#hell math

ahem.

I have been FINE with the timing of Season 1-3 being 2006-2007. It works. It’s great.

In s2/3 Mer says multiple times that Ellis has been sick for five years, she came back from Europe five years ago, which puts her one year out of four years in med school. The puts her in med school five years before 2007: 2002

Except

Fucking except.

1. That puts Meredith in med school starting at 24. Not 25, after “sleeping our way through Europe” with Sadie. A birth year of 1978 works so perfectly everywhere else; she’s five leaving Seattle, five when Maggie is born. Cool, whatever, she rounded up. Only gives her two post-grad Lost Years, not three, but fine.

2. Bailey was an intern in 2003 according to Time Warp. To be a fourth year resident at the start of the gang’s internship that makes it 2007 (five years later) because everywhere else they count internship as year zero. Hence MA(G)(I)C as fellows/attendings in S9 aka year 6. This kills George-Watch 2007 as his dad died in s3, which happens in handwavey-spring/summer of intern year (ask me about the prom being in May I dare you)

3. Recently the show put Ellis at Mayo in 2003. Could she have kept working after telling Mer about her alzheimer's? Yes, but her symptoms have to have been bad enough that she didn't remember anything back to before Mer left for Europe — seems unlikely to me that she’d be operating. Better to assume that was when she discovered her symptoms and told 25yo Meredith to come home from sleeping with Sadie through Europe

Putting Mer in a 3-yr program makes sense, actually. She gets back in 2003, at 25, starts her internship in 2006 (s1-early s2). Ellis has only been sick four years in 2007 (end s3), but hey we’re estimating, and she wants to catch up to prove herself to her mother before she is too gone to see. It explains why she has fewer letters of rec, maybe even puts Sadie a year behind her (meaning she put off her start 6mos not 18mos.)

Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth is a four-year school. Period, the end.

THERE ARE SCHOOLS WITH 3YR PROGRAMS, SHONDA. SHE COULD HAVE STILL GONE THERE FOR UNDERGRAD SHONDA.

A 2007-2008 internship year fixes a few things, like if s1 is 06-07 s4-5 (Residency Year 1) somehow takes place in 2007 2008 and 2009 (with George dying in 2009). It evens things out later. It’s probably correct. But goddammit, it shortens Mer-Der by another year, and I don’t like it.