Top 10 Grey's Anatomy Episodes

Greetings, reader!

My Grey's Anatomy theme month continues, with this week's post focusing on the greatest episodes across the show's multi-decade run. With over 400 episodes to pick from, you know that the ones chosen as the best of the best are really something special.

Here are my honorable mentions: Begin the Begin (Season 2 Episode 13), Crash Into Me (Season 4 Episodes 9-10), Get Up, Stand Up (Season 10 Episode 12), Stairway to Heaven (Season 5 Episode 13), The Time Warp (Season 6 Episode 15).

And a spoiler alert is in order!

10. Fear (of the Unknown) (Season 10 Episode 24)

First of all, the show's most iconic character is given a 10/10 exit arch, and that alone makes the season 10 finale one of the best. As the swan song of Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Fear (of the Unknown) is a sweet love letter to the character, working as the natural-feeling culmination for the exit arch that had been built throughout the season's second half. The show was never quite the same after Cristina's departure, but it helps the viewer move on when she's written off so thoughtfully, with the episode being filled with poetic moments to remember her by.

But that's not all - the writers were smart enough to know that they need to get some new drama cooking, so that viewers would tune in to season 11 despite their favorite character being gone. That is why the final minutes of season 10 bring about one of the show's biggest bombshell reveals - the new chief of cardio, Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary), sits down with Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), making it known that she's the daughter of him and the late Dr. Ellis Grey (Kate Burton). I'm one of the viewers who became borderline-obsessed with the larger-than-life Richard/Ellis lore, so this reveal felt f**king powerful, and succeeded in making me curious and invested in all that was to come next.

9. 17 Seconds (Season 2 Episode 25)

There's a certain type of television episode, usually towards the end of a season in a plot-driven series, that is usually mastered best by Breaking Bad or Dexter - it's the type where shit is going down to the utmost degree, causing a seeing-red panic in the viewer, with the intensity remaining high throughout the episode's runtime. One of the best examples of this rare but always-amazing archetype is the third-last episode of Grey's Anatomy's second season.

The multi-episode arch of the heart patient Denny Duquette (played in an unforgettable performance by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is one of the main reasons why season 2 is among the show's most acclaimed and beloved seasons - and after tons of build-up and many twists and turns, this is where it really hits the fan. The stakes are higher than ever before, with all production elements from cinematography to soundtrack really driving home the point that things are f**king happening.

17 Seconds is a thrilling episode that keeps on giving, with its heart-stopping moral dilemmas (apparently millions of people know what an LVAD wire is thanks to this episode) and adrenaline-rush sequence of events. The episode is so intense that when Dr. Burke (Isiah Washington) GETS F**KING SHOT towards the end, it doesn't even feel like a separate shocking plot twist, but more like a natural "Yeah, this might as well happen" addition to the ongoing atmosphere.

8. Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story (Season 14 Episode 7)

As mentioned in my ranking of the show's seasons a few weeks ago, season 14 is a shockingly good one, rising above all other post-season-10 seasons to be the clear highlight of the show's sunset years (and one that arguably rivals many of the 'golden age' seasons). Out of the many highlights in this against-all-odds kick-ass season is the show's 300th episode, aptly named after the deeply sentimental closing number of the Hamilton musical.

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story succeeds exceptionally well at what every milestone-celebrating episode tries to accomplish: feeling like a celebration, a look back, and a love letter to what the series stands for. The two elements that the episode is remembered best for are A) the storyline with three patients whose personalities and dynamics bear a striking resemblance to past characters Cristina, George (T.R. Knight) and Izzie (Katherine Heigl), and B) Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) winning the Harper Avery award.

Both of these elements are tear-jerking perfection for the show's 300th episode. The doppelgänger storyline isn't just silly fan service, but rather hits quite hard: at this point, Meredith and Alex (Justin Chambers) are the last two cast members left of the original five interns from season 1, and having them interact with these 'ghosts from the past' is a massive blast of nostalgia for the viewer, and helps the characters deal with unresolved issues (coming to terms with George's untimely passing, getting over Izzie's abrupt departure, missing the friendship with Cristina). As for Meredith's Harper Avery win, it goes without saying how special this moment is for the show's trajectory and the protagonist's character arch. By the time Kate Burton shows up as Ellis' ghost (because of course she does), I could barely see her through my overflow of tears. Beautiful stuff.

