Grey's Anatomy: Who Does Christina Ricci Play In Season 2 & What Happens To Her?
The Season 2 "Grey's Anatomy" episode "It's the End of the World" and its follow-up, "As We Know It," are extremely extra. Sure, the world of "Grey's Anatomy" goes hand-in-hand with medical freakout melodrama — it was only weeks earlier that two patients were conjoined on a metal pole — but the writers really ratcheted up the drama for the infamous bomb episode.
When a World War II reenactor comes to the hospital with a homemade bomb wedged in his torso, the hospital goes into code-black evacuation mode. If that weren't enough, Dr. Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is in labor, her husband is having emergency brain surgery in the room next to the bomb patient, and the stress of it all gives Dr. Webber (James Pickens Jr.) a heart attack.
It's an especially stressful day for paramedic Hannah Davies, who isn't used to the deadly antics that plague Seattle Grace Hospital. Played by Christina Ricci, Davies arrives at the hospital arm-deep in the bleeding patient, not knowing her steady hand is the one thing keeping the bomb from going off. Ricci expertly demonstrates the 22-year-old paramedic's naïveté and mounting anxiety, especially when anesthesiologist Dr. Milton (Marty Lodge) ditches his Ambu bag duties, leaving Davies alone in the OR in a Kevlar vest.
Overwhelmed by fear, Davies ultimately jumps ship as well, leaving the closest doctor — Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) — to steady the bomb in the man's chest herself in the tense Part I cliffhanger.
Christina Ricci earned an Emmy nomination for the role
Even after running from the OR in "It's the End of the World," Christina Ricci's Hannah Davies remains in the backdrop for "As We Know It." In Part II of the episode, she shares her immense sense of guilt with George (T.R. Knight). "You think you're gonna be different," she says. "You think you're gonna be the kind of person who stays and does something."
At the end of the episode, Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington) credits Davies with keeping the man alive, and she reluctantly accepts a hug from his wife. The episode's other main guest star, Kyle Chandler, isn't so lucky. As bomb defuser Dylan Young, he bears the full blast of the explosion after helping Meredith extract the weapon. For her performance in the 2006 episodes, Ricci earned an Emmy nomination — an accolade she didn't receive again until 2022 for "Yellowjackets." The two-part episode also secured Shonda Rhimes an Emmy nomination in the writing category.
"It's the End of the World" and "As We Know It" maintain a certain lore within the pantheon of "Grey's Anatomy" episodes, and as the episode that aired directly after Super Bowl XL, Part I attracted an astounding 37.88 million viewers. Ellen Pompeo later recalled to Entertainment Weekly, "Nothing seemed as monumental back then because we had no idea how long this show would run or how iconic these moments would become."