Grey's Anatomy (season 11)

Plot

The season follows the story of surgical residents, fellows, and attendings as they experience the difficulties of the competitive careers they have chosen. It is set in the surgical wing of the fictional Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, located in Seattle, Washington.

The doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial must get used to the fact that Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) is now in Switzerland, but they find it difficult to like her new replacement, Dr. Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary). She tries making friends with the doctors, but the one she’s really interested in learning more about is her half-sister, Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo). Upon hearing Maggie's news, Meredith doesn’t believe her. Trying to prove her wrong, Meredith pores over her mother’s journals to see if there might have been any evidence of truth. What she finds is that the pieces fit, and that she and Maggie are in fact half-sisters. Not too keen on the fact that she has a sister whom she didn’t know about until now, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) uses his love for his big family to draw Meredith and Maggie together.

Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) talk about having another baby, but Arizona develops an interest in a fetal surgery fellowship. The fellowship is with Dr. Nicole Herman (Geena Davis), one of the only female fetal surgeons in the world. It’s soon revealed that the reason Dr. Herman wanted Arizona to learn from her is that she has an inoperable tumor. The tumor is growing, and the prognosis is not good. In due time, the tumor would kill her. Trying to learn as much as she can in such little time, Callie and Arizona grow apart. They try to save their marriage by going to marriage counseling, but it doesn’t work and they end up calling it quits.

Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) has moved in with Derek and Meredith, and is quickly learning the ropes at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She finds out about Dr. Herman’s supposedly inoperable tumor, and she thinks that she can save her. She spends hours trying to learn every single detail of the tumor. Once she thinks she has it figured out and every step of the surgery planned, she gives a lecture. During the lecture, her colleagues question her motives and wonder why her brother, the famous Dr. Derek Shepherd, isn’t coming back from Washington, D.C. to help her. She assures them she knows what she’s doing and that she doesn’t need her brother’s help. Dr. Herman’s tumor quickly advances as she neglects to continue chemotherapy, so Amelia is forced to perform the surgery sooner than she’d like. Now that Dr. Herman’s vision has become impaired, she must act quickly. Amelia is able to save her life, but not her vision. Dr. Herman is rendered blind and must go away to a blind school.

Dr. April Kepner (Sarah Drew) and Dr. Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) enjoy the exciting ride of preparing for their baby’s arrival, but differences in opinions on how to raise their child create tension that proves to be more than they can handle. April wishes to raise their baby in a Christian home, but Jackson isn’t a believer and thinks it’s silly. During one of the ultrasounds, osteogenesis imperfecta, a lethal birth defect, is detected. Of course, the news breaks their hearts, but April wishes to carry the baby to full-term believing that abortion is a sin. Jackson wishes to abort knowing that if they carry to full-term, it will only be that much more devastating when their baby dies. They end up having a boy, named Samuel, who dies moments after birth.

Meredith must deal with the absence of her husband after he begins to work in Washington, D.C. She doesn’t understand why he wants to leave, but she knows that she doesn’t want to be the reason keeping him from doing what his heart desires. Months go by without him there, which allows her to focus more on her work. She’s able to accrue a successful surgery streak, but when she calls to share her success with Derek, a strange woman answers his phone. Not knowing who it is, she begins to worry that he might be cheating on her. Derek shows up at her house, unannounced, to explain. He tells Meredith that he loves her and that he can’t live without her. He says that he’s only going back to Washington, D.C. once more to tell them he’s quitting and moving back to Seattle. However, on his way to the airport, he’s severely injured in a car crash. He’s rushed to a hospital, but they aren’t trauma certified. Derek is eventually declared brain-dead after the neurosurgeon arrives too late. Not able to feel at home without her husband, Meredith takes off leaving only a note that she and her kids are safe. A year passes, and no one has heard from her. It turns out that she was pregnant with her third child, and she didn’t know how to cope with losing her husband and being pregnant. Had it not been for her emergency trip to the hospital to give birth, Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) would have never known where to find her. He ends up bringing them all back to Seattle, but Meredith is still not able to move on. She asks Alex if she and the kids can move back into her old house, which is where Alex and his girlfriend, Dr. Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington) are currently residing. Jo doesn’t like the idea of them all sharing a place, so she buys a fixer-upper for only the two of them.

Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) and Dr. Catherine Avery (Debbie Allen) continue their on-again, off-again relationship. With differing opinions on how to be in a relationship, how to run the hospital, and who should be in charge, the two call off their wedding. However, Meredith intervenes and tells them that they are both lucky to still be alive and to cherish the fact that they can still talk to each other. Dr. Webber and Avery work out their differences and decide to get married after all. With her son as her maid of honor, the two tie the knot in the hospital’s chapel. Their reception is held at Derek and Meredith house, where Meredith says she’s glad this will be her last memory of the place before she moves back into her old house; Derek always wanted his home to be filled with loud, happy people.

Casting

On August 13, 2013, Sandra Oh revealed that she would be leaving after Season 10 of Grey's Anatomy, making the eleventh season the first season in which Dr. Cristina Yang did not appear. It was announced on March 25, 2014 that Gaius Charles and Tessa Ferrer did not receive a contract renewal for the eleventh season, and left at the end of the tenth season. Jerrika Hinton and Camilla Luddington however, returned as residents for the eleventh season. On January 23, 2014 it was reported that Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey had renewed their contracts for another two seasons, as Drs. Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd, respectively, meaning their characters would be staying on the medical drama for seasons 11 and 12. On May 2, 2014, the rest of the six original cast mates, Justin Chambers, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr., excluding Sandra Oh, renewed their contracts for another two seasons (11 and 12) as Drs. Alex Karev, Miranda Bailey, and Richard Webber, respectively. Sara Ramirez also renewed her contract for another two seasons as Dr. Callie Torres.

E! News reported on June 23, 2014, that Caterina Scorsone was upgraded to a series regular to continue her role as Dr. Amelia Shepherd, one of Dr. Derek Shepherd's four sisters. Scorsone had played the character since the seventh season as a recurring role, and played the character as a series regular on the show's spin-off series, Private Practice. After speculations about who would portray the character Ellis Grey, either Kate Burton or Sarah Paulson, it was announced that Sally Pressman would replace Paulson as Ellis in flashbacks with J. August Richards reprising his role as a young Richard Webber in the same episode. On August 6, 2014, it was confirmed that Burton would return to portray Ellis in flashbacks.

Geena Davis was announced to appear in the season and would have a major guest arc as Dr. Nicole Herman, a fetal surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. On September 2, 2014, Annet Mahendru of The Americans was announced to guest star for one episode, and she played Ana, an undocumented immigrant whose daughter had an 8-pound tumor. It was announced on September 23, 2014 that Connie Ray, known from Space Jam and Stuart Little, would guest star as Dr. April Kepner's mother, Karen, and would appear in the sixth episode. On October 23, 2014, Kelly McCreary was promoted to a series regular after being credited as guest-starring until the eleventh episode. On April 15, 2015, Giacomo Gianniotti, known from Reign, was announced to be cast on the show as a possible recurring role for Season 12. On April 28, 2015 it was announced that Joe Adler was cast for the show, and would appear in the final two episodes of the season.

Despite signing on for two more years after the tenth season, Patrick Dempsey decided that the eleventh season would be his last. The announcement was made on April 23, 2015, just a few hours before his final episode, "How to Save a Life," premiered. Showrunner Shonda Rhimes spoke out about the departure as she said "Derek Shepherd is and will always be an incredibly important character—for Meredith, for me and for the fans. I absolutely never imagined saying goodbye to our ‘McDreamy.’"

