Fans of Grey’s Anatomy have seen many of their favorite characters leave or die, among those Eric Dane’s Mark Sloan – here’s why he was killed off. Created by Shonda Rhimes, Grey’s Anatomy debuted on ABC in 2005, and even though it was initially planned as a midseason replacement, it was so well received it has lived on for over 10 seasons and shows no signs of stopping soon. Sadly, living for so long also means not all actors can stay forever, and the series has now said goodbye to most of its original cast.
Grey’s Anatomy, like other medical dramas, follows the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they do their best to juggle their professional and personal lives, which more often than not end up mixing. The series is led by Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), who viewers met as an intern at Seattle Grace Hospital, and who is now Head of General Surgery. Upon her arrival at the hospital, Meredith (and viewers) met the team of attendings, among those Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), best remembered now as “McSteamy”. Mark was Derek Shepherd’s childhood friend who also brought drama to his life as he had an affair with his wife, Addison Montgomery.
Mark changed a lot during his time in the series, and by season 8, he had a daughter with Callie and was still struggling with his feelings for Lexie Grey, even though he was in a relationship with Julia. In the final two episodes of season 8, Mark, Lexie, Derek, Meredith, Cristina Yang, and Arizona Robbins flew to assist in a surgery at a hospital in Boise. The plane crashed, and Mark found Lexie under debris, but was unable to save her. Lexie died, but not before Mark came clean about his feelings for her. Though Mark and the rest survived the crash, he actually got badly injured, which wasn’t evident until season 9’s premiere episode, where he was on life support. As determined by his will, the machines were turned off and Mark Sloan died.
Eric Dane’s departure was announced in 2012, and he expressed his gratitude towards Rhimes and the rest of the production crew of Grey’s Anatomy, with Rhimes later adding that Dane didn’t “come to that decision lightly”, and they decided it was the right time to end Mark’s storyline. A year later, in an interview with EW, Dane opened up about leaving Grey’s Anatomy, saying that the series is a world and not just about a character, and the storylines were already heading in different directions. He then saw an opportunity to leave the show as he was already interested in something else – and that something was the series The Last Ship, which he said was a chance he couldn’t pass up.
Rhimes later justified the decision of killing Mark instead of letting him go in a different way by saying she “had to do what was right for the integrity of the character”, and this way Lexi and Mark “get to be together, in a way”. Grey’s Anatomy isn’t the best when writing characters out, as killing them is the writers' go-to solution, and Mark Sloan’s death is definitely one of the most heartbreaking ones, not only because of how it happened but also because he was a fan-favorite.