Mark Sloan

"I want you to promise me something. If you love someone, you tell them. Even if you're scared that it's not the right thing. Even if you're scared it will cause problems. Even if you're scared it will burn your life to the ground. You say it. You say it loud. And you go from there."

- Mark Sloan

Mark Sloan was the Head of plastic surgery at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital until he died following a plane crash. He is also the father of Sloan Riley and Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres, as well as being the love of Lexie Grey's life.

Early Life
Mark was born in 1968 to upper-class, but emotionally distant parents in New York City. While working on a case involving a man's sleepwalking and his daughter's subsequent insomnia, Mark revealed 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 TVs and every light in the house, even those in the closets, but still couldn't sleep.

Later, he revealed 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 Shepherds, and become like a brother to Derek.

When she visited, Derek's mother, Carolyn. revealed that Mark once put Derek's favorite frog into the microwave, to which Mark replied that he never pressed start.

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

Affair with Addison
Shortly before Derek's move to Seattle, Mark and Addison were caught having sex in Derek's bedroom. According to Mark, Derek merely walked out, packed his things, and left. Derek later learned that they continued to see each other after he left. Part of the reason Mark moved to Seattle was to try to continue his relationship with Addison. Addison gave him an ultimatum: If he could go sixty days without sleeping with anyone else, she would consider dating him. However, when Mark saw Addison and Alex Karev coming out of an on-call room together, he realized that they had had sex, and lied to Addison that he had slept with someone to break the 60-day contract. He never revealed to Addison that he caught her.

Moving to Seattle
Mark first visited Seattle to bring Addison back to New York. Shortly after arriving to Seattle Grace, Derek punched him, when Richard Webber asked why he did that, Addison spoke up and said that they were sleeping together and Derek caught them in the act. Mark slept with Addison again before he intended to leave, but he stayed and became the Head of Plastic Surgery.

Competition for Chief of Surgery
Mark was in the running for Chief of Surgery, along with Derek, Burke, and Addison. He got a idea from Bailey mentioning the hospital needs a "right now" plan, not a five-year plan. Richard Webber told the other 3 that the board was eating up the "right now" plan, and suggested that they should do the same.

Sleeping with Callie and Attraction Towards Erica
Mark had a sexual relationship with Callie Torres. Mark started flirting with Erica Hahn, which she rejected. Mark suggested having a threesome between him, Callie, and Erica. Erica said he would be intimidated by her and Callie's relationship, and kissed Callie before stepping off the elevator.

Relationship with Lexie
Mark and Lexie started their relationship off with Lexie going to his apartment, taking off her clothes and telling him to, "Teach her". They then had sex. After that, Mark resisted Lexie because of his promise to Derek and Callie helped him.

Shooting and Letting Go of Lexie
During the hospital shooting, Mark and Lexie were at the nurses' station, where shots were fired by Gary Clark. Mark ran Lexie to a elavator, which had a unconscious and bloody Alex Karev in it. They brought Alex to a conference room, where they treated him until the SWAT team evacuated them.

Becoming a Father
Shortly after Arizona moved to Africa, Callie started sleeping with Mark. Callie got pregnant with Mark's baby and Mark decided he wanted to be part of this baby's life, because he didn't have the chance with his other daughter, Sloan. When Arizona came back to Seattle Grace Mercy West, she and Callie got into a car accident. Callie was badly injured. She had to have an emergency c-section at 23 weeks. She gave birth to a premature baby and named her Sofia. Sofia and Callie both survived. Mark helped raise Sofia with Callie and Arizona until his death.

Relationship with Julia and Teaching Jackson
Mark began dating an eye surgeon named Julia who worked at Seattle Presbyterian Hospital. Once Lexie learned of this, she became jealous of their relationship.

Mark began taking an interest in Jackson because he wanted Jackson to choose plastic surgery as his specialty. Mark noted that Jackson was very good-looking like him, which is helpful in that field. Mark called the two of them the "Plastics Posse."

