Grey’s Anatomy is renowned for tackling complex and challenging topics. Over the years, the show has covered everything from a mass shooting to assaults to insurance fraud. What sets the show apart from other medical series is that Grey’s Anatomy always makes an emotional connection with viewers. The stories also reveal a human side despite the terrible events that unfold.
The show has also taken fans through some heartbreaking plots. Derek’s death marks a low moment that many fans didn’t see coming. Alex Karev’s departure also made many feel outraged and confused. While Grey’s Anatomy is well-loved and ahead of its time in so many ways, a few episodes are inevitably a bit problematic. Certain character treatments have also become controversial.
Two decades ago, Grey’s Anatomy took the world by storm. Since then, it has grown exponentially, evolving from a pilot studio that executives didn’t believe into the longest-running medical show in primetime TV history. People either love the show or hate the show, and specific episodes are equally divisive among fans. This article was updated to address a few more controversial Grey’s episodes and reflect CBR’s current publication standards.
15. Izzie Steals a Heart in “Losing My Religion”
Season 2, Episode 27
The episode where Izzie cuts Denny’s LVAD is wild, and it didn’t age well. Izzie is an intern, and cutting Denny’s LVAD potentially has permanent consequences. What Izzie did in the episode is highly unethical. It’s also the kind of thing that would put an end to her medical license and risk the entire hospital’s standing as a transplant center.
Izzie, as a doctor, knows better than that. Not only is it one of the most asinine storylines in Grey’s, but it also shows Izzie bullying her fellow interns into helping her. What’s more problematic is the fact that Izzie gets to stay on the program, despite having cut the LVAD. More than a decade after the episode’s premiere, many fans are still not getting over what Izzie did.
14. Burke Leaves Cristina at the Altar in “Didn’t We Almost Have it All?”
Season 3, Episode 25
Izzie and Denny are far from the only inappropriate relationship featured throughout Grey’s Anatomy, as Season 1 introduced couples like Meredith Grey and Derek Shepherd and Cristina Yang and Preston Burke, both of whom had intern/attending dynamics. All of them are problematic in their own right, but Cristina and Burke didn’t last as long as MerDer did. Throughout the three seasons, they were together, Burktina was toxic, as he held education opportunities over her head to manipulate her into being a traditional wife.
Cristina chose to prioritize Burke’s happiness over her own. She risked her career to cover for him, bit her tongue when his mother was disrespectful, and even agreed to a big traditional church wedding despite not wanting all the fuss. When Season 3 closed out, Cristina was eyebrow-less and wearing a suffocating dress, preparing to walk down the aisle. But, as she panics after washing off her vows, Burke realizes he doesn’t want to marry Cristina and never really loved her. He left her at the altar, which is one of the worst ways to dump someone.
13. Alex Leaves Jo Through a Letter “Leave a Light On”
Season 16, Episode 16
Alex choosing Izzie isn’t too far off from what Alex would do. However, the way Alex says goodbye to everyone in the hospital is simply one of the worst things that has ever happened in Grey’s Anatomy. Alex leaves Jo, his current wife, by breaking the news to her in a letter. He also leaves a letter to each of the most meaningful people in his life.
Such an action is outrageous and out of character. Grey’s Anatomy focuses on Alex’s growth throughout the years. Bailey taught him better, and so did Meredith. Season 1 Alex might leave everything behind through a letter, but Season 16 Alex wouldn’t. Ever since the episode aired, fans have been vocal about the show’s mistreatment of Alex’s farewell.
12. The Two-Part Shooting Episode Doesn’t Make Sense
Season 5, Episodes 23 and 24
The hospital shooting kills off a few characters on Grey’s Anatomy. While it plays a huge part in Meredith and Derek’s relationship arc, it has a few details that fans can’t let go of. There are a few questionable decisions the hospital shooting episode makes.
For starters, Reed dies on the spot due to a gunshot wound to her forehead. Since Derek, Lexie and Webber are Gary Clark’s true targets, he probably would’ve checked on Derek after injuring him the first time. The operation scene also confuses fans about Clark’s actions. He could’ve just ended the operation right away, yet the scene is riddled with unnecessary drama. Clark doesn’t end up killing any of his targets. Instead, he’s only fatal to those who aren’t related to his wife’s death. It seems that Grey’s needed to write a few characters out of the story and only used Clark to do it.
11. Fans Tend to Skip “Song Beneath the Song”
Season 7, Episode 18
Grey’s Anatomy once produced a musical episode. Back then, Buffy the Vampire Slayer did a musical episode, so the medical drama series continued the trend. However, “Song Beneath the Song” turned out to be one that fans tend to skip.