7. Losing My Religion (Season 2 Episode 27)

It makes sense that in a series arguably best-known for its myriads of heartbreaking character deaths, the episode with its most infamous sad death would rank highly. Yeah, much like anyone with a heart who watches the second season of Grey's, I cried like a baby when Denny Duquette died. It's not just the fact that a lovable character was killed off after multiple episodes of the viewer becoming invested, but also the ultimately heart-wrenching manner in which it was done - as I wrote in more detail in last week's post about the show's saddest deaths, Shonda Rhimes is an expert at finding the exact way to kill off a character that will hurt the viewer the most and become the saddest possible version of itself.

That's what happens here, and as an emotional viewer, I have to praise the episode for making me feel such large-scale heartbreak. It's typical for me to be sad about a fictional character's death, but the degree to which this show (and particularly episodes like Losing My Religion) utilizes the pain in viewers like me is one of a kind.

6. Give Peace a Chance (Season 6 Episode 7)

Amidst the tear-jerking deaths and messy relationship drama always taking center stage, one might almost forget that on paper, the series is first and foremost about doctors, in a hospital, doing surgeries on patients. It's funny, really, how that setting is always present even though it isn't what the show does best - there isn't very much about the main characters' professions and nature of their work in my reasonings for the highest-ranked episodes. But here's the exception to the rule: while the best episodes of most seasons are ones with romantic payoffs, melodramatic plot twists and heartwrenching death scenes, every now and then Grey's will pull off an episode that really reminds you of what a world-class hospital series it is in addition to all of that.

There are a few truly great surgery-driven episodes; the ones that rise above the interesting surgery plotlines we see in every episode, by focusing on a particularly dramatic, interesting and high-stakes surgery, where the work takes center stage over the relationship drama and character stories. Season 11's The Distance and season 10's Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word are great examples. But the absolute GOAT in this category has got to be season 6's Give Peace a Chance.

It's not just that Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), a character who is flawed as a human but in the show's top one per cent in terms of legendary surgical skill, has the most challenging case of his career, operating on an utterly exceptional, seemingly impossible, absolutely f**king huge tumor. It's that the people behind the show understood the assignment, making every element in the episode feel like this is something different and remarkable. The directing style, cinematography and especially the music are very different from your typical Grey's episode, as they have a magical and even cinematic feel to them. The episode feels like a mini-movie, which is fitting as it's one of those episodes that you could watch and enjoy even with no pre-existing experience of the series. There are five episodes ranked ahead of this one because there are things Grey's does even better than the line-of-work focused stuff - but if you take away the character archs, relationship stories and brilliant melodrama and only view the series as a hospital show about surgeons, then Give Peace a Chance would be its finest hour.

5. What a Difference a Day Makes (Season 5 Episode 22)

Ah, right in the feels. Making the viewer cry is one of the things Grey's does best, and rarely do the waterworks flow with such power as they do with the show's 100th episode. The main storylines leading up to the fifth season's endgame, such as Meredith and Derek's upcoming wedding and Izzie's struggle with cancer, clash in an utterly perfect way - one that I didn't see coming, but fit so perfectly that it feels like it was headed there all along in retrospective.

Alex's decision to marry Izzie, knowing she might be dead very soon but wanting to give this experience to the woman he loves, is some of the most heartstring-tugging content in the series, especially considering his character development. There's no way that the season 1 Alex would've pulled this, but he had grown a lot over the span of five seasons, and a lot of that was thanks to Izzie, so this works on just so many levels. The wedding sequence is absolutely beautiful down to every detail, and the emotional core of the events is staggering.

4. It's the End of the World / As We Know It (Season 2 Episodes 16-17)

This episode is the BOMB!

No, really. It's the one with the bomb. In the patient.

Everything about this absolutely iconic season 2 two-parter is pretty great, but I have an especially strong fondness for the opening act. The moment where Alex realizes what is going on, and rushes in a panic to call a 'code black', is possibly the most adrenaline-charged, pulse-racing moment of intensity that the series ever produced. The directing and editing choices really highlight the chaotic panic of the situation, and things remain hellishly suspenseful to the very end of the two-parter. Hell yeah.

3. Silent All These Years (Season 15 Episode 19)

It takes quite something special for a show in its fifteenth season to produce an episode that scores a 9.5 on IMDB. Silent All These Years is extra special because it's not exactly unique in its seriousness: Grey's Anatomy is a generally serious show, and one that gets very serious at its darkest, as we had seen countless episodes dealing with themes like domestic violence, suicide and pretty much any given depressing topic. So, for one episode out of over 400 to earn the reputation of the serious episode, with the most bleak and thematically powerful story we've seen across the 20+ seasons, it really has to be something with an exceptional quality to it.

