Mark Sloan

"I love you. Oh God, oh my God that just came flying out of my face. I love you. I just - I did it again. I love you. I do. I just, I love you. And I have been trying not to say it. I have been trying so hard to just mash it down and ignore it and not say it and Jackson is a great guy. He is. He’s gorgeous, and he’s younger than you. He doesn’t have any grandkids, or babies with his lesbian BFF. And he’s an Avery and he liked me, you know? He really liked me. But it was never gonna work out, because I love you. I am so in love with you. You’re in me. You’re like, it’s like you’re a disease. It’s like I am infected by Mark Sloan, and I just can’t think about anything or anybody. And I can’t sleep. I can’t breathe. I can’t eat. And I love you. I love you all the time. Every minute of every day, I love you. God, that feels good to just say that. I feel so much better. I love you."

- Lexie Grey

Mark Everett Sloan (1968-2012) was originally known for being the man-whore that wrecked Addison and Derek's marriage. However, he moved to Seattle and finally managed to win Derek back as a friend and started making other friends. He even decided to become a better person and change his ways. He and Lexie Grey have an on and off relationship; even when they are not dating he is very much in love with her. In the season eight finale, Mark and Lexie along with some of the other doctors, are in a plane crash. Lexie is stuck under debris from the plane, with her legs and pelvis crushed, and no feeling in her left arm. She suspects a massive hemothorax as well. As she lay dying, Mark confesses his feelings for her, saying that they're "supposed to end up together. We're meant to be." Lexie repeats Mark's words, and draws her last breath. Mark breaks down and repeatedly says that he loves her, and kisses her hand. After 30 days in a coma, his life support is removed, and he dies in the season nine premiere "Going, Going, Gone."

Early Life
Mark was born in 1968 to upper-class, but emotionally distant parents in New York City. In In the Midnight Hour, while working on a case involving a man's sleepwalking and his daughter's subsequent insomnia, Mark reveals that his own parents would often go out at night, leaving him to care for himself. As a result, he would turn on all the TV's and every light in the house, even those in the closets, but still couldn't sleep.

Later in the same episode, he reveals that he and Derek Shepherd were childhood friends and when Derek's mother, Carolyn, saw how lonely he was, she encouraged Derek to bring him home. This led Mark to develop a family relationship with the Shepherd's, and became like a brother to Derek.

In Sympathy for the Devil, Derek's mother Carolyn revealed that Mark once put Derek's favorite frog into the microwave, to which Mark replies that he never pressed start.

Mark was an athlete in high school and played on the football team.

Personality
His friendship with Derek lasted throughout childhood and into their adult years and Mark was Derek's best man at his wedding to Addison Forbes Montgomery. He says that Derek is his better half, but not better looking half. As Derek and Addison's marriage became strained, Mark and Addison grew closer, and eventually Mark slept with Addison, only for Derek to catch them in the act. Derek subsequently left New York and later Addison followed suit, leaving Mark behind.

He moved to Seattle to try to win them both back and in the end he became good friends with both.

His 400 dollar an hour shrink says … "behind his rugged and confident exterior, he is self destructive and self loathing to an almost pathological degree."

Mark has commitment issues, likely stemming from his emotionally challenged relationship with his parents, and his friendship with Derek was his single longest relationship. He has a long history of womanizing and one-night stands, and is somewhat indiscriminate about his partners, admitting to affairs with not only Addison but also his tennis partner's wife. Mark is impatient and shows disdain for the responsibility of training interns, but he is also intelligent and conniving, and not above using others to advance his own agenda. He is on good terms with Meredith. He listened to her when she told him to give up on Addison. He also knows that Meredith can make him gain points with Richard Webber.



Mark first appeared in Seattle shortly after the bomb scare at the hospital with the sole intention of bringing Addison back to New York. During this visit, Meredith, Cristina, and Izzie discussed a nickname for Mark. They came up with such names as "McSexy" and "McYummy". Meredith was the one who came up with the name "McSteamy". From that moment on, the interns regularly used the nickname behind Sloan's back. He eventually found out about the nickname when Meredith, who was under the influence of painkillers, called to him "McSteamy! Woo hoo!" to which he replied, ''"Is that what you're calling me now? McSteamy?" She responded by saying, "Yeah, but I don't think you're supposed to know that."''

Addison rejected Mark's offer to bring her back to New York and Derek rejected his apology, leaving Mark to return empty-handed to New York.

