People leave long-running TV shows all the time — and because "Grey's Anatomy" has been airing since 2005, that sentiment is particularly true when it comes to the long-running medical drama created by Shonda Rhimes. Sara Ramirez hung up their stethoscope as Dr. Callie Torres to pursue new opportunities, Sandra Oh's Dr. Cristina Yang moved to Switzerland for a brand new career, Patrick Dempsey wanted to spend more time racing cars and stopped playing Dr. Derek Shepherd as a result, and Katherine
Heigl reportedly clashed with Rhimes behind the scenes after playing Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens for six seasons of the series. Hell, even the titular Dr. Grey — Meredith, played by Ellen Pompeo — technically left the series in season 19, though Pompeo is still an executive producer and provides the show's voiceover. (This is, by no means, an exhaustive list.) So, what about Dr. George O'Malley (played by T.R. Knight), one of the show's five original surgical interns?
I'll explain how and why shortly, but George dies in the season 5 finale of "Grey's Anatomy" after he saves a woman from the path of a city bus and is hit instead, which means that Knight left the series behind in real life in 2009. In a statement to People Magazine, Knight said, "Leaving 'Grey's Anatomy' was not an easy decision for me to make." He continued:
"I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to play this character and will miss my fellow cast and crew very much. I continue to wish them the very best, and wholeheartedly thank all of the fans who have supported me and the show with such passion and enthusiasm."
Rhimes spoke about Knight's exit in the same article, praising him for his five seasons of work as a series regular. "I think I speak for the entire 'Grey's Anatomy' family when I say we wish T.R. Knight the best in his future endeavors," Rhimes said. "He is an incredibly talented actor and a person whose strength of character is admired by all of us."
To be absolutely honest (and in my capacity as /Film's foremost "Grey's Anatomy" scholar), I absolutely understand why Knight left the show when he did. After a string of juicy narratives throughout the series' first four seasons, as well as a very misguided one where he has a brief, doomed affair with Izzie, George ends up completely sidelined in season 5. I'm serious; he has no arcs, no character development, and does nothing besides react to other storylines. George was too good of a character to waste, and Knight is an excellent performer ... so again, I fully get his choice. What did George do up until his death, though?
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Who Is George O'Malley On Grey's Anatomy, And Why Is His Death So Devastating?
When "Grey's Anatomy" begins, Dr. Miranda Bailey, then a resident played by Chandra Wilson, finds herself in charge of five brand-new surgical interns: Dr. Meredith Grey, Dr. Cristina Yang, Dr. Izzie Stevens, and Dr. Alex Karev (the last of whom is played by Justin Chambers). George is chosen by the hospital's cardiothoracic chief at the time, Dr. Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington), to assist on an appendectomy and screws it up, which earns him the nickname "007" — meaning he has a "license to kill." In reality, though, George is a pretty good doctor; in the show's second season, he's trapped in an elevator with a gunshot victim who starts flatlining and, with a verbal assist from Burke, ends up saving the guy's life against all odds. He's also a compassionate and caring physician, especially when you compare him to hard-headed and often brisk doctors like Cristina and Alex.
I already mentioned that George and Izzie — who spend most of their time together on the series as platonic best friends — have a horrible hookup plotline that spans from season 3 into season 4, and George also has a disastrous one-night stand with Meredith in season 2 and marries Dr. Callie Torres on a whim in season 3. At the end of that season, George finds out that he failed his intern exam and, instead of becoming a second-year resident with Meredith, Alex, Cristina, and Izzie, must repeat his intern year; this mishap makes up his season 4 plotline for the most part.
After the aforementioned sidelining in season 5, George — who's feeling betrayed by Izzie after she neglected to tell him about her stage 4 skin cancer diagnosis — makes a surprising decision thanks to encouragement from the hospital's new trauma attending Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), and enlists in the Army as a trauma surgeon. Before he can even say goodbye to his mother, though, he pushes a stranger named Amanda (Shannon Lucio) out of the way of a moving bus and gets hit instead; when he arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital after being dragged by the bus, he's so badly injured that nobody recognizes him. When he uses his finger to scrawl "007" into Meredith's palm, his co-workers realize it's him, but it's too late ... and he dies in surgery, appearing in a dream sequence to say farewell to an almost-dead Izzie. Ultimately, though, T.R. Knight did come back to "Grey's Anatomy," despite being very dead.
T.R. Knight Returned To Grey's Anatomy Years After His Exit — For A Very Special Reason
In the fall of 2020, in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic that mostly shut down the globe, "Grey's Anatomy" did what any medical show would do and leaned into the real-life crisis as part of its storyline. The weirdest thing it did, though, was stick Meredith in a COVID-related coma for most of its 17th season — which means that, while Meredith and Ellen Pompeo spend time on a "dream beach," she goes full "Sixth Sense" and sees dead people. That includes T.R. Knight's George, who gets the privilege of appearing with visions of two living characters (Miranda Bailey and James Pickens Jr.'s Dr. Richard Webber).
In an interview with Deadline, Knight and then-showrunner Krista Vernoff opened up about how George — and Knight — returned to the series after more than a decade. For his part, Knight loved how George, a well-meaning but sometimes bumbling character, was depicted in Meredith's dream. "What I loved about what Krista did with George was, because Meredith is having this vision, for lack of a better word, of who George would be," Knight explained. "George is a very complicated person and that's what made him such an amazing pleasure to play, but Meredith is seeing the best of George: she's seeing his humor, his kindness, his generosity, and in this brief moment that you get to see him, it's such a great way to remember him."
"We all know George also had his faults," Knight continued. "He stumbled a lot. Literally and metaphorically, he was a little passive-aggressive, had some anger, held a grudge a little too long, but that's what made him such a brilliant character to play, so to be able to get back into that world was ... Like I said, there's a better word than profound, and I'll get there someday."
So, would Knight ever come back again? Probably not (and, unless someone else ends up in a coma, there's no real way for this to happen anyway). Thankfully, Knight was happy with his (second) sendoff. "It was the ending I never expected and couldn't possibly have expected, in so many ways," he admitted. "It's such an awkward position to be put in to be asked that, to be honest, with all due respect, so I will just say in Krista's hands I feel safe, I feel energized." Meg Marinis took over as showrunner from Vernoff in 2024, so Knight is probably finished ... but that's perfectly fine with fans like me.
"Grey's Anatomy" is streaming on Netflix and Hulu now.
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