Grey's Anatomy's Biggest Series-Changing Moment Happened Back in S10
Over a total of 19 seasons, fans have become somewhat used to the roller coaster of emotions that comes with watching Grey's Anatomy. There is drama, rivalry, love, heartbreak, and a fair amount of death, with the writers and producers becoming notorious for killing off fan-favorite characters.
Season 8 was no exception, with a tragic plane crash in the finale claiming Meredith's sister Lexie, who was crushed to death by debris, and Mark who later succumbs to his injuries in hospital.
Fans managed to make it through a rather dark season 9 as the surviving doctors of the crash attempted to recover, but then as things seemed to calm down, season 10 came along and claimed another favorite character.
Cristina Yang was and probably will always be one of the most loved characters to appear on Grey's Anatomy.
She entered the show as a resident in the very beginning along with Meredith Grey, and the two quickly became inseparable. Besides being the other half of one of the audience's favorite friendship duos, Cristina Yang was a strong woman and brilliant surgeon with a dark sense of humor that made her character all the more intriguing.
Cristina and Meredith along with Alex Karev were the only 3 original interns to have made it so far in the series, and when the news broke of Cristina's departure fans were shocked. Her character leaves Grey Sloan after she is offered an opportunity by Preston Burke as head of a hospital in Switzerland, which was fitting for her character whose priority had always been to further her career.
With Cristina moving thousands of miles away, the idea of her making future appearances on the show was always going to be slim, but fans held onto hope that it would not be impossible.
Sandra Oh, the actress who played Cristina Yang, made the personal decision to leave the series after many great years as she felt that creatively she had done all she could for her character and it was time for her to move on to other opportunities and ultimately let Cristina go. The actress would later go on to play a lead role in the series Killing Eve.
One thing fans can be thankful for is that Cristina Yang had a positive sendoff, if the writers had decided to kill her character off fans probably would have never forgiven them. After being what could be considered the heart of the show alongside Meredith for so long, it was devastating to see her go but her exit was touching and well-deserved. Today, after many, many seasons have passed with new characters coming and going, longtime fans still feel the void left behind by Cristina Yang and can consider her the one that got away.