First, Meredith's appearance in the episode is little considering it's her last episode as the main character, at least. Much better crafted farewell episodes have been seen before: Cristina Yang, for example.
Second, they wanted to give her room to show the growth the character has made by recreating a scene between her and Derek ("Pick me, choose me, love me"), but now with Nick, where she made it clear that his priority was her, her career and her children and that she wouldn't beg him to love her. Good. But there was no need to leave the character as selfish and cold, that's the old Meredith talking and not even that! Meredith has never been a selfish person, quite the opposite. Just because she can shine on her own and be happy on her own, doesn't mean she should dismiss those who want to be a part of it. The truth is that Nick did give her the signs that he loved her, from the very first day they met and just by moving to Seattle, it was clear as water, to question it now... as an excuse from Meredith, justifying why she made such an important decision like moving to Boston, without even asking him first, is just mediocre writing.
Thirdly, the show has shown decay for several seasons now with only a few episodes that bring out all the emotions and storylines worth following up on: Amelia and Jo. This farewell, and at the same time the start of a new group of interns, was a chance to recapture the flavour of the first seasons. Using Meredith's house in one of the final scenes, where it becomes home again for the new interns, seems to me a nice gesture, but a desperate one. There are other ways to revive the flame so as not to lose the audience and the affection (and respect) of the fans.
The episode title "I'll follow the sun" is a clear nod to Cristina in her farewell, where she urges Meredith not to get lost in her marriage and Derek's ego, but also hints that Nick will finally make the decision to follow Meredith to Boston. What was the problem? If they've been giving us two seasons of this, otherwise promising, relationship, it's the least they could do to give it a solid final scene and not a half-hearted and idiotic one, where they once again portray Meredith with behaviour that no longer suits her, given her maturity. Cutting off the call, pretending she didn't hear what he was saying, is the old Meredith, who didn't know how to deal with feelings and let herself be guided by fear. We could interpret it as this time she decides to take her space to enjoy something for herself, but it's still not consistent with what we've seen from previous episodes.
For last, the character and the fans deserved much MUCH more than such an empty, poor, lazy and boring episode. I may be being harsh in my criticism, but I have been a loyal fan of the series long enough and have always tried to defend it. I can't on this occasion.
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