Meredith is a Conformist
Im watching the series for the second time, and although I mainly mention Meredith, this basically applies to all the attendings. I’m talking about the episodes where they take their exams and receive job offers from different hospitals.
Meredith doesn’t want to leave Seattle because she has Richard there (someone who indulges all her whims and fixes every mistake she makes). She also doesn’t want her friends to leave because she would lose part of her stability. She already had a life there, but at that time Zola was still little, and Derek had huge opportunities in Boston. At one point, Alex told her he wasn’t going to stay in Seattle because of her fear of being alone. After so many seasons, she never really grew as a person; everything about her is still based on depending on others to be happy.
Cristina should have chosen whichever hospital she wanted without Meredith’s or Teddy’s influence just because of a “you owe me.” Nobody owed anyone anything. Yes, they were friends, but they also should have understood that there was a professional relationship involved, and if you truly care about someone, you should let them go for their own benefit.
Just like Arizona sabotaged Alex by giving him bad recommendations so he wouldn’t want to leave the hospital, he deserved to go to Hopkins. She knows it because she studied there, so she knows how good it is. She suffered the loss of her brother and her childhood best friend, but that was not a reason to ruin Alex’s future.
Everyone forgot that they are teachers. They should teach and hope for the best for their students. I think the best one was Mark because he truly cared about Jackson’s professional future.
Okay, we know the plane crash happened and that it changed everyone’s lives and the decisions they made, but seriously, if the show weren’t filled with so many deaths, all of them should have ended up at better hospitals specialized in the fields they actually wanted.