Plane Crash and Death
In 2012, while traveling to Boise, Idaho to perform a separation surgery of conjoined twins, Mark was in a plane crash. He, along with Meredith, Lexie, Cristina, Arizona, and Derek became stranded in the woods. Mark seemed to have escaped with only minor injuries at first, though after the death of Lexie, he became unresponsive. Cristina examined his chest to find major bruising. Cristina realized that he had a cardiac tamponade, fluid surrounding his heart. Meredith used a tube from a bottle that Derek and Cristina found to drain the fluid. Cristina, Meredith, and Derek were able to get Mark to the front of the plane where Arizona and the pilot were. Mark woke up and told Arizona that Lexie was dead, and that she was waiting for him. Mark tried to tell Arizona he would be okay when he died, but she told him that she, Sofia, and Callie were waiting for him, too.

Mark was airlifted to Idaho, then sedated and moved to Seattle Grace Mercy West. He spent two months declining until he woke up briefly. After that day, he fell into a coma. After thirty days, they turned the life support machines off and Derek and Callie sat with him while he died.

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 once joked that Derek is his "better half, but not better looking half". Their friendship was strained due to Addison's affair with Mark and the latter's relationship with Lexie. They are polar opposite personalities: Mark is usually happy-go-lucky and forgives Derek easily while Derek tends to brood and hold grudges.

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.

According to his "400-dollar-an-hour shrink", "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 non-sexual 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. He has also slept with all of Derek's sisters at some point. However he generally keeps a distance from Meredith Grey out of respect for Derek, once even comforting her following her first break-up with Derek by telling her that they're now both members of the "Dirty Mistresses" club.

Mark is impatient and shows disdain for the responsibility of training interns, and "berates and humiliates", as described by Erica Hahn. 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. He is also intelligent and conniving, and not above using others to advance his own agenda.



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 convince 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 apologize 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 was single for a substantial amount of 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 realized but Mark managed to keep her quiet. Their relationship continued, even after Lexie gave him a fractured penis.

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.

During the hospital shooting, Mark helped Lexie save Alex, her new boyfriend. In the aftermath of the shooting, Lexie had a nervous breakdown and Mark had her committed to the psychiatric unit. Their friendship was strained. However, Lexie softened towards him when she learned that he was still in love with her. As Lexie went to talk to Mark about him still being in love with her, she saw 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, broke up with her, she and Mark had a drunken one-night-stand. Shortly thereafter, he reconciled with Lexie, but was delighted when Callie discovered she was pregnant with his child. Lexie, however, was dismayed by the news and left Mark.

Mark later gave Jackson and Lexie his blessing and told Lexie he would let her go. Lexie replied that she was still in love with him, but right now she needed Jackson to be happy. Mark only repeated that he would let her go.

When Mark finally started dating again, Lexie was jealous. This even resulted in Lexie throwing a ball at Mark's new girlfriend and mistakenly 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 told Mark that she was still in love with him. Mark told Derek that he was torn between Lexie, the woman he loved but who didn't want anything that he wanted, and Julia, who could give him everything he wanted. Mark and Lexie boarded the plane to Idaho with their feelings unresolved. After the plane crashed, Lexie was stuck under debris from the plane. Mark told Lexie that he loved her and that they were going to get married and have children, because they were meant to be. Lexie then died with a smile on her face. Mark broke down and held her hand for several hours after. He later suffered from a cardiac tamponade, which Meredith (with Cristina's help) was able to resolve temporarily with some personal items that survived the crash. He fought for his life throughout the rest of their time in the woods, though he considered letting himself die, saying that he'll, "be okay. Lexie is waiting for [him]." Arizona reminded him that Sofia was waiting for him to return home and that he had to survive for her sake.

After they were rescued, Julia came to the hospital. She told him that she loved him, but he replied that he loved Lexie, therefore ending their relationship. Mark spent two months fighting to recover before falling into a coma.

Callie and Derek watched over him. Before falling into a coma, Mark had signed paperwork stating that he wanted to be removed from life support if there were no signs of improvement after 30 days. When that time came, they took him off life support and he died.

Teddy Altman
After Mark and Lexie's relationship fell apart, he began a sexual 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, which seemed to be going well. Mark later slept with Reed Adamson, as he and Teddy were not exclusively dating. There was no official breakup but they both stopped seeing each other.

