As a diehard Grey’s Anatomy fan, I couldn’t have been happier to hear the news that the show has been renewed for a record-breaking 23rd season!
Having spent 21 years following the careers and personal lives of the dedicated staff of Seattle’s Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (formerly Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital and Seattle Grace Hospital prior to thatl), dozens of storylines come to mind when I think of the most unforgettable.
But the ones that have stuck with me aren’t necessarily the most shocking. Don’t get me wrong, there are some real tear-jerkers in there! But one in particular is incredibly sweet.
With so many episodes under my belt – 463 at last count! – I feel like I could waltz into an operating room, scrub in and give an appendectomy a red-hot crack at this point, having witnessed that many of them! Kidding, I’m more of a “Plastics Posse” kinda gal, if you get my drift!
While the show is about life, loss, tragedy and, yes, oftentimes death, at its heart, Grey’s Anatomy is about relationships. And family. The family we’re born into and the family we choose.
Meredith IS Grey’s Anatomy – the show’s named after her, after all. But it’s about so much more. People often ask me how different the show is since Ellen Pompeo left during Season 19, but the truth is, she never really left. She still narrates every episode, and Meredith appears in every few episodes.
To me, it’s as if nothing much has changed. I don’t hate it, because she’s not gone-gone. Plus, it gives the other characters room to grow and expand their storylines.
Not just your typical medical drama, Grey’s is like coming home. It’s become my favourite comfort show and I would honestly be lost without it.
As Season 22 heads towards another climactic conclusion, I’ve narrowed down just eight of the most significant moments from the show’s run to date that will stay with me forever.
Alex mends Jo’s heart – only to destroy it in the most callous way
Unsurprisingly when it comes to a medical drama, many of the most heart-wrenching moments have involved deaths of beloved characters. But it’s the characters that are still with us that I’m obviously most attached to.
Jo (Camilla Luddington) in particular has always held a special place in my heart and seeing her have her own heart broken time and time again kills me!
I literally hold my breath every time she’s at the centre of a touch-and-go storyline and I swear, if anything terrible befalls her, that will actually be enough to make me stop watching Grey’s. There, I’ve said it! Jo’s my girl and I need her to have a happy ending – with Link (Chris Carmack), preferably, pretty please.
Having fled an abusive relationship for a new life under a new identity in Seattle, Jo (whose real name is actually Brooke) worked hard to establish herself at Seattle Grace.
She found a kindred spirit in Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), who had a similarly rough upbringing. And it seemed like, against all odds, they may actually get their happily ever after.
Their wedding day, during Season 14, was a disaster from start to finish – from guests and caterers being sent to the wrong location to the wedding planner collapsing from a shrimp allergy.
Deciding to pull the pin on the whole thing, everyone boarded a ferry back to the mainland. But Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) had other ideas. Becoming ordained online, she officiated their wedding then and there!
It was far from smooth sailing from that point on, though. When Jo learned she was the product of rape, she spiralled into a deep depression and sought in-patient treatment after suffering a mental breakdown.
Alex stood by her and, realising their marriage wasn’t legal, they tied the knot officially during a courthouse ceremony on Halloween in Season 16 – with Jo dressed as a bloodied corpse bride, no less!
But not long after, Alex left his wife.
It turns out that Alex reached out to his ex-wife Izzie (Katherine Heigl) for help when Meredith was on trial for insurance fraud. Hearing kids in the background during their phone call, he asked about them – and Izzie told them they were his!
Ever the coward, he explained his actions in a letter. He said that while he still loved Jo, learning that he had five-year-old twins changed everything. Having grown up in a broken home, he couldn’t not be in his own children’s lives. If anyone could understand, it was Jo. And she did.
Of course, behind the scenes, fans knew that Justin had already left the show. With his character having been off-screen for several weeks, Jo had already somewhat grieved the relationship.
Without going into too much detail, Jo’s flourished professionally and personally since Alex, so no big loss there. But she has been through the wringer, too.
