For fans of the long-running ABC drama, last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy was heartbreaking. After over a decade of devotedly watching the will-they-won't-they relationship that was Meredith and Derek, played by Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey, and finally seeing the pair have their happily ever after, we were forced to say goodbye to one half of our all-time favorite TV marriages.
Spoiler alert for those that didn't catch the painful episode: Dr. Derek Shepard is dead. While McDreamy's exit from the show has left fans in various states of sadness and rage, we're still remembering all the lovey-dovey moments that made us root for this couple all along. Although the most highly-anticipated TV marriage is effectively no more, we'll always give Grey's credit for showing us that love can thrive in the face of adversity — and an unrealistic number of natural disasters.
It's of little consolation, but Derek's final words about his wife were about as close to perfect as they could get and ended their relationship on the perfect high note. After heroically rescuing four car crash victims, Derek tried to calm the nerves of an anxious teenage girl by talking about her first kiss. "The first time I kissed my wife, she wasn't my wife then, she was just this girl in a bar. But when we kissed, it was like, I gotta tell you, it was like I'd never kissed any other woman before. It was like my first kiss. The right kiss," he explains of meeting Meredith 10 years earlier in Joe's Bar, a frequent haunt of the surgeons at Seattle's Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.
Throughout the episode Meredith flashes back to some of the most poignant moments for the couple — the first night they met, the day Addison came to Seattle, Meredith begging Derek to "pick her," the moment they reconnected at the prom, the ferry accident, the plane crash, Derek's insanely romantic proposal in the elevator, the candle house, their Post-It wedding, the moment they adopted Zola, the birth of Bailey, and their final morning before Derek left for his flight to DC. For all of these reasons, and so many more, Meredith and Derek will always be our favorite fictional married couple.
So as Meredith said best in her final moments with Derek, "It's okay, you go, we'll be okay." Except we don't think we will be!