When Grey’s Anatomy kicked off during mid-season 2005, no one could ever imagine it would become as big as it did, and fans had no idea they were about to enter a decades-long emotional rollercoaster. Created by Shonda Rhimes, the show has had its ups and downs and has been in every territory, from impressive TV to downright embarrassing.
One element that is a constant cause of this emotional joyride is the deaths that have left their marks on the series. Because the show takes place inside a hospital, one would expect to see patients die every now and then. The thing is, it’s not only patients who have died throughout Grey’s Anatomy’s run, and some deaths hit us to our very core. Here are 19 of the most devastating deaths in the history of Grey’s Anatomy.
5. Andrew DeLuca
Season 17, Episode 7
The death of Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Giannotti) was the tragic endpoint of a storyline that made us pity him almost as much as we rooted for him. The more he treated patients, the more frustrated he got at the fact that it wasn’t possible to save everyone, which meant DeLuca started pulling some extreme stunts to save a patient.
At the same time, he started showing signs of obsession that could be interpreted as symptoms of bipolar disease. So when he became convinced that a certain patient was a victim of human trafficking, no one would listen. DeLuca finally managed to prove he was right, but he was stabbed by the human trafficker and succumbed to his injuries. Another lesson from the Grey’s Anatomy handbook: no good deed goes unpunished.
4. Lexie Grey
Season 8, Episode 24
A bitter end to an otherwise good season, Grey’s Anatomy decided to throw half of its main cast into a forest in the middle of nowhere after a plane crash. Trapped beneath the airplane debris, Lexie (Chyler Leigh) doesn’t even make it to the end of the episode: she dies in the first fifteen minutes.
Much like other characters in Grey’s Anatomy, we got to meet and fall in love with Lexie, empathize with her insecurities, and get surprised by her whip-smart knowledge of medicine. Her loss felt like an abrupt ending to a character that had a lot more to show and could have evolved into a great surgeon.
3. George O’Malley
Season 5, Episode 24
George’s (T.R. Knight) death hit us hard because he was the first of the original five main cast members to go. Up until that point, we had gotten used to seeing George, Meredith, Alex, Cristina, and Izzie (Katherine Heigl) as interns fighting over good cases and studying hard as hell to pass medical exams, and we had established a deep connection with the group.
To make things worse, for a long time we didn’t even know George’s life was at risk: he was checked into Seattle Grace as a John Doe after being hit by a bus and dragged for several blocks, which made his face unrecognizable. He only managed to be “discovered” after drawing the number 007 on Meredith’s hand – a nickname he earned in prior seasons. Even though Knight’s exit was surrounded by controversy, it was still hard to say goodbye to a character that many of us loved so much.
2. Derek Shepherd
Season 11, Episode 21
Sometimes Grey’s Anatomy is like a stern parent: it hits us hard with a difficult situation in order to teach us something about life. There were tons of other characters they could use to illustrate how a doctor’s mistake could cost someone their life. But, no, they decided to use none other than McDreamy himself, Derek Shepherd, to tell that story.
After rescuing a family in the middle of a road, Derek is hit by a truck and gets sent to a hospital that is understaffed and under-equipped. We get to see his agonizing final minutes in which he realizes mistakes in his treatment are being made and there’s nothing he can do to save himself. This was also the last episode written by series creator Shonda Rhimes, so, in all fairness, she more than earned the right to finish her character’s story the way she wanted.
1. Denny Duquette
Season 2, Episode 27
You knew it was coming. Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was perfect. A quick-witted, loveable guy on a waitlist for a heart transplant, the endless queue he was stuck in made him a regular fixture at the hospital. But as it started to become clear he wouldn’t make it, we started to suffer just as much as Izzie, who risked her entire career to save him and made us think we’d probably do the same.
It made perfect sense to kill Denny off from a story perspective, as we had all been mesmerized by his charm and took a hit whenever he got bad news about his long-awaited transplant. Killing a character the audience is invested in is a great way to make compelling TV. But boy was it cruel. We all mourned him, but at least he left a legacy of being one of the most devastating deaths in TV history. Well done, Shonda Rhimes. Well done.