Callie and Arizona get into a car accident in this episode. While her friends and colleagues work on rescuing her, Callie has an out-of-body experience and starts to see everything in music. The cast took vocal lessons in preparation for the singing portion of the episode. Despite the episode’s ability to offer fans a special glimpse into the cast’s singing abilities, “Song Beneath the Song” wasn’t very well-received. The singing overweighs the plot, which makes this episode skippable.
10. Grey’s Introduced a Brain Tumor For No Reason in “Get Off on the Pain”
Season 14, Episode 2
Grey’s Anatomy introduced Amelia Shepherd to the show as Derek’s little sister. She had a bad past, marred by tragedy, substance abuse, and generally reckless behavior. So, she was the outcast of the Shepherd family.
Amelia taking over as the head of neurosurgery at Grey Sloan didn’t change that a whole lot. She offers a unique perspective on grief and trauma that other Grey’s characters lack, and her recovery storyline provides some representation. Amelia’s an erratic character, but no one was expecting Season 14 to reveal a massive tumor sitting in her brain. It had been growing for several years, likely causing her long-term instability and giving Grey’s Anatomy a mediocre excuse for years of questionable writing.
9. George’s Solo Surgery Earns Him the Nickname 007 in “A Hard Day’s Night”
Season 1, Episode 1
It’s extremely unfair that George gets the nickname, 007. It doesn’t really make sense because George’s patient isn’t dead. He freezes during his first solo surgery, which could happen to anyone. Given the number of errors and bizarre “treatments” each of them has done that result in their patients’ deaths, George doesn’t deserve his nickname at all. It seems a little overdramatic and poorly executed to show how the others are bullying him.
At least once, every Grey’s doctor deserved to be fired, arrested, or both. Alex accidentally kills a patient when he gets the dosage wrong. Izzie steals a heart. Meredith nicked a patient’s heart. They have all done terrible things that make them worthy of the “licensed to kill” moniker. George, on the other hand, saves a patient in the elevator. The nickname here really doesn’t make sense.
8. Izzie Has a Steamy Relationship With Denny in “The Midnight Hour”
Season 5, Episode 9
The episode takes place when Izzie starts to show symptoms of cancer, but she has not yet figured out what that means. While it makes sense for Izzie to see Denny, it doesn’t make sense for the two of them to jump into a physical relationship together. Izzie is in a relationship with Alex. Even having hot sessions with a ghost is still being unfaithful. Yet, she does it without a second thought.
Izzie’s relationship with ghost Denny doesn’t make sense on so many levels. The episode is cringey and unnecessary. It also opens a can of worms by inviting viewers to think about what’s really going on there. When Denny asks Izzie to touch him, it’s already clear enough that she’s hallucinating, and they should’ve just stopped there.
7. Derek Kills a Pregnant Woman in “An Honest Mistake”
Season 5, Episode 16
From the first episode of Grey’s, Derek Shepherd was the dreamy brain surgeon who always took on mysterious cases. The word inoperable didn’t exist to McDreamy. So, when a patient named Jen Harmon came into the hospital heavily pregnant and with a ticking time bomb of an aneurysm, he didn’t hesitate to dig a scalpel into her brain.Unfortunately, Jen was around long enough for fans to love her, and Derek got way too cocky. He took her into surgery and accidentally clipped the aneurysm, which put Jen and the fetus in grave danger. When things went south in surgery, Derek made the ridiculous decision to remove both her temporal and frontal lobes and far overstepped his bounds by trying to intimidate Dr. Addison Montgomery out of delivering the fetus. However, he should’ve known only one of the two had a chance of life by that point.
6. George Dies in “Now or Never”
Season 5, Episode 24
George is a beloved character, but throughout Season 5, he slowly retreats to the background. George is barely in the story in the fifth season. His character doesn’t get as much screen time as the rest. There were several ways to kill off George if Grey’s Anatomy didn’t want him around, but having him die a gruesome death left a poor taste in fans’ mouths. It’s made even worse knowing that actor T.R. Knight’s exit as George was problematic in real life.
Meredith finds out John Doe is really George by revisiting his worst nickname, 007. George is going to leave for the army, and since he’s already on his way out, his death seemed like overkill. George’s death is unnecessary and cruel for a character so well-loved.
5. Meredith Handles Derek’s Death Poorly in “How to Save a Life”
Season 11, Episode 21
Even years after Derek left Grey’s Anatomy, fans are still not over his death. This twist of events is handled poorly because the series has shown Meredith having nightmares about Derek dying in an accident a few times before it becomes a reality. It’s cruel enough to have Derek die in the worst way possible by Meredith’s standards, which itself is outrageous. However, that’s not the episode’s worst crime.
