20 Grey’s Anatomy Moments That Made Fans Cry
Grey’s Anatomy is a beloved series for many reasons. The show overflows with characters, story arcs, and scenes that caused its fans tear up.
Grey’s Anatomy features plenty of scenes to trigger the waterworks for fans of the series. The show centers on Meredith Grey, a surgical legacy whose difficult childhood arms her with a unique brand of empathy, perception, and resilience. As Meredith sets out to make her mark on medical history, she navigates messy relationships, childhood trauma, and personal tragedies. Through it all, she manages to keep going, inspiring many characters to do the same.
Grey’s Anatomy tells the enduring story of human perseverance through the lens of characters who are far from perfect but imminently real. It’s because of this that the show succeeds in creating and developing protagonists worth caring about. While the show’s characters continue to change and evolve, Grey’s Anatomy remains an ongoing, critically acclaimed TV juggernaut, thanks to its arsenal of episodes capable of pulling at the heartstrings.
20.Meredith Grey Says She Knows Exactly Who Jo Wilson Is
Season 14, Episode 9: “1-800-799-7233”
When Meredith Grey tells Jo Wilson she knows exactly who Jo is, the terrified surgical resident is finally liberated from her psychotic husband’s mental abuse, leading to a gut-wrenching scene between the two doctors. The series spends multiple seasons unfolding Wilson’s mysterious backstory, but after her husband, Paul Stadler, tracks her down, his charisma and professional reputation threaten to undermine Wilson’s relationships with her friends and colleagues. After Meredith finds herself performing surgery with Stadler, Wilson desperately attempts to convince her that Stadler is a talented liar. However, when Meredith comforts her, she allays her fears by telling her that she knows who Jo really is.
19.Alex Karev Is Emotional After Meredith’s Attack
Season 12, Episode 9: “The Sound of Silence”
After Meredith Grey is savagely beaten by a patient, Alex Karev struggles to keep his composure while assisting their colleagues in treating Meredith’s injuries. This entire episode can be difficult to watch, but it’s especially harrowing for Alex, who has grown uniquely close to Meredith over the years and isn’t one to tear up in public. While the two friends grew even closer after Christina Yang left Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, Alex’s admiration for and familial bond with Meredith played a significant role in his development throughout the series. When he arrives to find Meredith horribly beaten, his concern for her is unapologetically laid bare for everyone to see.
18.Mark Sloan’s Farewell To Lexie Grey
Season 8, Episode 24: “Flight”
Mark Sloan’s farewell to Lexie Grey remains one of the saddest moments in the entire series. The two lovers enjoyed a serious relationship much earlier in the show but separated when Mark wanted children and Lexie didn’t. For multiple seasons after, both characters struggle to reconcile their feelings for each other, and it isn’t until the very end of season 8 that they both realize how much they mean to one another. Unfortunately, their realization arrives too late. After their flight to Idaho crashes, Mark wakes to find Lexie crushed under the rubble. Unable to save her, he could only confess his feelings to Lexie before watching her die.
Mark and Lexie had a tragic, too-short time on Grey’s Anatomy, but for Slexie fans, there’s always time to re-watch their best episodes.
17.Meredith And Derek Become Zola’s Parents
Season 8, Episode 10: “Suddenly”
When Meredith and Derek become Zola’s parents, it’s a pleasant surprise and a welcome high note at the end of a particularly heartbreaking episode. After fertility issues threaten to bar them from parenthood, Derek and Meredith are forced to consider the possibility they may never have children. However, they took steps to adopt after meeting Zola through Alex Karev’s African program. When their personal and professional lives set off some red flags with the adoption agency, they are both overjoyed to find they were approved when they answer the front door to find their adoption agent with Zola in her arms.
16.Meredith Grey Wins The Harper Avery Award
Season 14, Episode 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”
Meredith Grey’s legacy seems to loom over her from the very beginning when her colleagues unveil her as the daughter of the celebrated Ellis Grey. Lauded for winning not just one but two awards, Ellis’s accomplishments comprise a significant portion of Meredith’s motivation for becoming a surgeon herself. While she continues to demonstrate exceptional surgical talent throughout the entirety of the show, earning her first Harper Avery serves as a significant milestone in Meredith’s career. Her moment is made all the more impactful when she spies the visage of her dead mother smiling down on her from the gallery of the operating room.
15.Maggie Pierce’s Mother Dies
Season 13, Episode 18: “Be Still, My Soul”
When Maggie’s mother, Diane, dies from breast cancer, the loss is understandably devastating for the typically sunny Chief of Cardio. Maggie joins the cast of Grey’s Anatomy as a child prodigy, and she’s introduced as a uniquely bubbly character against the backdrop of the show’s usual cast of misfit toys. Out of desperation to save her adoptive mother, she encourages Diane to sign on for experimental treatment before finally seeing the toll it’s taking on the poor woman and finally accepting her prognosis. Diane passes away while attempting to impart some last-minute wisdom to her daughter, and Maggie begins to sob but finishes painting her mother’s nails.
