The season 15 finale of Grey's Anatomy [1] is upon us, and it looks like it's going to be a disaster [2]. A disaster episode, that is, as a thick fog rolls into Seattle, contributing to a host of problems, complications, and, of course, injuries.
This is far from the first time the doctors of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital have found themselves at the epicentre of a rapidly unspooling catastrophe, and by now, most of the cast have been through enough crashes, explosions, and natural disasters to last a lifetime. However, all disasters are not created equally, and while some have had far-reaching consequences that rippled out into the following seasons and robbed us of beloved characters, others have barely caused the show to miss a step.
Today, we're looking back on the various disasters that have befallen the characters of Grey's Anatomy [3] over the course of its 15 seasons, from the ones that still leave us reeling to the ones that we honestly forgot ever happened.
The Train Crash: "Into You Like a Train"
The earliest disaster to affect the interns of Seattle Grace Hospital arrives in the form of a train crash during the second season. None of the doctors of Seattle Grace are involved in the crash itself, but Meredith becomes emotionally attached to Bonnie and Tom, two passengers on the train who have been skewered together by a metal pole ripping through their torsos.
It's an emotional episode, as Meredith projects her own romantic baggage onto her patients' situation, likening the choice of which patient's life to save to Derek's choice between whether to stay with Meredith or reconcile with his wife, Addison. Still, angsty as it is, the train crash doesn't have much of a lasting impact on anyone at the hospital, with even Meredith moving on pretty quickly.
The Bomb: "It's the End of the World" and "As We Know It"
In the second disaster episode of season two, a patient is brought into the ER with unexploded ammunition in his chest, and the bomb squad is brought in. Fresh off a premonition that she's going to die that day, Meredith winds up placing her hand inside the patient's open wound to keep him from bleeding out while the rest of the floor is cleared of personnel.
Things ultimately turn out all right for Meredith and the staff of Seattle Grace, but not so well for Dylan the Bomb Squad Guy (poor Kyle Chandler) [4], who disintegrates into pink mist when the bomb goes off in his hands. Although he is only in two episodes, the proximity of his death to Meredith has lasting repercussions on her mental health, with the character even returning as a hallucination in a later season while Meredith hovers on the brink of death.
The Ferry Crash: "Walk on Water" and "Drowning on Dry Land"
These two episodes come midway through the third season of the show and have the doctors jumping into action following a catastrophic ferry crash. While the first episode mostly focuses on the doctors treating patients who were previously unknown to them, the second hits much closer to home after Meredith is knocked into the freezing water and nearly drowns.
Although none of the main cast members are on the ferry when it crashes, this incident winds up having lasting repercussions for both Meredith and Alex, as Alex eventually becomes romantically involved with the Jane Doe he rescues, and Meredith continues to process what she experienced while she was unconscious for years to come, bringing it up again as recently as the penultimate episode of season 15 [5].
The Shooting: "Sanctuary" and "Death and All His Friends"
These two chilling episodes aired as the two-part season finale of season six and are arguably the tensest two episodes in Grey's Anatomy [6] history. When the grieving widower of a former patient goes on a murderous rampage, seeking revenge on the group of doctors — Derek Shepherd, Lexie Grey, and Richard Webber — who made the decision to take his wife off of life support, it winds up being the recently transferred residents from Mercy West who pay the biggest price.
These episodes mark the end of the journey for Drs. Reed Adamson and Charles Percy, but although they're the only casualties, several other characters come out of the episode significantly worse for wear. Derek, Alex, and Owen all get shot, while the stress of the situation causes Meredith to lose the pregnancy she had been celebrating earlier in the episode. In addition to the physical scars the doctors carry following the shooting, they all come out of the terrifying experience showing symptoms of PTSD, which manifests in numerous and varied ways throughout the next season.
