Meredith Grey is a survivor.
(tw emotional abuse)
The show, her family, and her friends never seem to acknowledge that. Meredith was emotionally abused, and probably neglected, by her mother for over twenty years. There's no way she would name her youngest daughter after her abuser instead of her deceased sister.
When Ellis is hospitalized, nobody has sympathy for Meredith. Cristina says she's in love with Ellis, Derek encourages Meredith to be nice to her mother, and Meredith's avoidance of her isn't understood at all. When Ellis is lucid, she emotionally abuses Meredith again, screaming that she's ordinary because she's happy with Derek.
But S3, E23? When Susan, the fake mom and Thatcher's new wife dies? That makes me the most mad. Not a single person took care of Meredith. First of all, the fact that Webber and Bailey let her into the surgery at all is a major red flag. Family doesn't take care of family, and at that point, that's what Susan was to Meredith. But then, Bailey and Webber make Meredith tell Thatcher that Susan died. They put Meredith in a horrible position--they should have gone to the waiting room where both Meredith and Thatcher were, to break the news.
Then, the worst part, it comes out that Thatcher is an abuser too. He slaps Meredith. This was grossly underemphasized in the show, so I'm going to emphasize it now. Thatcher hit his daughter, and nobody does anything about it. Derek, the love of her life. Richard, her surrogate father. Bailey, her teacher. They all sit idly by, watching it happen. Even if they didn't know Meredith like they did, even if Thatcher wasn't her father (which is what makes it such a big deal), they would not sit idly by when a physician at their hospital is assaulted by a patient. They would not.
Bailey, Webber, Derek, and everyone else were supposed to keep their doctors safe, and Meredith safe. They didn't, and they actually enabled the abuse from her mother and father.
The aftermath is only slightly less horrifying. Thatcher comes into Meredith's place of work, clearly drunk. He should not have made it to Meredith, he should not have been able to speak with her, find her, or enter the hospital after assaulting Meredith. But he did, and Richard was literally right next to Meredith--with Derek, Bailey, George, Izzie, and Cristina all watching idly--as he emotionally abused Meredith.
I have written a lot about one episode, and on one hand, it's just a show and these characters weren't actually hurt. What actually hurts is the diminishing of emotional and physical abuse, which is done far too often already.
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