Grey’s Anatomy has a 20th season coming up, so there are plenty of interesting storylines throughout the show, including many nonsensical storylines.
The hospital drama, Grey’s Anatomy, first aired in 2005, and it’s still going strong. With a new round of medical interns introduced every year, there are plenty of opportunities to keep the show interesting. The seasons leave a wide door open for endless storylines. But, of course, there’s always room for nonsensical storylines, and Grey’s has plenty.
Grey’s Anatomy has a pretty simple premise. It’s a medical soap opera that blends romantic drama with medicine. Even when the storylines fade, the core concept remains as the show focuses on aspiring surgeons balancing their professional and personal lives.
The Denny Duquette Saga Introduced a Beloved Character and a Bizarre Storyline
- Fun Fact: Jeffery Dean Morgan played Denny Duquette in Grey’s Anatomy, and the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic was opened in his memory.
Denny Duquette first appeared in Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy as a viral cardiomyopathy patient in line for a heart transplant. One could argue that it was love at first sight for the fans and Dr. Izzie Stevens, as he’s immediately charming. However, only one of those dynamics is problematic, as a doctor and patient shouldn’t constantly flirt with each other.
However, Izzie falls for Denny, and their relationship stays confined to the four walls of his hospital room, but it’s filled with big promises and a bittersweet reality. Everything intensifies when she cuts his LVAD wire to push him to the number one spot on the transplant list, and unfortunately, despite getting his new heart, he dies in the 27th episode, not long after they get engaged. Denny is a beloved character and remains one of the saddest deaths in Grey’s Anatomy, but their relationship was unrealistic and wrong.
Grey’s Anatomy’s Doctors Constantly Die or Approach Death
- Not-So Fun Fact: Meredith Grey has almost died around seven times throughout Grey’s Anatomy.
At least once a season, the hospital at the center of Grey’s Anatomy gets hit by a big disaster that puts the staff and the patients at grave risk. The first example of this is in Season 2, when a patient gets unexploded ammunition stuck in his chest, and Meredith ends up stuck with her hand holding the explosive. While she makes it out relatively unscathed, the tense situation ends with the bomb squad team getting blown up in front of her. These disasters range from one-person incidents to mass casualty events, but they happen so often that fans constantly expect something intense.
Death is an unavoidable reality for every living thing, so it’s okay for Grey’s Anatomy to explore coworkers and loved ones dying. However, it’s unrealistic that so many disasters happen in one hospital. Even if half of what happens in Grey’s happened in real life, the hospital wouldn’t remain open through all of it. Most people would avoid hospitals like Seattle Grace and Grey-Sloan Memorial, given its reputation as a death magnet.
The Ava/Rebecca Storyline was Unnecessary and Strange
- Fun Fact: Rebecca Pope, or Ava, was played by Elizabeth Reaser in Grey’s Anatomy.
Rebecca Pope first appeared in Grey’s Anatomy in Season 3 after one of the aforementioned disasters. She has severe facial disfigurements and is heavily pregnant, but because she has no memory of who she is or what happened, she’s introduced as a Jane Doe. Since Alex saved her, she also developed an attachment to him.
While his relationship with Rebecca is mainly professional while she’s a patient, he plays a significant part in her recovery, including helping her get through facial reconstruction by creating a new persona, Ava, for her to find comfort. As is Grey’s specialty, their relationship crosses the patient-doctor threshold after she has her baby and gets her memory back. The most bizarre part is that she leaves her husband and child to be with Alex. There’s also a phantom pregnancy storyline that unfortunately ends with an attempted suicide and their relationship fading into nothingness. The only times their relationship gets brought up are throwaway mentions about Alex’s dating type or Rebecca urinating on Meredith’s couch.
Callie and Arizona’s Custody Battle Doesn’t Fit the Characters
- Fun Fact: Even though Arizona won sole custody, Sofia was passed back and forth between her parents.
Season 7 of Grey’s Anatomy featured an Arizona Robbins and Callie Torres break-up, Callie and her best friend, Mark Sloan, having a fling, and Callie getting pregnant before Arizona makes a surprise return. Later in the same season, Callie gives birth to a very premature Sofia Robbin Sloan-Torres. Callie, Arizona, and Mark are a fantastic co-parenting trio of the baby until a plane crash takes out Mark and leaves Arizona with permanent scars. While they went through ups and downs, they called it quits in Season 11, and Callie moved on with Penny, which led to a nasty custody battle.
Custody battles are never fun, and the entire situation was extraordinarily toxic. But the biggest problem is that Callie would never decide to uproot her daughter’s life for a brand-new relationship, and she would also never let attorneys drag Arizona’s reputation through the mud. The divorce was messy, but neither woman acted within their characters, and it’s clear that the storyline only existed to write Callie’s character off and was later used to write off Arizona, too.
Grey’s Staff Rarely Gets Fired Permanently
- Fun Fact: Vikram Roy, who sued the hospital for wrongful termination, was the second character to sue after being fired.
Grey’s Anatomy is painfully dramatic and based on realism, so it makes sense that job instability gets featured throughout the show. In the show, the hospital goes from Seattle Grace, Seattle Grace-Mercy West, to Grey-Sloan Memorial. Every episode features one of the main characters getting kicked off a case, but there are occasions where staff members get fired, though it’s unlikely to stick.
The hospital often downsizes in the show, including when Seattle Grace and Mercy West merged, but aside from staff getting let go, there are many examples of characters getting fired and returning to their positions later. Characters like Meredith Grey, Alex Karev, April Kepner, Leah Murphy, Vikram Roy, and even Chief Richard Webber got fired and rehired across the show. One of the few characters to get fired permanently is Eliza Minnick, who lasted a little while in Season 13.
