Grey's Anatomy Delivers Wrenching Season Finale

Grey's Anatomy has consistently been a ratings and critical winner during its five-year run as one of the better hospital dramas on television. During that time, its regular cast members have ascended to A List status, with several of them landing major movie roles and others solidifying their television futures as solid performers.

Two of the stars that had long been rumored to be leaving the show were Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight. And last night, at least one of them is gone for good, with the other (Heigl), probably still enough of a question mark for the final decision on her character's fate to be made off-screen.

With Heigl's character, Izzie, fighting a losing battle with cancer, she was forced to decide whether she wanted to have high-risk brain surgery or opt against it because it would likely erase her memory. She eventually went for the surgery and woke up without memory. But she briefly and miraculously recovered her memory, only to flat-line shortly after embracing Alex, her new husband.

And in the show's most clever twist, Dr. George O'Malley announced that he was leaving Seattle Grace to join the Army and be a trauma surgeon in the field. But after saying goodbye, O'Malley returned to the hospital as a bloodied and unrecognizable John Doe who had pushed a woman out of the path of a bus and died a Seattle hero.

It's difficult to envision the show being able to squeeze too much more drama out of the remaining characters, so don't be surprised if Heigl's character somehow returns to the show.