The petition demands that the episode in which McDreamy (as Dr Shepherd is nicknamed) died be turned into a 'dream' or a 'hallucination.' 'It's like you've killed the President of Grey's Anatomy,' the petition accuses series creator Shonda Rhimes, also pointing out that characters on the hit medical drama are in the habit of dying: "When you killed Lexie, it was tragic, cried for days! But we let you have that one. Then you kill off McSteamy! We still let you have that one. But the third strike, this is the third and final strike! You can not do this to us. You do not kill off 50% of Mer-Der!"
In bad news for the nearly 85,000 fans who've signed the petition, Patrick Dempsey, the actor who played McDreamy for 11 years, posted a rather final sounding tweet after the episode aired. It sounded like goodbye:
I want to thank all the fans, what an incredible 11 yrs, I love you all
Patrick Dempsey (@PatrickDempsey) April 24, 2015