The Horrifying Grey's Anatomy Season Finale That Didn't Carry Much Weight For Fans

"Grey's Anatomy" has experienced a million wild season finales over its long existence. From cancer-stricken Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) coming to the brink of death at the same moment as her close friend and fellow doc George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), leaving the audience to wonder which of them would survive, to Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) waltzing into the hospital for the first time and revealing Derek Shepherd's (Patrick Dempsey) secret marriage to an astonished Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), the show has aired some real doozies. 

But the drama hasn't always knocked it out of the park with an effortless swing of the surgical scalpel. It's had a long shelf life, which sometimes means a season finale is about regrouping for the next season's forward push. But even the most pulse-pounding and memorable of cliffhangers can have their share of critics. 

A group of "Grey's Anatomy" fans posting to the show's subreddit have a bone to pick with the Season 6 two-part finale, "Sanctuary" and "Death and All His Friends." Some of them take issue not with the bloodletting that takes place within it but with the disappearance of Dr. Reed Adamson (Nora Zehetner) and the death of Dr. Charles Percy (Robert Baker), two characters they barely had time to know before they became cannon fodder for the tragedy. Since they're the only regulars who died during the two-parter, some are less than impressed with it. "I've said it before but I honestly think the point of Reed and Percy were for people to hate them and then they would just kill them off in the shooting," said u/Original-Gear1583. But not every fan felt that way. "Main characters didn't have to die for it to be impactful, bc it was," said u/kelsospade.

To be fair, a lot of "Grey's Anatomy" regulars endure some major blows during "Sanctuary" and "Death and All His Friends." Derek is shot and nearly dies, as does Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and several other doctors. Everyone has to work pretty hard to trick the shooter, Gary Clark (Michael O'Neill). They even fake Derek's death while he's lying on the operating table to get him out of there alive. The shooting impacts some serious life choices the doctors are contemplating — Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) and Alex get closer, and Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) agree to have a child together. Parenthood is also on Meredith's mind; she suffers a miscarriage while assisting in Derek's surgery. Even though only Charles Percy and Reed Adamson die in these episodes, it's hard to deny that it's still a meaningful outing. 

But some viewers, such as u/roejostramill3404, think the episode could've had a much stronger impact on them. u/spotdspa thinks Percy was brought back in this episode for the express purpose of killing him off. u/Shaunaaaah feels that both characters are unsympathetic, but stated that the questionable finale had its benefits. "It did serve as a common traumatic experience so Jackson and April could be welcomed into the circle and stop being outsiders so it wasn't a complete failure of a plot device," they said.

Some fans lament what could have been. "What really sucks is how much I actually liked Reed and Charles, but then they were just turned into these characters that are so easily hated, especially Reed," wrote original poster u/ReceptionTight2002. But fans can take comfort in this simple maxim: if you wait long enough, things at Grey Sloan Memorial will change.