesn't know the difference between right or wrong and that is no way to raise a child. It took them really long to repair these differences in their marriage because their separation caused trouble with Zola's adoption which they blamed each other for. However, in time's of crisis they made up and all of them lived happily as a family after a guilty-feeling Alex managed to get them Zola back. Even after enduring the horrible plane crash, in which both her sister and his best friend died, and Derek's hand was severely damaged, their bond only grew stronger and they helped each other. Meredith discovered she is pregnant with Derek's child. Though both of them are really happy, Meredith is very concerned due to her hostile uterus, but Derek remained optimistic and she is still pregnant. During the super storm, Meredith gave birth via c-section to a baby boy, named Derek Bailey Shepherd (after Miranda Bailey).

Finn Dandridge


Finn Dandridge was a veterinarian to Doc, Meredith and Derek's dog. He met Meredith when Doc got sick and Meredith brought him in. He asked her out and she agreed, despite her and Izzie being celibate. They started a serious relationship, and often had sleepovers, but never had sex. At the Seattle Grace prom, Finn said he had plans for his and Meredith's future. Meredith was happy, and tried to make the relationship work. However, after an argument with Derek, Meredith ended up cheating on Finn with Derek. Finn found out, and albeit annoyed, he wanted to work past it. Meredith was glad, but she realized she couldn't choose between Finn and Derek, so she started dating them both at the same time, until she chose. After a fierce competition, Derek decided to let Meredith go, but as soon as he let her go, Meredith realized she wanted to be with him. She broke up with Finn, who told her Derek was no good for her before he walked out for the last time. His nickname was McVet, as opposed to Derek's McDreamy.

Zola Grey Shepherd
Meredith and Derek met Zola when she was brought to the hospital for an operation as part of Alex's program. The couple had recently been told that Meredith had a hostile uterus and conceiving a child would be hard. Derek immediately bonded with Zola and suggested adoption. Meredith took a little longer to bond, but eventually couldn't help falling in love with the child. However, Derek found out that Meredith tampered with his Alzheimer's trial just as the couple was granted temporary custody of Zola. When the social worker on their case, Janet, discovered that Meredith and Derek weren't living together, Zola was taken away from them for a time, during which Meredith and Derek rekindled their relationship. They were given a date to see a judge about the adoption after Alex went to the judge directly. That date was subsequently cancelled and Janet told them that it was unlikely that it would end in their favor and suggested that they move on. Then, one night after a long day of work, Janet showed up at their door with Zola and told the couple that she was theirs.

Derek Bailey Shepherd
Meredith and Derek's son whom was a surprise because of a meeting with a OBGYN who described Meredith's uterus as hostile.

Lexie Grey


Although Meredith originally hated Lexie, she quickly realized that although she had reason to hate the idea of her, she had no reason to hate Lexie herself. Initially, she didn't like the way Lexie followed her or spoke to Derek about her. She claimed that Lexie was someone she never wanted to know, even denying that Lexie was her sister. However, after Bailey explained that Lexie probably thought she hated her, because of their family links, and after a traumatic day when Cristina brought Lexie home with her, Meredith made an effort to bond with her and they danced and drank tequila. The next morning, Meredith even tried to make breakfast for her and Lexie was so enthusiastic that she ate it, despite knowing she would have an allergic reaction. Lexie and Meredith didn't get too close, both having two different sets of friends, but they did eventually become friends which was made easier with the presence of George O'Malley who was good friends with both of them. Lexie gave up the apartment that she and George had rented, and moved into the attic of Meredith's house, where she occasionally bemoaned the fact that she didn’t have a proper room instead. They later become so close, that Meredith gave Thatcher a piece of her liver, because Lexie asked her to and she doesn’t want to her sister to feel the loss of her father, something of which she had experienced herself. She also sat with Lexie for 36 hours, after she has a PTS breakdown and had to be committed to the psychiatric ward, against her will. And when Lexie got jealous over how April was all chummy with Meredith, she told her the reasons for that, and the fact that "you're not crazy, you're a Grey and you're my sister, Lexie,." In the Season Eight finale "Flight", Lexie dies after the plane crash because she was stuck under the debris, upon hearing of her death Meredith cries hysterically. In episode 5 of Season 9, Meredith obsesses over saving a patients life whom suffers from the same injuries as lexie, as she was crushed by a car. At the end of the episode, Meredith is talking to Cristina and simply says that "Lexie's dead". From this it appears that Meredith has accepted the fact that Lexie is gone and is at peace.

