At the risk of sounding glib, it no longer matters whether or not Meredith Grey survives the coronavirus pandemic. The most important thing to ever happen on Grey's Anatomy is that Meredith finally reunited with Mark Sloan and Lexie on Death Beach and she got the answer to the one question that has kept us up at night since the plane crash in Season 8: Lexie and Mark are together in the afterlife.
If that's what heaven actually is, take me there right now. My white t-shirts and stone washed jeans are already packed, whether or not the sand is real.
Lexie's appearance on the beach was teased in the promo for "Breathe" last week and a supposed Mark Sloan (sorry, but he is a two-name type of guy) cameo was something that fans have been pining for ever since she started running into the ghosts of Grey's past at the beginning of the season. But to get them together? Joyfully together? I didn't know it would feel this good and if the rest of the series is just Meredith smirking at the two of them holding hands as they chase waves on the beach, so-freaking-be-it.
Not only did they confirm their relationship status, but Mark and Lexie came to the beach to seemingly bring Mer back — or at least off the ventilator. George didn't do much and Derek Shepherd wouldn't even hold her hand (or make her feel safe about the literal ground beneath her beach feet, but that's a whole different conversation about the dynamics of their relationship) during his appearance. But Lexie and Mark... these are the most important people in Meredith's life and they know that it's not her time.
Mark solidly confirms that this beach is merely Meredith's happy place and it's way too early for her to give up and die on a vent in her own hospital. Lexie urges her sister to actually think outside of medicine and consider why she actually wants to live. It just so happens it's Zola peeing her pants and little Bailey wanting a birthday cake all to himself. The little things!
It's amusing that arguably some of the most emotionally unavailable people to have ever walked the halls of Grey Sloan are this sentimental — and in Mark's case, actively ghost whispering to Sophia, Callie, and Arizona while walking around Mer's coma beach in a sneaker — but these conversations on Death Beach are exactly what Meredith needed. And I think everyone who has dedicated all this time to these characters over the years needed this kind of closure, too.
Images: ABC