‘Grey’s Anatomy’: This New Fan Theory on How the Show Ends Will Make You Ugly Cry
Now that we are about half-way through season 16 of Grey’s Anatomy, fans often begin to contemplate how the series might end. After so many seasons, it’s hard to imagine life without Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) on our favorite Thursday night medical drama.
Let’s take a look at the latest theory fans would like to see as a beautiful ending to an era.
Fans see the series finale as a flashforward into the 2nd generation of doctors
Over the years, the doctors have had an incredible amount of children on the show. Fans envision most, if not all, of the kids growing up to become surgeons, nurses, and possibly even patients on the show’s finale episode.
One Reddit user takes the idea a step further, “You could even get nostalgic early-season cast members’ kids in, nodding to the ENTIRE series, not just the last two seasons or so.”
The fan continues to say, “They’ve built this whole second generation of kids whose stories we see peripherally. I want a teasing shot of where they end up. The things that bring them to Grey’s, especially since some of them will inherit their parents’ shares of the hospital.”
Fans agree that it would be a beautiful thing to see the show end in this way. “The show is [an] ensemble—but the whole ensemble has built a legacy. Not just the hospital, but this inter-connected, massive mess of family and tragedy,” wrote one fan.
It would be the perfect way to tie in all of the cast members and the numerous children that are now apart of the series.
Who would each doctor’s child grow up to become?
Fans also find it fun to think about what kind of personality each child will have based on their parents. For instance, let’s take a look at Owen’s (Kevin McKidd) son, Leo, and the daughter he has with Teddy (Kim Raver), Allison.
One user wrote, “Leo, who has a trauma surgeon father, and two doctor moms, but likes to chase adventure and ended up as an EMT, because that’s more his speed. And there’s Allison Hunt, who is his sister – but not sisters with Leo’s other sibling, the TBD baby who Amelia is having, three siblings-not-siblings all in close age, with a legacy to follow.”
It would make for an exciting ending to the series to find out what all of these future children are doing.
Let’s look at Miranda Bailey’s (Chandra Wilson), son for a minute. “Tuck, who was born there, and who was raised there, and whose mother was THE Miranda Bailey and whose father is a firefighter, and who could be there as a doctor, or an EMT, or a patient, but wouldn’t be out of place no matter how he landed there,” says one fan.
Another viewer would like to see, “the episode could end with Zola [Aniela Gumbs] in the OR about to do her first surgery with Derek’s ferry boat scrub cap. She continues, “He says his iconic line while looking up in the gallery to see Mer and Derek smiling and being proud parents.”
We’re crying, just thinking about the nostalgia.
When is ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ going to end?
Grey’s Anatomy is now the longest-running primetime drama and the eighth longest-running scripted U.S. primetime television series in history. Viewers have mixed feelings over whether they think it’s time for it to end or if they want it to go on forever.
The series is currently in its 16th season and is renewed through its 17th season, so we will at least see it into 2021.
Shonda Rhimes told E! News that, “Ellen and I have a pact that I’m going to do the show as long as she’s going to do the show. So the show will exist as long as both of us want to do it. If she wants to stop, we’re stopping. So I don’t know if we’ll see 600, but I want to keep it feeling fresh. As long as there are fresh stories to tell and as long as we’re both excited about the stories being told, we’re in. So, we’ll see where that takes us.”
It looks like the show could go on forever, and Rhimes isn’t even sure how it’s going to end.
“I have written the end of the show at least six times,” Rhimes admitted. “But we just don’t end. Every time I thought, ‘This is how the show should end,’ we’ve gone past those moments, so I’ve stopped trying. I have no idea now.”
Maybe Pompeo and Rhimes will take a few hints from fans at the ending. For now, we can still watch Grey’s Anatomy on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