Ellis Grey


Ellis Grey was the mother of Meredith Grey. Their relationship was strained due to Ellis's devotion to Richard Webber and her work, often forgetting about Meredith. Meredith was a rebellious teenager and she drank excessively and partied during college. However, while traveling in Europe, she received a call and was told that her mother had Alzheimer's. Meredith was made look after Ellis and keep her secret from the rest who knew her. Ellis would rarely recognize Meredith but one day she woke up and was lucid, but it wouldn't last long, she found herself very disappointed in her daughter who was no longer driven, just "happy". However, before she died, Meredith saw Ellis in a vision and Ellis hugged her and told her she was extraordinary and to continue being extraordinary. Later, Meredith found her mother's old diaries and used them to get to know who her mother was and she realized that she liked her and her mother was quite similar to her best friend, Cristina Yang.

Thatcher Grey


Due to Ellis and Richard's affair, Thatcher left Ellis and Meredith when Meredith was very young. Ellis asked him not to visit and Meredith did not meet him until she was in her thirties and she discovered he had another family. His wife Susan persisted in trying to get them to bond and they began to but when Susan died in a surgery, Thatcher blamed Meredith, even going so far as to slap her across the face and asked her not to attend the funeral. Weeks later he arrived back at Seattle Grace and told her he was sorry and so proud of her but Lexie later informed her that he only said it because he was drunk and he did it all the time. Thatcher went into a program and he started making amends. He asked Meredith and Lexie to forgive him, Lexie hugged him and Meredith congratulated him and said good luck and then left the office they were in. At the beginning of Season 6, Thatcher comes in to Seattle Grace vomiting blood. He is found to have cirrhosis of the liver. He is told that to be put on the transplant list, he had to be sober for at least a year, he has only been sober for 90 days. Lexie was found not to be a match for her father's liver but Meredith is. Willingly, she offers up her liver, not for Thatcher but for Lexie's sake. Meredith spends the beginning of Season 6 in bed, recovering from the transplant operation. When Thatcher quietly returned to the hospital, with bouts of pain, neither Grey knew, until Miranda Bailey informed them of his check in. When he revealed that he had a young girlfriend, Meredith was actually happy for him, and had to talk to Lexie, who was not to pleased at that discovery.

Susan Grey
Susan Grey was the wife of Meredith's father Thatcher. After Ellis Grey died, Susan reached out to Meredith and after a rough start, Susan and Meredith bonded. Susan would wash her clothes and make dinner for her and was like a surrogate mother to her. However, she came to Seattle Grace with the hiccups and she died during a relatively easy procedure, due to complications.

Doc


Doc was Derek, Addison, and Meredith's dog. She and Izzie rescued him from a shelter and brought him back to their home. Doc was very playful, but he became too much for Izzie and George who quickly demanded that he leave. Due to Meredith's friendship with Derek, Derek and Addison agreed to take him in. After taken to a vet, Doc was diagnosed with bone cancer. When the cancer spread, he was put down and Meredith and Derek agreed to bury him on his favorite spot on Derek's land. During her near death experience, the very first being she wanted to meet was Doc.

Maggie Pierce
Maggie is Meredith's half sister, daughter to Ellis Grey and Richard Webber. She was adopted as a newborn and moved to Seattle to know more about her biological mother, which she only knew by name, and started working at GSMH as Chief of Cardiac surgery. Even before telling Meredith that she was her sister, the two of them were in conflict at work, and when she decided to tell her, Meredith didn't believe her. In the following episode Meredith, helped by Alex, matched the informations about Maggie's birth with the ones about Ellis' hospitalization, and she had to admit that Ellis Grey was actually Maggie's mother. After that Meredith and Maggie ignored each other but Derek pushed Meredith to make the first move with her sister (like he had done for Lexie), so Meredith showed Maggie the old diaries of her mother that correspond to the period in which Maggie was conceived.

