Top 20 Grey's Anatomy Plot Holes You Never Noticed

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re looking at the plot holes that leave “Grey’s Anatomy” searching for answers.

Be on the lookout for some spoilers ahead!

#20: Leah’s Disappearances

It wouldn’t be “Grey’s” if we didn’t have characters randomly disappearing on us. Remember Joe the Bartender, anyone? The show clearly doesn’t. Still, Leah Murphy might just be a bigger mystery. After her romance with Arizona crashed and burned, Leah faded into the background. Initially let go at the end of the tenth season, she returned years later as if things would now be different. But it turned out to be more of the same. Unlike her previous exit, this time Leah didn’t just leave – she seemed to drop off the face of Grey Sloan Memorial. Was she fired again, or did she quit? Did she just stop showing up, and no one noticed? We need to know!

#19: How Old Is Lexie?

Meredith’s age already has us scratching our heads – more on that later – but her younger half-sister isn’t any better here, either. Meredith, seemingly born in 1978, was five years old when she was abandoned by her father; Lexie’s birth year is given as 1984. So far, so good, right? The problem? Lexie arrived at Seattle Grace just a year after Meredith did. Even accounting for the fact that Lexie skipped third grade, the math still doesn’t hold up. So, it seems that either Meredith failed med school several times, or Lexie fast-tracked through hers, or maybe the writers just forgot to check the calendar.

#18: No One Knows What Happened to Ellis

When it comes to surgery, the show treats its most gifted medical professionals with godly reverence, and in the “Grey’s” universe, Ellis is treated like the highest of royalty. Although Meredith is constantly reminded of her mother’s legendary legacy, nobody seemed to care when Ellis disappeared. When the series begins, she’s living at Roseridge Home for Extended Care, visited only by her daughter. For a surgeon held in such high regard, it’s hard to believe that no one from colleagues, proteges, or even the medical community tried to track her down. This plot hole only gets worse after Ellis’s death, which is barely acknowledged by the larger medical world, an oddly muted response for someone who won the Harper Avery Award twice!

#17: Arizona's Custody of Sofia

The show spends a significant portion of Season 12 on Arizona and Callie’s legal battle, with the former ultimately winning custody of their daughter, Sofia. When all is said and done, though, Arizona pulls a “Mrs. Doubtfire”-style reversal, allowing Sofia to live with Callie anyway. While it sounds wholesome, this completely negates the judge’s ruling. The show doesn’t go into detail on how they’re supposed to co-parent from two different cities, nor does it address any legal ramifications of such an arrangement. After vanishing entirely in Season 13, Sofia reappears in Season 14, just in time for Arizona to move to New York, as well, wrapping it all in a neat, yet nonsensical bow.

#16: Amelia Quick’s Recovery

If anyone deserves Employee of the Year at Grey Sloan Memorial, it has to be Amelia Shepherd. After all, who returns to work just four days after life-threatening surgery? After some uncharacteristically erratic behavior, Amelia is diagnosed with a brain tumor. While operable, survival is far from guaranteed, and long-term effects are expected. But not only does Amelia pull through, she’s back at the hospital less than a week later. Even if we buy into the idea of a miraculous recovery, no hospital would ever realistically accept a surgeon back so soon. And yet, “Grey’s” pretends as if it’s business as usual, letting Amelia back in the OR just four days after she was there as a patient herself.

#15: Why Wasn’t Izzie Fired?

Izzie’s romance with her patient, Denny, is questionable to begin with. But the storyline jumps the shark when she gets away with cutting his LVAD wire to move him up the donors’ list. Apart from denying another person a life-saving heart transplant, Izzie’s commits a serious felony. So, what consequences does she face? That would be returning to the hospital with a minor probation. Far from a legal investigation, Izzie’s welcomed back with sympathy and encouragement from everyone around her, while retaining her job and medical license. As far as the “Grey’s” universe goes, it seems doctors can date their patients, break the law, and still keep their jobs as long it’s all in the name of love.

