Patrick Dempsey

McDreamy | Derek Shepherd

We fell in love. McDreamy and I. He looked at me (through the TV) and I looked into those blue eyes and it was love at first site. I call myself Meredith. Its my fantasy, I can call myself what I want.

McDreamy is the name that the interns at Seattle Grace gave Dr Derek Shepherd of Grey’s Anatomy. He fits the mold for sure. The dreamy eyes, perfect hair and smarts to top it all off with. (cute little butt that we get to see on the first episode of Season 1 too) He is handsome and has this allure that many of us women can’t live without.

Additional information on McDreamy has been adapted from Wikipedia the free human encyclopedia (blue areas are written by me):

Derek Christopher Shepherd, more commonly known as Derek Shepherd, is a fictional surgeon on the ABC television series Grey’s Anatomy. 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 he Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Drama Series award. He is happily married(by a post-it no less) to longtime girlfriend Meredith Grey.

Creation

Before getting the role of Dr. Derek Shepherd, Dempsey auditioned for the part of Dr. Gregory House on the hit Fox show, House. While according to People magazine he actually auditioned for the role of Dr. Robert Chase, most of the sources confirm that he auditioned for Gregory House. The actor was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 12, which was believed to be the reason not to get some roles. He stated: “When ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ came up, I was really at the breaking point. I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep auditioning.’”. When he 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” (meetings when the cast gathers to read fresh scripts aloud): “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 basically the kinda guy every girl goes to sleep dreaming about. 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 typical kind of guy that girls fall in love with and a character whose storylines could easily be changed.

Season One

Season one opens on the “morning after”a drunken one-night stand, introducing us to Meredith and Derek (who had previously not exchanged names). We later learn that Derek is in fact the new neurosurgeon at Seattle Grace Hospital. Dr. Derek Shepherd had just moved from New York City a mere 6 weeks prior and did a double take when he learned that his one-night stand is his new surgical intern, Dr. Meredith Grey. Derek is a Bowdoin College graduate and attended medical school at Colombia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has four sisters and is the only boy. Those 4 “girly” sisters have given him nine nieces and five nephews. Derek relentlessly pursues a relationship with Meredith Grey. She eventually relents and after another “encounter” in his car agrees to date him. The surgical interns give him the nickname “McDreamy.” When Meredith realizes that she is dating someone she barely knows, she hounds him for information. Finally he gives in and gives her some details. What we learn is… he enjoys a good single malt scotch, his favorite band is The Clash, his favorite ice cream is coffee flavored, he occasionally likes a good cigar, and his favorite novel is The Sun Also Rises . He likes to fly fish and cheats when he does the crossword puzzle on Sunday. He never dances in public, his favorite color is blue but does not like light blue, he prefers indigo. Derek has a scar on his forehead which he attributes to a motorcycle. The one thing Derek left out is that he is married. Which we learn when Derek’s estranged wife Addison Montgomery-Shepherd makes an unannounced arrival in Seattle. [Via Diana Garcia http://dempseyracing.blogspot.com]

Season Two

(my favorite season! )

Derek decides to go back to his wife Addison even though Meredith is who he wants, he feels the responsibility to try to make the marriage work.  Meredith tries to move on, through dating other men including  horrible choices (or as Alex says- “you get drunk and sleep with inappropriate men- so what? Its your thing” ), such as George (TR Knight) and then lastly Finn- Doc’s vet (Meredith and Derek’s shared dog) Meredith really looks to be moving on and this drives Derek batty. He tries to alienate Meredith by basically calling her a whore. But he can’t help himself and finds himself back with Meredith, making love in a hospital room during an impromptu prom that was put together for the Chief’s dying niece. [Written by me- Cindy]

Season Three

Meredith dates both Derek and her new beau Finn Dandridge (played by Chris O’Donnell) for a brief period, ultimately choosing to be with Derek. 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. When the season ends the verdict of their relationship is left hanging.

Season Four

Derek begins to push Meredith to make a greater commitment to their relationship than she feels able to, and the pair break up. However, they have sex in an on-call room in the hospital, and they continue to have ‘break-up sex’ for several weeks, without actually committing to being in a relationship. Meredith decides that she wants to commit to Derek, but finds out that Derek kissed his scrub nurse, Rose and so they break up again. Derek begins dating Rose(whom we fans like to call “Plant”) 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.

Season Five

Everything that makes Dr. Shepherd ‘dreamy’ was symbolized perfectly in the Front Page Cover Story for “The Shepherd Method” clinical trial. Not only did he look hot, but it was the epitome of Shepherd at the top of his game. For his on-again girlfriend Meredith Grey, the article was anything but dreamy. After all, the clinical trial was Mer’s idea and she wasn’t given any of the credit. Not to mention, she and Derek both knew how many losses it took for them to actually get it right (kind of like their relationship, but more on that later).

Then comes the convicted serial killer and death row inmate/patient William. The patient wants to die, a child could use his organs, and it seems logical to Meredith that William should be allowed to die (and save a life) at Seattle Grace. But, Derek is a surgeon, not an executioner. His need for justice was in stark contrast to Meredith’s sense of compassion. With his mom’s guidance, Derek begins to understand just how much he needs Meredith Grey in order to bring him balance.  But then Addison shows up and asks Derek to play God to save her brother.  It’s a lot of pressure, but the Derek from that magazine article, well he’s a doctor with that God-Surgeon complex and he’s up to the challenge.  At the same time, Derek is trying to save Jen Harmon, a pregnant patient and her baby. Unfortunately, Derek is trying to do too much at once and makes a careless mistake that eventually ends with Jen’s death, and a very guilty Dr. Shepherd.

With the loss of Jen, in the face of saving a convicted murderer and the high from saving Addison’s brother, his God complex is all but left on the operating room floor. Derek goes into a dark and twisty spiral of depression and self-loathing. Instead of proposing to Meredith like he’d planned, he shows her the ring but then bats it deep into the woods. He’s not only incredibly angry, but he’s unkempt, unshaven, and not even the shell of the man we once knew.

It turns out, Meredith still believes in Derek but she can’t imagine him being the man she fell in love with if he was not practicing medicine. That, and in order for fellow-doctor Izzie to fight back against her all-but-lethal-dose of cancer, Derek needs to don his scrubs again, but his confidence is shaken and he doesn’t believe in himself. Meredith, on the other hand, may know he’s not the God-Surgeon of the magazine article, but believes in him anyway.  Eventually Derek gets it right; his first operation back (on Isobel Stevens) is a success, and he later proposes to Meredith in ‘their’ elevator that he’s filled with pictures and scans of all the patients that they, together, have helped save. By the end of season five, Derek’s confidence returns. We see a Derek who has realized that he no longer needs to be perfect, or a knight in shining whatever, or a God… he just needs to be him. We see a Derek who will stand by his woman, even when they’re old and smelly, and he has the post-it-note commitment to prove it. [written by Michelle Collie]

References

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