There have been a lot of great episodes of Grey’s Anatomy over the years, but fans particularly love the episodes in which the doctors on the show all get together and agree that the appendix is where the human soul is housed, and that anyone who has their appendix removed is no longer truly human. Here are four classic episodes where that happens.
1. The episode where Meredith Grey removes a man’s appendix and then throws him in a dumpster for medical waste
In the season two episode “The Ragdoll Man,” Meredith Grey performs an appendectomy on an otherwise healthy man in his 30s and then declares, “Well, without his appendix, this guy is garbage now.” Dr. Cristina Yang then nods and adds, “Now that his appendix is gone, he’s basically just a mannequin that can scream and burp. Let’s get rid of this soulless monstrosity.” Fans still speak in reverent tones about the final scene of the episode, in which Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” plays as Meredith and Cristina drag the man, who frantically struggles to escape, out of the operating room, down the hallway, and into the alleyway behind the hospital. The two doctors stuff him, screaming, into a medical waste receptacle as the episode fades to black.
2. The episode where a boy’s appendix is removed and the doctors recommend that his parents sell him to a glue factory
The season four episode “Toy Soldier” is one of the most tragic in Grey’s Anatomy history. The heartbreaking story begins when a 12-year-old boy is brought into the emergency room with appendicitis, and Meredith Grey has no choice but to perform an appendectomy. After the operation, Meredith sits down with the boy’s parents in the ICU waiting room with tears in her eyes and says, “I know this isn’t easy to hear, but without his appendix, your son is a soulless homunculus bereft of humanity. I would recommend selling him to the biggest glue factory in Seattle so that his bones can be boiled into industrial adhesive.” The boy’s mother starts sobbing uncontrollably and his father fights back tears as he says, “Well, at least that way his body can at least be useful to society.” The parents sell their son to Pacific Glue Works for $600 and spend the money on sushi. In the bittersweet closing montage, Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” plays as we see people all over Seattle using glue made out of the boy to repair things around their houses.
3. The episode where the doctors agree that their Hippocratic Oath makes them ethically obligated to throw a woman without an appendix off a bridge from the window of a speeding bus
The iconic season six episode “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” begins with an 80-year-old woman getting her appendix removed. During the surgery, Dr. Mark Sloan says to Meredith Grey, “When this woman wakes up she will basically be a human-shaped mushroom. With her appendix gone she’ll have no soul, and therefore it will be okay for us to throw her into the ocean.” Meredith replies, “I completely agree with you. It’s sad but true. Since the appendix is the only thing that makes us human, it would be ethical for us to throw this woman into the ocean once her appendix is gone. In fact, as doctors, we would have an obligation to do so according to the Hippocratic Oath.” At that moment, Dr. Miranda Bailey, the chief of surgery, sticks her head into the operating room and says, “I just wanted to let you know that if you don’t throw this appendix-free golem into the ocean, I’ll fire you both and then resign.” In the episode’s final scene, “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol plays as we see Meredith and Martin stuff the screaming woman through the window of a moving bus at it drives over a bridge. When someone on the bus says, “Did you just murder that woman?” Meredith explains that she had no appendix. “Oh,” the person on the bus replies, “then she was basically a lizard.”
4. The episode where Meredith Grey wins the Nobel Prize for discovering that people with no appendix can be used as crash test dummies
The season nine stunner “Thrown Clear” begins with Meredith Grey performing an appendectomy on a 65-year-old man. When the operation is complete, she tells the man’s family that his appendix has been removed. The man’s wife says, “But without his appendix, he has no soul. He’s not a person anymore,” and Meredith says, “You’re exactly right. Medically speaking, he’s basically a potato that knows how to read.” The family says that they no longer want to live with the man and they decide to leave him at the hospital. While trying to figure out the best way to dispose of the appendix-free creature, Meredith decides to sell him to General Motors to use as a crash test dummy. General Motors is happy with the results, they reward Meredith with the Nobel Prize in Medicine. In the episode’s final scene, Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” plays as Meredith boards a plane to Stockholm to receive her prize.