Cristina Yang


Cristina bonded with Meredith instantly and their relationship grew, resulting in Cristina and Meredith becoming best friends and each other's person. They were known around the hospital as the 'Twisted Sisters.' As such, there is very little that the two of them do not know, about the other, since day one of their internship. Meredith frequently talks about her problems with Derek, to her, and all the talk about her and Derek, have been a sore point with Cristina, at least a couple of times. She became Cristina's maid of honor during both weddings to Preston Burke and Owen Hunt. Meredith and Cristina also have several sleepovers at each other's houses, sometimes in Meredith's bed with Derek in it. As well as being one of Cristina's pillars of support, during when she suffered from PTSD, as a result of the shootings in Sanctuary and Death and All His Friends.

They bonded over a complex case on their first day, but the relationship was put to the test after Meredith was chosen for a surgery, instead of Cristina. However, they overcame the obstacle and their friendship grew. After Meredith and Derek's break-up, Cristina protected Meredith by asking Derek to stay away. Outside the hospital, they would hang out at Joe's bar, and in the hospital, they would help each other, wherever possible. Cristina was often there for Meredith, during her worst times, and vice versa. Meredith was the only person who knew about Cristina's pregnancy, and Cristina about Meredith's. When Addison came to Seattle Grace, Izzie and Cristina stole a patient from psych to make her feel better and when Meredith was put on Erica Hahn's service, Cristina selflessly gave Meredith lots of advice on how to impress Hahn.



They had their first big fight after Richard Webber blamed Cristina for knowing of the interns' secret meetings and Meredith did not defend her. Although Meredith at first refused to believe Cristina was ignoring her, she eventually accepted it. The two spoke to each other as little as possible, and when they did, they would argue with each other, Meredith even insulted Cristina by saying that to some people things came naturally, but Cristina was one of the people that had to practice. However, after Meredith broke down after attending the execution of a murderer, Derek brought her to Cristina and they made up. They began to bond over Meredith's mother's old diaries and Meredith found herself comparing Cristina to her mother. And when Meredith announced her wedding, she chose Cristina as her maid of honor.

After a fight with Owen, Cristina showed up at Meredith's house. They laid on the floor and talked about her problems. When Owen came to Meredith's house looking for Cristina, Meredith said, "I already fixed her." And Cristina went home with Owen. Also, when both of their husbands were angry with them, Derek at Meredith for tampering with his clinical trial and Owen at Cristina for wanting an abortion, they leaned on each other. Cristina stayed at Meredith's house, both of the men away, and helped take care of baby Zola. They would sleep in the same bed and have routines in the morning.

George O'Malley


From the moment George O'Malley met Meredith, he fell in love with her. Meredith however, was in love with Derek Shepherd so she never really thought about George as more than a friend. Only a patient and George's best friend Izzie knew how he felt about Meredith. After a small push from Izzie, George decided to tell Meredith how he felt. Meredith had had a very bad day at work so when George confessed his feelings for her, she thought that maybe George was her guy and she had just overlooked him. They proceeded to kiss but during sex, knowing it wasn't right, Meredith burst into tears. George was humiliated and furious and for weeks, he refused to speak to her. Eventually he accepted her apology but admitted that he was partly to blame too, he had known how she felt about Derek and knew she didn't love him. Their friendship continued and he moved back to her house. When George discovered that he had to repeat his intern year, he drew away from his group of friends, but things soon went back to normal and Meredith an George's friendship continued, and was strengthened, as she was his resident. On George's last day at Seattle Grace, he was hit by a bus and nobody could recognize him. Meredith was his doctor and although she didn't communicate with him often, she defended him in front of some of the other doctors and after he traced the word "007" on her hand, she realized it was him and had him rushed into the O.R. George later died, and she and the other doctors at Seattle Grace attended his funeral. As the Janitor cleaned out George's cubby, as they 'need(ed) the space' Meredith realized what had happened was real and broke down in Dereks arms,