Upon his return, he was not warmly welcomed by Addison or Derek, although he desperately wanted to repair his relationships with both. He carried on a brief fling with Callie Torres before she reconciled with George O'Malley, and developed a friendship with Meredith, although he hit on her before she and Derek resumed their relationship. Mark disliked Seattle, annoyed by the weather and the perceived inadequacies of the city in comparison to Manhattan, and was also discouraged by the continued strife among himself, Derek, and Addison.

Mark’s focus remains on repairing his relationships with Addison and Derek. In an effort to stray from the sexual nature of their past attempts, Mark entered a sixty-day abstinence pact with Addison with the agreement that if at the end of two months’ time they had remained celibate, Addison would agree to give a relationship with Mark another chance. However thirty-two days into the pact, Mark witnessed Addison and Alex leaving an on-call room together, and realized what had happened between them. Hurt, he lied to Addison about breaking the pact. Mark and Derek remained estranged, but their relationship greatly mended, after Mark showed support and strength, in Some Kind of Miracle, while Meredith was fighting for her life. After Addison left for Los Angeles, Mark and Derek have mended their relationship, and although the subject of Mark's infidelity is occasionally brought up, they have shown mutual respect for each other, and their respective surgical skills.

Addison Forbes Montgomery
Addison, Mark and Derek were best friends. However, Addison felt that Derek was absent at home, and therefore slept with Mark, supposedly as a way of getting attention. After catching them in the act, Derek left New York for Seattle.

After Derek declared his marriage to Addison and friendship with Mark over and left town, Mark and Addison lived together for two months. During this time, Addison became pregnant with Mark's baby. He was initially excited about the pregnancy, but Addison had an abortion after discovering that Mark had cheated on her and after a call from Richard Webber she left Mark to follow Derek to Seattle. Mark, however, remained sensitive to the date of Addison's abortion, but later admitted that he was not ready to become a father, and probably wouldn't have made a very good one at the time.

Later, Mark followed them to Seattle to win them both back and tried to convinvce Addison that he loved her and her marriage was over because Derek was in love with Meredith. He went home without Addison, but after Addison found Meredith's panties in Derek's tuxedo, she called Mark for a "transcontinental booty-call". Derek came to apologise to Addison and found Mark coming out of the shower, at which point both Addison and Derek knew their marriage was over. After a quick trip back to New York to sublet his apartment and sell his practice, Mark took over the plastics program at Seattle Grace.

Mark tried to prove himself to Addison by abstaining from sex for sixty days. After discovering that Addison slept with Alex, Mark lied and said that he had slept with someone, thereby taking responsibility, and effectively ending their romance. They did, however, remain friends. He and Callie met and became friends (with benefits). He, Callie and Erica became friends and he constantly teased them about having a threesome and was shocked when Erica kissed Callie.



Lexie Grey
Mark decided to change his ways after the nurses started a campaign called Nurses against Mark Sloan and Miranda Bailey's defense was "He's a manwhore". He remained single for a long time, occasionally sleeping with Callie. Meredith started to worry that Mark was flirting with Lexie Grey. Derek told Mark to "keep little Sloan out of little Grey". However, Mark started to notice her and they began dating secretly with only Callie, Sadie and Derek's mother aware of their relationship. When Addison came back to Seattle for a visit, she realised but Mark managed to keep her quiet. Their relationship continued, even after Lexie gave him a penile fracture.

Lexie soon grew tired of keeping secrets and told him she wasn't going to be his girlfriend until he told Derek. He confessed to Derek who eventually accepted it. Their relationship continued but things got awkward when Mark suggested they move in together, the subject moved to marriage and awkwardly they started to avoid each other. Mark decided to move on anyway and started looking for a house but Lexie told him he couldn't make her feel guilty.

Sometime after George O'Malley's death they moved in together. Later however, Mark discovered he had a daughter, Sloan Riley, who arrives seeking his support after becoming pregnant and being evicted by her mother. Mark permits her to move in with him, which angers Lexie. When Lexie makes it clear that she knew that Mark would choose his own daughter over her, she puts an end to their relationship. Sloan experiences difficulties in her pregnancy, so Mark takes her to LA to be treated. He and Addison once again sleep together, but when he comes back he tells Lexie because he doesn't want to lie to her and wants them to get back together, but when she tells him she slept with Alex it puts an end to their relationship.

In the sixth season finale, a gunman commits mass murder at the hospital. Mark helps Lexie save Alex, her new boyfriend. In the aftermath of the shooting, Lexie has a nervous breakdown and Mark has her committed to the psychiatric unit. Their friendship is strained. However, Lexie softens towards him when she learns that he is still in love with her. As Lexie goes to talk to Mark about him still being in love with her, she sees Mark entering his apartment with Derek's sister Amelia, kissing her and ultimately having sex with her. When Callie's girlfriend, pediatric surgeon Arizona Robbins, breaks up with her, she and Mark have a drunken one-night-stand. Shortly thereafter, he reconciles with Lexie, but is delighted when Callie discovers she is pregnant with his child. Lexie, however, is dismayed by the news and leaves Mark.

