There are long-running TV shows, and then there's Grey's Anatomy. While Grey's Anatomy music might be one iconic part of the series, it's also known for its A+ speeches aka Shondalogues. And there are quite a few I think especially stand out as the best.
Throughout the years, fans have seen crazy Grey's Anatomy diseases from patients, as well as countless breakups and hookups from the surgeons of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Named after creator Shonda Rhimes and her signature style of writing, Shondalogues are the fan-named name for the speeches from her shows. They usually each come with a central statement that's repeated, and there are 32 in particular that really helped make the show as legendary as it is now. Beware: a spoiler alert is in effect!
Pick me, choose me, love me.
Obviously this one was going to be on the list. While Ellen Pompeo might hate the fact that her character Meredith begged McDreamy to be with her back in Season 2, it is one of the most quotable lines of the entire series. Unfortunately, Derek would try to work things out with Addison before they were finally able to get together.
Izzy begs Denny to help her steal a heart.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Denny Duquette is one of the most iconic guest stars of Grey's Anatomy, and his love for Izzie extended seasons after his onscreen death. Katherine Heigl's character famously cut his LVAD wire to worsen his condition and procure a heart for a transplant, but not without a fight. And ultimately Heigl won an Emmy for her performance in Season 2, before famously pulling out of contention in a future season.
Give me my dad.
Meredith's half-sister Lexie Grey shows up as an intern in Season 4 of Grey's Anatomy, and we watch as they slowly develop a beautiful relationship. One major test came when Thatcher came in for a liver treatment, and they found out that Lexie wasn't a match. But Meredith is, and Lexie begs her to help her as a sister, despite Meredith's strained relationship with their father.
I'm free.
Season 3 of Grey's Anatomy ends with the wedding of Cristina and Burke which... does not go well. After being left at the altar, she returns to their apartment and quickly realizes that his most prized possessions are missing. She's finally "free" from him, and ends up having an anxiety attack and needing to be cut out of her dress by Meredith.
You are like needing glasses.
Brooke Smith's Erica Hahn is a character first introduced in Season 2, and eventually became a series regular in Season 3. When she and Callie hook up for the first time, she equates the experience of being with a woman for the first time with finally being able to see as a kid after getting glasses. And the moving speech ends humorously with "I am so gay. I am so so so gay. I am extremely gay."
It's unbearable.
In Season 4 Cristina is reeling from the departure of both her mentor and romantic partner Preston Burke. When asked to fill out HR forms about their relationship by Chief Webber, she issues a stunning monologue about what it feels to be unmoored as he wins the Harper Avery Award. That's why Sandra Oh's Cristina continues to be a fan-favorite character after all these years.
Arizona is a good man in a storm.
Prior to Jessica Capshaw's surprising firing, Arizona Robbins as a major character in Grey's Anatomy for many years. She and Callie's romance had plenty of challenges, including the reaction of Callie's father to her coming out. The beloved pediatric surgeon appeals to Ms. Torres by revealing her own family's history, and assuring him she's a trustworthy person.
April pleading for her life.
Grey's Anatomy's shooter episodes are truly chilling hours of television, in which almost all of the surgeons come face to face with the gunman Gary Clark. That includes vintage April Kepner, who tells Mr. Clark details about her family in an effort to humanize herself. Ultimately he spares her life in this moment.
Webber tells McDreamy to sober up.
In Season 5 of Grey's, Derek Shepherd falls into a depression after losing a patient. He punches Mark over Lexie, and starts drinking heavily and lashing out at people from his trailer. Eventually, Webber shows up to talk some sense into him, where he speaks about his history with alcoholism.
Izzie defends her modeling past.
While Karev became a fan-favorite character, he was largely antagonistic in Season 1 of Grey's Anatomy. Case in point: when he found out about Izzie's past as a model and posted photos of her in lingerie all over the locker room. She tears him a new one, while also taking pride in the fact that her fellow surgeons are all in debt and she is not.
Meredith confronts the Doctor who killed Derek.
In Season 16, Meredith's medical license is nearly revoked, and she must mount a defense and go to a hearing in order to continue practicing medicine. One of the judges on the panel making the decisions happens to be the doctor who was responsible for Derek's death, and when he mentions their daughter Zola she loses it and gives him a truly iconic verbal lashing. Shockingly enough, he dies shortly after.
Jesus would be ashamed.
While Callie Torres is a bisexual icon on TV, the character's coming out experience was a difficult one. Eventually, her father shows up at the hospital with their family priest in tow, hoping to "pray away the gay." After going back and forth about scripture, Callie offers a moving speech where she says that Jesus would be ashamed of Mr. Torres for turning his back on her.
I am yelling.
Throughout much of Grey's Anatomy's early seasons, Richard Webber was flirting with retiring, and deciding who might replace him as Chief of Surgery. In Season 3 he offers the job to Burke, but his hand tremor and secret plot to cover it up with Cristina complicates things. Eventually, Webber loses his temper and yells at him about it... while telling Burke that he's yelling.
Izzie explains why she signed a DNR.
At the back end of Grey's Season 5, it's revealed that the hallucinations of Denny that Izzie was seeing were the result of cancer. In the penultimate episode, she's being wheeled into surgery, and Alex tries to convince her to rip up her DNR. While explaining her reasoning, she has a speech about the hallucinations she's currently feeling, including seeing beaches behind Alex's eyes.
You don't get to call me [easy].
This is probably a Top 5 moment for Meredith Grey, and another wildly quotable and iconic Shondalogue from Grey's Anatomy history. After Derek insults her and says she "gets around" after she confided in him about her one-night stand with George, Ellen Pompeo's title character confronts him in the stairway. In this speech, she tells him he doesn't have the right to judge her, especially after he left her and chose Addison.
