Though Grey's Anatomy Season 18 just wrapped up — with possible character exits, potential breakups, and risky surgeries — fans are always ready for a rewatch or recap of the impressive show's 400-episode run. And while Grey's writers balance drama with medical action, tragedy with hope, and monotony with humor, the internet uses memes to make the best of the show's bizarre or otherwise unpleasant circumstances.
If there's anything to be learned from the "Twisted Sisters" aka Meredith Grey and Christina Yang, it's that there's no better destressor than finding the irony in the painful and finding comfort in the little things, however morbid.
This meme captures the Grey's fan's ultimate dilemma: do they attend to their real lives or stay up late at Grey Sloane Memorial Hospital? Though this user hits the internet with some daunting figures, it's safe to say that a true Grey's fan likely thinks about the show for a compounded number of hours, depending on their pace of rewatching or where the season is in its live premiere schedule.
How can housework compare to saving lives, or at least watching fictional geniuses save them? Maybe after enough rewatches, this fan will be acclimated enough to Grey's storylines to clean up with the show on in the background, making sure to tune in for the best bits.
This meme tackles the age-old question; do fans watch Grey's Anatomy for the writing, the acting, or just because its doctors are nice to look at? Beyond Carina Deluca and Maya Bishop's relationship — which occurred primarily on the Grey's spin-off, Station 19 — Kai and Amelia's budding relationship offers Grey's Anatomy the LGBTQ+ representation it had been lacking since Callie and Arizona left the show.
More queer storylines on Grey's add to the show's efforts to portray a range of experiences and a diverse range of doctors and patients that look like those in the real world. Of course, starting Grey's at season 18 just to meet Kai Bartley isn't the worst reason to become a fan.
Jo's storylines may not always be relatable for viewers but this meme proves that she is the textbook example of the exhaustion many viewers feel. This screenshot from Jo's rough go with bleach represents the long string of messy decisions that tend to characterize Jo's storylines.
Though she almost stole a baby left at a fire station and changed her surgical specialty after making it to General Attending, Jo typically senses when her judgment or first instincts are failing her. Though she eventually ditches the blonde for a subtler look, Jo is an example of someone who experiments and has been through difficult times in her life, but she always emerges on the other side.
Addison Montgomery is one of the funniest Grey's Anatomy characters, but another meme on Instagram perfectly retools her maudlin line for its own purposes. Addison is talking about a Jane Doe in the season 3 episode "Drowning on Dry Land" whose family hasn't come to claim her.
Of course, this context casts the line in its darker meaning, but it still represents the human experience of doubt and loneliness in the face of potential abandonment, even after two minutes, for the especially anxious — and more than incidentally dramatic — friend.
This meme calls on an oldie but goodie from Grey's Anatomy's early seasons. The show's music contributes to its profound emotional impact, and Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" became a standout fan favorite when it played after Denny Duquette died in season 2 and when Callie Torres got in a car accident in season 7. It also plays in one of the series' saddest moments ever — just after Derek Shepherd's death.
The only song that competes with this hit is "How to Save a Life" by The Fray, which may be equally triggering to fans due to its use in some of the series' most emotionally damaging moments.
This meme feels almost painfully accurate in its visual description of the mayhem that is Grey Sloane Memorial Hospital. The screenshot comes from an episode of the show Community called "Remedial Chaos Theory" that involves a six-sided die and alternate realities.
Grey's fans may wish they could explore multiple potential storylines where their favorite characters don't die, clinical trials are successful, and Alex Karev didn't abandon Jo. But if this meme holds any truth, hopefully, Christina Yang will come back from Switzerland and make everything better.
This meme perfectly encapsulates the first 11 seasons of the show—although the entire series' run may also necessitate tissues and tequila. Derek Shepherd, a series staple, takes center stage in the morbid meme, and for many viewers, just the sight of the character may make them tear up.
Of course, Christina Yang saying, "Everyone's dead" is funnier out of context of the season 9 episode "Beautiful Doom," which closely followed the plan crash in season 8. But the meme may have the same effect as Meredith hugging Christina when nothing makes sense and words won't suffice: it acknowledges that even in the face of loss and trauma, Grey's characters will make it through.
Grey's Anatomy would struggle to continue without Meredith Grey, but staying on the show doesn't lessen Meredith's misfortunes, which include pain, loss, and dead-end storylines. It seems as though every time something is going well for Meredith, the writers realize they need to take it away in order for the stakes to remain high for the show's protagonist.
A prime example is Meredith's relationship with Nick Marsh. The couple appears to be overcoming the obstacles in their path, including distance and meeting the family. However, by the end of the season 18 finale, their relationship is clearly on the rocks, and fans will have to wait until next season to see if Meredith's happiness will fall apart because of hospital drama yet again.
This Meryl Streep-inspired meme may be especially meaningful for Grey's fans who were attached to the theme song from the early seasons, before it transformed into the title card and elements of the song only can now be seen at the end of the episode.
Series creator, Shonda Rhimes, may have known exactly which characters would die over the course of the series, so this theme song could feel like Shondaland-style taunting. Of course, this meme is hyperbolic, and not everybody dies. At least not as of the current season.
This Meredith meme captures a familiar dread for Grey's fans, especially if they've realized the pattern of major disasters in Grey's Anatomy season finales. Season 13 ended in flames, season 9 was aptly titled "The Perfect Storm," season 6's was the episode with the shooter Gary Clark, season 5 was George O'Malley's death, and, arguably the most traumatic of all, season 8's plane crash.
Christina Yang, April Kepner, and Arizona Robbins, all departed in season finales, though they lived to tell the tale. Maybe finale-related dread was conditioned into fans ever since season 1 ended with Derek Shepherd's surprise wife, the inimitable Addison Montgomery, showing up to tell Meredith off for her accidental affair with Derek.
With the range of extreme emotions produced by watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy, it's important to have healing memes at the ready.Rowen Light-Wills