Grey's Anatomy season 17 saw the death of Andrew Deluca, which ended up fixing one of the show's weaknesses: its representation of mental health.
Andrew Deluca struggled a lot during his time in Grey’s Anatomy, but his death, as shocking and heartbreaking as it was, actually fixed the show’s mental health problem. Grey’s Anatomy began its run in 2005 and shows no signs of stopping soon, with over 15 seasons and counting. The series has become one of the most popular medical dramas in recent years thanks to its often heartbreaking stories and its charming characters, and even though most of the original cast is now gone and fans feel the series is past its prime, it still has a loyal fanbase.
Grey’s Anatomy follows the basic premise of medical dramas, focusing on the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they do their best to juggle their professional and personal lives, which often overlap. The series is led by Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), who started as an intern and is now Head of General Surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and it’s through her that viewers have met a variety of characters: from patients, family members, and friends, to romantic partners. Falling into the latter category is Andrew Deluca (Giacomo Gianniotti), whose arc showed one of the series’ weaknesses, but his death fixed the problem.
Deluca made his debut in Grey’s Anatomy in the final episodes of season 11, where on his way to Grey Sloan Hospital, he came across an accident and stopped to help, leading the rescue team to the hospital. Deluca was believed to be an attending but was later revealed to be an intern, which earned him the distrust of his colleagues. Deluca eventually got along with the rest of the crew at the hospital and got romantically involved with Meredith in season 15. However, Deluca struggled with his mental health, showing signs of mania just like his father, who many years ago got into a lot of trouble in Italy due to it. Although he got help and went to therapy, his mental health deteriorated in season 16, to the point where Dr. Bailey didn’t believe him when he expressed his concern about a patient who was the victim of human trafficking. Deluca was killed in season 17 when he was stabbed as he continued to investigate this human trafficking case, and he died at Grey Sloan Hospital.
The way Grey’s Anatomy presented Deluca’s mental health problems was as a manic, impulsive, and self-destructive individual, whose actions sometimes put him and others in danger, which is why he was often questioned by his colleagues, including Meredith and his sister Carina. Deluca was sidelined under the “mental health issues” excuse in season 17 so the series could focus on giving Meredith a more “fitting” story with the current global situation in the real world: the coronavirus pandemic, with Meredith falling sick and fighting for her life. However, Grey’s Anatomy managed to fix its “Deluca issue” by having him die as a hero, as his suspicions about the human trafficking case were correct and he informed the police, and his stabbing led to the arrest of some of the traffickers. His final actions showed that he wasn’t defined by his mania and impulsive behavior, and he will be remembered as a hero, not a man who struggled with his mental health.
Grey’s Anatomy isn’t a flawless TV show, and fans haven’t been shy when it comes to pointing out its weaknesses, such as the writers' tendency to kill characters instead of giving them satisfying endings (or giving them controversial closures, as was the case of Alex Karev), but they did something right with Andrew Deluca’s death.
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