30 Best Grey's Anatomy Episodes Ranked

Introduced as a mid-season replacement in 2005, executives never could have known that "Grey's Anatomy," a medical drama created by Shonda Rhimes — and named as a cheeky nod to the famous medical textbook "Gray's Anatomy" — would become one of the network's all-time biggest hits. Over many seasons and hundreds of episodes, fans have feverishly followed the career of Dr. Meredith Grey, from her origins as a timid intern with a famous surgeon for a mother to becoming a legendary doctor in her own right.

Throughout its run, the hospital at the center of "Grey's Anatomy" sees plenty of drama, from various romantic entanglements to natural disasters to shocking events — including plane crashes, mass murders, and ferry boat accidents. From a disgruntled (and armed) grieving widower roaming the hospital to some seriously difficult episodes to some of the show's biggest romantic moments, here are the best episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," as decided by fans on IMDb. Major spoilers ahead!

Before the epic second season of "Grey's Anatomy" can come to an end, everything has to be set in motion, which is exactly what happens in "17 Seconds," the last episode before the beloved two-part finale. While they treat victims of a shooting at a local restaurant where a gunman opened fire on the employees — though he's really aiming for his awful boss — the doctors at Seattle Grace cope with their own personal problems, including Izzie, Denny, Addison, Meredith, and Derek.

Thanks to an argument over the fact that Meredith is dating Finn, Derek and Meredith are barely speaking, even as they watch their shared dog, Doc, suffer from bone cancer that's spreading throughout his body. Suspicious, Addison asks Meredith if anything is going on ... only to discover who the younger doctor is romantically involved with, which culminates in a huge fight between Addison and Derek. 

On top of everything else, Izzie — who's just discovered that her boyfriend, Denny, is only 17 seconds behind the first person on the list for a heart transplant — devises a terrible plan, and in the last few moments of the episode, Burke gets shot by the same shooter who attacked the restaurant. As far as "Grey's" episodes go, "17 Seconds" definitely brings the drama.

When it comes to unforgettable deaths on "Grey's," fans will never forget the death of Dr. Derek Shepherd, who — after helping victims of a car accident on the side of the road — is struck by a truck while driving his own car. Brought to a small hospital without adequate resources to help him, Derek, unable to speak and severely injured, is left brain dead after the hospital staff fails to give him a head CT that would've saved his life.

After Meredith grapples with Derek's death at the small hospital and confronts the resident whose inaction led to his death, she returns home to Seattle after an absence, presumably on the mend emotionally ... until Meredith's colleague, Callie Torres, brings that same resident, Dr. Penny Blake, to a dinner party at Meredith's house, unaware that her new girlfriend was involved in Derek's death. When Bailey reveals that Penny is transferring to Grey Sloan Memorial as a surgical resident, Meredith loses it, declaring that she can't work with "the woman who killed Derek," setting off emotional reactions from anyone in the room. Add in a drunken Arizona, plenty of cooking problems, and Meredith's half-sister Maggie, and you've got a classic "Grey's" episode.

In Season 6's "The Time Warp," Derek, who takes over from Dr. Webber as the hospital's chief of surgery, decides to reinstate a lecture series, which allows for the series to flash back to earlier times in the lives of several of the doctors and lets us to see where they came from. Webber, Bailey, and Callie — the last of whom is terrified of public speaking — all take the stage to detail some of their most memorable cases, and the results are pretty spectacular.

While Webber goes all the way back to his days working alongside Meredith's mother (and his secret lover), Dr. Ellis Grey – played in flashback by Sarah Paulson – Callie's story finds her transforming a young man's club foot, and it's a tale that's much more recent. Meanwhile, the now-formidable Dr. Bailey details her time as a resident, though it probably leaves out the details the audience sees — which is that Bailey, as a meek, shy intern working under a brutal resident played by Missi Pyle, solved a medical mystery despite being foiled by her superior at every turn. "The Time Warp" doesn't have any modern medical wonders, but that doesn't make this episode any less exciting.

