Most of the time when you see shows that have lasted a heck of a long time, it comes down to the protagonist being the best character. On Grey’s Anatomy, though, Meredith isn’t considered as the fans’ favorite for the most part. While she’s not the worst character, she certainly has a lot of flaws that aren’t easy to overlook.
Over her long tenure onscreen, Meredith has shown qualities both good and bad; she’s also been known for several traits that are exclusive to her, and being a jerk is something she’s excelled at more than a few times. If you want to know what we’re talking about, then take a look at these 10 scenarios where Meredith wasn’t very likable.
The Way She Treated Her Father
Granted, Thatcher Grey was a very bad father, but Meredith can’t claim to be in the wrong herself after how she treated him all her adult life. In Season 15, we found out Thatcher was dying and that Meredith hadn’t been in contact with him for almost a decade.
While Thatcher abandoned Meredith when she was young, it was chiefly her mother’s fault for having an affair and leaving her husband with Meredith in tow. However, Meredith tended to forgive her mother, but didn’t extend the same courtesy to her father. She remained detached from Thatcher all her life, and it was only in his final moments that she didn’t treat him with hostility.
Giving Lexie The Cold Shoulder
Thatcher was another case, since he was her father and Meredith had a reason to be bitter. But when it came to Lexie and Meredith’s stepmother, Meredith was needlessly mean to them. Lexie would try to bond with Meredith when she moved to Seattle Grace, only for her elder sister to give her the cold shoulder.
The only reason Meredith did so too was because Lexie was Thatcher’s daughter, which wasn’t fair on Lexie seeing as she had no role in whatever was messed up in Thatcher and Meredith’s relationship. Meredith even had her friends not talk to Lexie, and was angry at Alex for getting involved with her, even though she was the one being immature.
Blaming Penny
Meredith has a bitter streak she hangs onto for as long as she can, and this has never changed about her. We saw this best when she treated Penny Blake vindictively for playing a part in Derek’s death. Penny wasn’t the only one at fault, though, and Derek’s passing was a medical oversight.
However, Meredith would keep on seething over this as if Penny outright killed Derek, and would create a scene over dinner where Penny was unwittingly invited. Later on, she would make working at the hospital a nightmarish experience for Penny by critiquing her every move unnecessarily. While Penny could’ve saved Derek, she didn’t cause his death on purpose; she was even grieving over this fact. Meredith, though, knew nothing other than her rage.
Her Relationships With Her Sisters-In-Law
Meredith latches onto people she likes and only lets them be close to her, despite other people wanting to have a good relationship with her. She’s never really given her sisters-in-law the respect they deserve for being Derek’s family, and didn’t even tell them about Derek’s death.
Amelia in particular was distraught over her brother’s passing, and Meredith never considered how she’d feel about it. Meredith took off from Seattle without telling anyone, and would return with a sense of entitlement, as if she didn’t need to give Amelia any explanations. Meredith also pulled the plug on Derek without notifying his family, with Amelia becoming severely depressed due to not having had a goodbye with her brother.
Affair With Derek
No, we’re not talking about all of Season 1 where Meredith and Derek were intimately involved. That’s because Meredith had no clue Derek was married, or even about the existence of Addison; this absolves her of any culpability in the matter.
What isn’t forgivable, though, is that Meredith had an incident with Derek in the Season 2 finale, in a situation where she did know he was married and this was full-on unfaithfulness on display. Meredith also was stringing along the good guy Finn at the time, who didn’t deserve to be thrust into such an uncomfortable scenario, and not even be given any consideration.
Her Complete Denial During Drowning
When Meredith was knocked down by the pier into the water, she let herself go and drown, before being saved. On this occasion, she wasn’t just being a jerk to the living people who loved her (such as Derek and Cristina), but even to people who were dead i.e. Denny’s ghost – if that actually was his ghost after all.
Meredith would see Denny when she was in limbo, and would continually ignore his attempts at resuscitating her. This involved skirting around the point, being sarcastic, and all around acting like a child. It was a frustrating episode if you wanted Meredith to do some introspection, and kind of wasted Denny’s big return due to Meredith’s obnoxious attitude.
Breaking Up With Derek
Derek (and the fans by extension) started wondering if Meredith’s interest in him had purely been for competitive reasons by Season 4. That’s because she continually pushed him away after he left Addison for her, and would treat him as if he was baggage more than anything.
By the end of Season 3, Meredith chose by herself to break up with him despite not having spoken to Derek for weeks, and would then hook up with him for a number of episodes after their “break up”. She more or less played around with his feelings for over a year, without giving any regard to how much of a jerk this made her.
Not Forgiving Richard
Meredith extended the bitterness she had for her father over to Richard as well for his part in the affair with Ellis. The same way as it was with Thatcher, Meredith tended to overlook Ellis’ role in the affair, and squarely blamed Richard for breaking her family up.
Unlike Thatcher, Richard tried all he could to make up for his awful act, as he attempted to be a mentor and friendly figure to Meredith, tried to do right by his wife, and met with Ellis when she was dying due to Alzheimer’s. None of this made a difference to Meredith, though, since she saw Richard as the villain in her story.
The Riggs Love Triangle
Meredith began hooking up with Riggs after realizing her feelings for him, but found out her sister was into Riggs as well. Rather than coming out with the truth, Meredith instead continued to act as if nothing was happening and even told Riggs to turn Maggie down without telling her about Meredith.
First of all, this made no sense, since it didn’t really relieve Maggie from any heartbreak, plus it only made Meredith look like a jerk who enjoyed going around her sister’s back for her own enjoyment. It was an easy fix had she just revealed the truth, but this whole love triangle went out of hands for no reason at all.
Using George
We might overlook everything Meredith has done, but using George as one of her many hook ups really takes the cake. Poor Georgie had true feelings for her all the way back from Season 1, and thought she was reciprocating his love, only for Meredith to admit (at the worst time) that she only got together with him because she was sad over Derek.
She knew George was insecure about himself, but still went ahead and used him. Even after she tried to apologize, it didn’t come across as sincere enough. When they did patch up, it was because George decided to be the bigger man. Meredith had already been having lots of flings by then, but George being on the list was an insult to the poor guy.
