Medical Dramas are a tried and true genre in TV, and none have had the wild success of Grey's Anatomy. The show still airs new episodes on ABC, and streaming the next day with a Hulu subscription. The megahit was created by TV icon Shonda Rhimes, who recently admitted that one death in particular was "horrifying". As a long-time fan I've got to say I agree.
As some folks figure out how to watch Grey's Anatomy Season 22, Rhimes recently spoke about the show's past. While appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the TV juggernaut and Grey's creator revealed she recently re-watched some of the show, including the infamous plane crash episode from Season 8 that killed Chyler Leigh's Lexie Grey. Rhimes said:
So I recently went back and I started watching select pieces of episodes. I watched that episode, and I was horrified. I was like, 'Oh my God, this is like a freaking snuff film.' Like, what the heck?
Lexie's is one of Grey's Anatomy's most devastating deaths, and that's saying a lot considering how many beloved surgeons have perished at Grey Sloan Memorial over the years. While Rhimes admits that Lexie and Mark's death made sense for the story she was telling, the manner in which Little Grey was dispatched was especially horrifying. But hey, at least Shonda knows what she put us through.
Lexie dies early in the episode "Flight" where she's crushed under a piece of a plane after its crash. The credits aren't even done rolling by the time she's gone. And to make matters worse, in the Season 9 episode "Remember the Time", Cristina reveals that animals ate Lexie's remains in the time they were left stranded in the woods. Seriously, Shonda?
Later in the same podcast appearance, the accomplished TV creator and writer/showrunner went on to speak about just how hard it was to watch Lexie's death scene. She went on:
I watch it back now, and I was like, 'I can't believe that actually happened, and that people survived watching that. That was horrifying.
Well, yes. I can vividly remember watching the Grey's Anatomy plane crash episode for the first time live, and having full body sobs over Chyler Leigh's character. Aside from her devastating death, we owe Lexie a collective apology, as she was treated pretty poorly by the other doctors for the majority of her time on the show. And Shonda Rhimes re-examining how she killed Lexipedia is step one.
Lexie returned to Grey's Anatomy during the COVID season where Meredith was having her beach hallucinations, revealing she and Mark Sloan were together in the afterlife. The fact that these two lovers didn't get to reunite before their sudden deaths was always a sore point for fans like me, so this helped to soften the blow years later. Our girl just deserved better!
Grey's Anatomy airs new episodes Thursdays on ABC as part of the 2025 TV schedule. And I'm hoping that we get to hear more of Shonda Rhimes looking back on the stories (and deaths) that helped make the show such a sensation.
