Grey's Anatomy's 20th season is already coming to a close, with the finale slated to air at the end of May. The showrunner and stars of the season recently raised the alarm for fans to brace themselves for the finale, as it's set to feature a cliffhanger. It's unclear what the episode has in store for fans, but Grey's Anatomy has a notable history of cliffhangers.

Grey's Anatomy has been around for nearly two decades, and it's still going strong. The show has a simple premise as it's a dramatic show set in a Seattle-based hospital that follows the lives and careers of surgeons. The show spotlights healthcare, including surgeries, complex surgical cases, medical research, and scientific breakthroughs. Hospitals can be chaotic environments, but Grey's kicks it up about a hundred notches, with just about every season ending with a disaster, whether it's a mass casualty event or significant losses for the main characters.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

01x09

N/A

Dr. Addison Montgomery (Entrance)

Grey's Anatomy's first episode opens with the first branch on Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd's relationship timeline, as the first scene shows Meredith waking up and kicking a naked Derek out of the house following a one-night stand. Things went sideways during Meredith's first day of work as she discovered Derek's first day was at her hospital as the head of neurosurgery, making him her boss. For much of the season, their fling consists of secret rendezvous in the hospital's elevators and stairwells. But they grow closer throughout the season, starting a more serious relationship that Meredith expected to last.

Season 1 only lasted nine episodes, with the finale, "Who's Zoomin Who," marking the show's first major cliffhanger. The episode centers around secrets as Meredith hides her mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis from Derek, and Derek gets many secretive phone calls throughout the day. Although Meredith decides to tell Derek about her mom and most of the secrets throughout the episode unravel, Derek keeps his secret hidden.

But, as Meredith and Derek head out for the day, a gorgeous redheaded woman approaches them. She speaks to Derek briefly about the unanswered phone calls before addressing Meredith. She introduces herself as Addison Shepherd and drops the iconic bombshell, "And you must be the woman who's been screwing my husband."

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

13x23

13x24

Dr. Stephanie Edwards (Exit)

By the start of Season 13, Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital earned several transformations, going from Seattle Grace to Seattle Grace Mercy West and eventually Grey-Sloan Memorial. The hospital was no stranger to disasters at this point, but it's not very often that a Code Orange gets called. In Grey's Anatomy, the Chief of Surgery calls a Code Orange when a staff member is in danger. One of the few times the code appears in the show happens in Season 13 after the doctors treat two people involved in a car accident. They wrongfully assumed the pair to be dating, considering their clothes were partially removed, but unfortunately, the female was a victim of an attempted sexual assault.

The doctors didn't know this, as the male was the only one conscious during most of the situation. As such, he wasn't deemed a threat, so Dr. Stephanie Edwards took over his care. While they were in the hallway, the other doctors figured out the situation. The information didn't reach Steph until the patient held a scalpel to her side, forcing her to take him somewhere he could escape. She obeyed, taking him into an empty hallway, where they got trapped by the lockdown and weren't alone as a little girl got trapped in the hallway with them.

The man then got the brilliant idea to start a fire to override the lockdown, and Steph jumped on the opportunity to spray him with a highly flammable alcohol solution, setting him on fire. She runs toward the little girl to get her to safety, watching as the man runs around in flames before realizing he landed right next to several oxygen tanks. The final moments of the episode show Stephanie running toward the fire to eliminate the threat. As soon as she enters the room, the tanks explode, sending her flying backward. The last scene shows Meredith Grey walking toward the hospital as a fireball bursts out of the upper story, leaving Stephanie's fate unknown.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

02x25

02x26 & 02x27

Denny Duquette (Death)

Denny Duquette's introduction in Season 2 of Grey's Anatomy created a new love interest for Izzie Stevens, making it her most problematic but arguably her most iconic relationship in the show. He was a viral cardiomyopathy patient waiting for a new heart at Seattle Grace under the care of Dr. Burke, Dr. Bailey, and Dr. Stevens. Despite Denny being her patient, Izzie falls for his charm, and he eventually asks her to marry him.

Given his state at the beginning of his run, fans knew deep down that Denny wouldn't last long in the show. But the setup for his death was wild, tense, and heartbreaking. The sequence started when a heart became available for Denny. Unfortunately, as Dr. Burke showed up to collect the organ, another surgeon had the same idea, and the situation became a battle with UNOS over whom the heart belonged to. Izzie, desperate for her fianc to get the heart, crossed the line by lying to Dr. Burke, claiming Denny's condition was deteriorating to get him bumped to 1A status, which would guarantee he got the heart.

