Warning! SPOILERS about Grey’s Anatomy season 19 ahead.Grey’s Anatomy season 19 introduced Meredith’s move to Boston as unexpected, but the possibility that she would have ended up studying Alzheimer’s was already entertained in Grey’s Anatomy season 18. While Zola’s anxiety prompted her and Meredith’s trips around the country to look for the best school that would cater to Zola, Jackson’s offer to stay in Boston and research a cure for Alzheimer’s for the Avery Foundation was presented as a bolt out of the blue, and the best possible opportunity for Meredith to actually leave Seattle and start a new career phase. However, Meredith’s potential desire to study Alzheimer’s was partially broached already by Grey’s Anatomy season 18.
Meredith’s desire for her career to take another direction was a big theme, as Ellis’ visiting Meredith in Grey’s Anatomy season 18 in her dreams proved. Despite Meredith’s decision to accept Hamilton’s offer and lead the Parkinson’s trial, Meredith continued to feel Ellis’ judgment of her choices. While that and the constant comparison with Ellis from anyone she met deeply impacted Meredith, her predisposition to having Alzheimer’s in the future also guaranteed Meredith a history with the illness. This ended up affecting both how Meredith approached the opportunity to research Alzheimer’s and Zola’s fear of Meredith getting it, establishing the increasing magnitude of Alzheimer’s in Meredith and her family’s life.
Meredith May Have Taken The Parkinson's Trial Because She Wants To Cure Alzheimer's
Grey’s Anatomy season 18 episode 12 already hinted at Meredith possibly knowing she took the Parkinson’s trial only because she wanted to tackle Alzheimer’s next. In a heart-to-heart with Nick, who had just shared with Meredith that he was considering switching jobs as being a transplant surgeon was becoming heavier for him, she itted to knowing that Hamilton believed Meredith’s happy ending to be curing Alzheimer's and that she only took the Parkinson’s project to do that eventually. While at the time, Meredith acknowledged that she didn’t know if it was true, she also already knew that she couldn’t have gone back to just being chief of surgery afterward.
Meredith’s insight perfectly paired up with her indecision throughout Grey’s Anatomy season 18 on whether to accept Hamilton’s offer and move to Minnesota or stay at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. As she itted she didn’t know if trying to cure Alzheimer’s was one of the goals that pushed her to accept Hamilton’s offer to take the Parkinson’s project, she entertained the possibility that that was the case, opening the door to studying Alzheimer’s in the future. Not refusing to accept she might have wanted to cure Alzheimer’s made it easier for Meredith to jump at the chance to try doing so when Jackson offered her the job.
Meredith Just Needed Jackson To Offer Her The Opportunity
Grey’s Anatomy season 19 effortlessly presented Jackson’s offer as the perfect solution to Meredith and Zola’s problems, as their move to Boston would have simultaneously offered Meredith the chance to finally study Alzheimer’s and Zola a school that could have worked best for her. Still, Grey’s Anatomy season 18 had already laid the foundation for season 19 to do so, with Meredith accepting she might have wanted to pursue studying Alzheimer’s in season 18, episode 12. Having accepted that, Meredith only needed Jackson to offer such an opportunity, leading Grey’s Anatomy to the best possible ending if Meredith were to work towards curing the illness that killed her mother.