Izzie Stevens


Meredith formed a close bond with Izzie, Cristina, and George on her first day and her relationship with Izzie grew more so when Izzie and George moved in with her. Initially, Izzie was not pleased to know that Meredith was in a relationship with Derek, as she felt that Derek would be favoring her over the other interns, and thus giving her a much better career prospect. She finally learned that Meredith actually loved Derek, and it was not a fling. When George and Meredith were fighting, Izzie told Meredith she would be siding with George if they had to choose sides but fortunately, Meredith and George's issues were soon resolved. Izzie felt close enough to talk to Meredith about her relationship with George and how he pecked her like a chicken and when she discovered that Izzie and George were dating, she supported them. After Izzie was diagnosed with cancer, and when the condition relapsed and Meredith was informed, she and Derek gave their wedding to Alex and Izzie. However, after Izzie left Seattle Grace when she was fired prior to the merger with Mercy West, Izzie refused to answer calls from any of her friends and only returned when a former teacher of hers was sick and sought Derek's help at Seattle Grace. She returned later on, after Meredith called her and told her Alex might be moving on, the same night that Alex slept with Lexie. Meredith decided that they should keep it between the three of them. Later that night, Meredith found Izzie cleaning out her old room, ready to leave for good after Alex dumped her. Meredith begged her to stay because this was her home, but Izzie told her that it wasn't. It was just a place she worked at and she could find a new workplace. Meredith was left speechless and walked away.

Alex Karev


Initially, Meredith disliked Alex, after he insulted her on her first day of her internship, by calling her a nurse. But when he became Bailey's intern and Izzie made friends with him, Meredith gradually lessened her dislike of Alex. After discovering that Alex failed his board exams, Meredith helped him to study and they occasionally have heartfelt and meaningful conversations. When Izzie was revealed to be quite sick, Meredith offered her wedding to Izzie and Alex and Alex made her his best man for the wedding. When Izzie left the hospital after being fired, Meredith became a source of support. She rang Izzie to tell her to come back because Alex might be moving on, after witnessing Alex and Reed flirting and the next morning she found Lexie and Alex in bed together but advised them to keep it secret. There is no sexual attraction between the two, as shown when Meredith sits in the bathroom and has girl talk with Alex. while he is in the shower. When Derek walks in and looks at the two of them, she explains by saying he's being a girl for her right now.

However, that friendship may have run its course, seeing as how he had sold her out, while in a drunken stupor, to Owen Hunt, while the residents were all in the race for Chief Resident. Meredith subsequently confronted him, in a fit of anger, telling him that she probably will get fired, and that she wanted him out of the house by the end of the day. And while he was actually updating the adoption agent, on the medical status of Zola, Meredith had the misconception that Alex was trying to ruin her chances of adopting the child.

However, it appears that with Alex's apology, they mended their fences, and are now back to their former relationship, as he was there to provide some physical support, after Meredith learnt that Zola had to be surrendered to Social Services for the time being. Cristina told Alex to help Meredith with trying to keep Zola from being taken from her, because Meredith was the only one who 'gave a rat's ass' about Alex. Alex also spilled to Cristina that she and Meredith were all he had and that they were his family, and that realization made him help Meredith and attempt to get Social Services to let Meredith keep Zola. With the departure of Cristina, Alex has become her new "person". He is the closest thing to a brother she has.

Sadie Harris


Sadie Harris was Meredith's childhood best friend and she too hated Ellis. Following her graduation from college, when Meredith was in her twenties, she left to go traveling around Europe for two months with Sadie where they partied and drank frequently and experienced some of the adventures of "Death and Die". They had a big fight in Amsterdam and although they made up and stayed best friends, their friendship never truly recovered and they were never as close again. When Meredith received a call about her mother, she left Europe and went back to Seattle. Years later, Sadie made a surprise visit at Meredith's house and became an intern at Seattle Grace. Sadie and Meredith picked up their friendship as though no time had passed, causing Cristina to be extremely jealous. However, when George alerted the chief that Sadie did not seem to have much medical knowledge, she quit and asked Meredith to leave with her. But Meredith said she had a life now and could no longer be sleeping her way through Europe. Sadie told Meredith that the hospital had changed her and left.

April Kepner
When April first came to Seattle Grace, Meredith did not approve of her. When April came back after being fired, Meredith liked her even less, because she was way too friendly to Derek. Later, when Derek gets shot, Meredith says that April does not have the right to cry because of Derek, but she tells Meredith that Reed, her best friend died. Meredith ends up comforting April, creating some kind of bond. Later, Meredith puts April and Avery up at her place, and she admits to liking April more and more, after she went off on a tirade, after being continually teased of being a virgin the whole day. Meredith and April appear to have a relatively friendly relationship throughout season 9, with April often turning to Meredtih for advice, and Meredtih genuinely being kind to her.

