In Season 19, Episode 6, “Thunderstruck,” lightning strikes Meredith’s house during a lightning storm and causes a fire that potentially burns it to the ground. The episode ends on a cliffhanger because no one knows how much of the house the Station 19 firefighters will be able to save. It’s bittersweet and arguably unnecessary for Meredith’s house to be ravaged and possibly destroyed before her imminent departure from Seattle. However, this saddening and surprising turn serves as a symbolic bookend that connects to Meredith’s story arc and her voiceover about the inevitability of energy.
Meredith’s voiceover at the end of “Thunderstruck” includes the words “Life is electricity. Positive and negative. Creation and destruction. Destruction sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. But we’re all storms inside.” At the beginning of the episode, Meredith emails the Grey Sloan Memorial staff about her upcoming departure. That change contains nuance in that different characters see Meredith leaving through positive and negative lenses. Some view Meredith leaving as an opportunity for creation while others fear it could cause destruction.
Why Is Meredith’s House Important to Grey’s Anatomy?
No one could anticipate that “Life is electricity” would manifest itself through the destruction of Meredith’s house — a fixture on Grey’s Anatomy since its premiere in 2005. Nearly every main character who has appeared on the show has either lived in the house or passed through it. The home has hosted awkward dinners, “dance it out” parties and plenty of relationships across the board. Cristina Yang and Owen Hunt got married at Meredith’s house in Season 7, Episode 1, “With You I’m Born Again.” Jackson Avery and April Kepner’s daughter Harriet was born there in Season 12, Episode 24, “Family Affair.”
Thankfully, Maggie Pierce saves one of the most cherished (by the characters and the show’s fans) mementos — the post-it note with Derek and Meredith’s vows written on it. But other keepsakes can’t be carried from the home or retrieved from what’s left of it. Memories are built into every corner of that structure and the show, presumably, burns it down without a proper farewell. Instead of cutting to a montage of beloved scenes that took place in the house over the years, the camera stays on Meredith.
That decision aligns the viewers with Meredith so that they experience this unfortunate event with her, only amplifying how the blaze lands as another character death on the show. It’s impossible not to mourn the house as Grey’s Anatomy fans have anyone else they loved. The fire is extra heartbreaking since the house could have still stood as a safe place for the rest of the characters, especially with Meredith in Boston. Hopefully, if there is no recovery for this treasured fixture, the show will give the home a much grander farewell when it returns from hiatus. It deserves more than an unceremonious destruction.