In Silent All These Years, we follow a heart-wrenching story of sexual violence via three different storylines. One consists of thematically relevant flashbacks to earlier in the season, as Jo (Camilla Luddington) meets with her estranged birth mother, and thus learns a horrible truth - she was conceived via rape. This connects to the episode's main present-day storyline, where a victim of sexual violence is admitted to the hospital and Jo treats her. The episode's subplot seems light and disconnected at first - Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Ben (Jason George) learn that their son Tuck (BJ Tanner) is dating a girl - but the realization of what this has to do with the rest of the episode dawns upon the viewer at just the right moment, as Ben does what every father should do and gives Tuck 'the talk' about consent.

Silent All These Years is extremely hard to watch, but it is also so very important. The phenomena it deals with are so depressing that they're borderline unimaginable to fathom for us people who are lucky enough to not have firsthand experiences, but they're very much a part of real life for too many people, which is why we need to do a lot more learning and listening as a society. I appreciate Grey's for doing its part, shedding light on these topics via this absolutely tear-jerking and ultimately beautiful episode.

2. Now Or Never (Season 5 Episode 24)

This has to make the all-time top five in the category of TV episodes that made me cry the most. Say what you will about George O'Malley (many have, and I'm not here to defend the character's many flaws) - but at his best, he was a sweetheart, and I grew to care deeply about the character. The way in which he's killed off doesn't hit so hard just because it's sad, but also because it's written and executed in such a genius fashion, making for one of the most well-built TV deaths of all time, as well as one of the saddest.

When watching Now Or Never for the first time, it took me forever to realize that the John Doe patient is George, because the cleverly written episode does an amazing job in tricking the viewer into ruling out the possibility. We see George at the beginning of the episode, and very soon after this, we meet the patient with the unrecognizable face who was hit by a bus. Due to genius details in the dialogue, the viewer is under the illusion that George is still around, doing something off-screen, so that it can't dawn upon the first-time viewer that we haven't seen him after the John Doe patient was admitted. While I haven't been able to bring myself to re-watch the full episode (it's still too painful), I've re-watched certain scenes, and it's spooky as hell how you can recognize George from his eyes, if you know to look. But yeah, when watching for the first time, I was fooled.

And the reveal hits so Goddamn hard.

The moment in which Meredith realizes who the patient is, going into a panic (much like the viewer) while rushing to try and save her friend's life, is written, directed and acted with perfection. I cried so f**king hard when watching the final moments of the episode - the manner of the death was so shocking and tragic, but also so heartbreakingly fitting. Dying from getting hit by a bus, because he jumped in front of it to save a stranger, even though the stranger had just been a jerk to him, is just the most George O'Malley thing imaginable, and the heroic nature of his death left a haunting mark on the rest of the series. Rest in piece, man.

1. Sanctuary / Death and All His Friends (Season 6 Episodes 23-24)

I know, it's a bit of a basic take to put the mass shooting two-parter at #1, but really - it couldn't be anything else.

With the first instalment Sanctuary, we follow what starts off as a typical day at Seattle Grace - until it isn't. I had avoided spoilers when I arrived at the episode, although I knew it had a 9.7 on IMDB so I had speculated what might be behind such an exceptional rating. The minute I saw Gary Clark (Michael O'Neill), the man bitter about his wife's death from some episodes earlier, walking on the hallway with a bitter look, I felt my heart sink. I immediately knew what was going to happen. The rest of Sanctuary was sheer panic, with Stephen Cragg's expert directing making the atmosphere feel even more serious, real and claustrophobic than the show's other disaster episodes. It ends with Derek being shot, which made it to #15 on my list of the greatest-ever television cliffhangers.

Then we get the second instalment Death and All His Friends, which is somehow even better. It contains the hands-down best, most powerful moment of the series: with Derek about die, Cristina is in full despair upon learning there's no attending on their floor while they're on lockdown, and April (Sarah Drew) remarks that they can't operate on him because they don't have a heart surgeon - and Jackson (Jesse Williams), with a calm sureness, says that they do, giving Cristina a meaningful look. Yes, that right there is the greatest moment of the entire 20-season run. Not only did they manage to pull off a tragic, frighteningly real-feeling mass shooting episode, but they also utilized this context to create just the most ultimate moment of character development: after six seasons of kicking ass as a genius intern and resident, Cristina gets to / has to prove herself in the direst of circumstances. She has to take the lead on an impromptu high-stakes surgery, on the chief of surgery, who is also her best friend's husband, all while the hospital is undergoing an excpetional crisis.

The two-parter ends with 11 people dead, many more wounded, and ramifications that would reverberate throughout the following season - but with Derek Shepherd alive and well, thanks to Cristina being a goddamn hero under extraordinary circumstances. Powerful, powerful stuff.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for the final instalment of my Grey's Anatomy theme month: a ranking of every couple in the entire series.