The end of the episode features Izzie cutting Denny's LVAD wire to ensure that tests would corroborate her story. She cut the wire, manually pumped Denny's heart, and insisted that Burke would return soon to help. The episode ends with gunshots echoing through the ER and the doctors rushing out to see Burke lying on the ground with a gunshot wound, effectively leaving Izzie and Denny helpless.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

07x17

07x18

Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres (Birth)

One of the pivotal parts of Callie Torres and Arizona Robbins' relationship was Arizona's stint working in Africa. When Arizona left for the job, she and Callie broke up, and Callie got pregnant following an affair with her best friend, Mark Sloan. Shortly after Callie found out she was pregnant, Arizona returned to Seattle, and despite some bumps, they got back together and formed a parenting unit along with Mark.

A mid-Season 7 episode shows them excited about the pregnancy as they throw a baby shower. Then, the couple heads out for a pre-baby vacation in the episode's final moments. Arizona drives them there, and even though they get into a brief spat, she asks Callie to marry her. Unfortunately, right after she pops the question, Callie looks ahead, they gasp, and they presumably wreck their car as soon as the end screen appears. Devoted fans of the show know exactly what happens next, as the follow-up episode, "Song Beneath the Song," picks up with Arizona pushing her airbag away to discover Callie lying on the hood of the car, sticking through the broken windshield following their vehicle rear-ending a truck at high speeds.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

09x23

09x24 & 10x01

Dr. Heather Brooks (Death) & Derek Bailey Shepherd (Birth)

The Grey's Anatomy Season 9 finale got split into two, like many Grey's episodes, but it also featured two notable cliffhangers. The main event in the finale was a superstorm heading toward Seattle, with the doctors bracing for the severe weather and the chaos following a natural disaster. The first episode is dramatic as they prepare for the storm, and Meredith and Derek deal with an incident involving Alex's infamous anger. The episode ends with Meredith calmly announcing that her water broke.

Of course, the revelation led to the next episode featuring her first time going into labor, and it didn't go smoothly. She couldn't push naturally, as the baby wasn't in the right position, and then the power went out. She and Derek had a healthy baby boy, and Meredith instructed her husband to stay with the baby before she started having more complications, which required more surgery in the dark. The real cliffhanger unfolds after MerDer introduces their daughter, Zola, to her new baby brother, Bailey. As Meredith's end-of-episode voiceover begins, the camera shows Dr. Webber lying motionless on the wet floor next to the sparking circuit box, his lab coat still smoking from the electrocution.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

05x24

05x23 & 06x01

Dr. George O'Malley (Death)

Season 5 of Grey's Anatomy was chaotic for the original MAGIC group, as Izzie Stevens gets diagnosed with cancer. Unfortunately, by the time she caught the cancer, it metastasized to other organs, like her brain, which made her chances of survival very slim. The finale shows Izzie's condition at a pivotal point, as the group had to take the days one at a time. But the episode also features George at a crossroads in his life, as he decides to leave Seattle Grace and join the U.S. Army as a trauma surgeon. The episode features the glorious reaction to this decision by Dr. Miranda Bailey, who reacts as he expected, and that's all fans see from George as he presumably operates with Dr. Webber for the day. His friends attend to a John Doe who got badly disfigured after saving a woman from getting hit by a bus.

The most difficult parts of the episode happen back-to-back, as John Doe writes the number "007" in Meredith's hand, calling back to his "licensed to kill" label given by his peers. As Meredith yells, "It's George," to everyone who cares about him, Izzie starts coding. As one group rushes George into surgery, the others try to resuscitate Izzie. While both slip away, Izzie appears in her Season 2 prom dress, entering the elevator as she did when Denny died. When the elevator doors open, she sees George standing in front of her in his military uniform. While the best friends stare at each other, the attention shifts to Izzie's body as Dr. Webber shocks her one more time during Meredith's voiceover before the screen goes black.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

11x20

11x21, 11x22, 11x23

Dr. Derek Shepherd (Death) & Ellis Shepherd (Birth)

The Season 11 episode, "One Flight Down," put Ellen Pompeo's character, Meredith, through the wringer nonstop. Her first scene in the show featured her standing on the hospital's bridge, trying to call Derek after a rough patch in their marriage, including lackluster or nonexistent communication for weeks. Shortly after she finishes the voicemail, a group of interns informs her about a nearby plane crash. As she enters the ER, she experiences post-traumatic stress flashbacks of the Season 8 plane crash, and although she and Arizona hide in a storage closet, both women go to work and do what they can.

Meredith has many flashbacks to the plane crash and happier flashbacks of her and Derek. While her trauma has a severe impact on her day, a lot of her anxiety stems from not knowing Derek's whereabouts. She mentions to Callie that Derek missed his meeting that morning, and she hadn't heard from him. One of the things getting her through the day was a deal she made with herself, basically allowing herself to worry if he didn't contact her by five.

