Since Simone Griffith arrived on Grey's Anatomy several seasons ago, the parallels between her and Meredith Grey have been few but significant. Simone is her own complete, dynamic, complex character and wasn't designed to replace Meredith in every possible way. But they are similar -- rightfully so, and maybe now more than ever.
Like Meredith, Simone struggles early on to balance her role as a surgical resident while also caring for a loved one living with -- and rapidly deteriorating from -- Alzheimer's. Simone actually finds comfort in Meredith's empathy toward her situation, especially as she deals with transferring her grandmother to a facility where she will be better cared for around the clock.
Simone, also like Meredith, is a dedicated and promising surgeon determined to prove herself in a competitive and judgmental environment. The way this is executed in Simone's case is vastly different, of course; Meredith is white, the daughter of a highly successful surgeon, and has connections and privilege because of this whether she likes it or not. Simone's backstory is arguably much more complex and interesting, especially in the mid-2020s, having been kicked out of her former residency program and also carrying the extreme weight of being a Black woman in surgical medicine.
The choice the show has made to create another parallel between these two characters -- a one-night-stand that turns out to be a new co-worker, oh the drama! -- is no accident. And possibly less problematic, though no less juicy. While Meredith unknowingly hooked up with a married man who would also turn out to be her attending (superior) at the hospital, Simone dove headfirst into a rebound happenstance-turned-fellow-resident. She and Lucas had just broken up, but just before the surprise twist, he confessed he still wanted to be with her. She technically didn't do anything wrong, but now she's caught up in a potential love triangle that might end poorly.
Of all the twists in last week's finale, this was a fairly mild one. But Season 22, now more than ever, couldn't come soon enough. Simone is anything but a Meredith Grey stand-in, but this is a fun, more modernized way to honor the origins of one of the show's greatest and most tragic love stories. Let's also not forget that Lucas is Derek Shepherd's nephew, making the parallel a bit more powerful. Derek and Meredith got their happy ending, and then that happiness ended terribly and much too soon. Perhaps Simone and Lucas, unlike most of the other couples on this show, will get the true happily ever after Meredith and Derek never got.
That is, assuming, that Simone ends up with Lucas and not this other guy -- who might turn out to be great, who can really say? Grey's is no stranger to taking old storylines and freshening them up to tell new stories, and though it doesn't always work, this time has the potential to be different -- in a good way.