Six of The Hardest Deaths to Cope With on Grey’s Anatomy
If there’s one thing Shonda Rhimes excels at, other than her knack for creating beautiful characters with interweaving storylines that make for perfect television, is making us sob uncontrollably. In fact, before This Is Us, Grey’s Anatomy was the show that made us cry the most (in current television).
The series still makes us emotional, and with the expectation of losing more characters at the end of tonight’s episode, we took a look back at the deaths on Grey’s Anatomy that made us cry the hardest. Not that it was easy, Shonda has taken the lives of some of our favorite staff members from Seattle Grace, and the patients too.
George O’Malley
George’s death was incredibly hard to experience, partially because they weren’t aware that it was George until he finally managed to let someone know he was the patient, hit by a bus, that they were trying desperately to save. He met Izzie on an elevator of sorts, between this life and the next, in military gear – he was meant to leave to join the army when he was hit. She came back, and his soul left.
Samuel Norbert Avery
One character that didn’t get explored but had a big impact was Samuel Avery, Jackson and April’s baby. The pair had ups and downs in their story and having their son was something that brought them happiness, and then one day, they found out that their child had a condition that would make living impossible. Once April found out that her baby was feeling pain in the womb, they induced birth early. They held their baby and said goodbye – it’s still one of the most prominent scenes in the series’ history.
Denny Duquette
Denny was a breath of fresh air on the series. He didn’t just make Izzie fall in love with him, he made us all fall in love. His heart was so big, and although it was the very reason he was in the hospital, it was lovely. Denny came back around after his death for Meredith and Izzie as ‘signs’ of something else going on. It was bittersweet to see him in those flashbacks.
Lexie Grey
Lexie’s death was so unfair. You were rooting for her to get her happy ending, rooting for her to be happy with Mark. She’d been through a lot and was finding her footing and her death was heartbreaking on everyone. Not only did she die in the plane crash, she passed away with Mark holding her hand, promising her their happy ending, and Meredith just meters away. She was happy, in her last moments, and that was the only thing that made it tolerable at all.
Mark Sloan
We are still crying, honestly. We don’t think we’ll ever be over it. Not only was Mark one of the best characters on the show, from his rough beginning to the way the entire staff adored him towards the end; he grew within himself as well. He fell in love, he had a child, and he realized what was important. Watching him tell Lexie goodbye was heartbreaking, finding out that he’d been hurt badly too, but set it aside to help her was even more terrible…then…we got the episode where he died. Still. Not. Okay. If that wasn’t bad enough (it was) the episode after showed Mark have a surge…we can’t even talk about it.
Derek Shepherd
Well. This is one character we genuinely didn’t think we’d say goodbye to, at least not due to death. Shonda Rhimes said it was the only option for Derek because you couldn’t let Derek become a bad guy, while that makes sense and all, why couldn’t they have worked something out where, oh we don’t know, HE DIDN’T LEAVE AT ALL? However, it’s too late now, he did die, but he died after saving lives. If he HAD to go, that was the only respectable way to do it. What was less respectable was how he was voicing over the doctors working on him after the accident. He knew they were missing things, he knew he was dying, and we had to hear him navigate through it. Then we had to see the police to go their home and tell Meredith, then they had to play THAT song and let Meredith tell Derek that he could go and that she’d be okay. Oh…it got better (worse) she found out, after his death, that she was carrying their child.
With the countdown on until tonight’s episode, we ask, what were the hardest deaths on the series so far for you? Are there any characters you know that you’d stop watching the series for if Shonda kills them next? We have one, it’s Webber. He’s the Daryl of Grey’s Anatomy. Now that Derek is gone, if Webber dies, we riot.
‘…but I knew him’