She's my person.
Certain phrases that originated in Grey's Anatomy have become part of the pop culture lexicon. That includes the term "my person" which Cristina and Meredith use to describe their friendship. After getting engaged to Burke, Cristina gets an A+ Shondalogue explaining exactly what that means to her.
Bailey tells George he isn't a bad guy.
Dr. Bailey might have been a tough mentor in the early seasons, but she always had a special place in her heart for T.R. Knight's George O'Malley. This is largely thanks to him helping her give birth while her ex was in surgery. And when George and Callie's marriage blows up after he sleeps with Izzie, Bailey gives him a pep talk telling him he's not a terrible person for making a terrible mistake.
Today I become a man.
While Izzie is sick in Season 5, she plans Meredith and Derek a dream wedding. But they end up giving the day up to her and Alex, who get married in the midst of her cancer battle. His wedding vows are a gorgeous Shondalogue, and hint at Karev's ultimate ending with Izzie years later.
That will never happen again.
Cristina Yang has some of the best speeches in Grey's Anatomy history, and this is definitely one for the record books. In Season 6 Owen asks her about her history with Burke, and she gives a moving speech about how her former fiancee and mentor took pieces of her. And while she allowed Owen to do the same once, she wouldn't allow herself to be compromised in this way again.
He's a drunk.
Lexie and Meredith have a difficult time connecting during Season 4, thanks to their very different upbringings. When Thatcher starts showing up to the hospital drunk, Meredith tells her half-sister to take better care of him. That's when Chyler Leigh's character reveals the truth of her father's alcoholism and the struggles she's been facing privately with it.
Meredith builds a house of candles.
The on and off again relationship between Meredith and Derek is the main love story for the first handful of Grey's Anatomy seasons. One of the most iconic moments of their relationship is at the end of Season 4, when Meredith builds a house made of candles on his land, showing how committed she is to their future. Even though she "doesn't build houses".
Cristina talks about her father's death to Owen.
Cristina Yang's history is something that Grey's fans needed to earn. And while she reveals to George that her father died during Season 3, it isn't until Season 5 that she hears what happened to him. As she tells Owen Hunt, she was there in the car accident that caused his death, and felt his heart stop beating. And that's why she wins all the contests and works so hard.
Ellis calls Meredith ordinary.
In the final moments of Grey's Anatomy's pilot episode, it's revealed that Meredith is taking care of her mother Ellis, who has Alzheimer's. And in Season 3, Ellis briefly becomes lucid and catches up on the years she missed. When she finds out her daughter doesn't have a surgical specialty and is more focused on McDreamy, she asks "What happened to you?" and calls her ordinary in a biting speech.
Cristina tells Owen about what happened after the plane crash.
Season 8 ended with the Grey's Anatomy plane crash episode, which was a brutal hour of television where Lexie died. Exactly what went down in the time between the crash and the surgeon's rescue isn't revealed until the second episode of Season 9, where Cristina says she "can't get out" of the tub... or out of her memories of those horrifying days. She finally reveals what they went through in the woods, and it's a gripping monologue.
Did you say it?
The fifth season of Grey's Anatomy ends with an emotionally devastating cliffhanger. George is revealed to be the John Doe, while Izzie codes before Alex's eyes in another room. The two characters meet in a dream space, where Meredith's narration offers a moving monologue about love and the passing of time.
I am infected by Mark Sloan.
Lexie and Sloan are a beloved pair on Grey's Anatomy, but one that never got their happy ending. They're broken up throughout Season 8, before Meredith's younger sister blurts out that she loves him and can't stop because he's like a disease she's contracted. Unfortunately, she died in the plane crash just a few episodes later, and he perished shortly thereafter.
You died in my arms.
At the start of Season 6, the surgeons are still reeling from George's sudden death, as well as Izzie briefly dying and coming back to life. While Katherine Heigl's character tries to make him act normal and as a married couple, he lets out an emotional Shondalogue about what he went through when she was coding and just how scared he is of something happening to her.
This man is [easy].
In Season 4, Mark Sloan gets into a serious beef with the nurses of Seattle Grace. They try to boycott the surgeon's service due to him sleeping with so many of them and not calling them back. But when it starts affecting patients, Bailey offers a hilarious Shondalogue about how Sloan is easy, but they all knew that before getting involved with the plastic surgeon.
Susan Grey apologizes to Meredith.
While Meredith's relationship with her father is strained throughout all of Grey's Anatomy, she does end up getting close with his second wife Susan. But it's a process to get there, and Susan has to first stand up for herself, before eventually apologizing for not making Thatcher try harder to have a relationship with her.
Kepner's crisis of faith.
While the surgeons of Grey's Anatomy practice medicine, a few also have strong relationships with religion. Few as much as April Kepner, who experiences a crisis of faith in Season 14. She takes over Meredith's narration for the episode "Personal Jesus", where she offers a cynical and devastated look at scripture.
My diaper is hardcore.
In Season 6, Seattle Grace merges with Mercy West, leading all of the surgeons to fight to keep their jobs. While on McDreamy's service for a particularly long surgery, Lexie gets the idea to wear a diaper so she wouldn't need bathroom breaks. And when Jackson tries to mock her for it, she gives him a hilarious earful.
McDreamy's elevator proposal.
After years of breakups and hookups, Meredith and Derek eventually became a real couple. During Season 5, he proposes to her in a very on-brand way: reminiscing about their medical cases together and how they were connected to their romantic life. Of course, it happening in an elevator was all the more appropriate for them.
