Grey's Anatomy Season 8
Overview
It's the residents' final year, and season 8 spends most of its time asking whether any of these people are actually ready to be surgeons. Meredith and Cristina are job-hunting and drifting apart for the first time, Derek's research is going nowhere, and everyone's terrified of the board exams — none more than April Kepner, whose confidence crumbles at the worst possible moment. There's warmth in the middle of it: Meredith and Derek finally get Zola, Cristina and Owen try to save a marriage that's been quietly rotting, and Teddy Altman finds happiness with Henry, a patient with no insurance and a tumor nobody can fix. What happens to Henry mid-season is one of the show's cruelest gut punches. But let's be honest, this season is remembered for its finale. A plane carrying six of the doctors goes down in the woods, and the episode ends with the survivors screaming into the dark while one of them slips away. Chyler Leigh's exit in that crash reshaped the show permanently, and the fallout dominated Grey's for years afterward.
