With this week’s lack of new episode due to the hiatus, I have decided to rate the 5 most heartbreaking Grey’s Anatomy episodes. Every Grey’s Anatomy fan knows how emotional this show could be, and as we have seen in the past years, no character is safe. (Major spoiler alert!)
5. 11×11: “All I Could Do Was Cry”
April and Jackson’s unborn child gets diagnosed with the fatal brittle bone disease. April, a devout Christian, doesn’t believe in abortion and decides to have the baby even though it wouldn’t be able to survive for more than a couple of days. April has the baby, and her and Jackson hold him in their arms for a few moments before he dies. Watching this couple go through this was incredibly hard and emotional for viewers, who had been rooting for Jackson and April’s happiness for the past few seasons.
4. 6×23: “Sanctuary”
Gary Clark, a grieving widower, unjustly blames Derek for killing his wife. He gets a gun and goes to the hospital, killing Reed and Percy, two interns, and shoots Alex in an elevator. He later shoots Derek in front of Meredith, who had just found out she was pregnant and hadn’t told Derek. At this point, no one knew Derek would survive the shooting, so it was extremely hard to watch this happen. The episode ends with the viewers not knowing what Derek’s fate is.
3. 5×24: “Now or Never”
Izzie, who had just been diagnosed with skin cancer, decides to go through a dangerous life-threatening procedure. George decides to sign up for the army to be a trauma surgeon, and when he doesn’t show up at work everyone assumes he left without saying goodbye. However, as the surgeons all work on an unrecognizable John Doe who had been hit by a bus, it’s revealed that the man is George after he traces “007” in Meredith’s hand. The surgeons are unable to save him, and he dies without getting to say goodbye to anyone. The last scene, with George wearing his army uniform in an elevator and Izzie joining him, implies that she also died during her operation. Overall, this episode was extremely sad an emotional, and the last scene had everyone in tears.
2. 8×24: “Flight”
Meredith, Mark, Derek, Arizona, Lexie, and Cristina are all in a plane crash. After sustaining grave injuries, Lexie dies right after telling Mark that she loves him, while Mark cries while holding her hand. A week later when they are rescued, Mark dies from his injuries. Executive producer Shonda Rhimes got lots of hate mail after this episode aired, since she killed two main characters in one go, and the fate of the other doctors was up in the air for a couple of months since this was the season finale.
1. 11×21: “How to Save a Life”
The most recent heartbreaking Grey’s Anatomy episode is also probably the worst of them all. Derek, who was finally coming back to Meredith after being in Washington D.C., stops in the middle of the highway to help people who had been in a car crash. After helping them, as he was driving off, he gets hit by a truck. He sustains a brain injury, and gets taken to a hospital where the doctors don’t do enough to save him. In a heartbreaking series of events, Meredith has to tell the doctors to unplug Derek once he is pronounced brain dead.
No, I’m not crying after writing this, it’s just my allergies acting up.
Gifs were found here.