The final scene shows Meredith sitting at home, staring at the clock, watching as the two final minutes tick by. As her voiceover speaks about reacting to a worst-case scenario, Meredith stands to grab the phone. Her dialing gets interrupted as a police car approaches the house, red and blue lights flashing against her solemn face in the window. As the next episode proves, Meredith's worst-case scenario was becoming a widow.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

02x16

02x17

Dylan "Bomb Squad Guy" Young (Death)

Fans of Grey's Anatomy know the significance of the words "Code Black." Across the show's 20 seasons, a Code Black was only called once and was one of the first major disasters featured. The Season 2 episode, "It's the End of the World," had an interesting start as Meredith's voiceover spoke about death and the eerie feelings one could get beforehand. Meredith doesn't want to get out of bed that day, feeling like she'll die. When the group heads to work, Alex, Cristina, and Meredith attend to an incoming trauma while George and Izzie attend to a laboring Dr. Bailey. As soon as the ambulance doors open, it's chaos as a screaming woman climbs out, and the doctors discover a paramedic's hand inside the patient's gaping chest wound.

Everything plays out as normal, with the group attending to their patients until Alex gets crucial information about the chest wound patient. He runs to the OR, informs Burke of the situation, and the cardio attending calmly utters the words "bomb squad" and "Code Black." The patient didn't just get shot in the chest; he got shot in the chest with a bazooka, leaving live, unexploded ammunition in an OR.

The first episode in the two-parter ends with the paramedic pulling her hand out and running while everyone in the OR hits the deck. But Meredith remains standing at the patient's side, with her hand now keeping the bomb in place. The final episode in the bomb saga, "As We Know It," picks up immediately after Meredith gets put in direct mortal danger. But everything plays out within the episode. The final shock comes when the bomb blows up, and Meredith flies back because of the blast. Luckily, there wasn't a second cliffhanger, and the end of the episode is quite peaceful, with only the bomb squad guy dying in the blast.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

06x23

06x22 & 06x24

Dr. Charles Percy (Death) & Dr. Reed Adamson (Death)

The penultimate episode in Grey's Anatomy Season 6 started with a Meredith voiceover discussing how she was raised in the hospital and how it was her sanctuary. She says she loves the place, but when the camera shows Meredith walking past a specific man, she says "Correction: loved it here." The man's name is Gary Clark, and he was a notable character throughout the season as his wife didn't make it through post-op. Gary blamed Derek for killing her as he deemed her brain-dead and had to respect the wishes of her advanced directive, which prohibited life support. "Sanctuary" shows Gary looking for Derek through the busy hospital. It eventually leads him to a supply closet, where he encounters Dr. Reed Adamson, who doesn't give him the answers he wants. As soon as she tells him she's a surgeon, he shoots her in the head, shooting Alex in the side shortly after. It doesn't take long for the hospital to go under lockdown.

The action doesn't waver in the next scenes, as Gary shoots surgeons, security guards, and even nurses on his trek to Derek's office. The main characters attend to various patients, including Alex and Dr. Charles Percy, who both got shot. Cristina and Meredith walk through the hallway, stopping when they see Gary holding Derek at gunpoint. The men talk, and even though Gary appears to hesitate, he shoots Derek in the chest. Cristina holds Meredith back as she screams as Derek falls to the ground. Meredith's voiceover repeats as the camera focuses on Derek's face. The final scene of the episode features Derek closing his eyes. Luckily, the next episode has a calmer ending as Gary Clark's rampage ends, but it's one of the most suspenseful season finales in TV history.

Episode Number

Notable Episodes

Notable Deaths/Exits/Entrances

08x23

08x24 & 09x01

Dr. Lexie Grey (Death) & Dr. Mark Sloan (Death)

Grey's Anatomy fans can likely agree that the Season 8 finale episode is the most difficult to sit through. The penultimate episode, "Migration," mainly focuses on the residents as they make decisions about their future. But the episode's ending shows Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Mark, Lexie, and Arizona on a plane heading to Boise to assist in a conjoined twins separation surgery.

The last scene shows birds taking off from treetops, with the sun shining through branches. But then it shows pieces of the airplane scattered across the ground, the aircraft having split in the middle. The camera swaps to a close-up of Meredith's face with her eyes closed as her voiceover says, "There's always next year." Fans know what happens next, as "Flight" features the surgeons fighting for survival in the wilderness, with only five of the seven surviving through Season 9.

A drama centered on the personal and professional lives of five surgical interns and their supervisors.

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The Best Grey's Anatomy Cliffhangers, Ranked - CBR