Derek Christopher Shepherd,[1] also referred to as McDreamy, is a fictional surgeon on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy.[2] The character is portrayed by actor Patrick Dempsey, who was nominated in 2006 and 2007 Golden Globe for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series Drama for the role, and the 2006 SAG Award for the Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Drama Series award. He is happily married to longtime girlfriend Meredith Grey-Shepherd. Derek was formerly the Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, but abruptly resigned as chief in the seventh season following the shooting.
When Dempsey auditioned for the role of Derek, he was afraid that he was not going to get the part. Show creator Shonda Rhimes' first reaction was: "The very first time I met him, I was absolutely sure that he was my guy. Reading the lines of Derek Shepherd, Patrick had a vulnerable charm that I just fell for. And he had amazing chemistry with Ellen Pompeo." Rhimes admitted that Dempsey's dyslexia threw her at first, particularly at the first few table readings: "I did not know about Patrick's dyslexia in the beginning. I actually thought that he didn't like the scripts from the way he approached the readings. When I found out, I completely understood his hesitation. Now that we all know, if he is struggling with a word, the other actors are quick to step up and help him out. Everyone is very respectful."
Rhimes describes Derek as typical "Prince Charming". He was planned to be a doctor who doesn't really care about anything, who lives in his "own" universe and has a big sex appeal. A man who is charming, devilishly handsome and the type of guy every girl dreams of, and a man that often makes the wrong decisions, and is often known as a jerk or the ultimate heartbreaker. Rhimes planned to have this kind of character from the beginning, because he was the kind of guy that girls fall in love with and a character whose storylines could easily be changed.
Derek arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital as the new Chief of Neurosurgery from New York City. He is a Bowdoin College graduate and attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Derek was a student of the Chief and was asked to come with an "offer he couldn’t refuse" – offering him the position of Chief of Surgery, even though he had already promised it to Preston Burke. Shortly after arriving, he meets Meredith Grey, only to discover that she is a new surgical intern at the hospital where he has recently begun working. Although she initially rejects his advances, Meredith eventually agrees to date Derek. His personality and good looks earn him the nickname “McDreamy” among Meredith and her friends. Their relationship comes to a sudden halt, however, when Derek’s estranged wife Addison Montgomery arrives in Seattle unannounced, making it clear that she wants to give their marriage another try.
Although Derek struggles over the decision, he breaks up with Meredith and returns to Addison. Their attempts to repair their marriage are strained when Derek confesses he had fallen in love with Meredith, and he becomes jealous when she begins to date again. They sleep together at a hospital prom, with Derek confessing his love to Meredith the next day. Derek initially feels guilty for hurting Addison, but is angry when she seeks solace with his former best friend Mark Sloan, with whom she had previously had an affair. Addison ultimately leaves Seattle to work in a private hospital in Los Angeles run by her college friends (ABC's Private Practice). Derek's relationship with Mark remains tense for some months after Mark transfers to work at Seattle Grace, but the two eventually repair their friendship. In the episode "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer," Derek reveals to Addison that he fell in love with Meredith. "I'm not saying this to hurt you. Meredith wasn't a fling. She wasn't revenge. I fell in love with her."
Meredith dates both Derek and her new beau Finn Dandridge for a brief period, ultimately choosing to be with Derek who had previously walked away after asking Richard why he walked away from Meredith's mother, Ellis. After a ferry boat accident, Derek saves Meredith from drowning. Meredith becomes increasingly depressed after the event, causing a growing disconnection between them. It becomes obvious they may not make it and that he wants it more than she does. He also meets a mysterious woman who, unbeknownst to Derek, is Meredith's half sister, Lexie, played by Chyler Leigh. When the season ends the verdict of their relationship is left hanging. Derek divorces Addison because he is still in love with Meredith and Addison reveals to Derek the truth about her relationship with Mark after their divorce becomes final.
When Meredith's younger half sister Lexie Grey comes to Seattle as an intern and Derek immediately likes her which annoys Cristina and Meredith. Derek then begins to push Meredith to make a greater commitment to their relationship than she feels able to, and the pair break up yet again. Meredith decides that she wants Derek to date only her, but finds out from George that Derek kissed his scrub nurse, Rose. Derek begins dating Rose and Meredith initiates a neurosurgical clinical trial on patients with malignant gliomas, enlisting Derek as a consulting neurosurgeon. Meredith and Derek grow discouraged as their clinical trial fails again and again. Meredith learns that unless they save a patient by the end of the day, the Medical Board will shut down their trial. However, the final clinical trial patient survives and Meredith goes to Derek's land and outlines their would-be house in candles, mentioning their future children. Derek finds her there and kisses her passionately, but leaves in order to end his relationship with Rose, telling Meredith to wait for him there.
