Grey's Anatomy and Critical Theory: Post-Modernism Edition

Here we are: the (probably) last blog that will ever have "Grey's Anatomy and Critical Theory" in the title. And not only do I get to talk about Grey's in it, but also the queen that is Roxanne Gay is mentioned (read Bad Feminist if you love yourself!!!). This was one of my favorite papers to write. I even had this clever tweet about it:

Hopefully this paper is as clever as the tweet:

In her best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist, author Roxane Gay rightly criticizes many television shows and movies for the way the entertainment industry covers and portrays race. She shows how, when portraying the lives of people of color, the industry often sticks to the extremes; one of the shows that she praises for being “good, not always great, but well within reach” of acknowledging “the experiences of people who are not white, middle class or wealthy, and heterosexual” is Grey’s Anatomy (Gay 253). And while there is always room for improvement in certain areas and episodes of the show, the main fear is not that of race or diversity, but rather what it means to be human—both fears associated with Post Modernism. When analyzing “It’s the End of the World” and “As We Know It,” the sixteenth and seventeenth episodes of Grey’s Anatomy respectively, Post Modern theorist Jean Baudrillard’s ideas of the simulacrum and hyperreal are highlighted.

In “It’s the End of the World,” an ambulance arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital’s emergency room with an unconscious Mr. Carlson and his wife. When the ambulance doors open, ear-splitting screams shock the doctors waiting in the bay; though she can’t find the words to explain her screams, Mrs. Carlson had just seen a paramedic go elbow deep in her husband’s chest in order to stop him from bleeding out. After the screaming stops the doctors discover that the item inside Mr. Carlson’s chest was a handmade, unexploded bomb. The bomb represents Baudrillard’s idea of the simulacrum—“an identical copy without an original” (Storey 198). More specifically, the bomb represents the first of four orders of simulacra: the Divine Irreference of Images. According to Baudrillard, the Divine Irreference of Images “is the reflection of a basic reality” (Baudrillard 412).

The bomb, which was created by Mr. Carlson and his—as deemed by Mrs. Carlson in place of being named—“moron best friend,” is an exact replica of World War II’s M981 Bazooka (“It’s the End of the World”). Mr. Carlson and his “moron best friend,” who frequently reenact and recreating things from WWII, created the replica to fit the original bazooka’s “specifications exactly… It’s a 60 millimeter, 1½ pound rocket” (“It’s the End of the World”). Similar to the way in which Baudrillard describes mass produced music and films, the reenactment bomb works as the first order of simulacra. The simulation reflects the M981 Bazooka without there actually being an original. Baudrillard said, “when someone buys a copy of Steve Earle’s The Revolution Starts Now, it makes little sense to speak of having purchased the original” (Storey 198). Similarly, it would make little sense to describe the bomb in Mr. Carlson’s chest as the original M981 Bazooka used in WWII, even though they appear to be the same.

Characteristically, Dr. Meredith Grey finds herself in the life-threatening position of placing her hand inside Mr. Carlson’s chest to stop his bleeding after the paramedic panics and runs away. Throughout “As We Know It,” Grey works with bomb squad technician Dylan Young and Dr. Preston Burke, the head of cardiothoracic surgery, to save both the hospital and Mr. Carlson. When transporting Mr. Carlson to the correct operating room, Grey tells Young, “you know, I don’t like you very much” (“As We Know It”); Young simply responds, “I don’t like you, either” (“As We Know It”). Then, when it is time to remove the bomb, it is Grey’s turn to start panicking. In an attempt to calm her down, Young tells her, “I want you to look at me. Look at me. I know this is bad. I know that I'm this ass who's been yelling at you all day. So you pretend that I'm not. You pretend that I'm someone you like. Whatever you need. But you need to listen to me” (“As We Know It”). When he says this, Grey looks down at her feet. When she looks back to where Young is standing, the screen shimmers and she sees Dr. Derek Shepherd—her ex boyfriend. Shepherd, who was told to evacuate the surgical floor, is actually in an operating room down the hall trying to save another surgeon’s husband. But instead of seeing Young tell her, “you can do this. It’ll be over in a second. You can do this, Meredith,” she sees Shepherd.