#14: Why Doesn’t Richard Know Mark?

Richard has no idea who Mark is when he first shows up at Seattle Grace, only learning of his role in breaking up Addison and Derek’s marriage that day. Given how far back the characters go, though, his reaction makes no sense. Richard is repeatedly described as a mentor and friend to both Derek and Addison in New York, and remains in touch across several years. At the same time, Mark and Derek were childhood best friends, attended med school together, and were always in each other’s orbit. So, considering just how deeply intertwined their lives were, it’s essentially impossible that Richard would have never crossed paths with Mark, let alone treated him like a complete stranger.

#13: Derek’s Death

Derek’s demise hinges entirely upon people making bafflingly poor decisions. For one, the episode establishes that there’s no cell reception in the area. Yet somehow, he receives a call just when a truck happens to be careening toward him. Even setting that aside, it’s hard to believe he’d never hear a large vehicle bulldozing in his direction on a deserted road. It gets worse at the hospital, where no alarm bells go off despite Derek’s status as a famous neurosurgeon. And despite being so close to Grey Sloan Memorial, he’s treated at a trauma center where the staff’s incompetence costs him his life. Honestly, the only explanation left is that the universe itself had it out for McDreamy that day.

#12: The Chief of Surgery’s Authority

Technically, the Chief of Surgery is only supposed to oversee their department. But if “Grey’s Anatomy” is anything to go by, anyone appointed to the role runs the hospital with absolute authority. From administrative decisions, budgetary policies, to hiring and firing staff, everything seems to fall on their shoulders. Later seasons go even further, with the chief responsible for hospital repairs and renovations. Even something as wild as a pipe leak ends up as their job to look after. The distinction between Chief of Surgery and Chief of Staff doesn’t seem to apply at Grey Sloan Memorial, so it’s no wonder that the characters treat the job like a game of musical chairs.

#11: DeLuca’s Background

DeLuca is killed off right before we truly get to know him, mainly because the character’s background is riddled with inconsistencies. One of the most jarring plot holes involves his mother, who, early on, seems to be acquainted with Maggie and supposedly speaks to her over the phone. However, it’s later revealed that his mother had passed away when he was much younger. Similarly, DeLuca initially claims to have no experience with children, yet later says he grew up in a large family, constantly surrounded by them. From the looks of things, his character seems to shift just to suit the plot. Whatever it might be, the mystery of DeLuca’s background ultimately died with him.

#10: Bailey’s Timeline

We’d need a whole flowchart to figure out Bailey’s origins, given just how wonky it all is. Early in the series, she treats a patient who’s been under her care for five years. However, she’s identified as a fourth-year resident in the third season. If that’s the case, how is she conducting solo surgeries as early as the first season? Things become murkier with flashbacks to her internship year, where her personality appears wildly out of place, despite taking place only two or three years before the series began. And to complicate matters further, Richard mentions attending her first wedding, which took place ten years before the show began, making it impossible to fit into her timeline.

#9: Jo’s Name Change

Let’s start with the mysterious case of Jo Wilson, aka Jo Karev, aka Brooke Stadler. We knew pretty quickly that she had a dark past, which is how she and Alex first bonded, but we didn’t know just how dark until Alex proposed. After that she shares that she’s already married but ran away when her ex became violent and changed her name to hide from him. The mystery is whether or not she changed it legally. She says she can’t testify in court because then her husband could find her; but if it’s a legal name change, that shouldn’t be a problem. And if it’s not . . . does she have a fake name on her medical license? Because that’s also an issue . . .

#8: Apparently Lions Grow New Teeth

According to “Grey’s Anatomy: lions not only regrow their teeth, but do so instantly. Richard and Jackson are treating an unfortunate patient who got bitten by a lion, and has the fang left in the wound to prove it. Problem is that when Meredith, Derek and Zola saw the lion on their way to work, after the attack, he still had a full set of chompers. We understand, there’s not a lot of lions looking for acting work, let alone one that’s missing a fang, but could this not have been edited, or shot more carefully? Also, how hard was this patient’s leg that it took out a tooth?!

