As a hard-hitting medical drama, it comes as no surprise that Grey’s Anatomy focuses a lot on death. Whether it’s the unavoidable passing of a sick patient or the loss of a prized surgeon during one of the show’s many catastrophes, Grey’s Anatomy isn’t scared to kill off some of its biggest stars in the most heartbreaking way possible. The same could also be said for the two main spinoff shows: Private Practice and Station 19.
However, one of the show’s saddest deaths was played out in an episode of Private Practice and was never really explored in the main show. Amelia Shepherd tragically lost her newborn son in Season 5 of Private Practice, but a lot of fans felt as if she had received a disservice. So, more than 10 years later, fans still wonder why Amelia wasn’t given more time to grieve this incredible loss.
Amelia Shepherd Lost Her Son in an Episode of Private Practice
Season 5, Episode 22, “Gone, Baby, Gone” focuses on Amelia Shepherd as she prepares to give birth to a baby boy. As expressed throughout this season, Amelia’s baby unfortunately suffered a wealth of birth defects and wasn’t expected to survive for very long. As such, she tells her partner Jake and the rest of the Oceanside doctors that she doesn’t want to receive any drugs, nor does she want to see the baby’s head because of his deformed skull. Another issue surrounding Amelia’s son is whether or not they can donate his organs. Because he is not expected to survive the night, Amelia wants to donate his organs.
However, medical ethics claim that a person must be brain-dead before organs can be donated, and at that point, it may be too late. This discussion is explored throughout the episode, but when Amelia holds her son for the first time, everything changes. He lets out a little squeak, and she reminds him that everything is going to be okay. She then removes his tiny hat, and reveals his misformed head, and looks at him with an expression of unconditional love. The surgical team then works to harvest the baby’s organs so that he can save countless lives.
There’s no denying that this episode is absolutely heartbreaking and doesn’t shy away from discussing the issues that come with giving birth to disabled children. At the very end of the episode, Amelia explains that she feels quite overwhelmed because, for a brief moment, she was someone’s mother, but then, in the blink of an eye, her son was gone. While this is quite a hard episode to watch, it does an excellent job of showing another side of Amelia. Previously, her character was a tad jaded, and she seemed quite troubled by all the things that happened in her youth. Yet, in this episode, she manages to leave the past behind and, for a split second, imagines a future filled with positive responsibilities and love.
The strangest thing about this story is that it exists mostly in the Private Practice universe. On the one hand, this makes perfect sense because Oceanside is a very exclusive medical center that is more equipped to deal with complex cases like this one. Plus, Addison focuses a lot on reproductive health, so it’s no surprise that she was also heavily involved in this storyline, even if she wasn’t there for the birth. However, the fact that this story wasn’t explored in Grey’s Anatomy feels a tad odd. Across the way in Seattle, the Grey Sloan doctors were dealing with the events of the infamous plane crash. But the fact that none of the survivors even mentioned Amelia’s baby at all makes the two worlds seem really disjointed. Not to mention, many of Amelia’s family members worked in Seattle, so it seems somewhat insensitive that her storyline wasn’t extended at all.
Amelia Didn’t Get a Chance to Grieve Her Son
Although a lot of dire hard fans may not like to admit it, the Grey’s Anatomy universe has a bad habit of leaving certain storylines left unsaid. While some argue that these loose ends give the show some sort of longevity and allow guest writers to explore previous events later on down the line. However, it can leave characters like Amelia seeming a tad two-dimensional. Although Private Practice officially ended in 2013, Amelia didn’t really mention her child in any real depth until 2015. In Season 11, Episode 11, “All I Could Do Was Cry,” Amelia notes that her son only lived for 42 minutes. This is such a heartbreaking revelation, but the fact that it is just shoved into a random episode just feels like a pointless exposition.
Some also argue that Amelia’s loss was buried even further when she kickstarted a steamy relationship with Link. In Season 15, Episode 21, “Good Shepherd,” Amelia tragically mentions to Owen that she has lost every important man in her life: her dad, her brother, her son, and her fiancé. Again, there’s no denying that this is an awful thing to hear, and the fact that she is still mentioning her grief six years later proves that she hasn’t really processed it all. However, it seems that now, when Amelia got with Link and had their son, Scout, all of her past issues were erased for the sake of keeping their relationship alive.
While this may not seem like a big deal, especially since Amelia Shepherd has been through so much since losing her son in Private Practice, these examples highlight how poorly her character is handled. When she was introduced in Season 3, she seemed like a traumatized young woman who was keen to get her life back on track and follow in her brother, Derek’s, footsteps. Yet, when she returned to Grey’s Anatomy in Season 10, she was a complete mess and wasn’t sure if she could juggle being a medical professional as well as a wife and mother. Yet, these issues are never really explored in Grey’s Anatomy because the show makes her seem like a burden to Meredith and Derek. Thus, instead of expanding her arc in the main show, the writers made her look like she was a spot that tarnished the main couple’s perfect little world.
Grey’s Anatomy Struggled to Balance Spinoffs and Storylines
It would be wrong to say that Grey’s Anatomy didn’t have any successful spinoffs. Private Practice ran for five seasons and, arguably, offered a different side to the conventional medical drama. While Grey’s Anatomy and ER showcased all the gory details and forced audiences to confront their own fragile mortality, Private Practice highlighted that medical care could be a tad more luxurious. Another great thing about Private Practice was that it had all the same steamy relationships as Grey’s Anatomy, but actually had some tender moments. The same could be said for Station 19. While the team at Grey Sloan was helping people on the ground, the Seattle Fire Department was stopping accidents as they happened. Thus, this show was a perfect watch for adrenaline junkies because it forced the romantic arcs to take a backseat and focused entirely on the nail-biting drama.
However, these shows really struggled to link back to the main show, mostly because Grey’s Anatomy was always pushing full steam ahead. So, while Amelia’s devastating birth story is a big turning point for Private Practice, there was no room for the story to be continued in Grey’s Anatomy because the main show was always so concerned with its own plot. Thus, it could be argued that Grey’s Anatomy had no more room for spinoffs and only included certain crossovers when it had the time and space for an additional plot.
Yet, these comments aren’t necessarily criticisms of the Grey’s Anatomy universe. In fact, some would argue that these additional shows were really ahead of their time, and Grey’s Anatomy worked to build a really impressive fictional world before a lot of other shows had the chance. So, while Amelia’s deceased son Christopher may only crop up in passing, fans believe that his short life helped to make Private Practice its own unique entity.
