'Grey's Anatomy' fans stunned by character's death in midseason premiere
The medical drama killed off another beloved individual on Thursday night's episode
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}[WARNING: Spoilers ahead about the March 11 midseason premiere of "Grey's Anatomy"]
"Grey's Anatomy" fans were left in tears Thursday night after the medical drama's midseason premiere killed off a beloved character.
Dr. Andrew DeLuca, played by actor Giacomo Gianniotti since 2015, was stabbed while trying to track down and expose a sex trafficker.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the episode, which was also a crossover with "Station 19," it appeared DeLuca was going to pull through at first.
But then while on the operating table he had a vision of love interest Meredith Grey, who's been in a coma battling COVID-19.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DeLuca told her in a beach dream sequence, "No matter what happens, I want you to know that I never felt seen the way you saw me. I never felt inspired the way you inspired me. You made me want to be not just my best self, but better. And yeah, I felt small around you sometimes. I felt insecure. I wanted something from you that I needed to give to myself. But here, now, on this beach with you, I get it. I don't just get it, I feel it. I get who I am. I know my own soul, my strength."
"I'll miss you. If I go back and you don't, I'll miss you," Grey told DeLuca.
Giacomo Gianniotti as Andrew DeLuca, MD. (ABC/Mike Rosenthal)
"You'll be okay, Meredith," he said. "I have to go." Then, he ran other to his mother who was waiting for him.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While in her coma, Grey has also seen and talked to her late husband, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), and T.R. Knight's character, Dr. George O’Malley, who died in a 2009 episode.
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Meanwhile, fans took to social media to react to DeLuca's sudden departure.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"NOOOOOOOOO THIS IS WRONG DELUCA CAN'T BE DEAD," one person wrote.
"Yeah you know what I’m never going to be okay," said another.
"Andrew Deluca went from being a character I pretty much ignored to one of my top 2 favs and now he's gone I'm absolutely heart broken," reasoned someone else.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME AGAIN SHONDA," yelled a fan.
Gianniotti reacted to his character's death on social media. "So much I could say... but all that comes to mind is thank you. Thank you to all the fans who loved Deluca as much as I did. Telling his story was and will be one of the great honors of my life. Thank you. @GreysABC," he tweeted.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Pompeo told fans online she was "sorry for the heartache." She added, "making the show and characters leaving is equally heartbreaking for us."