‘Grey’s Anatomy’ season 11, episode 17 review: Did Derek cheat on Meredith?

After watching tonight’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” we now understand more than ever why this show gets so many people angry from time to time. You want to think that there is a reason to hope for relationships to work out and for there to not be trouble, but then something like this has to happen that changes the game on everything.

Let’s just put it this way: We don’t like Derek cheating on Meredith with Renee, not in the slightest … but it may not be solely for the reason you think. Sure, we are very much invested in this relationship, and we root for them the majority of the time. Instead, it is more what they represent: Yet another couple in this long canon that is this show that faced infidelity at some point. Look at what happened with Cristina and Owen, or Callie and Arizona … and these are just from the past few seasons. Sure, you still have Jo and Alex, but their relationship is still early. We just wish that the show occasionally operated from a different sphere, where cheating was not within the fabric for the majority of the show’s couples.

If there is one positive, it is that Derek immediately decided after kissing Renee that this was the wrong move. While he realizes that he loves Meredith, he did still kiss in the first place. Cheating is still cheating.

We’re going to have to see where this story goes from here, but Derek is obviously repentant, and willing to move back from Washington DC in order to spend time with her once again.

In the end, there were some other stories in here that mattered, from Meredith losing her streak to also seeing what happened when Owen’s mother started getting close to someone he perceived to be far too young her. Emotional stuff almost lined the episode across the board, and this was a lot ultimately for these characters to confront. With an ending like we had tonight, it feels like it could take another few weeks to really know where this series is going to go from here. Grade: C+.

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