"Either 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, and that was untenable," Rhimes explained during a Television Critics Association panel in 2015. "Meredith and Derek's love had to remain Meredith and Derek's love."