14.Stephanie Edwards Resigns From Grey Sloan
Season 13, Episode 24: “Ring of Fire”
After a terrifying night with a psychopath and then sustaining serious injuries when a fire breaks out at Grey Sloan, Dr. Stephanie Edwards withdraws from the hospital’s residency program. Edwards finds herself in a harrowing experience when she’s taken hostage by a sexual predator hellbent on escaping the hospital. The ordeal leads to a hospital fire, emergency surgery on a child’s leg, and their frantic escape to the roof before finally being saved by firefighters. While being treated for severe burns the following morning, Edwards informs Dr. Webber she is quitting–a shocking decision considering the passion and talent for medicine she demonstrated throughout her time on the show.
13.Teddy Altman Tells Christina Yang She Wasn’t To Blame For Her Husband’s Death
Season 8, Episode 11: “This Magic Moment”
When Teddy Altman tells Christina Yang she is not at fault for Henry Burtan’s death, it leads to one of the most heartbreaking scenes featuring crying in the entire show. After Henry dies, a broken Dr. Altman spends most of the following episode seeming to punish Christina by forcing her to recount Henry’s surgery ad nauseam. When Christina apologizes again for failing to save her mentor’s husband, Teddy orders her not to blame herself. After hearing each step of the surgery countless times, Teddy understands that Christina did everything correctly and there was nothing either one of them could have done better. Teddy sobs after accepting her husband’s death was unavoidable.
12.Izzie Stevens’ Farewell To Denny Duquette
Season 2, Episode 27: “Losing My Religion”
Izzie Stevens mourning Denny Duquette’s death follows one of the more controversial sequences in the earlier seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. After falling in love with a patient with an enlarged heart, Izzie cuts Denny’s LVAD wire in an attempt to force UNOS to prioritize him for the next available heart. Although her efforts prove effective, Denny ultimately dies from a clot following his transplant. While Izzie’s choices throughout this situation are indelibly reprehensible, watching her sob over Denny serves as a reminder that her feelings for him are genuine. Even if her actions were inexcusable, Izzie’s love and pain were undeniable.
11A.pril Kepner And Jackson Avery Lose A Baby
Season 11, Episode 11: “All I Could Do Was Cry”
April Kepner and Jackson Avery losing their baby is difficult to watch, made worse due to his fetal condition, making his induction termination unavoidable. Diagnosed with type 2 osteogenesis, baby Samuel’s parents knew he would have limited quality of life and would likely die from the condition anyway. However, as a devout Christian, April struggles to reconcile her love for her unborn child and her faith with her medical knowledge. The two parents ultimately decide to spare Samuel a life of pain and are afforded only a short period of time to adore him before he dies. It’s a tender, horrible moment captured in an impossible situation.
10.Miranda Bailey Wins A Catherine Fox Award
Season 19, Episode 20: “Happily Ever After?”
Miranda Bailey winning the Catherine Fox Award was a welcome surprise at the tail-end of season 19. While Dr. Bailey has continued to be one of the show’s keystone characters from the beginning, recognition for her life-changing contributions to medicine always seemed out of reach. She received the award for her forward-thinking approach to reproductive care rather than surgical innovation. As a result, Miranda hadn’t even been nominated for the Catherine Fox Award. Watching Dr. Bailey finally getting her due is a highlight of the entire show, made all the more magical by the fact that she wasn’t expecting it.
9.Rabbi Eli Repairs April Kepner’s Faith
Season 14, Episode 17: “One Day Like This”
When Rabbi Eli rescues April Kepner from her crisis of faith, it serves as a meaningful reawakening for the extraordinary character. Overcome by the many losses in her life, April spends much of season 14 railing against the core facet of her character: her faith. When Eli arrives at her ER after treatment for diverticulitis causes an unfortunate skin reaction, April is forced to watch the kind-hearted rabbi suffer and, ultimately, succumb to his condition. Eli counsels April through her pain and manages to help her reconcile her faith. In the end, Eli deliriously mistakes April for his wife, and she can do nothing but comfort him through his final moments.
8.Meredith Grey Reunites With Old Friends While Battling COVID-19
Season 17, Episodes 2 – Episode 13
When Meredith Grey feints after contracting COVID-19, she finds her subconsciousness on a beach with her departed friends and family while in a coma. They visit her in succession and ultimately grant her a measure of closure that she wasn’t afforded while they were alive. Meredith meets George O’Malley, Andrew DeLuca, Lexie Grey, Mark Sloan, and her deceased husband, Derek Shepherd. While there are plenty of sad events that occur for the members of Grey Sloan beyond Meredith’s subconscious, the moments she gets to enjoy while in her coma throughout the bulk of season 17 are equally heartfelt, gut-wrenching, and powerful.
