Grey’s Anatomy is into its sixteenth season now, making it the longest-running medical show there has been, as well as being confirmed to return for a seventeenth season. The series has focused more upon the future in recent times than what happened in the past, and that makes sense considering its tendency to disregard previous stories.
In this list, we’ve considered characterizations of the doctors on the show as a storyline itself, seeing as these traits form part of their overall arcs. Along with that, future angles that don’t deal with the impact left from former actions are also considered as “ignored” stories. Having said that, here are 10 storylines Grey’s Anatomy ignored.
Derek's Unfaithfulness
The final storyline involving Derek and Meredith was where Derek wanted to shift to Washington permanently but Meredith decided to stay in Seattle. Due to their physical and emotional distance, Derek got closer to a colleague at work. It culminated in a kiss between the two, which Derek stopped and led to his decision to return to Seattle.
This still qualified as cheating on his spouse, but wasn’t delved into at all. Since Derek died almost immediately after this incident, his act of unfaithfulness isn’t brought up when remembering him. In its place, Meredith and Derek are remembered as the perfect couple whose time was cut short; it looks like him being unfaithful is pretended to have never happened.
Alex's Mountain Of Debt
After Izzie left him and dissolved their marriage by sending Alex divorce papers, Alex was evidently under so much debt that he had no idea what he would do about his situation. The debt in question was the result of the medical payments pertaining to Izzie’s cancer, which Alex had to pay for some reason.
The stress that came with these impending payments led Alex into a sort of depression, where he holed himself up from his friends and made him angrier than usual. A little later into Season 7, and Alex was somehow debt free; this despite never having been shown making any arrangements in paying off what he owed.
Callie Going To New York For Penelope
Callie’s role on the show came to an end when she disclosed her intention to move to New York so she could be with Penny, her final love interest. This did come to pass, and Callie was able to share custody of her daughter in the process.
Season 14’s finale changed all this up by showing that Callie had broken up with Penny, which means it makes no sense that Callie would still remain in New York. Her move was contingent on being with Penny; if that no longer remained, then what happened to the whole storyline of Callie sharing custody of Sofia, seeing as there was no point in her being in New York in the first place?
George And Izzie's Love Story
Easily the worst plot to come out of the show, George and Izzie were paired together in Season 3, which started off a long storyline that involved George cheating on Callie and failing as an intern. This resulted in him getting divorced to be with Izzie, only for that coupling to end in the next episode.
Following this, not only was their relationship not referenced again much, George and Izzie were hardly seen together. It was as if the show acknowledged the angle was a mistake, and wanted us to only remember them as friends. Their final times mainly referenced their friendship, not the relationship that took place in between.
Circumstances Behind The Harper-Avery Award
Much controversy was stirred when Cristina Yang was unable to win the Harper-Avery award due to there being a supposed conflict of interest, since the people who gave out the award also owned a share of Grey Sloan Memorial.
Cristina made much of an issue over this, which contributed to her leaving eventually. Later on, though, the whole angle behind the doctors not being able to win this award was dropped, as Meredith ended up winning it. At this point, the rule should have still been in place, making Meredith ineligible. Perhaps everyone involved realized how dumb this story was to begin with.
What About Mark's First Daughter?
Mark and Lexie’s relationship failed in Season 6 due to the arrival of Mark’s previously unknown daughter. Sloan hung around until the birth of her child, because of which Lexie broke up with Mark.
Despite losing his greatest love, Mark tapped into his wiser side and stuck with his daughter until the birth of his grandchild, but nothing materialized out of this as Sloan disappeared back where she came from. We haven’t found out what became of the grandchild, nor did Sloan ever appear when Mark died. Upon his death, only references to his daughter with Callie were made, with Sloan seemingly never having existed.
All Stories For Sadie
Are we certain Sadie wasn’t a figment of everyone’s imagination? She showed up in Season 5, only to never be mentioned again. On top of that, all her storylines were dropped whenever they began. This was a sitcom level of ignoring plot lines.
For starters, the original angle was that Cristina was jealous of Meredith and Sadie’s friendship, but this was then diverted over to Sadie wanting to be Lexie’s friend. Even that went nowhere, following which a weird flirtation was shown between her and Callie - this amounted to nothing as the angle wasn’t pursued at all. Eventually, Sadie quit and left, and Meredith’s blasé refusal to join her made it appear as if they weren’t even really friends to begin with.
Callie's Love Story With Erica
It would have made sense had Callie realized she wasn’t interested in women at all for Erica’s exit to be justified, but then Callie almost immediately started her long romance angle with Arizona, making the Callie-Erica plot line one that was abandoned for no reason.
Erica’s departure didn’t make sense either, considering she was supposed to be a thorough professional. Using this logic, she shouldn’t have started a romance in the first place, but this also made her departure out of the blue as getting rejected by a potential love interest is hardly a reason to resign from a job.
April's Religious Principles
Her crisis of faith was stressed upon when she went on a spree of one-time stands, but we’re talking about the very first time we saw her in an intimate scenario. This happened with Karev, where April was shown to be willing to be with him.
Her only problem was that he was taking it too fast, and had he gone slow then April had no issue. However, this doesn’t align with her religious beliefs, where she claimed she would wait till marriage. If that were the case, what happened to the April who had no such qualms when she was willing to be with Alex?
Izzie's Friendships With Everyone
Sure, Izzie bailed on her marriage with Karev, but that doesn’t explain her complete disappearance. A lot of Izzie’s stories concerned with her building friendships with her fellow doctors, as growing up she hadn’t had friends.
Meredith was even shown calling Izzie up after her departure, but this wasn’t touched upon again. Instead, it was made to look as if Izzie wasn’t close to anyone to begin with and her friendships with the others had been contingent upon her relationship with Alex. What happened to her bonds with Meredith, Cristina, and the rest?