Callie Torres


Although Callie and Meredith are friends, they were never great friends. Meredith allowed Callie to move into her house for a while and Callie saved her from embarrassment at work and gave her advice about her dog, but Meredith was better friends with Izzie, who disliked Callie, so she often sided with Izzie in arguments. After George and Callie divorced, Callie moved in with Meredith's best friend, Cristina, so she and Callie bonded a bit more and both of them protected her from Owen Hunt, when they thought he might hurt Cristina, after he choked her, while he was asleep. Callie played a big part of Meredith's career in season 8 helping her study for the surgical boards that all 5th years take helping Meredith pass. Callie and Meredith also have the common bond of being mothers which has helped their friendship a great deal.

Richard Webber


Meredith Grey and Richard Webber had a very strained relationship for a very long time. He was the main cause behind her parents' divorce and because of him, she was always cast aside. Upon coming to Seattle Grace, they acted civil, but there were issues under the surface. Because he had been so close to Ellis, he felt close to Meredith, and he was close to her as a child and she thought that he thought he was her father. After she started disregarding his authority, Richard realized that although he was not a bad man, he was the bad man in her story. Richard started becoming frustrated with Meredith and even more so when he looked at her and was frustrated to see Ellis Grey inside her, the woman who he loved but had almost ruined his marriage. He never looked Meredith in the eye and eventually Derek Shepherd spoke to them both. He told Richard that he was the most professional man except for when it came to Meredith Grey, who he didn't always treat as a colleague. Richard apologized to Meredith for his actions in the past, he had been aware that she had grown up alone but never tried to stop it. The two forgave each other and it was proven by his fatherly behavior towards her during her solo surgery and her offering him the diaries of her mother. Meredith later tells a shooter that he should kill her because she is the closest thing Richard has to a daughter. Most of the doctors in the hospital acknowledge Richard and Meredith's relationship, often getting her to use her dead mommy connections to get something.

Owen Hunt
Meredith liked Owen Hunt but after he strangled Cristina in her sleep, she gave him the cold shoulder and along with Callie, she kept him away from Cristina whenever possible. However, Cristina and Owen soon got together again and Meredith and Callie stopped. Meredith was civil to Owen until she learned he had cheated on Cristina (in season 8) then she despised him for a long while but finally came to terms that Cristina would decide her own fate with Owen and left it at that. He calls her and Cristina the twisted sisters, and after Owen and Cristina got married, Owen seemed upset when she went to Meredith instead of him. And their relationship is often strained, even though he is good friends with her husband and married to her best friend. Owen has admitted to saying that he feels that Meredith is not good, for Cristina, as he feels she's too reckless and destructive.

Miranda Bailey


Miranda Bailey was Meredith's resident and had earned the nicknamed "The Nazi" before Meredith had started at Seattle Grace. She rarely got involved with people and their problems, unless it affected their work. When Bailey found out about Derek and Meredith's relationship, she didn't speak to Meredith and would punish her, by sending her non surgical tasks, to even up the playing field when she felt that Derek was favoring her. However, after their break-up, when Derek tried to talk to Meredith, Bailey grew protective and told him not to, that Meredith was hurt and he would just make it worse. Bailey taught Meredith and the interns with a tough love method. And as the interns became residents, Bailey became friendlier to the them, often dispensing advice and chastisement when needed, while still managing to maintain her fearsome professional reputation as a doctor and general surgeon. She attends Derek and Meredith's Christmas dinner to impress her father, and shows a motherly protection over Meredith.

However, upon learning of Meredith's tampering with Derek's trial, she voices her strong disapproval of her, as evidenced from her interactions with Meredith, when she got fired, and the Chief, when asked to write a recommendation letter for her.