The Sinkhole: "Free Falling" and "She's Gone"
This two-episode disaster kicks off the eighth season of the show and follows the doctors as they deal with a massive sinkhole that has opened up in the centre of Seattle. While this obviously leads to some tricky medical cases, including Callie and Owen's attempt to talk a man trapped at the bottom of the sinkhole through cutting off his wife's leg, most of the lasting drama in these two episodes is unrelated to the disaster itself, with Meredith temporarily kidnapping Zola, everyone turning on Alex after he reveals Meredith tampered with Derek's clinical trial, and Jackson being crowned the "Gunther," a title given to a resident who rises to become a natural leader during a high-pressure situation.
The Plane Crash: "Flight"
The eighth season of Grey's Anatomy [7] ends with a literal bang, as the plane intended to take a group of doctors to assist in a surgery in Boise, ID, crashes in the woods and the survivors have to fight for their lives. It's a harrowing episode made that much worse by the occasional cuts back to the hospital, where no one has even noticed they're missing. This episode ultimately claims the lives of Lexie Grey and Mark Sloan, along with Arizona Robbins's leg, Derek Shepherd's hand, and Cristina Yang's mental health. It also has multiple-season-spanning repercussions, as the surviving doctors eventually wind up suing, bankrupting, and ultimately buying the hospital, leading to its renaming as Grey Sloan Memorial.
The Superstorm: "Perfect Storm" and "Seal Our Fate"
The season nine finale occurs as a superstorm rolls into Seattle, knocking out the power at the hospital right as Meredith goes into labor. Of course she requires a C-section, which must be performed in the dark, but thankfully, both mom and baby come through it OK. The storm also leads to a bus crash, which causes April to realise how strong her feelings for Jackson are when the bus explodes and she worries he has died. However, the biggest storm-related consequence occurs at the end of the episode, when Richard Webber gets electrocuted trying to fix the emergency generator so the lights can be restored.
In the season 10 premiere, which picks up still during the storm, Heather Brooks is electrocuted trying to save Dr. Webber. While it takes a long time for Richard to fully recuperate from his injuries, the damage to Heather's body is too severe, and she dies in the following episode.
The Earthquake: "I Feel the Earth Move"
As disaster episodes go, this one from season 11 is pretty forgettable. An earthquake shakes Seattle, but the hospital itself and the staff are left largely unaffected. The biggest storyline to come out of the earthquake itself involves Owen, Amelia, and Richard talking an 11-year-old girl named Ruby (a pre-Stranger Things [8] Millie Bobby Brown) through a procedure over the phone, helping her treat a tension pneumothorax on her mother. However, as moving as Ruby's scenes are, they really don't have any significant impact on any of the main characters beyond this episode. The biggest revelation of the episode occurs when Meredith calls Derek, who is working in Washington DC, and a woman picks up his phone — but of course, that has nothing to do with the earthquake.
The Fire: "Ring of Fire"
The 13th season of Grey's Anatomy [9] concludes with a disaster episode that largely follows a single cast member, Dr. Stephanie Edwards, after she finds herself trapped with a patient who is revealed to be a rapist. Complicating an already distressing situation is a young girl named Erin, who wanders away from her parents and winds up trapped with the two of them, which leads to Steph setting the man on fire in order to save them both. Of course, the fire then spreads out of control, leading to the evacuation of much of the hospital while Steph battles the flames so she and Erin can get up to the roof.
Ultimately, both Steph and Erin are OK, but the near-death experience brings Stephanie a moment of clarity, and she realises she doesn't want to spend her life in a hospital saving lives instead of living her own. However, while this is the last episode where Stephanie appears, her departure doesn't wind up leaving as much of a hole as it should have; she is rarely mentioned in the following seasons, even by her best friends.
The Wind Storm: "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Shelter From the Storm"
The two episodes that bookend the midseason hiatus of season 15 centreed on a disastrous wind storm that results in all sorts of bizarre and intriguing injuries, such as a woman who comes in with her head impaled by a selfie stick. While none of the doctors suffers serious injuries as a result of the aggressive wind, it does lead to some significant moments of character development that ripple into later episodes, such as Levi and Nico getting trapped in an ambulance and subsequently having sex and Teddy and Owen [10] finally discussing Teddy's pregnancy while trapped in an lift with Amelia.