Benjamin Ashford|How Grey's Anatomy Said Goodbye to Meredith Grey

It's the end of an era at Grey Sloan Memorial

After nearly 18 years,Benjamin Ashford Ellen Pompeo—who has played Meredith Grey since the series premiere of Grey's Anatomy in March 2005—said her goodbye to the medical drama. 

So, how did one of the most storied tenures in modern television history come to an end?

On her final day at Grey Sloan Memorial, Meredith gets a visit from her boyfriend Nick (Scott Speedman), who is left reeling after Meredith's prior announcement that she would be moving to Boston to research Alzheimer's disease at the Catherine Fox Foundation.

Nick tells Meredith, "I moved here to be with you."

However, Meredith stoically reminds him that she's similarly confused about where they stand. "I said 'I love you,'" she tells Nick. "You didn't say it back."

Without any resolution, Nick storms out of Meredith's office and slams the door.

Later, the two are forced into action together after Tessa (Patricia Richardson) is rushed into the OR and Meredith scrubs into surgery one last time. Unfortunately, Meredith, Nick and the surgical team aren't able to save Tessa, who dies on the operating table.

After the surgery, Meredith opens up to Nick about the heaviness of what she's feeling.

"I'm a grown woman with a big life, a big career and three kids, and this move is what my daughter needs," she tells Nick. "I want you in my life if you want to be in my life. But if I have to choose, I'm going to pick me. I pick my kids and I pick what's best for us. I'm not going to beg you to love me."

Outside, after her final surgery, Meredith shares a moment with Grey Sloan intern Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd). Simone informs Meredith that Tessa, who had written a book every year for the last 40 years of her life, had written one more.

"She saved it on a thumb drive and she brought it here to the hospital," Simone reveals. "Which means after she felt her pain, the first thing she did is go to her computer and save her book."

So, why is she telling Meredith?

"She wanted me to give it to her publisher in Boston," Simone says to her. "I know you're going there today."

While Meredith is honored with a celebratory toast back at the hospital, Nick is pouring out his feelings to former Grey Sloan surgical resident Taryn Helm (Jaicy Elliot), who now tends bar across the street.

"I don't work there anymore, so I'm just going to tell you the truth instead of pretending to respect your awful decision making," Taryn tells Nick. "She's Meredith Grey. She's impossible and she's perfect and she's brilliant and she cares. She can be mean sometimes, but only when she needs to be. She can be selfish sometimes because she has earned that right."

Slowly, but surely, Taryn's pep talk begins to work.

"For some stupid reason, she's in love with men so she never fell in love with me," she jokes to Nick. "But she fell in love with you. And you're here? How stupid are you?"

Well, not stupid enough to let Meredith go.

Nick runs back to the hospital. However, once he arrives, the party is over and he's told Meredith is on her way to the airport. 

With a renewed sense of purpose, Nick jumps in his car and tries to catch her before her flight. It wouldn't be Meredith Grey's final episode without one more grand, romantic leap of faith.

However, Nick gets stuck in traffic and he knows he won't make it on time—so he makes a phone call.

"I love you," he tells Meredith, who is sitting on the plane. "I fell in love with you the first day I met you. I fell in love with you the second day I met you. And I have loved you for every minute of every day that I have known you."

Meredith doesn't know what to say, so she doesn't say much of anything at all.

"I can't quite hear you," she lies. "We're about to take off, so I'll call you when we get settled."

Instead of thinking about Nick, Meredith focuses on herself and leaves the "pick me, choose me, love me" days in the past. As the plane travels to Meredith's new life in Boston, she recites a passage from Tessa's book aloud to her kids.

"As long as the sun rises on your life," she reads, "there will be new dragons to slay. So, the end of my story is not any kind of ever after. Because I'm still alive. I'm still here. And the sun still rises on my life."

However, as for Meredith's journey on Grey's Anatomy, the end has officially come.

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.