Grey’s Anatomy is celebrating its 20th anniversary as Season 21 plays out on the 2025 TV schedule, and over the years that Ellen Pompeo has been portraying Meredith Grey, she’s given birth to three children. While not all celebrity kiddos are invested in their parents’ projects, 15-year-old Stella does watch Grey’s Anatomy. Or, I guess I should say the teen used to watch, because Pompeo revealed there was one scene that was so intense, it made her stop.
With all 20 completed seasons available to stream, Grey’s Anatomy is one of the most rewatchable TV series ever and one of the best shows to binge on Netflix. Ellen Pompeo’s daughter took advantage of that Netflix subscription to watch the early days of Meredith Grey, but the actress said on The Jennifer Hudson Show that one Season 5 episode put an end to that. Pompeo told the host:
I watched a few seasons with her. And I think she had it, like a lot of people do, when they see 007. When they see that George O'Malley died, they are just like, 'I'm done, I just can't do it anymore.’ So I think she made it as far as that.
This reaction makes so much sense to me. I was older than 15 when Season 5’s “Now or Never” — one of Grey’s Anatomy’s best episodes — first aired, and I’m not sure to this day if I’ve fully recovered.
In one of the most shocking deaths of the series, a man is brought to the hospital after being hit and dragged by a bus. Unrecognizable from his injuries and unable to speak, the man takes Meredith’s hand and draws George O’Malley’s nickname “007” on her palm to let her know it’s him. Meredith gasps, screaming, “Oh God!” before running through the halls shouting, “It’s George!”
Ellen Pompeo told People that Stella did the same thing, saying:
Double-oh seven. Which, by the way, my daughter had the same reaction when she saw the 007. She literally cried. I had to film it and I couldn't hold it together.
Honestly, tears for days over here. I can definitely see how that episode might make someone choose to stop watching Grey’s Anatomy, though Stella probably experienced some other uncomfortable moments even before that one. Ellen Pompeo said Stella was quite unimpressed with Meredith begging a man to love her in the infamous “Pick me, choose me, love me” scene.
There was also Meredith and George’s disaster sex to get through, and I’m sure Ellen Pompeo had to answer some questions about the whole panties-on-the-bulletin-board situation. And even though it didn’t involve her own mother, one has to wonder if Stella cringed as much as the rest of us during Izzie and Denny’s ghost sex scene.
Grey’s Anatomy may have lost at least one viewer with that huge 007 twist, but if she ever wants to jump back into it, it’s there for her. In addition to streaming on Netflix, the entire series is also available with a Hulu subscription, including Season 21, with episodes dropping the day after they air at 10 p.m. ET Thursdays on ABC.
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