Happy Thursday and welcome to another passion blog! This week, i’m moving up the ladder of deaths to focus on a character who’s passing left so many viewers in shambles. Introduced in the second season by name, but not making a physical appearance until season 3, Lexie Grey was the younger paternal half sister that Meredith Grey had never met.

When she first entered as a recurring character, Lexie was a surgical intern, just one year behind her half sister. She began as unliked by Meredith, who took out a grudge on Lexie that was meant to be aimed at her father for his poor treatment and basically abandonment of her and her mother to build a new family. For much of her start at Seattle Grace Hospital, Lexie struggled to connect with her sister as she was shunned, and as a result socially struggled in general. It wasn’t until season 5 that Lexie and Meredith really became close, and developed the sisterly bond that they lacked for so long, which was really sealed when Meredith asked Lexie to be one of her bridesmaids.

As for her death, it was right there along with pretty much every other Grey’s Anatomy death and came out of absolutely nowhere. A team of surgeons from Seattle Grace were asked to fly to Boise, Idaho, and perform a surgery to separate conjoined twins. Lexie joined 7 of her fellow coworkers on a private plane, but none of them ended up making it to their final destination. Somewhere along the flight, something went wrong, and the plane crashed in the middle of the woods. The level of injuries from the crash varied doctor to doctor, but due to where she was on the plane, Lexie was sucked out the back of the plane and ended up crushed underneath debris. While her friends tried to free her, Lexie became aware of how serious her injuries were, and knew that she was unlikely to survive. Her death was slow, and definitely caused more than a few tears to be shed by viewers.

This death was deeply upsetting to Grey’s Anatomy watchers not only due to the unfortunate and sudden nature, but also because of the way that her own sister, friends, and even the man she loved had to witness it. Lexie died holding hands with Mark Sloan, who she had been in an on and off relationship with since her entrance early on in the show. As they realized the severity of her injuries and said their final goodbyes, viewers including myself couldn’t help but let the water works flow, watching the relationship we had been cheering on for so many seasons come to an end in the most unfortunate manner possible.

In terms of long-term impacts, the plane crash itself that caused her death was something addressed for many seasons to come, leaving surviving doctors with PTSD, unable to travel by plane. More-so than this, Lexie left a lasting legacy, with the hospital being sold and re-named in her honor, Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital (Marks post is coming soon!). Nobody ever forgot her, and she even made a reappearance in season 17, visiting Meredith in a dream she had while on a ventilator. Featured in just 5 of the now 20 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, Lexie Grey’s time was certainly cut short, and her character took a piece of everyones heart with her when she said goodbye.

 

*Images from https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/greys-anatomy-plane-crash-deaths-130095/ & https://www.glamour.com/story/greys-anatomy-chyler-leigh-is-retuning-as-lexie-grey

A weeklong break later and officially at the final book blog of the semester, I feel it’s only fair we return to the roots of this blog and closed out with possibly the heaviest Colleen Hoover novel i’ve read thus far. While we’ve explored pretty much every corner of Hoover’s writing, from mysterious, to full of comic relief, ‘All Your Perfects’ is one that will keep you hooked and pull at the heart strings like none other.

Synopsis- Opening with their dramatic meeting, “All Your Perfects” follows Quinn and her husband Graham through what began as a seemingly “perfect” love story. Their relationship was one straight out of the movies, until it wasn’t. As the novel alternates between “then” and “now” chapters, it follows Quinn and Graham thought the start of their relationship, making memories and building a strong connection, and their present relationship, recalling the memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years, now tearing them apart day by day.

Between the “now” and “then”, Quinn finds out she’s not able to conceive, and it ruins her. Despite the fact that she loves her husband, she continues to fall into a depression due to her infertility, and keeps it bottled up inside, putting a wrench in her once perfect relationship as she isolates herself. As the novel continues its alternation between past and present, it deals with infertility, infidelity, depression, and an overall crumbling of what was once seen as perfection.

First Line- “The doorman didn’t smile at me.”

Last Line- “You have no idea what this smile means to me, Quinn. I’ve missed it so much.”

My Favorite Quote- “We’re all full of flaws. Hundreds of them. They’re like tiny holes all over our skin. And like your fortune said, sometimes we shine too much light on our own flaws. But there are some people who try to ignore their own flaws by shining light on other people’s to the point that the other person’s flaws become their only focus. They pick at them, little by little, until they rip wide open and that’s all we become to them. One giant, gaping flaw.”

Rating- 10/10 surprise surprise another perfect score for Colleen Hoover to close out our book blogging journey. I know that this synopsis is much shorter than past ones, but the way this book is structured makes every chapter a new twist or turn, full of spoilers and leaving you unable to put it down or really explain it without giving it all away. It deals with some pretty heavy topics, but has a heartwarming ending that makes all the frustration at fictional characters worth it. Definitely a must read if you you’ve enjoyed anything remotely similar to Colleen Hoover.