Addison Forbes Montgomery


When Addison came to Seattle Grace although she wanted Derek back, she was civil to Meredith and even defended her in front of a mislead patient. In a scrub room, Addison told Meredith that if there was even a chance that Derek still loved her then she wasn't leaving Seattle but she would if he didn't. Derek chose Addison over Meredith, but when Derek and Meredith decided to be friends, Addison tried to be friends with her, too. The three stayed friends, even taking in Meredith's dog, but Addison sometimes felt tension between the two and realized that everybody knew Derek loved Meredith, except for Derek and Meredith. She and Derek eventually divorced but after a short while she managed to have a friendship with both of them. The relationship was proven when she came back to Seattle for a visit and hugged Meredith, although she was quite annoyed, and quite tempted to kick her ass physically, after learning that Meredith was letting Derek go off with Rose.

Mark Sloan
When Mark first met Meredith, he flirted with her and was punched in the face by Derek. Privately, she labeled him as “McSteamy”, and Mark called her “My Favorite Dirty Mistress”, while she was high on morphine, for pain management. But when he asked her out, she said no because she loved Derek. When Derek forgave Mark for breaking up his marriage and they resumed their friendship with him, Meredith too became friendly towards him, although Mark still threatened her, only half-jokingly, on her wedding day. He later dates her little sister against her wishes, which caused a fight between him and Derek. In the season eight finale when the plane crashes both Mark and her are left shocked and distraught with Meredith crying hysterically and a depressed Mark has a heart complication.

Preston Burke
Because Preston was dating Cristina, Meredith and Derek were often invited over to their house for dinner and vice versa. She tried to mediate and fix things between Cristina and Preston, after Cristina went to Chief Webber, about the tremor in Burke's hand, but to no avail. However, Burke left Cristina on the day of their wedding and there was never any contact between them again. Except once, for Derek to tell Cristina about his resignation.



Erica Hahn
When Erica Hahn was hired at Seattle Grace, she almost immediately assigned Meredith to her service in order to see if Meredith had any of her mother's skill. She was impressed by Meredith but when Meredith lied and said she had performed a certain surgery when she hadn't, Hahn told her that if she did it again, she'd never let her operate in her OR again.

Career
After attending medical school, Meredith secured a spot at Seattle Grace Hospital as a surgical intern and moved from Boston to her mother's house in Seattle. She attended Dartmouth College.

Because of her mother's reputation, Meredith was often treated differently from other doctors, sometimes favored and sometimes disliked. Meredith showed promise as an intern, she made a difficult diagnosis on her first day and during the rest of her internship, she assisted in several advanced procedures, particularly neurosurgical cases.

After correctly diagnosing a patient with a brain tumor, she approached Derek Shepherd with the idea of a clinical trial. On their thirteenth patient, they had a success and the clinical trial was published in a medical journal and named The Shepherd Method. But she was not too pleased, to find that she was not mentioned in the article and was somewhat upset to hear from Derek that he was the one taking the risk, despite her doing all the work.

Soon after, Meredith discovered numerous journals belonging to her mother, while she learned more about her and also picked up some surgical skills and even a doll from her past, Anatomy Jane, which helped her save a young girl.

On her wedding day, she was given a colon removal operation, from Derek, as her first solo surgery, as a wedding present. Without any intervention from other doctors, she successfully completed the surgery, despite Richard and Mark observing in the background. Richard Webber informed her that her mother would have been proud, while Meredith said that her mother was likely to have been glad that she didn't kill anyone instead.

She later also performed a solo neurological surgery by herself, as Derek, the attending doctor, was occupied with another patient in another OR. When Derek was setting up the Alzheimer's trial, Meredith was there to assist him. But she was not entirely pleased to find out that he chose Alex, over her, to help him. It was only later, that Alex explained that Meredith was more suited to be his assistant, as she had personal experience, in dealing with the patients and family. But when she tampered with the sample that Adele was supposed to get, Alex suspected that something was amiss. That culminated in him outing her, while he was drunk, and she being suspended, before being fired by the board. Richard took the fall for her, but she and Derek agreed that they shouldn't be close at work too, so Meredith decided to leave neurosurgery.