After Derek breaks up with Rose, Meredith asks Derek to move in with her but doesn't want her roommates to move out. Derek agrees even though he eventually wants Izzie and Alex to move out. Derek's mother, Carolyn, meets Meredith for the first time. She approves and tells Derek that he only sees things in black and white, and Meredith does not and that he needs that in his life. Before she leaves, she gives Derek her wedding ring to give to Meredith. Derek is shocked because he then realizes that his mother never thought Addison was "the one" for him. Now that Derek has the ring, he just needs to find the right way to propose to Meredith, but is worried that she is not ready for marriage. He soon realizes that she is when she makes a comment about having his children.
Derek is in a serious depression and refuses to go to work after losing a pregnant patient and being hit by a malpractice lawsuit. His depression deepens after he meets with his lawyers and they tell him he's lost more patients than he's saved. He returns to the hospital, but only to tell Richard that he's not operating. When Meredith meets Derek later on, she reveals she knows about the ring and he bats it into the distance and yells at her, 'Go home, Meredith.' [3] Meredith leaves Derek alone after this happens, and Derek is afraid to call her. The Chief comes to see Derek and assures him that Meredith isn't "afraid of the dark," and that he should call her and apologize. When she shows up at the trailer, Derek tells Meredith that he loves her and asks her if she would still love him if he wasn't a surgeon. She says no, then tells him of Izzie's skin cancer which has spread to her brain. Derek is 'one of about 20 people in the world who can save her. And I don't know if I could respect somebody who could walk away from a gift like that. So please don't.' She shows him Izzie's scans. 'It's pretty bad,' she says, and drives away, while he inspects them.[4]
Derek preps for Izzie's surgery, but he tells Meredith that he isn't ready. He tells her he needs her to say yes, but she says she's not going anywhere and that she believes in him. When Richard wants to know why Derek and Meredith aren't out celebrating the success of the surgery, Derek tells Richard that she has turned him down twice. Richard makes Meredith wait for the elevator and when the doors open, she sees why: Derek is inside and the elevator is decorated with scans of all the surgeries they did together. He recounts the stages of their relationships as they played out during each case. Lastly, he shows her the post-op scans of the different lives they have saved over the years and Izzie's brain. 'You got me into the OR,' he tells her 'If there is a crisis, you don't freeze, you move forward. You get the rest of us to move forward because you've seen worse, you've survived worse, and you know we'll survive too. You say you're all dark and twisty. It's not a flaw, it's a strength. It makes you who you are. I'm not gonna get down one knee, I'm not gonna ask a question. I love you, Meredith Grey, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.' 'And I want to spend the rest of my life with you,' she responds, and they kiss. Izzie starts planning their wedding, which is more her dream than theirs. They eventually give the wedding to Izzie so she can marry Alex. Later, the two brainstorm about their vows, because they realised that they didn't have the time to marry at City Hall, they came up with the following for their vows: 1.To love each other even when we hate each other, 2.To never walk away, 3.To take care of the other when they are old, senile, and smelly - 'this is forever.' The two sign the post-it, and Meredith declares this is the wedding and Derek kisses his bride. Later, the two of them go to check up on John Doe, who is later revealed to be George. They rush him to surgery but he begins to flatline, leaving his fate unknown.
The season picks up where the previous one left off, with George ultimately succumbing to his injuries, and Derek declares him braindead. Later after Izzie is revived after coding, she has to decide whether or not George is a donor, since his wallet was lost in his accident. Derek is then offered the job of Chief of Surgery after the board wants to oust Dr. Webber. Derek, being faithful as a friend to Richard, wants them to consider keeping him somehow, but the Chief isn't doing too well of convincing the board that he's still worthy of being Chief. During the rest of the premiere, Meredith and Derek literally consummate their marriage all over the house, which is Meredith's way of coping with George's death. Later, after a month, Meredith finally breaks down crying, and Derek comforts her. Also, it is revealed that Seattle Grace and Mercy West will be merging into one hospital. During this time, Richard and Derek are not seeing eye to eye together with how the situation is being handled, and their relationship begins to sour.
The merge of the two hospitals, Mercy West and Seattle Grace, is causing a strain on everyone. Meredith is in recovery after donating part of her liver to save her alcoholic father.