After Meredith and Derek give up the church wedding they honestly never wanted to let Izzie and Alex get married in the wake of her cancer diagnosis, Derek comes to a startling realization. He finally knows how he can operate on Izzie's dangerous brain tumor. Armed with confidence and newfound knowledge, Derek does some tests on Izzie, only to discover that if he operates in the vicinity of the tumor, Izzie could lose her memory or even the power to speak. After dealing with her mother's debilitating Alzheimer's, Meredith begs Izzie not to get the surgery, but Izzie's newly minted husband demands that she have it for both of their sakes.

At first, Izzie isn't sure what to do, but she has a sudden realization when her new friend, Alison, a fellow cancer patient who needs emergency surgery and leaves the operating room without the ability to breathe on her own. Devastated by Alison's experience with an aggressive form of chemotherapy, Izzie agrees to have the surgery and goes under the knife ... just after she signs a "do not resuscitate" order, leaving her loved ones in flux.

Natural disasters are a dime a dozen on "Grey's Anatomy," and time after time, they put these Seattle surgeons in some super dangerous situations. And the Season 9 finale, "Perfect Storm," follows that formula perfectly. 

In the midst of a storm boasting hurricane-level winds, Meredith goes into labor with her and Derek's second child as the power to the entire hospital keeps flickering. Meanwhile, Arizona — in the aftermath of losing her leg in a plane crash and dealing with her increasingly troubled marriage to Callie — sleeps with craniofacial surgeon Dr. Lauren Boswell, who's at the hospital consulting on a pediatric case.

Before long, things get very bad very quickly. Meredith starts bleeding out after her delivery with only a few residents to save her, Callie discovers Arizona's betrayal thanks to her inside-out scrub top, and Jackson throws himself into a burning bus to save a young girl. Ultimately, Bailey saves Meredith's life (and Meredith names her son after her savior), and Jackson survives, but the episode ends on a cliffhanger with Richard in the hospital basement, lying in a puddle of water after being electrocuted near the power system.

Early in its run, "Grey's" thrived on two-part disaster episodes, and in the Season 3 duo "Walk on Water" and "Drowning on Dry Land," viewers watch as a ferry crash puts one of the hospital's most important figures in mortal peril. Called to the waterfront to deal with a massive boat wreck with hundreds of victims, the residents are faced with countless challenges, and unfortunately, Meredith isn't at her best. After her mother recently regained lucidity, the two had a horrible interaction, leaving Meredith doubting all of her life choices.

As Izzie, who's just returned to the surgical rotation, prepares to do a life-saving surgery on a whim in the field and Cristina tries to figure out how to tell Meredith about her engagement, everything turns on a dime when Meredith — trying to help a little girl and a distraught, injured man — is knocked into the water ... and doesn't swim. In the second installment, Meredith's loved ones find out that her life is in danger and wait as Webber and Bailey desperately try to save her life, saying they won't rest until she's "warm and dead" (the same tactic they use in "Cold as Ice" for April). Whether or not Meredith will wake up is a question the next episode answers, giving viewers a gripping cliffhanger as "Drowning on Dry Land" comes to a close.

After the events of "Freedom Part 1," the first half of the Season 4 finale, Meredith and Derek find themselves at odds over their groundbreaking surgical trial. Derek, disheartened by all of the patients they've lost, wants to end it, while Meredith wants to admit one more patient, Beth. Meanwhile, other doctors try to free a young man who decided to lie down in fresh cement as a dare, Cristina regains her surgical groove thanks to a pager that alerts her to every new surgery, and Alex's troubled girlfriend, Rebecca, has some extremely troubling mental health problems.

Even though Derek doesn't want to take Beth on as a patient, Meredith manipulates the system so that he does so anyway, and in the end, he's rewarded for his efforts. Beth survives and becomes the first success of his groundbreaking trial. As a result, Meredith and Derek, who spend the better part of Season 4 apart, reunite in a house made of candles, truly "rekindling" their romance once and for all.