Electing general surgery as her specialty, Meredith passed the boards and is now an attending general surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

Notes and Trivia

 * Meredith's Catch Phrases/Running Gags:
 * 1. Commonly using well-known phrases, but trails off at the end and replaces the last word with "whatever" e.g. "You're my knight in shining whatever"
 * 2. "Mc" Labeling: "McDreamy, McSteamy, McGuilty"
 * Meredith loves tequila.
 * Meredith states that Duran Duran, The Go Go's, and The Eurythmics are right answers to "What's your favorite 80s band?" suggesting that she enjoys their music.
 * Meredith does not like big weddings.
 * Her favorite ice cream is strawberry ice cream.
 * Her first patient was Katie Bryce.
 * Her blood type is AB.
 * She's had both her appendix and spleen removed. She also donated part of her liver to her father, but a liver regenerates.
 * She was the angry pink hair kid in high school.
 * She knows how to swim.
 * According to Chief Webber, Meredith has the best surgical skills. This is later reinforced by Callie agreeing with him.
 * Meredith is happy and cheerful when she is hopped up on morphine or drunk.
 * Meredith is a very intuitive surgeon with a natural flair for medicine.
 * In the original pilot script, Meredith was mentioned to be 32 when she started her internship, although it was never mentioned in the TV series. In Before and After, Meredith told Sadie that they were no longer 25, sleeping their way through Europe. Because a medical school application cycle takes at least a year in the US, and the medical school takes 4 years to complete, Meredith would have been at least 31 when she started her internship. When her dad left home, Meredith was 5. Because Thatcher was said to be only eventually remarried and Lexie is 24 when she started the internship, it also suggests that Meredith was at least 30 or 31 when she was an intern.
 * In the episode Thanks for the Memories, Cristina says to George over the phone in reference to alcohol "How is that possible? She's a W.A.S.P." This confirms that she's a W.A.S.P.
 * She lost her virginity to Paul Waxmen in her sophomore year of high school. She says he had absolutely no idea what he was doing.
 * According to Meredith, she is a girl with abandonment issues. (Six Days, Part 1)
 * Her mother and Richard Webber met when she was three.
 * She is Richard Webber's and Cristina Yang's medical proxy.
 * She had 4 letters of recommendation for her internship at Seattle Grace Hospital.
 * Throughout the first trimester of her pregnancy, she cried often, whether she was angry or happy.
 * Meredith requested that her roommates be non-smokers, have no pets, and absolutely no Bush supporters.
 * In the episode Fear (of the Unknown), it is revealed that Maggie Pierce is her biological maternal half-sister.
 * Meredith hates Chinese food.
 * She snores loudly, a trait which she inherited from her father, Thatcher.

Notable Episodes
These episodes are Meredith-centric or are otherwise very informative about her life.

Memorable Quotes

 * Meredith: The Game. They say a person either has what it takes to play, or they don't. My mother was one of the greats. Me on the other hand... I'm kinda screwed. I can't think of any one reason why I'd want to be a surgeon. But I can think of a thousand reasons why I should quit. They make it hard on purpose. There are lives in our hands. There comes a moment when it's more than just a game. And you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away. I could quit, but here's the thing … I love the playing field. –A Hard Day's Night


 * Meredith: Okay, here it is, your choice … it's simple, her or me, and I'm sure she is really great. But Derek, I love you, in a really, really big pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window, unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you. So pick me, choose me, love me.


 * Derek: Ok. What do we wanna promise each other?
 * Meredith: That you'll love me... even when you hate me.
 * Derek: To love each other, even when we hate each other. No running. Ever! Nobody walks out. No matter what happens.
 * Meredith: No running.
 * Derek: What else?
 * Meredith: That we'll take care of each other, even when we're old, and smelly, and senile. And... if I get Alzheimer's and forget you...
 * Derek: I will remind you who I am, every day. To take care when old, senile, and smelly. This is forever. Sign.
 * Meredith: This is our wedding. A post it?
 * Derek: Mhmmm. If you sign it.
 * Meredith: Now what?
 * Derek: Now I kiss the bride. (They kiss)
 * Meredith: Married.
 * Derek: Married. –Now or Never


 * Meredith: At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don't keep other people out. They fence you in. Life is messy. That's how we're made. So, you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them. But there are some lines … that are way too dangerous to cross.


 * Meredith: You don't feel finished because this isn't the end for you. There is no finish line. There is no end point. You've just got to go.


 * Meredith: (to Cristina) Derek is the love of my life, but you're my soulmate.

Appearances
Meredith Grey