Shepherd’s CGI-like appearance is where Baudrillard’s third level of simulacra—the idea that a simulation masks the absence of reality—is shown. To explain third-order simulation, Baudrillard uses Disneyland as an example. Baudrillard would claim that Grey sees Shepherd in order to believe “that the rest is real” (Baudrillard 413).It is necessary that Shepherd replaces Young because Grey and Shepherd’s relationship represents Baudrillard’s fourth level of simulacra, the hyperreal; according to the theorist, this state “bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum” (Baudrillard 412). Shepherd, despite not actually being there, was more real to Grey than Young was. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: an Introduction states, “It is not, as some Baudrillardians seem to want to suggest, that people can no longer tell the difference between fiction and reality: it is that in some significant ways the distinction between the two has become less and less important” (Storey 200).” For Grey, fake Shepherd was more real than real Young; the division between the simulation and the real collapsed, so it did not matter that Shepherd wasn’t actually there.

Not only is Grey’s relationship with Shepherd hyperreal, but so is Shepherd’s relationship with Grey. Shepherd met Grey when he moved to Seattle at the beginning of season one because his wife, Addison, had cheated on him with his best friend. Then, however, when Addison follows him to Seattle in season two he does the “right” thing by trying to make his marriage work. Despite that, it is very clear to both the viewer, and to characters on the show, that Shepherd and Grey are still in love. After Shepherd finishes his surgery in “As We Know It,” he frantically searches the hospital for Grey. “Where is she,” he says with tears in his eyes—not knowing that Grey had handed the bomb over to Young before the explosion he had heard happened. Richard Webber, the chief of surgery, points Shepherd in the direction of Addison oblivious who he was searching for. Adele, the chief’s wife, raises her eyebrows and whispers to Richard, “That is not the ‘she’ he was asking for” (“As We Know It”). Despite being married to Addison, Shepherd’s relationship with Grey is far more real than the one with his wife.

After not seeing Grey at the hospital, Shepherd goes to her house that evening. While talking, Grey says, “All I could think about was, ‘I’m gonna die today and I can’t remember our last kiss,’ which is pathetic, but the last time we were together and happy, I want to be able to remember that. And I can’t, Derek. I can’t remember it” (“As We Know It”). Shepherd starts to walk out the door but then decides to respond,

“I’m glad you didn’t die today. It was a Thursday morning. You were wearing that ratty little Dartmouth t-shirt you look so good in—the one with the hole in the back of the neck. You’d just washed your hair and you smelled like some kind of flower. I was running late for surgery. You said you were going to see me later. Then you leaned to me, you put your hand on my chest, and you kissed me. Soft. It was quick, kind of like a habit… you know, like we’d do it every day for the rest of our lives. You went back to reading the newspaper and I went to work. That was the last time we kissed.”

Baudrillard states, “when the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning” (Baudrillard 412). Because they no longer share what they once had, the best Shepherd can do is reminisce about his last kiss with Grey. It is clear that the “fake” love Shepherd and Grey have for each other is as real as love can come.

While Grey’s Anatomy certainly creates social commentary on race and representation thanks to creator Shonda Rhimes, Post Modern theorist Jean Baudrillard’s ideas of the simulacrum and hyperreal are highlighted and prevalent throughout many episodes of the show.

Works Cited

Baudrillard, Jean. “The Precession of the Simulacra.” Cultural Theroy and Popular Culture: A Reader, Fourth ed., Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2009, pp. 409-415.

Gay, Roxane. “When Less Is More.” Bad Feminist: Essays, New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2014, pp. 250-253.

Rhimes, Shonda. “As We Know It.” Grey’s Anatomy, season 2, episode 17, ABC, 12 Feb. 2006.

Rhimes, Shonda. “It’s the End of the World.” Grey’s Anatomy, season 2, episode 16, ABC, 05 Feb. 2016.

Storey, John. “Jean Baudrillard.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: an Introduction. Seventh ed., New York, NY: Routledge, 2015, pp. 197-202.

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