The lights went out once again at Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital before Grey's Anatomy season 22 returns to screens in 2025, and sooner or later, they will never be shown again. Even with the kind of soft reset that a few years ago brought a new crop of interns, it won't be long before Grey's Anatomy gets his usual bloodlust and starts getting rid of characters for ratings.
Maybe it's a cynical reading, and I don't mean this entirely, but I'm hurt by something that happened in Grey's Anatomy season 21 finale. No, not the suspense, or the tragic suggestion of Jo's miscarriage, or even the fact that Meredith seems even more absent than usual. It all comes down to another one of those character departures that the series loves so much.
Grey's Anatomy has a culture of big-name departures
Death, taxes and characters leaving Grey's Anatomy
Along with romantic entanglements that would put any HR department on red alert and a worrying frequency of major disasters Grey's Anatomy The characters' departures are part of the plan for the show's impressive longevity. Sometimes, Even the most assured main characters flirt with death, nationwide job offers, or crises of professional confidenceand a large number left the show entirely.
Looking at the Grey's Anatomy cast now, in fact, there's barely an original character among them - other than Miranda Bailey and Richard Webber, and both of them were almost written out. Hell, even Meredith Gray's appearances are now a prize after Ellen Pompeo took on a supporting role on her own show.
More recently, Gray kept the deadly scythe that used to reliably take down main characters every season or so, and characters are allowed to grow outside of the series in less catastrophic ways. They still know how to kill someone memorably - with DeLuca's fatal wound still very fresh, even after 3 years. But Grey's AnatomyThe most recent season finale still took down two prominent characters, even though they live. And one of them was particularly devastating.
Levi Schmitt's departure hurt more than any since George's death
The relative newcomer was the heart of Gray Sloan
The gold standard for heartbreak in Grey's Anatomy is a triple threat of Denny Duquesne (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and George O'Malley (TR Knight). Each will forever be remembered as a shocking reminder that Gray is often more concerned with short, sharp shocks than emotional attachment, and I love the show for its sense of finality. Leaving them around when their actors wanted to leave (like Sandra Oh's mysteriously absent Cristina Yang) would have been more painful in the long run.
George's death was always one that stood out because of his heroic sacrifice and the nature of his final treatment, which used the secret of his identity as a devastatingly effective additional layer of emotion. I remember feeling bereft at the time, and watching it again much later does nothing to lessen the impact. Nothing has come close to matching that. Not even Derek.
But Levi Schmitt's departure last season, even with the promise of a happy ending, came surprisingly close. He grew up to be one of the most lovable characters, overcoming adversity, unemployment, and deep, dark depression to be a stalwart figure around Gray Sloan. The hospital rarely deserved him, even when he looked up to Bailey as chief resident. for a while, and will be poorer for his absence.
There was a determined integrity to Schmitt and some intangible magic to his characterization that other members of the younger cast lacked. He rarely gets his act together, but his commitment to his patients and Jake Borelli's irresistible screen presence made him one of the best characters introduced after the original cast. I will miss him very much.
The only silver lining to Levi's exit
Hopefully absence makes the heart grow fonder...
The only good thing about Schmitt leaving that I really need to keep is the fact that may not be permanent. His research role in Texas is fixed-term and designed to open up his options, meaning he will be much more employable when he completes it. And I hope Bailey and the other powers at Gray Sloan realize their mistake in underestimating him in the first place.
I hope Schmitt returns in a future season of Grey's Anatomy for more than a swan song. This might not be as popular as the return of someone like Yang or Izzie and Karev, but without him, Grey's Anatomy It seems like he lost a little of his heart.
Grey's Anatomy is a medical drama series that revolves around surgical interns, residents, and orderlies at the fictional Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital. The show presents the professional and personal lives of these medical professionals, initially led by Dr. Meredith Gray, played by Ellen Pompeo. Created by Shonda Rhimes, the series highlights the complexities of medical cases while investigating the interpersonal relationships between hospital employees.
- Release date
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March 27, 2005
- Creator(s)
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Shonda Rhimes, Michelle Lirtzman
- Seasons
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21