7.Alex Karev’s Farewell Letters
Season 16, Episode 16: “Leave a Light On”
Alex Karev disappears much earlier in season 16, leaving the remaining characters of Grey’s Anatomy to wonder and worry, until Jo Wilson, Richard Webber, Miranda Bailey, and Meredith Grey receive letters explaining his departure. As a series staple, Alex was the last friend remaining from Meredith’s class, and his evolution from “Evilspawn” delinquent to genuine good-guy Chief of Pediatrics has been one of the more rewarding character arcs throughout the entire show. His departure from Grey’s Anatomy is bittersweet, as he takes the time to say goodbye to his friends and mentors while informing them that he had reunited with Izzie Stevens and rekindled their relationship after learning he’d father two kids with her.
6.Christina Yang Says Goodbye To Meredith
Season 10, Episode 24: “Fear (Of the Unknown)”
When Christina Yang accepts a position to head up the Klausman Institute for Medical Research in Zurich, it means leaving Meredith Grey behind in favor of her career. Christina remains a fixture of the show for ten full seasons, and is one of the few people in Meredith’s life who understood her from the beginning and loved her anyway. Her departure sees the two sisters dance it out one last time before Christina tells Meredith not to let her love for Derek eclipse her own needs. It was a heartfelt farewell from an irreplaceable character.
5.George O’Malley Dies
Season 6, Episode 1: “Good Mourning”
George O’Malley’s death sucker-punched many characters in Grey’s Anatomy, and it was made worse thanks to the time spent in the previous season teasing Izzie Stevens’ death. When a John Doe arrives in the ER with injuries that make him unrecognizable, he attempts to communicate with Meredith by tracing “007” across her palm–an insult leveled at George O’Malley at the beginning of the show. The team learns that John Doe was injured rescuing a woman from a moving bus before Meredith understands what he’s been trying to communicate to her. O’Malley’s heroic death was an unexpected end for such a heartwarming character.
Season 6 of Grey’s Anatomy saw the death of one of its most popular and beloved characters: George O’Malley. Here’s why he was killed off.
4.Derek Shepherd Dies
Season 11, Episode 21: “How to Save a Life”
When Derek Shepherd’s car is hit by a semi-truck, it marks the death of one of Grey’s Anatomy’s greatest romances. Meredith and Derek have enjoyed many ups and downs over the course of their relationship. Despite that, the writers did an excellent job of making sure the two characters matured in their relationship as spouses and then parents. Even though their romance was far from perfect, their ability to bounce back demonstrated the resilient nature of their relationship. After so many triumphs under their belt, it was more than sad to see their romance end so tragically.
3.Richard Webber Makes Meredith His Power Of Attorney
Season 10, Episode 2: “I Want You With Me”
After Richard Webber is electrocuted while trying to fix the hospital’s generators, Meredith learns he appointed her his power of attorney, making her responsible for his medical decisions. Throughout most of the show, Richard functions as an unusual surrogate father thanks to his relationship with Meredith’s late mother. Although he makes a full recovery, his condition has a noticeable impact on others, especially Meredith. However, it’s the moment he wakes up that makes the scene so touching. As Dr. Webber lies in a hospital bed reflecting on his mistakes, he realizes he was right in making Meredith his power of attorney after hearing her refer to herself as family.
2.Jackson Avery Prays For April Kepner
Season 14, Episode 23: “Cold as Ice”
When Jackson Avery prays for April Kepner after a fall down a river bank almost claims her life, Jackson crumbles as he begs God to spare her life. Jackson and April enjoy a Grey’s Anatomy relationship timeline that’s on and off again across multiple seasons, but underneath it all is a profound friendship that always brings them back together. On the other hand, they disagree frequently about matters of faith and religion, with April’s Christianity being a core aspect of her character. After their friends fight to keep April alive, it seems as though all hope is lost when Jackson falls apart and begins praying–an act he likely never pictured himself doing.
1.Mark Sloan’s Death
Season 9, Episode 1: “Going, Going, Gone”
After the plane crash at the end of season 8, Mark Sloan is rescued but ultimately succumbs to his injuries at Seattle Grace Hospital. When he finally comes to, it seems things are beginning to look up for the characters in Grey’s Anatomy. When Dr. Webber suspects Mark’s surge of energy is only temporary, his loved ones sit with him one by one, so they can say their goodbyes. Mark’s death is an understandably somber affair, especially for Jackson Avery, Derek Shepherd, and Callie Torres. The one silver lining is that he anticipates reuniting with Lexie, making the entire episode all the more heartbreaking.
