While some fans may disagree, Grey’s Anatomy is solely about Meredith, and the drama simply follows the changes in her life. Whether it’s her whirlwind relationship with Derek or her ongoing Alzheimer’s research, the show revolves around these concepts, even if it does pivot to a subplot occasionally. Thus, even when she’s not on-screen, the drama remains connected to Grey and her life.
However, the show fails to focus on her work as a mother. Grey’s eldest daughter, Zola, has been a key character since Season 7 and has stood by her mother’s side during some of her toughest moments. Yet, the show refuses to delve deeper into her character and explore how these constant setbacks impact her. As such, fans feel like this character has been reduced to a vehicle for Meredith’s own stories.
Zola’s Struggles Started When She Was Born
When Zola was first introduced in Season 7, Episode 20, “White Wedding,” she was shown as a very vulnerable baby with Spina Bifida, who also needed extensive brain surgery. Of course, this is very distressing, but it keeps the audience engaged. Right from the start, fans learn that Zola is not just a normal little girl who needs a home. Instead, she’s a very special child who needs constant care and medical intervention. Overall, this is a great way to set up Meredith and Derek as her adoptive parents and suggests that this little girl will be a lot better off in a new and loving home.
However, Zola’s medical issues aren’t really discussed at length and only pop up when it’s convenient for the writers to include them. For example, in Season 8, Episode 5, “Loss, Love, and Legacy,” Zola was taken out of her foster home so that she could have her shunt fixed at the hospital. But, because Meredith was not her legal guardian at the time, she couldn’t really see her. Thus, Zola’s health woes seem to be a way for the show to drum up more tension for Meredith, but most of the time she’s too busy worrying about something else.
It also seems quite strange that the writers would give Meredith a disabled child to care for, especially while she was still working at the hospital. Every social worker that Meredith met reminded her that Zola had a lot of additional needs and Grey believed that she could handle it. But, in reality, it’s very clear that she couldn’t. When the social worker took Zola away temporarily in “She’s Gone,” Meredith struggled to handle the stress of it all and decided just to kidnap her instead. Zola’s disabilities could have really shaped Meredith’s character. The show could have taken a more refined approach and presented Grey’s struggles as a working mother. However, it seems that, once again, Grey’s Anatomy was keen to add a really interesting plot device and do nothing with it. Zola’s health woes have nothing to do with her. Instead, they are just stepping stones to help Meredith get to her next crisis.
Zola Often Has to Parent Her Parent
It’s now become a bit of a running joke among fans that Meredith Grey will stop at nothing to put herself in a dangerous situation. In Season 17, she catches COVID and is one of the only main characters to end up in the ICU, and in Season 13, she decides to run into a burning building instead of letting the professionals handle the blaze. While this is quite humorous to long-time fans of the show, it’s evident that Meredith doesn’t think about how her actions will impact her role as a mother. Thus, Zola is forced to witness all of Meredith’s dramas and then work to build her back up again.
A perfect example of this is in Season 11, Episode 22, “She’s Leaving Home,” Meredith goes into labor and quickly starts losing blood. Grey then remembers the time her mother tried to take her own life and warned her not to call an ambulance. Luckily, Zola calls the emergency services and Meredith is rushed to hospital. This is obviously a traumatic thing to witness and a little girl like Zola should not have been placed in that position.
Yet, instead of taking an interest in her feelings, the social worker simply praises her for knowing how to dial 911. While it may seem overdramatic, it’s evident that the show doesn’t really view Zola as a small and impressionable child. She’s forced to grow up extremely fast so that she can stop her mother from the latest catastrophe, which is actually quite similar to Meredith’s relationship with her own mother.
A similar thing occurs in Season 15, Episode 25, “Jump Into the Fog.” After admitting that she committed insurance fraud, Meredith sits down with her children and tells them that she will be going away for a while. She also tells them that Alex, Maggie, and Amelia will be around to take care of them. Arguably, the show really plays down this moment and doesn’t allow her children to express how they really feel. The kids don’t ask any questions nor do they get upset. This strengthens the idea that Grey’s Anatomy only allows Meredith’s children to be fully-fledged people when it suits Grey’s arc. Plus, as the eldest child, a lot of the responsibility would presumably be put on Zola, making her an innocent child in a very grown-up world.
Even though fans know that Meredith is not exactly Mother of the Year and everything has to revolve around her or the show just won’t work, Zola’s constant hardships are getting really tiresome. It seems that the show really wants the audience to pity Meredith, which is understandable given that she’s the protagonist. However, watching Zola bounce from one tragedy to another is just upsetting, and it’s pushing fans away. This is especially evident when Meredith gets intubated and put on a ventilator in “Helplessly Hoping.”
It makes perfect sense that the show would want to capture Zola’s reaction to this in the hopes that it would drum up a bit more dramatic tension. Yet, these scenes have the opposite effect and are just gut-wrenchingly sad. It’s also very strange that no one is willing to protect her from this. Multiple family members, including her aunt, work at Grey Sloan but still allow her to witness all of these distressing moments. To make matters worse, Amelia tells Zola that she shouldn’t tell her younger siblings about their mother’s ill health unless she really has to, again placing a lot of burden on her shoulders.
In the following episode, “It’s All Too Much,” Zola offers a line that truly sums up how she feels about everything that has happened. She said to Amelia that if she could create a medicine that would allow someone to live forever, she would give it to her mother. Zola’s actress, Aniela Gumbs, delivers this line with a tremendous sense of innocence and sensitivity, so it’s important to note that fans don’t have an issue with the way it’s performed. However, a little girl should not be saying these sorts of things, especially about their one surviving parent. The single line proves that Zola has a really uncomfortable relationship with death and lives in fear that her entire world will crumble all over again.
While this is very relatable, it doesn’t really give her character any chance to grow. As mentioned, the actress who plays Zola is remarkably talented and handles these mature themes like a true professional. But it appears that her skills are wasted on a character like Zola because she will never be able to escape these catastrophes. In order to make the most out of its cast as well as characters like Zola, Grey’s Anatomy really needs to work on its strategy. So many things have happened around her and to her, yet she doesn’t respond appropriately. Thus, the show either needs to allow Zola to release some of this anxiety or stop putting her in these situations, because without this change, the show risks losing one of its brightest stars.
