This Grey’s Anatomy Couple Can’t Stay Together In Season 22 If They Want To Save Their Stagnant Characters

One couple needs to be officially broken up in Grey’s Anatomy season 22 if the medical drama wants to keep their characters’ stories interesting. The biggest relationship developments in Grey’s Anatomy season 21 were the culmination of storylines set up as early as four years ago, including Jo and Link’s joyful wedding and Owen and Teddy’s relationship ending at last.

Other romantic developments within Grey Sloan’s walls that can see the light of day in Grey’s Anatomy season 22 were hinted at in season 21, like Winston catching feelings for Jules and jeopardizing her surgical training. However, the biggest clue concerned one couple who had been together since Grey’s Anatomy season 20, whose breakup needs to happen for their sake.

Lucas & Simone Need To Break Up After Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Proved Why

Their Individual Storylines Are Much More Interesting Than Their Romance

Lucas and Simone’s connection was evident from the moment Grey’s Anatomy season 19 introduced their class of interns. With their past yet to catch up to them, the two could begin to evaluate the spark between them and what to do with it before the revelation of Lucas’s secret or the surprise arrival of Simone’s ex-fiancé complicated things between them.

With those problems virtually resolved, Grey’s Anatomy season 21 nevertheless presented compelling new issues with the direction of Simone and Lucas’s relationship. Of everything that happened in Simone’s life in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, her relationship with Lucas was the least interesting. Indeed, Simone’s progress as a surgeon and her budding friendship with Jules proved far more absorbing to witness.

The arrival of a former mentor who had belittled Simone in the past and was revered by Bailey in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 14 also highlighted how it wasn’t necessarily Lucas that Simone went to in crisis. Jules and Simone facing that crisis together made their friendship stronger, but the aftermath showed Simone’s diminished interest in Lucas’s momentous day.

Lucas’s trajectory also changed greatly throughout Grey’s Anatomy season 21. While the season had started with him almost surely having to repeat his intern year, Lucas finally convinced Catherine not to make him in season 21, episode 14. Lucas becoming a better doctor was captivating to see, but telling Simone left a sour aftertaste, highlighting their being on different paths.

The progression of their careers highlighted how at odds they were, with the two not taking the time to understand what they wanted from their relationship, as they prioritized other problems. At the same time, one difference in how Simone and Lucas approached life kept returning in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, and the medical drama has yet to tackle it.

Simone & Lucas’s Relationship Has Been On Unstable Ground Since Grey’s Anatomy Season 19

They Fight & Make Up But Never Fully Talk About Their Problems

Simone being the first to learn about Lucas being a Shepherd influenced their relationship going on, despite Lucas confiding in her about how he wanted to be seen for his skills rather than his powerful connections. Indeed, Simone and Lucas found themselves on opposite sides of an argument several times because of how their different upbringing informed their world view.

Simone losing her previous residency spot because of a surgeon who discriminated against her after her reasonable complaints impressed on her mind how not everyone has the privilege to speak out without suffering consequences. Lucas being a Shepherd instead shielded him from such a realization, making him a vocal advocate for Dylan’s case even against Amelia at times.

This was the core of Lucas and Simone’s problems, never openly discussed in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, and their situation was made exceptionally worse by a pattern in their relationship highlighted as early as season 19. Trey’s arrival abruptly put a stop to Lucas and Simone’s romance after he proposed to her and she accepted in Grey’s Anatomy season 19.

Lucas’s immediate reaction was to shut Simone out after that happened. Right after, he changed his mind and accepted being her man of honor because of their friendship, only to change his mind again and leave that duty to Jules. From the beginning, Lucas and Simone’s relationship was characterized by vicious relationship-ending fights, only to get back together days later.

This pattern resurfaced in Grey’s Anatomy season 20’s premiere, with Lucas shutting Simone out after learning that all the other interns had said during the investigation into Sam Sutton’s death how they operated on Sam at Lucas’s behest, only to reunite with her shortly after.

Finally, Lucas and Simone’s fight in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 17’s ending effectively broke them up, leading Simone to go to Joe’s and hook up with a stranger. Lucas not knowing about that and the hostage situation nevertheless reunited them the day after in Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s ending. This cannot go on into Grey’s Anatomy season 22.

Why Grey’s Anatomy Breaking Simone & Lucas Up Can Make Them Stronger Like MerDer

Taking A Page Out Of MerDer’s Playbook Can Help Their Bond In The Long Run

The introduction of Lucas and Simone’s romance in Grey’s Anatomy season 19 immediately suggested similarities with Meredith and Derek’s epic story. The clues were inevitable to miss, with Simone starting at Grey Sloan Memorial while simultaneously struggling with her grandmother’s Alzheimer’s and the tragedy that connected her to the Grey’s Anatomy hospital and Lucas very obviously being a Shepherd.

How Simone and Lucas’s relationship developed also echoes some of MerDer’s legendary qualities, with the couple inspiring one another and making each other better. Their ending up in critical situations, like almost losing Mika or the hostage situation in Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s finale, recalls some of Meredith and Derek’s most iconic moments, too.

However, if they are truly to weather the storm, Grey’s Anatomy season 22 should let Lucas and Simone spend some time apart as Meredith and Derek did in season 2. Their reasons would be different, as Derek wanted to give one last chance to Addison, while Lucas and Simone would be giving themselves a chance to understand what they want.

Doing so can make Lucas and Simone realize who they are after the mayhem of everything that happened since getting to Grey Sloan, while also understanding if they really see one another as each other’s partner, beyond what Grey’s Anatomy’s brand of threats to their lives elicit in them in the short term.