KILL YOUR ENTHUSIASM (16)

By: Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons
November 16, 2022

One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of favorite killed-off TV characters. Series edited by Heather Quinlan.

DENNY DUQUETTE

If the words “cut the LVAD wire” are a punch to the gut, that’s because you, too, mourned the loss of Denny Duquette on Grey’s Anatomy. Even after 19 seasons (and counting), I still watch Grey’s Anatomy and will continue to watch long as they keep churning out episodes. My refusal to abandon ship is due mainly to my genetic predisposition to consume soap operas — Grey’s is “my program.”

There have been far more dramatic deaths since Dr. Izzie Stevens fell in love with Denny, cutting his LVAD wire to move her patient up the heart transplant list, only to have her heart destroyed when he died of a stroke after the transplant. Beloved characters have been squashed by a bus, shot, stabbed, or killed in a plane crash or from complications after the crash, which begs the question, why can’t I get over Denny Duquette? (And, also, should any of these people still be practicing medicine after suffering so much trauma?)

The obvious answer as to why we will forever mourn Denny is that the character, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, was perfect — a quick-witted, charming guy who is ridiculously handsome. Years ago, when cutting through Washington Square Park one night, I spotted the actor wearing a tuxedo and carrying an armful of roses. It turns out he was filming some romantic comedy with Uma Thurman. At that moment, though, the man looked so damn fine striding through the moonlit city I thought I’d had a stroke.

My answer as to why Denny’s death remains one of the most devastating in TV history is… The Prom. What appears to be a humorous plot point in the second season’s final episode — a teenage patient, who is also The Chief’s niece, wants the best prom ever — is the razor-sharp scalpel the writers wield to slice open our collective hearts. Izzie and her fellow LVAD wire co-conspirators, Meredith, Cristina, George, and Alex, are charged with making the teen’s dream come true. The Chief heightens the stakes by requiring everyone to dress up and attend the hospital’s prom.

Prom is filled with promise, and the event’s energy matches Denny’s newfound hope for the future. He has warm hands for the first time, a regular heartbeat, and now that he can do whatever he wants, what he wants is Izzie. Except when she goes to show off her prom dress to her future husband, Izzie finds him dead in his hospital bed.

The iconic image of Izzie climbing into Denny’s bed to be with him in her huge, rose-pink dress is tear-inducing enough. However, watching a tuxedo-clad Alex gently extract Izzie from her place beside the body, gathering up the crinoline layers of her prom dress as he carries her away from a lost future, remains the most heartbreaking moment of Grey’s Anatomy. Popular culture paints prom night as either a fairy tale or a horror show; the death of Denny Duquette is operatic in its tragedy because both endings come true.

***

MORE ENTHUSIASM at HILOBROW

KILL YOUR ENTHUSIASM (16)

Categories

Tags