Julia Canner
After Lexie and Mark's breakup and Sofia's birth, Mark hit a dry spell for a little while. He was so focused on being a new father that he didn't actively pursue romance. After he picked up an obsession with cooking, Callie suggested that he find a new girlfriend. Julia works at Seattle Presbyterian Hospital and was part of the softball game between the two hospitals. She and Mark dated for several months, however it was quite obvious Mark was still not over Lexie, especially when she and Jackson broke up. In spite of this, Mark and Julia were quite serious. They even discussed having a child together. However, before that could happen, Lexie professed her love for Mark. Shortly after, Mark and Lexie were in a plane crash, in which Lexie died from her injuries, leaving Mark devastated. When Julia visited him in the hospital after the crash, he broke up with her, saying that he loved Lexie.

Amelia Shepherd
When Amelia came to Seattle to make good with her brother after he was shot, she slept with Mark Sloan the day before she left.

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 renowned surgeon and one of New York's finest plastic surgeons. Alex Karev referred to him as the "go-to-guy" for plastics on the East Coast, 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.

After some time working at SGH, he considered 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.

Mark began to take an interest in mentoring Jackson Avery. Derek surmised that his "sudden interest in education" was a result of him not being in a sexual relationship at that time. Jackson had initially been interested in neurosurgery, but later switched to plastics, much to his mother's chagrin. After Mark's death, Jackson took over their work.

Notes and Trivia

 * To French viewers, Mark is known as Dr. Glamour, not McSteamy. To German viewers, he is known as McTraumprinz (Traumprinz roughly meaning "Dream Prince") or McSexy, and to Swedish viewers he is known as Dr. Hot. In the Italian version, he is called Dr. Bollore (which means hot). In the Czech version viewers know him as McŽhavý (which also means hot).
 * His character name, Mark Sloan, was in honor of the character, Dr Mark Sloan, that Dick van Dyke played on "Diagnosis: Murder".
 * He had Chicken Pox when he was six.
 * Mark was "double-board certified" in ENT and plastics.
 * Mark was the interim chief of surgery during Support System.
 * He put Derek's frog in the microwave when he was ten, but never turned it on.
 * The female employees of SGMW complained about how Mark was always flirting and some people referred to him as a "man whore".
 * He started to learn Spanish so that Sofia could grow up knowing her heritage and culture.
 * He was on his high school football team.

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

Memorable Quotes

 * Mark: I love you. I do. I love you. I've always been in love with you. I will always be in love with you… which is why you have to stay alive. We're gonna get married. And, then, you're gonna become an amazing surgeon. And we're gonna have two or three kids.
 * Lexie: So, Sofia can have siblings?
 * Mark: Yeah. A sister and two brothers. We're gonna be happy, Lex, you and me. We're gonna have the best life, Lex, you and me. We're gonna be so happy. So you can't die, okay? You can't die. Because we're supposed to end up together. We're meant to be.


 * Mark: She told you. I've known you my whole life. I grew up with you so I know what you're thinking. That there is a year of your life wasted. Trying to make it work with Addison and you could have been with Meredith. That you could be happy right now. That all of this, everything… that you and Meredith could have had a real chance. Still, I thought you should know the truth. I thought I owed you that, as a friend.


 * Mark: She really doesn't know how good she is. Sometimes you wish people would see themselves the way you do.


 * Mark: You know, it's funny. Derek walks in on me naked with his wife, actually in the throes, and he just turns around and walks away. But he sees me so much as talking to you, and I'm on the ground bleeding. Interesting, don't you think?


 * Mark: I want you to promise me something. If you love someone, you tell them. Even if you're scared that it's not the right thing. Even if you're scared it will cause problems. Even if you're scared it will burn your life to the ground. You say it. You say it loud. And you go from there.


 * Mark: Supporting someone and respecting someone isn't the same thing.


 * Mark: But somehow, somehow, I lost my best friend and the woman I loved.


 * Mark: Lex… I'm still in love with you. I tried not to be, but it didn't work. And Sloan's gone, there's no baby, and I don't want to sleep around. I want another chance. I'm still in love with you.
 * Lexie:Karev… he's… Mark, I have a boyfriend.
 * Mark: I know. But I'm saying you could have a husband.


 * Mark: (about Lexie) I know who she is, and if she's going through her worst right now, I want to go through it with her. She makes me happier than anything I've ever known and if I can have a part in making her happy again, that's all I want to do. That's all I want to do for the rest of my life.


 * Mark: She's [Lexie Grey] smart. She's beautiful. She's perfect. A guy couldn't do any better.

Appearances
Mark Sloan Mark Sloan Mark Sloan