The Portrayals of Doctors With Mental Health or Neurological Conditions
- Fun Fact: The only Grey’s episode not named after a song is “1-800-799-7233,” which is the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Grey’s Anatomy takes place in the healthcare world, so it understandably explores mental health briefly throughout the show. Post-Traumatic Stress gets the most spotlight, as several intense disasters happen at the hospital. But there are two storylines involving mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions that make no sense.
One revolves around Dr. Bailey, who develops OCD after she inadvertently exposed several patients to staph bacteria. While the depiction is a generally great representation of OCD, the storyline got shoved to the side after Bailey started taking medication. Her journey’s abrupt end erases the hard work it takes for someone to manage the condition, even when medication works. Likewise, Dr. Virginia Dixon is hardly a character in Grey’s Anatomy but immediately stands out because she shows some stereotypical traits of someone on the spectrum, including avoiding eye contact, avoiding physical contact, and being unable to convey emotions in a “typical” fashion. While she certainly represents some people with autism, many found the portrayal somewhat offensive, as the show does nothing to explore the complexities of ASD. But it does frame the character, and arguably the entire community, as a joke for neurotypical people to mock and laugh at.
Meredith Grey Leaving and the Show Continuing
- Fun Fact: Dr. Miranda Bailey and Dr. Richard Webber are the only two original characters left.
Considering the title, it shouldn’t be surprising for a newcomer to learn that Grey’s Anatomy focuses on a character named Meredith Grey. She’s in every single episode in some capacity, and the show centers around her journey through surgical residency. As such, it was a fair assumption for many that Grey’s Anatomy would end with Meredith still in the spotlight.
However, that hope got squandered as actor Ellen Pompeo decided it was finally time to move on from her role as Meredith Grey after two decades, allowing the character to move on from Seattle. While she’s already made more appearances and didn’t leave permanently, she’s no longer the main character. Despite that, Grey’s Anatomy got renewed for a 20th season, and there’s no end in sight. So, many fans are rightfully confused, as there’s seemingly no point in dragging on Grey’s Anatomy any longer, especially without the star.
Alex Karev’s Exit Ignored Every Ounce of Character Development
- Fun Fact: Actor Justin Chambers stepped away from his role as Alex Karev eight episodes before the character got written off.
Alex Karev started the series as one of the most unlikable characters. He was an arrogant and sexist jerk, and one of the first notable scenes he was in involves him misdiagnosing a patient and disrespecting Meredith. Luckily, as the show goes on, he matures greatly, and it’s clear that he’s a fantastic person, a great doctor, and he would do anything for the people he loves.
Unfortunately, Grey’s Anatomy got shaken up with Season 16, which featured the last appearances of Dr. Alex Karev. Alex isn’t featured for several episodes, as he apparently went to see his mom out of state. His absence finally gets addressed when he sends several letters to notable figures in his life in Seattle, including his best friend, Meredith, his wife, Jo, and his mentors, Dr. Bailey and Dr. Webber. He essentially runs away to be with his ex-wife and two children who share his DNA, ending everything he built in Seattle out of the blue. Without considering the circumstances of his divorce and children’s conception, it would still be a grave understatement to say his send-off was a massive disappointment as it erased a decade of character development. It probably would’ve been better received if the show killed him off.
Grey’s Doctors Constantly Breaking Laws and Keeping Their Jobs
- Fun Fact: The only medical malpractice suit in Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t a real case of medical malpractice.
It’s well-known that Grey’s Anatomy features its fair share of doctors who really shouldn’t be doctors. While that’s usually because they make fatal mistakes or horrible decisions, dozens of Grey-Sloan staff members shouldn’t be doctors because they intentionally break laws.
The broken laws range from minor crimes or even basic hospital policies to severe criminal offenses. Nonetheless, most infractions would result in revoked medical licenses and possible prison time. One of the few times a realistic consequence happened when Meredith committed insurance fraud, served jail time, was fired, and nearly lost her medical license. However, a notable instance is one of the first, as Izzie Stevens not only engaged in a relationship with a patient but also lied to get a heart transplant for him and cut his LVAD wire. Most of the incidents were covered up to protect the hospital, which realistically should’ve lost at least transplant privileges.
The Occasional Ghost or Hallucination is Bizarre
Grey’s Anatomy is a hospital-based show, through and through. While the show features plenty of outrageous and medically incorrect depictions, most of the show has a basis in reality. As such, it’s always confusing for fans when the show features living characters interacting with dead characters, leaving a question of whether it’s a hallucination or a ghost.
The first instance of this phenomenon happens in Season 3 when Meredith has her first big near-death moment. As the doctors work on reviving her body, Meredith’s consciousness or spirit wanders the halls of her hospital, encountering several characters that died up to that point. She’s only able to escape the situation when her mom dies and meets her in limbo. The most recent interactions of the ghost/hallucination type happen when Meredith is in a comatose state with COVID, as she gets to see and talk to deceased loved ones again on a beach. Back in Season 5, Izzie started hallucinating Denny, and although she thought it was due to grief, she quickly realized something was going on with her body, later revealed as cancer. While that can be considered a hallucination, and the show suggests this, some of Denny’s lines suggest he’s a ghost stuck in limbo. Even if Izzie’s brain tumor version of Denny is strictly hallucinations, Grey’s Anatomy gets supernatural several other times without any explanation whatsoever.
