Ellis Grey is one of those characters who is so, so complicated. On the one hand, she's a very difficult and demanding mother to Meredith. Over the first couple of seasons, we see both the difficulty Meredith has with caring for Ellis, who now has Alzheimer's, and flashbacks to Ellis prioritizing her career over her daughter. Ellis's death, however, packs a major gut punch. During the ferry-boat storyline in season 3, during which Meredith nearly drowns, Meredith is visited in the not-quite-afterlife by several figures from her past. As she's making the decision whether to live or die, Ellis appears, urges her to live, and reminds her that she is extraordinary. When Meredith wakes up, she discovers that Ellis has died, and her pain is what sends us into tears.
