‘Grey’s Anatomy’s Ghost Denny Storyline Isn’t as Bad as You Remember

It’s one of the most hated storylines, but is it really that bad?

Given that Grey’s Anatomy has surpassed twenty seasons at this point, it’s no surprise that there have been storylines fans didn’t enjoy. Whether it be that the storyline was heartbreaking and sad, as is the case with a lot of the series. Or perhaps just flat-out boring, or cringe-worthy. Whatever the reason may be, Grey’s Anatomy has had its fair share of flops. But one of the most disliked storylines happened back when the show was in its prime, and it has to do with Denny Duquette (Jeffery Dean Morgan). Denny was a patient back in Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy. He was a patient of Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington) and soon became a love interest of Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) — which is looked down upon even more than an intern dating an attending. Izzie and Denny had a season-long whirlwind romance, where both fell head over heels for one another. She even risked her medical license and cut his LVAD wire to move him up on the transplant list, if that’s not devotion, I don’t know what is. Denny did ultimately meet a devastating end in the Season 2 finale, which sent Izzie into a deep spiral and caused her to quit her job for a period of time. So when Denny showed back up in Season 5 many fans were confused. But it soon became clear that his appearances from beyond were much more than Izzie’s subconscious reminiscing on their time together.

Why Did Izzie Hallucinate Denny?

In an attempt to get Denny a heart and bump him up the transplant list, Izzie cut his LVAD wire, effectively getting a heart for Denny whilst taking it away from someone else. In Season 5 she’s assigned to that person’s case and this is when she starts having hallucinations of Denny. At first, it seems like it could just be guilt. After all, what she did was incredibly unethical and she knows it. But then he keeps showing up even when she’s off the case, and no matter what she does she can’t stop seeing him. Growing frustrated with constantly seeing Denny and not knowing why, Izzie asks him to leave but he sticks around anyway, repeatedly telling her “I’m here for you.” She initially doesn’t know what he means by this but soon comes to the conclusion that his presence is a warning sign that something isn’t right.

With the help of her interns, Izzie discovers she has Metastatic Melanoma, a very aggressive form of cancer with only a 5% survival rate. She puts off treatment for a little while but her diagnosis is eventually outed by Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) and Izzie finally admits herself as a patient and seeks treatment. Once she starts to undergo surgery, which consists of removing the metastases from her brain, her hallucinations of Denny stop. His presence was simply a side effect of her cancer. So when he shows back up all of a sudden, Izzie realizes she isn’t on the road to recovery like she originally thought. Izzie does triumphantly beat the cancer, making her all the more badass for doing so. And though fans find Izzie’s cancer storyline important, the Denny portion of it has always caused discourse.

Why Don’t Fans Like the Denny Storyline?

Of the OG interns, Izzie has never really been a favourite among fans. More so in her later seasons, and especially when Alex (Justin Chambers) left Jo (Camilla Luddington) for her back in Season 16. But in this case, the issue that fans have with her storyline in Season 5 doesn’t actually have anything to do with her, but instead has all to do with Denny (and I guess her a little bit, but only by extension.) With Denny continuously showing up Izzie believes that it’s memories she’s experiencing, and in an effort to prove to her that he’s really there, he suggests they do something they never got the chance to do when he was alive. Yeah. They have sex. Izzie has sex with Ghost Denny. It is incredibly weird, there’s no denying that, and fans immediately wrote the storyline off after the show went down that route. But while that choice was certainly a doozy, the entire story arc as a whole is quite clever and it doesn’t get recognized enough for that.

Obviously, the show took things a little too far with the revived relationship between Denny and Izzie, but even with the uncomfortable sex scene, how the show went about Izzie discovering her illness was extremely clever. We saw how hard Izzie fell for Denny, and he for her, so his showing up as her guardian Angel, the one sent to warn her, makes complete sense. She loved him so much, of course his ghostly reappearance is going to catch her attention, and given the connection that they formed and how stubborn Izzie could be at times, Denny was probably the only one who could get through to her. In a heated moment, Izzie comes to the conclusion that Denny is here FOR her, as in, he’s here to take her with him in death. “You’re not here for me. You’re here FOR me.” Izzie cried, to which Denny replied, “I loved you so much. I loved you so much that when I got to come back for you, I thought… you were my heaven. But maybe… maybe I’m your hell.” This is how Izzie comes to realize that she’s sick, she just doesn’t yet know in what way.

Which is another reason why fans take issue with this storyline. There are a lot of complaints (even from Izzie herself) that Denny wasted so much time by not telling Izzie she was sick — that he made her figure it out on her own. But the way I see it is that ghost Denny is her cancer materialized. The cancer has taken over her body unbeknownst to her, and is now making its presence known in the form of Denny. It makes sense that “Denny” can’t tell her because it isn’t actually him, it’s the cancer talking, it’s her mind playing tricks on her and revealing that something isn’t right. But even if you do see this as actually being Denny visiting her from beyond the grave, he himself says he’s not allowed to tell her and she has to figure it out on her own, so he’s not entirely to blame here.

All in all, despite some questionable choices, having Denny show up was a really poignant way of having Izzie discover her illness. Denny will always be a huge part of her life, so it makes sense that as her body gives out on her, he’s the one she sees. And it all comes full circle by the season finale when Izzie is dying and, in a limbo-esque dream, steps out of the elevator in her prom dress — the very dress she was wearing when Denny died. She was prepared to find and meet him in the afterlife. The ghost Denny storyline may get a bad reputation, but if you can look past the campy soap-opera nature of it (and the uncomfortable sex scene) you may just discover that it’s actually quite clever, and better than you remember it to be.

Grey’s Anatomy is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.