Meredith’s Season 22 Behavior Is Ruining Her Legacy — And Derek Deserves Better

Grey’s Anatomy season 22 needs to fix Meredith’s worrisome, particularly disrespectful behavior towards one character that season 21 hinted at multiple times. Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s cliffhanger ending ensured that the priorities when the medical drama returns will be the characters directly affected by the explosion and its aftermath, putting any other lingering problems in the background.

Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s finale re-established Meredith’s centrality to the show in a way, showing a shift in how the titular character decided she would spend half her time in Seattle. This can let Grey’s Anatomy explore the relationships most important to Meredith, but it can also let season 22 fix a disturbing pattern arising in Meredith and Amelia’s relationship.

Meredith Treats Amelia As If The Alzheimer’s Research Isn’t Theirs In Grey’s Anatomy

Meredith May Have Started Alone, But She & Amelia Together Made Headway With The Research

Meredith and Amelia’s Alzheimer’s research being relatively stuck in Grey’s Anatomy season 21 due to a lack of funding made it less prominent. However, the medical drama also spread clues of Meredith’s attachment to the research, starting from her referencing it as hers, and including the decision to fund it with her money in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 12.

Meredith’s attachment to the Alzheimer’s research isn’t bad per se, especially considering how much the illness she has been trying to understand with a goal to eventually cure it affected her life. Indeed, how the illness devastated Ellis Grey and Meredith as a result, and Meredith testing positive for various Alzheimer’s genetic markers only made matters more personal.

However, this never gave Meredith the right to view and treat the research as only hers. Meredith might have been the one to discover discrepancies among the data reported in Grey’s Anatomy season 19, but after that season finale, Amelia was just as onboard as Meredith. Despite the research hurting Derek’s contributions to the field, Amelia wanted to take part.

It was only with Amelia’s participation that the Alzheimer’s research progressed greatly in Grey’s Anatomy season 20. Meredith chose to keep Amelia in the dark when she strong-armed Catherine into letting them go in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, leaving Amelia unsure of what they’d do. It was only because of Meredith’s behavior that Amelia chose to take on impossible cases.

How Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Can Fix Meredith’s Behavior

Amelia Needs To Be Seen As An Integral Part Of The Research

While Meredith might only refer to the research as hers because of her personal history with Alzheimer’s, how unilaterally she made decisions about it doesn’t bode well for the partnership that made Meredith and Amelia make so much progress. Meredith even made the decision to fund the research herself instead of waiting for grants alone, never involving Amelia.

With the meetings happening in Boston, Amelia was already at a disadvantage having to fly in to attend those. Not being part of the important decisions might make Amelia eventually feel not truly Meredith’s partner in what their trying to do, making Meredith’s problematic behavior Grey’s Anatomy season 22’s problem to solve.

Meredith spending more time in Seattle and using the Fox Foundation’s labs for the research could already make it easier for Amelia. However, it’s making Amelia have a stake in the research through her funding it as well that could truly make her and Meredith equals in their partnership in Grey’s Anatomy season 22.