Grey’s Anatomy is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. Recently the show was renewed for the 19th season, becoming the longest medical show on primetime. Shonda Rhimes' medical drama has kept the audience’s attention for almost two decades. Following the career and personal journey of Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), a promising young doctor who comes from a dysfunctional family, the series has a lot of ups and downs, always being capable of surprising the viewer. This in itself is surprising, considering it has an impressive amount of 388 episodes (almost all of them are named after songs), but it has been able to keep itself fresh.
A lot has happened to these surgeons. They've had hope, but also heartbreak, like when Danny died in season two. They've experienced chaos and a lack of control, like when an airplane crashed and took the lives of two doctors in season eight. They've struggled with (and inspired audiences to think about) difficult current issues present in our society, such as when a 12-year-old Black boy was shot by a police officer in season fourteen. Even a controversial musical episode happened, in the most beloved and dramatic hospital on television today.
There have been some brilliant episodes and some not so great. From Meredith and Cristina's dance parties to holding each other through tough times, almost everything has happened between the walls of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Here is a list of the best Grey’s Anatomy episodes.
8 Into You Like a Train
Season: 2 Ep: 6
An emotional episode from beginning to end, "Into You Like a Train" shows everything Grey’s Anatomy has to offer. After a train accident happens, two patients are impaled by a metal pole in a heartbreaking story that forces the team of doctors to make an impossible decision. Due to the characteristics of the situation, only one of the patients will survive; they have to choose who. Two strangers who become everything for each other and the doctors who struggle with the ethics of the situation are part of why this episode will make you cry a few times. "Into You Like a Train" set the bar for what the audience could expect moving forward: the technical difficulties as well as the heartbreak which comes with the medical field.
7 Give Peace a Chance
Season: 6 Ep: 7
An episode that generated a lot of merchandise for the series, the impossible tumor, makes the viewers sweat when remembering the stakes of this surgery. Even the famous McDreamy aka Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) almost couldn’t take the challenge. A surgery that took hours and drained the medical team emotionally and physically (Shepherd even threw up after a difficult part of the surgery was over) had to be on this list. This was one of the most intense surgeries in the show, creating an episode that really challenged the viewers just as much as the doctors; it was impossible not to wonder what would happen next.
6 True Colors
Season: 13 Ep: 23
Grey’s Anatomy's season finales are always explosive — the 13th season's finale took this quite literally. In this episode, Dr. Karev finds out the identity of his wife's abusive ex-husband. A couple comes into the ER after a car accident. The man is awake and keeps asking about the woman, saying how much he loved her. The woman eventually wakes up, and the doctors find out that the man had kidnaped her and then proceeded to sexually assault her. Dr. Edwards (formerly played by Jerrika Delayne Hinton) is taking care of a young girl whose parents are worried about their other daughter when she encounters the abuser. Dr. Edwards does everything she can to save the girl and herself: including setting a hospital floor on fire.
5 Fight the Power
Season: 17 Ep: 5
Grey’s Anatomy has tackled a lot of important subjects throughout the seasons. Season 17 is a difficult watch due to the content: the Covid-19 pandemic and a reckoning of social justice was sweeping the nation. In the fifth episode, "Fight the Power," Bailey has to hold herself together while her mom dies alone after contracting the virus in the nursing home she moved to (in order to be closer to Bailey). An episode about systemic racism and what a lot of families had to go through in the last two years, the series did a great job at portraying this story. Chandra Wilson said that, “The hope is that by illuminating these things on Grey’s Anatomy, we’re putting these things in the mouths of people you know — these characters — so that there is relevance and resonance where maybe there wasn’t before." The episode ends with a powerful voice-over saying the names of various Covid-19 victims.
4 Now or Never
Season: 5 Ep: 24
An episode no fan will ever forget, "Now or Never" had to be on this list. The doctors spend the episode taking care of a man who saved a woman he didn't know from being hit by a bus. He had so many injuries, it's impossible to see his face clearly, and he had no documentation, so the doctors treat him as a John Doe. At the end of the episode, Meredith finds out he is someone they know pretty well: George (fan favorite T.R. Knight). He writes on her hand with his finger: 007. The British agent's number was his nickname because he was the first intern to assist (and fail) on a surgery — which gave him 'license to kill.' A plot twist no one saw coming with a tragic ending, this episode made people weep and scream while blaming themselves for not realizing who would be so noble as to sacrifice himself for someone he didn't know.
3 As We Know It
Season: 2 Ep: 17
What should have been a normal day in the ER turns into a matter of life and death. The final part of this story is as intense as it gets inside an operating room. After a patient comes in after his homemade bazooka doesn't work, he steps in front of the gun to see what went wrong. The gun went off and shoots him. A paramedic has her hand inside the patient to prevent him from bleeding out. When the patient is taken to an OR, Dr. Karev realizes something extremely important: there was no exit wound. In a race against time, he has to go to the OR before they cut him: the hospital would be blown to pieces, causing a lot of casualties — including the intern Meredith Grey, as well as Dr. Sheperd who is in another OR doing difficult neurosurgery on Dr. Bailey's husband. The ending of this episode is as nerve-wracking as Grey's Anatomy can get.
2 Silent All These Years
Season: 15 Ep: 19
A very intense and sad episode to watch, so much that Shonda Rhimes herself had to fight to keep a few scenes. The network didn't want to show what a sexual assault victim goes through to do a rape kit, but Rhimes argued that explicit sexual violence can be shown on television, but the outcomes are too much? Needless to say, the scenes are in the episode. A woman comes into the hospital with various wounds due to sexual assault, but she is afraid to admit what happened. Dr. Jo Karev (Camilla Luddington) talks to her through the entire episode about why she needed to have the evidence, even if she decided not to use it. The patient eventually agrees. One of the most emotional scenes in the series history features her heading to surgery when all women that were working (on the set that day) in the hospital stand in the hallway, to symbolize that she is not alone. This episode increased the search for sexual assault hotlines.
1 Sanctuary + Death and All His Friends
Season: 6 Ep: 23, 24
This two-part season finale tells a story with so many ups and downs, it feels impossible to follow the journey without some whiplash. At the beginning of the episodes, Meredith finds out that she is pregnant. On the same day, a widower comes back to the hospital to avenge his late wife. He proceeds to target Derek Shepherd, who operated on his wife. He finds Derek and shoots him, alongside more than 18 people, of which 11 died because of the injuries. The hospital goes into lockdown.
The most emotional narratives through the two episodes feature Dr. Bailey trying to help a patient with various bullet wounds to survive, and Christina Yang operating on Derek at gunpoint while Meredith is having an abortion (due to the stress of the situation) in the next room. It was just as traumatic to shoot the episodes as it was to watch them. Actress Sarah Drew, who plays April Kepner, said the episode caused her panic attacks and nightmares. In the series, her character comes face to face with the shooter, and she begs for her life. Written by Rhimes herself, these two episodes are an example of the best elements of the show, and are a masterclass in melodrama.