Grey’s Anatomy killed off DeLuca in a new episode and it left fans wondering why the show did it. It turns out that a plan was in the works to do this for quite some time, which may even tie to what happened with DeLuca and the mystery woman named Opal last season.
The good news is that Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff struggled with her decision to kill off DeLuca, but the bad news is that this is the last time we will see actor Giacomo Gianniotti. We were left with no doubt about that when Meredith Grey said goodbye to him on her beach.
The death of DeLuca was largely unexpected during this episode, even though we knew that it was dangerous for him and his sister to be tracking a suspected human trafficker on their own. But with what happened when he tried to report it last season, he felt it was important to collect evidence this time. That proved to be a fatal decision.
There are still a lot of questions about who stabbed DeLuca, but at least we have a lot of information from Vernoff herself about why the show decided to go in this direction. To her credit, in an episode where Dr. Thomas Koracick was still trying to recover from COVID-19 and Meredith Grey was on a ventilator, it was shocking that a completely different doctor died.
Why did they kill off DeLuca on Grey’s Anatomy?
“Well, it was less a thought process than it was an inspiration. I start each season by myself, taking walks in nature, asking the stories to reveal themselves to me,” Krista Vernoff said while starting to explain her decision about killing DeLuca in a TVLine interview.
“These stories tell themselves, and it’s a writer’s job to just write them down as fast as you can. This one was the first and most powerful one that came to my mind sort of wholly realized. I knew what this story was, what we were doing and why we had to do it,” she went on to say.
She also spoke about how she tried to “chicken out several times” during the process of putting the season together, but that the writers kept her honest in the storytelling. They all agreed that the story was an important and powerful one and that it would require sticking to the storylines at play.
A tribute to actor Giacomo Gianniotti
Following Grey’s Anatomy Season 17, Episode 7 airing on ABC, Krista Vernoff took to her Twitter account to thank actor Giacomo Gianniotti for all of his hard work on the show. Her message is shared below, and it includes thanking Gianniotti for his grace on the show.
We are all going to miss seeing DeLuca on the show. And we also assume that it is going to be very difficult for Meredith Grey and Miranda Bailey to deal with another loss like this one.
Grey’s Anatomy Season 18 questions
There is a chance that we are watching the final new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy right now. Krisa Vernoff and show star Ellen Pompeo aren’t signed on for Season 18 yet and ABC has not yet renewed the show. Vernoff and Pompeo both spoke about a series finale possibly happening this season.
It would be sad if this turns out to be the final season of Grey’s Anatomy, but at least a lot of storylines are getting wrapped up. And there is still time for Meredith to see her sister on that beach.
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.