The timeline of “Grey’s Anatomy” is, to put it in a different fandom’s terms, pretty wibbly-wobbly. When a show has been on for twenty seasons and counting — the medical drama just wrapped up Season 19, and the twentieth season is on its way — it’s almost expected that you’ll end up with a few continuity issues along the way. Fans think they’ve spotted a major plothole in “Grey’s Anatomy,” though, and it centers around Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams).
The two surgeons, who meet in Season 6 when Jackson — along with a handful of other residents — ends up at Seattle Grace Hospital as the result of a merge with Mercy West, are both the products of surgical legacies. Meredith’s mother, Ellis Grey (Kate Burton), was a pioneering surgeon who invented “the Grey method” and won several awards, and not only is Jackson’s grandfather Harper Avery (Chelcie Ross), for whom Ellis’ awards are named, but his mother Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) is a legendary urologist. Some fans over on Reddit pointed out that, thanks to their backgrounds, they might have met long before their time in Seattle.
As u/applepeachsangria titled their thread, “Ellis was a God at Mass Gen and Catherine was also a God at Mass Gen. Shouldn’t Meredith and Jackson be acquaintances? Same age, same city, same private schools?”
Fans are divided over whether Meredith and Jackson would have met in Boston
As the previous post referenced, Jackson and Meredith’s mothers were both at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the most prestigious hospitals in the country — but that doesn’t mean they knew each other. Some fans pointed out that Ellis, a hyper-competitive surgeon, wouldn’t care to make friends with her fellow female physicians, and that the Greys weren’t in the same socioeconomic bracket as the uber-wealthy Avery family.
One Redditor, u/Full-Surround, wrote, “Did you meet the children of your parents’ colleagues when you were a kid? Most likely no unless they were friends outside of work, which Ellis and Catherine were not, as Ellis kept to herself. Catherine even said they invited her on outings but she always declined.” A different Redditor had a follow-up, though; speaking from personal experience, original poster u/applepeachsangria wrote, “Both my parents were doctors. I did know all the docs’ kids. Town of 60k people so definitely not Boston. I think Meredith would know the Harper Avery kid.”
Ultimately, Redditor u/unlisshed pointed out the most obvious reason as to why Meredith and Jackson wouldn’t have a previous connection. “I think it’s a lot to do with the fact that with Jackson, there was a lot that wasn’t cemented as soon as he was introduced,” they reason. “Like obviously he was always going to be Harper’s grandson, but Catherine wasn’t introduced until a season or two after Jackson, by then it was obviously too late to have Meredith and Jackson previously know each other because of their mothers.”
Ultimately, Jackson brings it all full circle — and brings Meredith back to Boston
Whether or not Jackson and Meredith have a secret Boston-related friendship the show elected not to discuss is immaterial when you consider that, for both of them, all roads eventually lead to Boston anyway. After working in Seattle through the worst early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackson decides, at the end of Season 17, that he wants to go run the Catherine Fox Foundation in his mother’s stead and move to Boston after watching rampant racial inequality affect COVID-19 treatments. In doing so, Jackson revisits his relationship with April Kepner (Sarah Drew), with whom he shares a child, and all three move to Boston.
Meredith’s move to Boston comes a bit later when, during Season 19, she decides to join Jackson in Boston when he offers her endless resources in her quest to research cures for Alzheimer’s disease. Realizing that her daughter Zola (Aniela Gumbs) needs a change of environment for her mental health, Meredith agrees, and the namesake of “Grey’s Anatomy” officially moves from Seattle to Boston during the nineteenth season. Meredith and Jackson’s on-screen relationship is supportive and frankly really adorable, and whether or not they have a past doesn’t really matter now that they’re both in Boston.