In the seventh season finale, Mark gives Jackson and Lexie his blessing and tells Lexie he will let her go. Lexie replies that she's still in love with him, but right now she needs Jackson to be happy. Mark only repeats that he will let her go.

When Mark finally starts dating again, Lexie feels jealous. This even results in Lexie throwing a ball at Mark's new girlfriend and mistakingly saying that she wished she could be in the OR with him when he was talking to his girlfriend on the phone.

Later, Lexie finally tells Mark that she is still in love with him. Mark tells Derek that he is torn between Lexie, the woman he loves but doesn't want anything that he wants, and Julia, who can give him everything he wants. Mark and Lexie board the plane with their feelings unresolved. After the plane crashes, Lexie is stuck under debris from the plane. Mark tells Lexie that he loves her and that they are going to get married and have children, because they're meant to be. Lexie then dies with a smile on her face. Mark breaks down and holds her hand for several hours after. He later suffers from a cardiac tamponade, which Meredith (with Cristina's help) is able to resolve temporarily with whatever gear survived the crash. He fights for his life throughout the rest of the episode and considered letting himself die, saying that he'll, "be okay. Lexie is waiting for [him]." Arizona reminds him that Sofia is waiting for him to return home and that he has to survive for her sake. The fate of the doctors remains unresolved at the episode's end.

In the premiere of season 9, Mark is in coma and Callie and Derek watch over him. They also mention that they will respect Mark's wishes of taking him off life support after 30 days. Even if Callie disagress at the end of the episode, she thinks it best to respect his wishes. During the season permiere, they also show videos of Mark in the past few years.

At the end of episode, Mark Sloan is taken off life support and is watched by Derek and Callie while he dies slowly but without pain.

It is revealed in the season 9 finale that Mark was moaning Lexie's name while they were still in the woods.

Teddy Altman
In season 6, after Mark and Lexie's relationship fell apart, he began a relationship with cardiothoracic surgeon Teddy Altman, despite the fact she was in love with their SGH's trauma surgeon, Owen Hunt. They had a few weeks of dating, that seemed to be going well. Mark later slept with Reed Adamson, as he and Teddy were not exclusively dating. There was no official breakup as they both just stopped seeing each other.

Career
Mark attended medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, completed his residency in otolaryngology, a fellowship in plastic surgery, and quickly became one of the most highly-regarded plastic surgeons on the East Coast with a thriving private practice.

Professionally, Mark is regarded as a very successful and competent surgeon and one of New York's finest plastic surgeons. Alex Karev referred to him as the "go-to-guy" for plastics, and Richard Webber proposed that the addition of Mark to Seattle Grace's plastics program would double the revenue of other departments. He is skilled at delicate and complex reconstructive procedures, but also performs cosmetic procedures. Of his personal philosophy, he says: "People don't come to me to fix what's on the outside. They come to me to fix what's on the inside."

Before moving to Seattle, he owned a private practice with Addison Montgomery and Derek Shepherd. However, when they moved away he decided to win them back and sold the practice.

At Seattle Grace he was a very good surgeon but an awful teacher, he often had interns pick up his dry cleaning or get him coffee and mainly looked out for himself, ignoring Addison when she told him SGH was a teaching hospital.

After some time working at SGH, he cosidered terminating his verbal contract with Richard and moving back to sunny New York but he decided to stay after Meredith let it slip that Richard was retiring. Mark entered the race for the chief position and quickly gained the advantage when the others prepared ten year plans and he prepared a right-now plan (taking the words from Bailey). The board members and the chief applauded him, but in the end he failed to become chief. However, he stayed at Seattle Grace to work on his relationship with Derek and Seattle itself started to appeal to him too.

Notes and Trivia

 * To French viewers Mark is known as Dr. Glamour, not McSteamy, to German viewers he is known as McSexy, and to Swedish viewers he is known as Dr. Hot.
 * His character name, Mark Sloan, was in honour of the character, Dr Mark Sloan, that Dick van Dyke played on "Diagnosis: Murder".
 * He had Chicken Pox when he was six.

Notable Episodes
These episodes are Mark-centric or are otherwise very informative about his life.
 * In the Midnight Hour
 * Going, Going, Gone
 * Remember the Time