Development

Grey's Anatomy was renewed for an eleventh season by ABC on May 8, 2014. On May 13, 2014, ABC announced their new schedule, as well as a new timeslot for Grey's Anatomy. The show remained on Thursday night, but it was moved to 8:00 PM E.T. to make room for ShondaLand Production Company's new TV series, How to Get Away with Murder. Even though Paul Lee, the president of ABC, moved Grey's Anatomy to a new timeslot, he announced at ABC's 2014-15 upfront that the eleventh season would air in the same order as the previous season with two batches consisting of 12 interrupted episodes.

For the 2014-15 TV season, ABC programmed its entire Thursday primetime lineup with Shondaland dramas Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder, then branded the night as "Thank God It's Thursday" (or "TGIT"). This echoes ABC's former TGIF branding of its Friday night family sitcoms and even NBC's Must See TV promotion of formidable Thursday night television hits in the 1990s.

The remaining fall schedule for ABC was announced on October 30, 2014, where it was announced that Grey's Anatomy would be split into two batches. However, instead of the 12 and 12, there will be eight episodes in the fall which will end with a winter finale on November 20, 2014 like the rest of ABC's primetime lineup "TGIT" Scandal and How To Get Away with Murder. The remaining 16 episodes will air after the winter break, beginning on January 29, 2015.

Filming

Not even a week after the Season 10 finale episode aired, the Grey's Anatomy team of writers began collaborating on ideas for Season 11 storylines. Shonda Rhimes tweeted that they were hard at work in the writing room, but would have the month of June off before coming back in full swing to write actual episodes. After the 4th of July weekend, Rhimes tweeted that the writers' room was once again buzzing, as the team had returned from vacation to start writing new episodes for Season 11. Camilla Luddington confirmed that the filming for the eleventh season would begin on July 25, 2014.

Writing

During an interview, Shonda Rhimes stated that "Season 11 is really a Meredith-centric season. She lost her ‘person’, her half-sister has shown up, her husband is chafing to go someplace else..." She went on to reveal that she's been wanting to do the "familial grenade" storyline for a long time, and at the end of Season 10, she knew it was the time to do it. Rhimes also claimed that Season 11 will pick up right where Season 10 left us, so there won't be much that the audience won't see. In another interview, Rhimes revealed that she and the writers were thinking about doing flashback periods to the younger days of Dr. Ellis Grey and Dr. Richard Webber. Sarah Drew's character Dr. April Kepner became pregnant at the end of the tenth season, and was perfectly timed with Drew's real-life pregnancy.

Episodes

The number in the "No. overall" column refers to the episode's number within the overall series, whereas the number in the "No. in season" column refers to the episode's number within this particular season. "U.S. viewers in millions" refers to the number of Americans in millions who watched the episodes live.

Broadcasting

Grey's Anatomy's eleventh season opened up to 10.14 million viewers with a 3.1/11 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The premiere episode "I Must Have Lost it on the Wind", was the season's most viewed episode. "When I Grow Up" was the season and series' least viewed episode, with 6.64 million viewers and a 1.9/7 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The season finale was the series lowest watched season finale with 8.33 million viewers and 2.2/8 in the 18–49 rating demo.

Grey's Anatomy, in its eleventh season, ranked 36th overall in total viewers (11.08 million). This is much lower than Season 10, which was ranked 15th. In the 18–49 key demographic, Grey's Anatomy ranked 13th (the lowest ranking in the series' history). The highest ranking for the 18–49 key demographic was 3rd for Seasons 3, 4, and 5. Last season, Grey's Anatomy was ranked 5th. For the 2014-2015 primetime TV schedule, Grey's Anatomy was the #5 drama in the 18–49 key demographic.

Critical reception

The first half of the season opened to critical acclaim with many calling it the best season in the past few years, the second half however, garnered mixed reviews. With Season 11 being the first in Grey's Anatomy history to be without Cristina Yang, TV.com wrote, "So, the question I had heading into Grey's Anatomy's Season 11 premiere was just how much Cristina's absence would be felt. And at the end, I have to say-while the lack of Yang was definitely noticeable, I think the show will be just fine with out her."

