"Grey's Anatomy": Fans speculate - will Meredith die like this?

It's already running in America: the 17th season of the hospital series "Grey's Anatomy". This time everything should change: main actress Ellen Pompeo wants to leave the show according to rumors. Will Meredith Gray leave with dignity? The fans have their theories …

Do you remember when the first episode "Grey's Anatomy" was on TV? Yes? Then you will definitely feel old now. It's been 17 years since Izzie, Meredith, Alex, Christina and George first worked at the "Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital"! In fact, almost all of the original leading actors dropped out over time: Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) was fired for a medical malpractice, George O'Malley (TR Knight) died a heroic death, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) moved to Switzerland, and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) wanted to try again with his ex-wife away from the hospital.

… there was only one more. Now veteran Ellen Pompeo should also leave the cast. "It's going to be an incredible two-part episode. First, Meredith Gray will 'die' on the operating table. She will get a glimpse of life afterwards - and friends and relatives who have already died," an insider told one US magazine. An official confirmation is still pending. But according to the Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Krista Vernoff wrote the finale of the current 17th season as if it were the end of the series!

COVID-19 does not stop at fiction either

Spoiler warning! Unfortunately, to understand why fans believe Meredith is going to die, we have to reveal a few things about the new season.

The topic of the first episode is brand new: The doctors at the "Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital" are fighting the corona pandemic and for the survival of the sick. How exhausting that can be can also be seen with Meredith, who collapses from exhaustion after a long day at work in front of the hospital. It later turns out that she is also sick with COVID-19. When the doctor wakes up, however, she is suddenly on the beach and sees Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), who waves to her with a smile …

Why exactly this scene fires the imagination of the fans? Because McDreamy has been dead since season ten! Everyone on the internet agrees: Something unexpected will happen to Meredith. But what exactly? We have collected the wildest theories.

Meredith's death is the reflection of Mark's death

Mark "McSexy" Sloan (Eric Dane) crashed in a plane in season eight. He didn't die right away, but even recovered a bit at the beginning of the ninth season. The joy did not last long: Shortly afterwards he fell into a coma and the life-support measures were stopped.

Fans see parallels in the narrative of the two incidents. Because Meredith also woke up briefly after her breakdown and then fell into a coma …

All just a look back

"Grey's Anatomy" has always been told off-screen by Meredith's voice. The way she describes the events sounds like diary entries. A fan therefore suspects that the consequences are precisely these entries from the diary that Meredith's grown-up daughter Zola reads after her death.

Cliffhanger to the end

In good serial fashion, of course, we may have to wait until the very last scene of the very last episode to find out the fate of the doctor. Particularly exciting: The thesis that the audience is only being led to believe that Meredith will survive COVID. Only at the end of the big revelation should follow: Meredith was dead the whole time and everything that happened to her in the 17th season, she just hallucinated!

Christina saves Meredith

But no COVID

The following theory sounds totally absurd and therefore all the more exciting: What if Meredith did not suffer from COVID but from an early form of dementia? Then her collapse would really "only" be ascribed to fatigue. And it would also explain why she sees the long-dead Derek again in her dreams.

Meredith survives …

… and keep working at the hospital! That is comparatively the most boring thesis. But of course you shouldn't forget that without Ellen Pompeo everything would really change. Maybe that's why the makers aren't ready to let their leading actress go.