An episode named for a "Hamilton" ditty, season 16 episode "My Shot" tackles the aftermath of Meredith's suspension by the medical board — which she incurred after falsifying insurance information to help a sick child. With her license on the line, Meredith is concerned that she'll never be legally permitted to operate again, but her friends and colleagues help her out until the very end.

The hearing gets off to a pretty rocky start when one of the doctors on the panel begins criticizing Meredith personally — only for her to point out that he was one of the physicians present when Derek died. After their confrontation, another doctor on the panel has a seizure. When he needs surgery, the hearing is nearly postponed ... until Alex brings a parade of Meredith's former patients into the room, all of whom traveled to speak on her behalf. Fans of "Grey's" know that Meredith is a great doctor, but in "My Shot," it's gratifying to watch the people she's treated help her retain her medical license.

Season 5's "Elevator Love Letter," which features one of the show's biggest romantic moments, also opens with an unsettling scene depicting post-traumatic stress disorder. As Cristina and Owen fall asleep next to each other, Owen, a veteran, finds himself disturbed by her ceiling fan. This leads to a horrifying scene where an unconscious Owen chokes Cristina in his sleep. Devastated but loyal to Owen, Cristina seeks help from Meredith — who is furious at Owen and, by extension, Cristina.

Amidst this, Derek is trying to figure out the best way to finally propose to Meredith after years of buildup. He also has to perform surgery on Izzie's brain tumor, leading to a hectic day throughout the hospital. After Derek proposes in an elevatored lined with scans of cases he and Meredith worked on together, Meredith tells Cristina she's engaged ... only for Cristina to reveal that she split up with Owen. The episode's central story might focus on Derek and Meredith, but it's only right that it ends with Meredith and Cristina by one another's side.

"Grey's Anatomy" tends to explore morally gray areas. During a Season 5 storyline in which a convicted murderer gets moved to the hospital from death row, Meredith and Derek's opposing beliefs are truly put to the test. Rather than simply let killer William Dunn die of his neurological injuries, Derek says the man doesn't deserve pity and is hellbent on saving him. Meanwhile, Meredith finds herself weirdly drawn to the man. When a dying young boy desperately needs organ donation, Meredith tries to convince William to injure himself further — infuriating Derek after he discovers the ruse.

The young boy ultimately gets organs from a different patient, and William receives surgery, returns to Death Row, and is executed by the state of Washington. As a twisted act of compassion, Meredith attends the execution and watches William die, breaking down in her car afterwards. Derek, at a loss, begs Cristina — with whom Meredith has been fighting — for help, and the two make up as Cristina consoles Meredith. "Stairway to Heaven" might seem like a pretty dark episode, but as Meredith and Cristina rekindle their friendship, even this unsettling episode has a happy ending.

After an abbreviated first season, "Grey's Anatomy" truly became a television phenomenon in its second season, building to the season's unforgettable finale, "Losing My Religion." As "Saturday Night Live" standout Stefon might say, this episode has everything, from a devastating death to an illicit affair to a prom held in the hospital after hours — and it all builds into a dramatic, gripping conclusion.

The latter half of Season Two builds up the ongoing relationship between Izzie and her patient Denny, driving it to a truly dangerous point. When Denny narrowly misses out on a heart transplant, Izzie nearly kills him by cutting the wire to his LVAD (a mechanical heart pump), worsening his condition so he gets the first available heart. By "Losing My Religion," Denny has a brand new heart — and has proposed to Izzie, who says yes — but as Izzie heads to visit Denny before the prom, he dies suddenly, leaving her to find his body.

Elsewhere in the hospital, the interns are all suspended over Denny's LVAD wire, Meredith and Derek rekindle their relationship — despite having other dates to the prom — and Richard must make a difficult family decision when it turns out his niece, Camille, is dying of cancer.