#7: How Alex Dealt with Izzie’s Debt

As we mentioned, Izzie’s departure from the show was ugly and confusing. The plot gets even thicker when Alex is told to pay her massive medical bills from her cancer treatments. It’s a huge issue for Alex but it’s never resolved in the show. There is no way he could afford to pay it himself, even with his brief stint working at a private practice. Of course there are a few fan theories like after the divorce the debt went back to Izzie, or she simply paid them off with her remaining inheritance from Denny Duquette. As plausible as these theories are, they’re just that, theories. We just want closure!

#6: The Way Meredith Disappears after Derek Dies

After Derek’s death a lot of us needed a little break from reality, but looking back does Meredith’s reaction make sense? Obviously, losing the love of her life is extremely traumatic, but to leave everyone she knows and the family she made without a word? She disappears for an entire secret-pregnancy, and the only reason she’s found is because she has complications during labor. This would make sense for the Meredith we met at the beginning of the show, but she’s worked hard on her self-made family at the hospital - it doesn’t make sense for her to leave it with just a simple note.

#5: Meredith’s Age

It might be a bit taboo to ask a woman her age but in this case we weren’t the ones to bring it up. When a show constantly introduces surprise family members they’re bound to mix-up a few details, and in this case it’s Meredith’s age. When her sister Maggie is born in 1983 Meredith is 5. Doing the math that means she was born in 1978, but the pilot script mentions her birth year as 1975. Since the year 1975 wasn’t aired many have decided that it isn’t part of the Grey’s Anatomy gospel but the proof is in the script!

#4: Derek's Bad Memory

Derek’s nickname may be McDreamy but in this case he’s just McDreaming. Derek and Meredith haven’t been together since Addison’s return, but after Mer survives an explosion Derek decides to visit. As he’s leaving, Meredith says she doesn’t remember the last time they kissed, and Derek’s response is vivid, romantic . . . and baloney! The last time they kissed was in the rain, Meredith was crying and broke up with him! Who knows, maybe Derek is trying to leave Meredith with a nice memory, since she did just survive something traumatic. But somehow, Meredith seems to remember it too!

#3: Maggie Pierce’s Career Timeline

The show makes it clear that Maggie has always been a prodigy of medicine, due in part to her parents being Ellis Grey and Richard Webber. What it doesn’t explain is how she managed to do so much at such a young age. Apparently she started her fellowship at 25 and became head of cardiothoracic surgery at 27, so far it’s somewhat believable unless you consider that she would have finished med school at 19 and her bachelor’s degree at the tender age of 15. If that is her actual timeline than we’re REALLY impressed. Stranger things have happened, we guess?

#2: Drinking After Donating a Liver

We’re not saying that Meredith overconsumes on the regular, but she definitely likes to drink. Most of the time she’s a social drinker, other times she just wants to numb herself. This isn’t a problem until she makes the decision to donate part of her liver to her father. When donating your liver it’s advised that you avoid too much alcohol after the surgery, but that just isn’t Meredith’s style. After all the tequila isn’t going to drink itself. It would be fine if she just drank a little here and there, but when she drinks she drinks hard!

#1: Meredith Winning the Harper Avery Award

When Cristina was nominated for a Harper Avery, she wasn’t allowed to win, even though she had the votes. Since the hospital was co-owned by the Harper Avery foundation, there was a clear conflict of interest. She still went to the awards and we had to watch the disappointment when she didn’t win. It sucked but we tried to accept it . . . until Meredith was nominated. For some reason, the conflict of interest didn’t seem to matter anymore and she won the award. We’re really happy that Meredith won, don’t get us wrong. We’re just saying that Cristina was robbed, ROBBED!

Is there a plot hole that you think deserved to be included? Sound off in the comments.