Even the writers later realized that they handled Meredith’s reaction poorly. Derek has a big family, and Meredith fails to inform any of them of what happened. Amelia has to find out the truth after the fact. This is possibly also true for Derek’s mother and his other sisters. Meredith unquestionably isolates herself and her children in the situation, putting up walls and just ignoring everyone around them in her grief. Unfortunately, by doing that, she stole the opportunity for Derek’s family to say goodbye to him, which he mentioned was his biggest wish shortly after they met.
4. Alex Nearly Kills DeLuca in “Undo”
Season 13, Episode 1
Alex Karev entered Grey’s Anatomy as a plain old jerk. He was a sexist, violent, and disrespectful bully for a while in the show. But once he befriended Meredith Grey, he began to mature a bit. Then he found his calling in pediatric surgery, where he could save and protect kids like he had not been during his childhood.Karev’s character arc was one of the best in the show, but his goodbye wasn’t the first time he stirred controversy. In Season 13, Alex is deeply in love with Jo, but they aren’t on the same page, creating a lot of tension between them. One night, Jo gets a little too drunk, and Andrew DeLuca makes sure she gets home safely. Unfortunately, right as she drunkenly takes her clothes off and DeLuca falls on top of her, Alex walks in and assumes the worst. While one could argue he had good intentions, protecting his lady from a perceived sexual assault, most agree it doesn’t excuse beating him near death, considering two seconds’ worth of communication could’ve explained the situation.
3. Callie and Arizona Get Controversial Advice in “Bend & Break”
Season 11, Episode 5
After a few seasons documenting Calzona’s iconic relationship timeline, Callie and Arizona eventually go to couples counseling. However, the counselor’s advice gets very mixed reactions from fans. The episode features the couple being advised to go no contact on all matters except for necessary coparenting communication. People have mixed feelings about that, with many suggesting that communication is the thing that could’ve saved their marriage.
The outcome speaks for itself. After making it to the end of the month without talking to each other, the pair are even further from the same page. Callie realizes that she’s been the one chasing Arizona through their entire relationship, and she was happier during their no-contact period than she had been in a while, which leads her to end their relationship. The entire storyline is controversial, but many fans believe the counselor didn’t do them any favors. Couples go to relationship counseling to save their relationships, but sometimes the relationship is over before any of the parties realize it, which is arguably what happened with Calzona.
2. Leah Files a Complaint in “Fear (of the Unknown)”
Season 10, Episode 24
The Grey’s Anatomy episode where Leah files a complaint against Callie for letting her personal life interfere with medical decisions during a surgery is one of the worst moments in Callie’s life. Not only does Callie find out who Arizona has been having a casual relationship with, but she also has to work with that person. Several other things went wrong in Callie’s life. This episode is one of the most controversial because fans can’t agree on whether Leah did the right thing.
Many find Leah’s complaint well-justified, given that she’s in a more vulnerable position. Both Callie and Arizona are her teachers, and while she’s trying to learn and be a surgeon, the two wrap her in their drama and compromise her learning. On the other hand, many fans disagree. While it makes for superb drama, some fans also believe that Callie didn’t deserve to get a complaint against her. During the surgery, Callie didn’t know about Leah and Arizona’s relationship, and Leah made a potentially devastating rookie mistake that warranted a scolding. Leah turning to Arizona to defend her in the middle of surgery is the only reason Callie found out about the relationship. But a sexual harassment complaint was bound to happen at some point, given the Seattle Grace/Grey Sloan tradition of inappropriate workplace relationships.
1. Callie and Arizona’s Custody Battle is Horrible in “Mama Tried”
Season 12, Episode 22
Callie and Arizona were a beloved couple in Grey’s Anatomy, and Season 7 featured some of their most poignant and heart-wrenching moments. During the season, Callie gets pregnant with her best friend, Mark, and the trio makes an unexpectedly phenomenal parenting unit for baby Sofia Robbin Sloan-Torres. But a plane crash in the Season 9 premiere took Mark out of the equation entirely and destroyed Arizona. After Callie made the very rational decision to amputate Arizona’s leg and save her life, their marriage was effectively over.
That split didn’t get official until Season 11, and it unfortunately got very messy. Their breakup was controversial, but the subsequent custody battle was ridiculous. In the episode, Callie’s lawyers drag Arizona through the mud, portraying her as unfit due to her job and suggesting that Callie is more like Sofia’s mom than Arizona, given that Arizona had adopted her. Custody battles are never fun, but the entire storyline was a slap in the face to the audience and was so out of character it’s infuriating.
