Richard Flood’s nearly three-season run as Grey’s Anatomy‘s Dr. Cormac Hayes ended this Thursday night, as his storyline had telegraphed the week prior.
Flood — whose previous TV credits included Crossing Lines and Shameless — first appeared on Grey’s midway through Season 16 and was promoted to series regular starting with Season 17.
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“Having three years on the show felt right for me,” Flood told our sister site Deadline, “and I think that the arc of the character with all the developments in the story was probably coming to its natural end, which was great. I was very happy that everybody felt the same.”
In the lonnnnng-running medical drama’s March 3 episode, and as hinted the week prior, Flood’s Cormac followed through on his decision to resign from Grey Sloan, conflicted as he was about colleague Owen’s side gig helping terminally ill veterans end their suffering/lives — but not before Mer called him on his plan to bolt without saying goodbye.
“’Cause if I said goodbye to you, Mer, I might not ever leave,” he admitted. “You made me believe that there might actually be life after Abigail.”
Moments later, in the parking lot, Teddy pleaded with Cormac to tell her what her husband Owen wouldn’t, about the recent car accident. But, since Owen had essentially saved Hayes’ life, he kept his lips zipped. “Goodbye, Altman.”
Speaking to what might have been between Cormac and Meredith, Flood told Deadline that if he had stayed, “I suppose you’d wonder would they have gotten together, would they not? If they had got together properly, would it have worked? I think the fans may have liked to have seen more of what that dynamic might have been — it’s certainly, the response I’m getting — but it’s not really for me to say.”
Are you sad to see Flood and Hayes scrub out?
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