Q: Why did you do that with Meredith and George? Why? WHY????!!!
A: First of all, I told you that characters have to do what the characters have to do. In that one moment, Meredith was weak and George was brave and…it happened. But more importantly, Meredith is the one of only a few women on television who is truly flawed. FLAWED in capital letters. Remember, this is a woman who, in the very first episode of Grey's Anatomy, picked up a guy at a bar, brought him home, slept with him and then tried to throw him out in the morning without even learning his name (his name happened to be Derek Shepherd). Her flawed nature is the thing I love most about the character. It's why I wrote the show. Meredith is all of us on our worst and best days. And, at one time or another, we've all slept with a guy friend when we knew we shouldn't (and Dad, if you are reading this, I mean "we" in an "every single woman on the planet but me" kind of way). You know what I'm talking about, you know you do.
And here's the thing I really would like you to remember on dark nights when you lie in bed hating my guts: In movies and most TV shows, when two friends sleep together, it's a magical start to a wonderful relationship. In life, it's quite often a hideous beginning to a very long awkward nightmare. I wanted to take a leap and keep our characters honest. Come on and leap with me, people.
I've known this was going to happen from the very first day the show started. It's where Meredith and George have been headed from the beginning. They had to have this awful moment so that they could come out the other side. Now, George can see beyond the fantasy to the reality and Meredith can see George as a man more than as a brother.