Grey’s Anatomy’s Biggest 2024 Exit Is The Worst I’ve Felt Since George’s Death 15 Year Ago

The lights have once more gone off at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital before Grey’s Anatomy season 22 returns to screens in 2025, and sooner or later they’ll never turn back on. Even with the sort of soft reboot a couple of years ago that brought in a new crop of interns, it can’t be long before Grey’s Anatomy gets its usual blood lust and starts getting rid of characters for ratings.

That’s perhaps a cynical read, and I don’t mean it entirely, but I’m hurt at something that happened in Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s ending. No, not the cliffhanger, or the tragic suggestion of Jo’s miscarriage, or even the fact that Meredith seemed even more absent than usual. It’s all down to another one of those character exits the show likes so much.

Grey’s Anatomy Has A Culture Of Big Name Departures

Death, Taxes & Characters Leaving Grey’s Anatomy

Along with romantic entanglements that would have any HR department on red alert, and a worrying frequency of major disasters, Grey’s Anatomy character exits are part of the blueprint for the show’s impressive longevity. Every now and then, even the safest main characters flirt with death, job offers across the country, or crises of professional confidence, and a huge number have 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 have come close to being written out. Hell, even Meredith Grey appearances are now a premium after Ellen Pompeo dropped into a supporting role in her own show.

More recently, Grey’s has put away the deathly scythe that used to take down main characters dependably every season or so, and characters are allowed to grow out of the show in less catastrophic ways. They still know how to memorably off someone – with DeLuca’s death wound still very fresh even after 3 years. But Grey’s Anatomy’s most recent season finale still took down two prominent characters, even if they live on. And one of them was particularly devastating.

Levi Schmitt’s Exit Hurt More Than Any Since George’s Death

The Relative Newcomer Was The Heart Of Grey 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 Grey’s often cares more about short sharp shocks than emotional attachment, and I dearly 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 over the long term.

George’s death was always the one that stuck out because of his heroic sacrifice and the nature of his final treatment, which used the secret of his identity as a devastatingly efficient added layer of emotion. I remember feeling bereft at the time, and rewatching it so much later does nothing to dull the impact. Nothing has come close to matching that. Not even Derek.

But Levi Schmitt’s exit in the latest season, even with the promise of his happy ending, came surprisingly close. He’d grown to be one of the most lovable characters, overcoming adversity, unemployment and deep, dark depression to be a stalwart figure around Grey Sloan. The hospital rarely deserved him, even when he was modeling himself on Bailey as Chief Resident for a while, and will be poorer for his absence.

There was a determined wholesomeness to Schmitt and some intangible magic to his characterization that other members of the newer cast lacked. He’s just as rarely had his sh*t 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 terribly.

The One Silver Lining To Levi’s Exit

Hopefully, Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder…

The one good thing about Schmitt’s exit that I really need to hold on to is the fact that it may not be permanent. His research position in Texas is fixed term and designed to open up his options, meaning he will be far more employable when he’s completed it. And hopefully Bailey and the other powers in Grey Sloan will realize their error in ever undervaluing him in the first place.

I hope that Schmitt returns in a future season of Grey’s Anatomy for more than a swan song. That may not as wildly popular as someone like Yang or Izzie and Karev returning, but without him, Grey’s Anatomy feels like it’s lost a bit of its heart.