Here’s why Derek (Patrick Dempsey) died when he did: “The decision to have the character die was not a difficult one,” Rhimes told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s press tour on Tuesday. “What were the options? Derek was going to walk out on Meredith and leave her high and dry and what was that going to mean? That was going to suggest that their love was not true, that the thing we said for 11 years was a lie, and McDreamy wasn’t McDreamy. For me, that was untenable. Meredith and Derek’s love had to remain Meredith and Derek’s love. So as painful as that was for me as a storyteller, the only way to preserve what felt true to me was that Derek was going to have to die in order for that to remain honest. I really couldn’t have the idea that he turned out to be a bad guy who walked out on his wife and his kids, [and have that turn] out to be a true story. To me, that was the only way to make Meredith and Derek’s magic remain true and remain frozen in time.”