Later during the season, Derek is challenged with an inoperable spinal tumor by their lab tech, Isaac. Even though the Chief forbids Derek from doing it since it's an expensive and impossible surgery, he goes along and operates anyway. After 10 hours of staring into his spine with no plan, the Chief finally catches Derek and orders him to stop. Later, Isaac asks if Derek can just simply cut his spinal cord to get rid of the tumor, that way he can at least live as a paraplegic. Derek mentions this to the Chief, and he gives Derek permission to operate, since it'll be quick and easy. However, Derek reveals to his operating team that they're actually not going to cut the cord, but go in and finish what they started. Later the Chief finds out what Derek is actually doing, but Arizona stops him from entering, and he walks away disgusted. After a 26 hour surgery, Derek succeeds in removing the whole tumor without paralyzing Isaac. Derek goes to the Chief to offer a truce, and move on from his defiance to Richard. However, he simply tells Derek that he's fired, and to leave the hospital immediately. Derek tells him the same thing Isaac told him about operating a second time: "Go home, sleep on it. We'll talk more in the morning." Eventually Derek and Richard make up and it appears that he is still working at Seattle Grace/Mercy West. However the relationship sours again when Derek learns that the alcoholic chief has since resumed drinking and feels forced to have Chief Webber removed as Chief of Surgery. It is made very clear in the episodes that Derek had mixed feelings about removing Richard and offers Richard a choice; go into rehab and possibly pick up where he left off after or quit, making it clear he didn't want Richard to quit. He goes on to become interim Chief of Surgery while Richard attends Alcoholics Anonymous classes and recovers. One of the first things he does is rehire Dr. April Kepner and Dr. Megan Mostow, saying they deserve a second chance. He also gives Richard a job as a Senior Attending Physician while waiting for the board to decide on having Richard return to being Chief.
In the season finale, after being shot by Gary Clark, the husband of a former patient, it is revealed that Derek's injury is life-threatening and Cristina agrees to perform the surgery to save his life. Clark reappears and wants to shoot Derek to finish what he started. Meredith rushes into the operating room and attempts to convince Clark to shoot her instead in order to truly torture Derek when he awakens. Jackson then tricks Clark into thinking that Derek has died, without Meredith knowing that he simply unplugged Derek's heart monitor. Derek's life is saved but Meredith experiences a miscarriage. In the locker room, Meredith throws the pregnancy test away.
Derek's first move back at the hospital is to quit being Chief. He recovers from the shootings by constantly speeding and getting thrown in jail. This continues until Meredith refuses to bail him out and reveals that she did so to be sure of his safety while in jail.
Meredith tells him about the miscarriage, and they decide to keep trying. His sister, Amelia, visits, and Derek reconnects with her over their father's death.
Derek bonds with Christina since she cannot relate to anybody else due to the trauma she suffered during the hospital shooting, which has left her unable to operate. He spends Christina's entire house-warming party on her roof talking about mundane household repairs and keeps an eye on her while she bartends wildly. The two later go fishing, where Derek tells Christina that she is special. Christina cries, appearing to have a break-through. Derek continues to have trouble (post shooting) dealing with fellow gunshot victims, as evidenced by his response to them when they arrive at Seattle Grace/Mercy West for treatment. In episode 20 he and Meredith marry for real and think about adopting a baby girl from Africa named Zola. Shortly after making their marriage official, Derek finds out about Meredith switching the medicine for the clinical trial and tells her that he can't a raise a child with someone who doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. The season ends with Derek lying on a sleeping bag at their unfinished house.
In the beginning, Derek was still mad about Meredith's recent tampering on the Alzheimer's trial. Shortly after, the social worker took away Zola after hearing Meredith got fired for her actions and it is implied that Derek blames Meredith for this. Chief Webber decided to take the blame for it and allowed Meredith to keep her job; and Derek forced her to go along with it as they remain hopeful to get Zola back.
As time passed, Derek became distrustful of Meredith in the OR and claimed that she never accepted the consequences for her actions. But despite what's happened, he cites his post-it saying that "[He] would never run, and love [her] even when [he] hates [her]" Meredith offered to go off his services and choose another medical specialty as a result. Zola was eventually admitted for a bowel obstruction but Meredith and Derek were not allowed to know about her status due to the adoption being jeopardized as a result of Meredith's past actions. A guilty Alex eventually talked which lead them both to find out. After the surgery, Derek and a tearful Meredith were relieved and seemingly reconciled.
Eventually, Meredith and Derek were given a court date (in part due to Alex's actions) and both prepared for it, but received word from Janet (the social worker) that it was cancelled and prepared for the worst. After a full day and night of surgeries for both, they came home only to see Janet arrive with Zola happily telling them "she's all yours". At this moment, Meredith and Derek became blissful parents. At the end of the episode "Migration" he and his wife were in a plane crash in the woods. He survives the crash, though his left hand is mangled. The season ends with him and the other surviving crash victims stranded in the woods, mourning the death of Lexie and desperately fighting to stay alive.