Many of "Grey's Anatomy's" very best episodes feature several different intense plotlines overlapping, which is likely why the Season 8 episode "Dark Was the Night" is such a fan favorite. After Teddy marries Henry, a patient who needs health insurance, as a kindness to help him get his treatment, the two end up falling in love. When Henry needs a relatively simple cardiac surgery, Teddy tells Owen to have Cristina perform it, saying that they can easily cover Henry's face and hide his identity from Cristina. However, because this is "Grey's Anatomy," Henry's body is too weak to withstand the surgery, and he dies. When Cristina realizes who she just lost, she breaks down, while Teddy is still in a different O.R., oblivious to her husband's death.

Add Derek and Meredith's continued struggle to regain custody of their adopted daughter, Zola — and an ambulance accident during a thunderstorm that leaves Meredith and Alex in danger — into the mix, and it's easy to understand why "Dark Was the Night" is so popular. Beyond that, the episode even ends on a major cliffhanger, leaving the viewer on edge even if they've seen the series multiple times.

Meredith Grey goes through some pretty horrible stuff throughout "Grey's Anatomy," but one of her most harrowing experiences comes halfway through Season 12 in one of the show's toughest hours: "The Sound of Silence." Directed by Denzel Washington, the episode sees Meredith get attacked by a patient suffering from a severe neurological episode. Left alone with him, Meredith is brutally beaten, laying in an exam room for an extended period of time without anyone realizing what happened to her.

Meredith survives the attack, but at a great cost: her hearing has been seriously damaged, and her jaw is wired shut as she recovers. As a result, most of the episode occurs in silence or near-silence as Meredith's hearing slowly returns, chronicling her difficult and arduous recovery. In perhaps the most harrowing moment of the episode, Meredith's three children — Zola, Bailey, and Ellis — are brought to visit her in the hospital ... but they leave in horror after her appearance scares them, putting Meredith in a state of pure panic. Pompeo's performance in this episode is one of her best in the entirety of the series. Though you know deep down that Meredith, a consummate survivor, will be alright, "The Sound of Silence" will keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire run.

Anyone who's stuck with "Grey's Anatomy" since the very beginning knows that shocking, major character deaths happen constantly throughout the season — in fact, it seems as if the death rate amongst the doctors at this Seattle hospital is higher than it is for the patients undergoing risky procedures. However, one of the most surprising departures comes courtesy of the season five finale "Now or Never."

As the episode begins in the aftermath of surgery to remove a brain tumor, Dr. Izzie Stevens' memory is in terrible shape – infuriating her husband, Dr. Alex Karev. Meanwhile, Dr. George O'Malley, with the help of former military medic Dr. Owen Hunt, decides to enlist in the army as a medic himself. George's friends are appalled, worried he'll be killed immediately, and prepare an intervention ... only to focus all of their attention on a seriously wounded man who saved a woman from an oncoming bus and was dragged through the road as a result. After a horrified Meredith realizes that the unrecognizable bus victim is actually George, the doctors rally to save two of their own as Izzie also flatlines. Knight departed the show after this episode, but as far as swan songs go, "Now or Never" was a pretty great exit.

When it comes to season finales, "Grey's Anatomy" always has huge surprises up its sleeve — and Rhimes' talent for writing intense, dramatic finales has never been better than the two-part Season 6 closer "Sanctuary" and "Death and All His Friends." Written by Rhimes herself, the episode begins with Meredith finding out that she and her husband, Dr. Derek Shepherd, are expecting a baby. It starts off on a cheerful note ... until things quickly devolve when Gary Clark, whose wife recently died at the hospital under Derek's supervision, shows up with a gun.

From there, Gary goes on a murderous rampage throughout the hospital, indiscriminately killing doctors left and right as he tries to track down Derek himself — eventually cornering the Chief of Surgery and attacking him. After Derek is shot, Meredith suffers a staggering trauma of her own. Throughout the hospital, various doctors work furiously to save their colleagues from certain death. From Miranda Bailey's ingenious fib that saves her life to a scene where Meredith's best friend Cristina Yang operates on Derek while being held at gunpoint, this frighteningly intense and thrilling two-part episode is a near-perfect installment of "Grey's Anatomy" — and clearly, fans think so too.