She’s now married to Link and just welcomed twin girls, bringing their brood up to four between them, but it was life-or-death for both Jo and Link for a while there over the last two seasons. So forgive me if my nerves are shattered when it comes to Jo! Seriously, give the girl a break already!
Denny Duquette: Everyone’s favourite patient leaves a lasting impression
This one wasn’t a series regular, but a guest star who appeared in just 10 episodes. But, boy, did he make an impact!
Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Supernatural, The Walking Dead) joined the cast of Grey’s Anatomy as heart transplant patient Denny Duquette in Season 2.
He and Dr Izzie Stevens fell head over heels for one another – and us viewers were right there cheering them on. Theirs was the most hopeful, beautiful and devastatingly tragic love story that we haven’t easily been able to forget.
In fact, Izzie risked her career by cutting Denny’s LVAD wire to make his lab results appear as if his condition was deteriorating faster so he would be bumped up the transplant list.
It was totally unethical, but it worked. Denny proposed to Izzie before undergoing heart transplant surgery, and it seemed like these two might just make it.
However, tragedy struck, and Denny died from a blood clot later that night, leaving Izzie – and fans – inconsolable.
The image of her collapsed, sobbing in her beautiful pink Prom dress as Alex carried her from the room is forever seared into my memory.
Lexie loses her life in a plane crash…
Meredith’s half-sister, Lexie (Chyler Leigh), came to Seattle Grace in Season 3 determined to stand on her own two feet.
Having not had a relationship with Meredith up until that point, it took a while for the two strong, independent women to bond, but they eventually grew close.
Over the course of six seasons, Lexie flitted back and forth predominantly between Mark “McSteamy” Sloan (Eric Dane) – who affectionately called her “Little Grey” – and Alex.
After several false starts and missteps – including Mark having a baby with Callie (Sara Ramirez) – it took a devastating plane crash for the pair to realise they were “meant to be”.
En route to a hospital in Idaho to perform surgery on conjoined twins, a light plane carrying Mark, Lexie, Meredith, Derek (Patrick Dempsey), Cristina (Sandra Oh) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) crashed in the woods.
Lexie was trapped, her legs, pelvis and left arm crushed.
As Cristina rushed to get supplies, Mark held her hand and told her how much he loved her. Begging her to hold on, he painted a beautiful picture of their happy future together.
Sadly, Lexie succumbed to her injuries before help could arrive. Cue: our uncontrollable sobbing.
… and Mark dies too!
But in a twist that was both tragic and yet almost beautifully poetic, Mark also died, from injuries sustained in the crash. Just not immediately.
Becoming unresponsive after Lexie passed, Cristina found bruising on his chest. Meredith got to work draining the fluid around his heart and he fell in and out of consciousness.
Agonisingly, fans had to wait until the next season to learn of Mark’s fate.
When we picked back up, more than a month had passed since the crash, and Mark was on life support. While he had shown moments of improvement, his health had since declined.
Per his will, his life support was to be turned off. With Derek and Callie by his side, he passed away.
The hospital was later renamed Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in honour of Lexie and Mark.
A real one-two punch, the reason these deaths hit so hard is that Lexie and Mark were truly soulmates. The sweetest character, Lexie brought out the best in reformed womaniser Mark.
They may not have got their happily ever after, but this ending gave fans hope of a happily ever after-life together.
Both returned for the Season 17 episode “Breathe”. They appeared in a dream-like beach sequence as Meredith battled COVID, urging her to keep fighting.
John Doe’s identity sends shockwaves through Seattle Grace
When a John Doe was brought into Emergency after saving a woman from being hit by a bus, the doctors and residents had no idea they were working on one of their own.
So disfigured was their patient that it wasn’t until he managed to scribble down his nickname, “007”, on Meredith’s notepad moments before flatlining that he was revealed to be George (TR Knight).
“It’s George!” Mer yelled as she ran into the hallway.
The show was never the same from this point on.
The hardest goodbye: RIP McDreamy
Even writing about Derek’s death 11 seasons on has me fighting back tears!
