From the moment they met, Derek and Meredith were the couple the audience rooted for, the couple they wanted to see end up together. The chemistry between the characters was incredible and they seemed meant to be—up until the moment Derek’s wife Addison Montgomery-Shepherd arrived at Seattle Grace. Derek’s wife. Not his ex-wife or his one-time lover, but his wife. Suddenly the perfect couple wasn’t so perfect. Dr. McDreamy had lied to Meredith, a whopper with enormous repercussions. The audience hated Addison and blamed her for breaking up their dream couple. But even if Addison hadn’t arrived on the scene, the contrite wife who wanted her husband back, would Meredith and Derek have survived?

I find this an interesting question and I don’t think the answer is as simple as it may have seemed during season one, when Derek and Meredith were the couple everyone wanted them to be. The reason ties into my favorite part of writing and of life: character.

Television drama aside, because of course Grey’s Anatomy is a TV show that must have conflict in order to bring viewers back each week, what is inherent in Meredith and Derek’s characters? What kind of people are they? Are they people capable of monogamous, committed relationships? And if they are, does that automatically mean that they would have made it in a world with a high divorce rate and the intense pressures of their respective careers? Not  …