Perhaps the biggest storyline of Season 11 was the death of Derek Shepherd. After his last episode, How to Save a Life premiered, many fans were outraged with Shonda Rhimes for how the episode was written and vowed to never watch the show again. Samantha Highfill of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Of all the ways he could’ve gone—dying while saving that family in a shocking but heroic moment, or dying at Grey Sloan and getting a chance to say goodbye to everyone—this felt cheap. And quite frankly, it felt a little rude to the man himself. He was called McDreamy for a reason, and he deserved better than this." Citing the storylines of Derek's death, Callie and Arizona splitting up, and April and Jackson losing their baby, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Season 11 is one of the most depressing seasons of Grey's Anatomy.

Despite all that, the season garnered positive reviews. Entertainment Weekly wrote, "It's nice to see Grey's pull back on the throttle on its soap opera tendencies (and I hate using that word as pejorative) and aim for drama that feels a bit more grounded." TV Fanatic gave a hugely positive review stating, "The acting remains stellar, the drama is mixed with just the right amount of humor and darn it if I'm not now wrapped up in the future of MerDer." TV Equals stated that, "This season certainly had its strong points, the sad loss of Jackson and April’s son was a tearjerker in all the right ways. It was great to see Amelia move past an uncomfortable incident with someone from her past and go on to save Dr. Herman’s life. Maggie Pierce was a great addition to the show and the writers managed to revisit this premise in a way that felt fresh. The storyline was also well-paced and it’s been great to watch Maggie become a larger part of Meredith’s life and to watch her get fully integrated into Grey Sloan."

BuddyTV gave the finale a positive review, "You're My Home, proved to be so bright and shiny. This is an episode that nearly could have served as a series finale, though we know that is not the case. Indeed, a few characters notwithstanding, most of our beloved surgeons are in a shockingly good place as season eleven draws to a close." adding, "I was very impressed tonight as Meredith, who can be very selfish but - in fairness - has suffered great personal loss in the death of Derek, stepped up to the plate on behalf of others. When one considers how this character has grown over eleven seasons, it really is amazing. Kudos to Ellen Pompeo for her fine work. She's actually done the impossible, because I actually care what happens to Meredith Grey in season twelve." The episode Only Mama Knows received critical acclaim with numerous critics calling it "one of the best of Grey's". Spoilertv lauded the episode and wrote, "Outstanding. It’s been a very long time since an episode came along which truly lived and breathed the very core of Grey’s Anatomy. It was faithfully and beautifully written, directed, edited and acted." Entertainment Weekly called the show a "great drama series" stating, "It was also throwing us back to the type of episode we expected from this show in the early seasons, the type of episode that gave you chills and reminded you why this show is so good at drama."

Ellen Pompeo garnered huge praise towards the later half of the season for her portrayal of Meredith Grey. Rick Porter of Zap2it lauded Pompeo's performance in How to Save a Life, may not be the ideal Emmy-submission episode for Ellen Pompeo, considering Meredith is off screen for more than half of it. But it's among the best work she's ever done on the show." USA Today also lauded Pompeo's performance saying, " In some ways, the episode was even more of a showcase for Pompeo. She didn't play a prominent part until late in the hour, but she had some of the more memorable and well-played scenes, from her angry response to the doctor who tries to tell her what her choices are, to her resignation when she realizes she has to comfort and motivate the young doctor whose mistakes cost Derek his life." Reviewing the episode She's Leaving Home CarterMatt called her the "anchor" for Grey's saying, "Throughout, this was an episode completely anchored by Ellen Pompeo, who has done some of her best work ever on the show the past couple of weeks. Tonight, she cried, she fought, and she learned that she was carrying his child." and added that Pompeo is often "overlooked" saying, "Her subtlety is probably why she is often overlooked."

Ratings