The heart and soul of Seattle Grace, every day was “a good day to save lives” for the world-class neurosurgeon.
Family meant everything to Derek, so leaving Meredith and their two children behind would have broken him. Worse still, Mer was pregnant at the time with their third.
In true Derek style, he died a hero, after saving those injured in a car crash while en route to Washington, D.C.
Tragically, as he was leaving the scene of the accident, his own car was struck by a truck, causing a devastating head injury.
Transported to a small, ill-equipped hospital, Derek narrates his treatment, or lack thereof. He reveals every painstaking mistake made along the way that results in his death.
It’s gut-wrenching to watch, made all the more heartbreaking when Meredith arrives with their young children, Zola and Bailey. Stoic as always, she says her goodbyes as she faces her future as a single parent without the love of her life.
Yet again, we’re destroyed!
COVID claims an OG’s beloved mum
One of the OG stars of Grey’s, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) may have a tough exterior, but she’s far from invincible.
Season 17’s COVID storylines hit hard for a lot of viewers. Simultaneously, we were living through the pandemic while watching it play out in eerily accurate detail on our screens.
For Bailey, it hit close to home when her mum, Elena (Bianca Taylor), was struck down by the deadly virus.
Having moved her parents into an assisted living facility, Bailey was unable to visit them when COVID struck. Hearing that three patients from the home had been brought to the hospital, she sent her husband Ben (Jason George) – then still a firefighter – to get her parents out.
Moving her dad into a hotel, Elena was already sick, so he transferred her to Grey Sloan. Confused and struggling to breathe, Bailey managed to calm her down by singing to her.
Her decline was quick. Knowing her mum didn’t want to be hooked up to machines to be kept alive, Bailey kept her as comfortable as she could. She sung to her and held her hand as she passed away – her dad unable to be there due to strict protocols.
The whole season really hammered home the severity of the very real, life-threatening situation we were all living in.
Grey’s often leans into real-world situations rather than ignoring them.
Case in point, the overturning of Roe vs Wade in the USA in June 2022, which ended the constitutional right to abortion.
Bailey turned the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic into the Elena Bailey Memorial Clinic For Reproductive Health in response to the ruling, honouring her late mother in the process.
Meredith and Derek’s perfect Post-it note wedding
I have to end this list on a positive note, because Grey’s isn’t all doom and gloom. And while Meredith and Derek’s relationship may have ended far too soon, it was wonderfully memorable.
Considering their relationship didn’t exactly get off to the most conventional start, it stands to reason that their wedding wouldn’t be conventional either.
What began as a one-night stand – unaware that Derek was her new boss – resulted in the pair dating, secretly at first, for obvious reasons.
But not only was Derek her superior, he was also still married, to revered neonatal surgeon Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh). Cue: Mer’s infamous “Pick me, choose me, love me” line when Addison arrived on the scene and Derek had a BIG decision to make!
Still, these two were obviously End Game. While he had asked her to marry him before and she had turned him down, after successfully removing Izzie’s brain tumour, Derek tried again.
Decking out an elevator at the hospital with surgical scans from their past patients – if you know, you know! – Meredith finally said yes.
But as Izzie excitedly began planning their nuptials, Meredith decided to give the wedding to Izzie and Alex instead.
They may not have had any spare time in their schedules to get married legally themselves, but honestly, Meredith and Derek’s Post-it wedding couldn’t have been more perfect. It was just so them!
Against the backdrop of the hospital locker room, the couple wrote down their promises to one another as their binding contract on the only bit of paper they had handy. They swore to:
- Love each other when we hate each other.
- No running.
- Take care when old, senile and smelly.
- And it’s forever.
“This is our wedding – a Post-it… Now what?” Meredith asked after signing on the dotted line. “Now, I kiss the bride,” Derek replied.
The Post-it was later framed and took pride of place, hung above the couple’s bed as they embarked on the next chapter of their lives as husband and wife.
Simple, symbolic and sentimental. Perfection.
You can catch up on all 22 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy on Disney+
