Grey's Anatomy: Every Main Character Who Was Killed Off (& Why)
Grey's Anatomy has said goodbye to many main characters, and some of them were, unfortunately, killed – here's every one of them.
Grey’s Anatomy has gained a reputation for killing some of its main (and most beloved) characters instead of giving them satisfying endings, and here’s every main character in the show who was killed off and why. Medical drama is one of the most popular genres in the world of television, and one of the most successful TV shows from that branch in recent years is Grey’s Anatomy. Created by Shonda Rhimes. Grey’s Anatomy premiered on ABC in 2005 and has been unstoppable ever since, with over 15 seasons and counting, showing no signs of stopping soon even if the quality of the series has decreased.
Grey’s Anatomy follows the basic premise of medical dramas, focusing on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they balance their professional and personal lives, which more often than not overlap and create a lot of drama inside and outside Seattle Grace Hospital (now Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital). Grey’s Anatomy is led by Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), who started her journey as an intern at Seattle Grace Hospital alongside other characters who went on to become fan-favorites. Of the group of interns from Grey’s Anatomy season 1, Meredith is the only one who continues to be part of the show, as all her closest friends have left the series in different ways – and most of them were truly tragic.
As mentioned above, Grey’s Anatomy has become infamous for going on the “easy” route and killing characters when their time on the show is over, and only some lucky few have been given satisfying endings where they got to keep on living. Unfortunately, all of those characters who were killed off were very close to Meredith – from friends to family members and even her husband. Here’s every main character in Grey’s Anatomy who was killed off and why.
The first of Meredith’s friends to be killed off in Grey’s Anatomy was George O’Malley (T.R. Knight), and his death was quite tragic. George struggled to find his path and when he seemed to have finally found it as a trauma surgeon, he suddenly decided to join the U.S. Army in Iraq. Richard Webber gave him the last day off so he could spend time with his family, but on his way home, he jumped in front of a bus to save a woman’s life. George was left severely disfigured, to the point where the doctors couldn’t recognize him, and it wasn’t until he traced “007” (one of his nicknames) on Meredith’s hand that they knew who they were trying to save. Unfortunately, George’s brain swelled during surgery and he was declared brain dead. Behind the scenes, Knight left due to a “gradual breakdown of communication”, Rhimes reportedly discouraging him from coming out, and him not being comfortable with where George’s story was going.
Meredith also saw her half-sister, Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), die, and to make it worst, it was during one of the most traumatic events in Grey’s Anatomy. In season 8, Meredith, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw), and Lexie were on their way to assist the surgery of conjoined twins at a hospital in Boise when their plane crashed. Lexie was crushed by a piece of the plane, injuring her pelvis, legs, and left arm, and died minutes after being found. However, there was enough time for Mark to say goodbye to her, and he stayed by her side until her last breath, assuring her that he loved her. Unlike other cases where the decision was based on behind-the-scenes conflict, Leigh’s departure was because she decided it was time to close Lexie’s arc and spend more time with her family.
Another character who died as a consequence of the previously-mentioned plane crash is Mark Sloan. With the help of Cristina, who realized he had a cardiac tamponade and drained the fluid, Mark was able to survive until they were rescued, but his health continued to deteriorate. It was later revealed in Grey’s Anatomy season 9 premiere episode that Mark was on life support, and as determined by his will, the machines were turned off, and Mark died with Derek and Callie Torres (Sandra Ramirez) by his side. As for why Eric Dane left Grey’s Anatomy, he revealed he saw an opportunity to leave the show as he was already interested in other projects.
One of the saddest and also most criticized deaths in Grey’s Anatomy is Derek Shepherd’s. Meredith and Derek were the show’s main couple, but that came to an end in season 11 when Derek died and left not only Meredith but also fans with a broken heart. After a lot of trouble in their marriage for different reasons, Derek decided to move back to Seattle from DC to be with his family, but he had to go back to DC to resign. On his way there, he got into a car accident, and after a lot of complications, he couldn’t be saved. Meredith made the hard decision of removing him from life support, and so Grey’s Anatomy fans said goodbye to “McDreamy”. The reasons behind Dempsey’s departure are a combination of him feeling it was time for him to leave and on-set conflicts with Rhimes, Pompeo, and the rest of the cast.
The most recent Grey’s Anatomy main character to be killed off is Andrew Deluca (Giacomo Gianniotti). Deluca became one of Meredith’s love interests and he was in a constant battle with his mental health, showing signs of mania just like his father. His mental health deteriorated in season 16, to the point where Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) didn’t believe him when he told her about a patient who was the victim of human trafficking. Deluca decided to investigate the case all by himself, and while doing so, he was stabbed by an unknown assailant. Although he seemed to be on the way to recover, he suffered a cardiac tamponade and went into DIC, and he eventually passed away.