Today in TV History: 'Grey's Anatomy' Ended Its Second Season with a Dead Denny – Decider

Where to Stream

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that its onevery single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, were taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY:May 15,2006

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE:Greys Anatomy, Deterioration of the Fight or Flight Response / Losing My Religion (Season 2, Episodes 26/27) [Stream on Netflix]

WHY ITS IMPORTANT:ThatGreys Anatomy premiered on ABC in the same season thatLostandDesperate Housewives did sometimes gets lost, becauseGreys premiered at mid-season. And late mid-season at that. Airing only 9 episodes before the end of season 1,Greys Anatomy didnt really have time to become an addictive ratings sensation. That came in season 2.

The second season ofGreys Anatomy did everything a smart primetime soap should. It cranked up the intrigue on its central romantic drama, adding Kate Walsh to the cast as McDreamys wife. Set half of its cast up to be hopelessly in love with the other half. Its medical cases got more fraught and high-pressure. This was the season with the celebrated post-Super Bowl episode, with Christina Ricci and Kyle Chandler and an explosive device inside a patient. It was also the season that introduced Denny Duquette as a patient in need of a heart transplant. As played by current TV mainstay Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Denny was a sweetheart of a patient. One of those gregarious sorts who gives his doctors a hard time with a sparkle in his eye. He was a character tailor made for Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) to fall in love with.

Depending on your perspective, Denny was the best thing to ever happen to Izzie on the show or else the worst. Similarly, the events of the season 2 two-part finale are eitherGreys Anatomyat its best or its most frustrating. (Of course some, like yours truly, might say both.)Greys always walked that tightrope between utter exasperation at its central characters, doctors who refused to stop being led around by their idiot hearts. The show always put on a good face about showing the consequences to these actions and the responsible doctors who stuck up for the responsible course of action. But time and again, Shonda Rhimes came down on the side of crazy, stupid love, and whatever it took to arrive at it. Obviously, Izzie was going to cut Dennys LVAD wire, sending him into critical heart failure, all so he could move up to the top of the transplant list. A risky, insane gambit that in any real-world setting would have cost her her medical license and probably put her in jail. OnGreys, though, that all onlyalmost happens. But that would come the following season. For now, Izzy cuts the wire, Denny gets his heart transplant, and while Izzie might get fired, she at least will end up with the love of her life. Right?

Dennys death was the kind of icy stab to the heart that would become/had already become a Greys Anatomyhallmark:the possibility of ultimate happiness followed swiftly by total disaster, scored by a Snow Patrol song that just by virtue of its presence here became a hit. That it came in the middle of a hospital-wide prom thrown to cheer up a cancer patient (guest star Tessa Thompson) makes it perhaps the mostGreys moment of all. Adolescent notions of love butting up against the cruel mercilessness of nature.

Where to streamGrey's Anatomy

More:
Today in TV History: 'Grey's Anatomy' Ended Its Second Season with a Dead Denny - Decider