How a McDream dies ?

Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo on ABC's 'Grey's Anatomy'

And that's how a McDream dies.

Not with a bang, but with a broadside from a truck. And to add to the ironic injustice, Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd wasn't killed by the accident itself but by the incompetence of the poorly trained doctors at the small hospital where the ambulance left him.

If only that ambulance had taken him to Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital, Derek might still be alive. And Patrick Dempsey, whose last Grey's Anatomy episode aired Thursday night, might still be a regular on a show he starred in for 11 seasons — and was signed for another.
To be sure, there were a few warning signs of his departure, from last week's where-is-Derek alarm bells to this week's writing credit for creator Shonda Rhimes, who hasn't written a Grey's episode since 2012 and generally only steps back in for big events. Still, if it wasn't a carefully guarded secret along the lines of Josh Charles's shocking exit from The Good Wife, it was still most likely an unwelcome surprise for many viewers.

After all, Dempsey was more than just one of the few remaining original stars, along with Ellen Pompeo, Justin Chambers, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr. He was the male lead, and his character's up-and-down relationship with Pompeo's Meredith Grey has always been the show's central romantic driving force, from their Joe's Bar hook-up in the series premiere to Thursday's final bedside goodbye.

In typical Grey's fashion, viewers were left to guess through most of the episode what, if anything, would happen to Derek -— and how bad what happened might be. (Sure, that broadside looked bad, but Derek and Meredith have survived worse.) Last week, we learned that he never made his flight to Washington, D.C. This week, we found out why: He stopped to help people involved in a car crash, going about his doctor business and promising everything was going to be OK.

"No one's going to die, Winnie," he said to a young girl.

"You're not God, so you don't know," she answered — making Winnie a bit too prescient for her own (and viewers') good..

It looked like he would be right. He patched up everyone's wounds as best he could and got them all on their way in ambulances. And then, while leaving the crash scene, he fiddled with his phone in the middle of the road - and got smashed by that truck.

Which is when the episode became more interesting. The tragedy helped, of course, but so did a well-chosen narrative device: letting us hear an unable-to-speak Derek's thoughts as he realized he was not getting the treatment he needed: "I'm going to die because there people aren't properly trained."

We haven't seen much of Dempsey this season, so let this episode serve as a reminder of what we've been missing — and what we'll now miss with his departure. Derek could, at times, seem like two people, warm and funny one minute, cold and self-involved the next. Dempsey's gift was in making those two sides seem like part of the same person, while keeping us rooting for that person as a whole. ​

Yet in some ways, the episode was even more of a showcase for Pompeo. She didn't play a prominent part until late in the hour, but she had some of the more memorable and well-played scenes, from her angry response to the doctor who tries to tell her what her choices are, to her resignation when she realizes she has to comfort and motivate the young doctor whose mistakes cost Derek his life.
And then there's that deathbed scene, as moving as any Grey's has done. As we watched flashbacks of their happiest moments together, Meredith told her husband "It's OK. You go. We'll be fine."

Well, sure. But not soon.
Cr.USA Today