Meredith's Trial Screw-Up Was The Worst Thing She Did to Derek in Grey's Anatomy History
The key to making characters relatable is allowing them to have flaws. They need to make mistakes as nobody can relate to a perfect person.
Grey's Anatomy is a stellar example of how to showcase full aspects of characters, the good, the bad, and the downright horrible. And downright horrible is what fans think of Dr. Meredith Grey's behaviour in season eight.
For those who do not remember, Meredith, tampered with an Alzheimer's clinical trial being run by her husband, Dr. Derek Shepherd. She may have done so for moral reasons, wanting to ensure that Adele Webber, Richard Webber's wife, did not receive a placebo. She wanted Adele to be given the genuine medication to maximise her chances of survival.
The problem with this chosen course of action is that it had devasting consequences for everyone except Meredith. Adele died from complications resulting from her illness, Richard took the blame for the tainted criminal trial and was forced to resign from his job as Chief of Surgery, and Derek was blacklisted from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
Meredith suffered no ill effects from her decision. And to make matters worse, she showed not one shred of remorse even when confronted by a furious Derek. She never seems to learn anything from this entire situation. Sure, she very briefly lost her job but was reinstated the moment Richard came forward to claim responsibility.
Fans are still so annoyed at this story arc, that it continues to be a topic of discussion on Reddit. They point out that Meredith was responsible for ending her husband's career and did not seem to care. She felt justified because her motivation was to save Adele's life.
And this was likely further spurred by the fact that she had always had a difficult relationship with Richard since she had blamed him for her parents' divorce. His affair with her mother, Ellis Grey, was absolutely a massive factor in their marriage ending, and for the longest time, Meredith was furious with her mother and Richard. It was only after her mother died that she even bothered trying to get to know her, by reading her diaries.
The discussion on Reddit makes clear that fans agree to tamper with the clinical trial was the worst thing she did to Derek. It cost him his career, and reputation, and directly impacted the hospital, not to mention Alzheimer's patients the world over.
But perhaps the most shocking consequence was that Meredith's behaviour even contributed to Derek's death.
When he was blacklisted by the FDA, he was forced to seek other ways to make his mark on the medical field. Thus, he took a job working for the government and it was while travelling to this job, that he was in the accident that cost him his life. So, it is hard to imagine anything Meredith did during the show that was worse than her clinical trial screw-up.