Happy Thursday everyone, and welcome back to a now weekly edition of my passion blogs on the deaths in Grey’s Anatomy! Up until this point, i’ve covered deaths of doctors that were prominent characters in the first few seasons of the show, but this week we’re switching it up a bit. Introduced first in episode 24 of season 11 and becoming a recurring character halfway through season 12 in episode 10, Andrew DeLuca is the most recent character to die in the series, and per usual, a death that came out of nowhere. Being a person that started watching Greys much after it started, many of the deaths did not come as much of a surprise to me, as I had seen spoilers before making it to those portions of the show. However, now catching up to the point of watching it in real time, the death of DeLuca is one that came completely as a complete shock to everyone, and left many more than upset after the extreme character growth we watched him have.

In his first real episode,  Andrew emerges from a rescue vehicle carrying patients from a tunnel collapse. At the hospital, he identifies himself as a surgeon and says that he was on his way to work at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital when he saw the accident and joined the rescue. He quickly lends a hand in helping the victims and, because he is wearing a suit and seems confident in what he is doing, the other doctors assume that he is an attending. However, he is later revealed to be an intern, which causes the other interns to ostracize him from the get-go. Though he deals with alienation for much of his intern year, DeLuca eventually gains his bearings, and becomes a surgical resident as his ex-girlfriend, Sam Bello, arrives at the hospital as an intern. His sister Carina also joins the team at Grey Sloan and begins dating Andrew’s roommate Arizona, much to his dismay. Carina doesn’t approve of Sam, whom she feels is a stalker. Andrew and Sam eventually rekindle their relationship until she leaves to avoid deportation. Heartbroken, Andrew drunkenly kisses Meredith Grey at Jo and Alex’s wedding. He then realizes that his feelings for Meredith are genuine and begins to pursue her. After months of chasing her, Andrew begins a relationship with Meredith.

In Season 17, Andrew became an attending and seemingly recovered from the mania he dealt with in the previous season. In the episode “Helplessly Hoping,” Andrew dies after being stabbed by an accomplice of Opal, a human trafficker whom Andrew had recognized previously. He had followed Opal and called the police to arrest her, and when the police refused to help due to red tape, he called Maya at Station 19 while inside a car with Carina, who immediately comes to help. His efforts lead to Opal’s arrest, but he was already injured. He is taken into emergency surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital and initially recovers and wakes up, but he then starts to code and is rushed into his second surgery, where his time of death is called at 22:50. He then appears not long after his death in Meredith’s “afterlife” dream sequence. There, Andrew and Meredith say their good-byes and we see Andrew reunited with his deceased mother, making his final appearance in the series.

This death was so disappointing for so many, as viewers watched Andrew struggle with mental health and getting people to believe him when he discovered the human trafficking that had occurred, and were so happy to see him recovered just to watch his murder shortly after. His passion to save the victims of Opal pulled at the heartstrings, and his loved one’s reactions to the death will stay with Greys fans forever, leaving us all wondering what he could’ve been if more believed him.

Image Sources: https://tvline.com/2021/03/04/greys-anatomy-giacomo-gianniotti-andrew-deluca-season-17-director/

https://people.com/tv/giacomo-gianniotti-on-bittersweet-greys-anatomy-departure/