"Grey's Anatomy" took down one of its own in season 14. In the 2018 episode "Bad Reputation," it is revealed that Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital's most legendary surgeon, the late Harper Avery (Chelcie Ross), harassed dozens of women over the course of his career. The allegations had been swept under the rug by his colleagues, including his daughter, Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen), who had encouraged Harper's accusers to sign nondisclosure agreements in order to protect her dad and the hospital.
The episode deals with the complicated conversations people were having in the immediate aftermath of the Weinstein allegations: how much protection are these powerful men being given, and how much blame should be put on complicit colleagues? Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) offers a road forward for the hospital that feels like advice to any other workplace struggling to start over: "If you want to rebuild, you have to tear it down first." On the long-running medical drama, that means dissolving Harper's namesake foundation and renaming it after Catherine as well as rehiring the women who had been affected by his harassment. Does that absolve Catherine? No, but it is the first step towards rebuilding.
