Most 'Grey's Anatomy' Fans Missed This Emotional Season 19 Tribute Moment to Derek Shepherd
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This story contains spoilers from season 19 of Grey's Anatomy.
If there's anything Grey's Anatomy has proven lately, it's that season 19 remains filled with moments of nostalgia.
As fans continue to be thrilled by the resurgence of fan favorites Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) and Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) returning to the medical drama, one beloved character has quietly been honored in the background: Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), who tragically died from a car crash in season 11 and was the uncle of current intern Lucas Adams (Niko Terho).
Despite not being physically present on the hit ABC series, fans continue to pick up nods to McDreamy during relatively obscure moments. Most recently, some fans caught a small detail that even his widow Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) seems to have overlooked.
But first, some background. Back in season 7, Derek got inspired to earn a grant to research a cure for Alzheimer's. This made sense at the time because the disease affected many important people in his life. Meredith's mother Ellis Grey (Kate Burton) was diagnosed with it early on in the show, along with Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.)'s wife Adele (Loretta Devine). With this in mind, he attempted to experiment with a clinical trial. But due to his wife tampering with it, Derek's research eventually got blacklisted by the FDA. Twelve seasons later, the subject of Alzheimer's comes back into play thanks to Meredith's daughter Zola (Aniela Gumbs).
In an earlier episode of season 19, fans saw Zola develop anxiety over the possibility of her family members carrying the gene for Alzheimer's. This led Meredith to take on curing the disease as a passion project — not only for future patients but for her daughter, too. She even goes so far as to potentially move her family to Boston so she can work on research — just like her late husband.
When fans realized the connection between Derek and Meredith's dreams, they immediately got emotional. "They have the same dream," one person wrote on Twitter. "[Meredith] now feels the need to do it, just as [Derek] did when he knew she had the gene," another follower theorized. "This [moment] is making my heart happy," a different person added.
Of course, we don't know whether Derek's connection to striving to find a cure for the disease will be called out formally in future episodes. But even still, it's nice to see a piece of him carrying on in a subtle way.
As far as how Meredith's decision to work on Alzheimer's research will affect the show, we'll just have to wait until next week to find out more.
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