Shonda Rhimes: Serial Killer? 16 Cases Against the Queen of Shondaland

GREY'S ANATOMY: DEREK SHEPHERD (PATRICK DEMPSEY)

After nearly 11 seasons on the hit medical drama, Dr. McDreamy is gone. Dempsey's on-screen alter ego flatlined, ironically, in an episode called "How to Save a Life" after one of the show's trademark catastrophic accidents. There's been a lot of death in the show's 10 years, but this might just be the saddest yet. Really, what is Grey's Anatomy without Mer and Der?

SCANDAL: GIDEON WALLACE (BRENDAN HINES)

Wallace recurred on Scandal's seven-episode first season, and his death set the benchmark for the shocks to come. After weeks of getting covert information from Billy Chambers (Matt Letscher), the VP's Chief of Staff, Chambers stabbed him in the neck with a knife.

HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: SAM KEATING (TOM VERICA)

With the word murder in the show's title, there was no doubt that HTGAWM would be chock-full of the sudden deaths for which Shondaland is (in)famous, and the death of Sam Keating, the wandering husband of anti-heroine Annalise (Viola Davis), served as the series's catalyst. Finding out who was behind the murder, however, proved to be a major plot point throughout the season. Fun fact: Verica wasn't always in front of the camera, but he got behind the lens to direct several episodes in season 1.

GREY'S ANATOMY: LEXIE GREY (CHYLER LEIGH)

Grey's Anatomy sure isn't a tourist brochure for Seattle. During its 11-season run, the show has seen an endless stream of medical disasters. Season 8's plane crash, however, just may be the worst. No one on the plane escaped unscathed (except Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), but she's long since proved her immortality at this point). It was Mer's half-sister Lexie (Leigh) who suffered the worst fate of all – she was killed almost instantly after the crash. But not before a heartbreaking goodbye with ...

GREY'S ANATOMY: MARK SLOAN (ERIC DANE)

Lexie was the first to fall after the plane crash, but she wasn't the only. In the season 9 opener, audiences learned that the injuries McSteamy (a.k.a. Dane's Mark Sloan) suffered were too severe to overcome, and he was taken off life support. As a consolation to McSteamy's death, creator Shonda Rhimes said that there was a silver lining – since both Lexie and Mark passed away, they could be together in the afterlife. (They also got a hospital named after them.) That didn't do much to stop the tears, though.

SCANDAL: DANIEL DOUGLAS LANGSTON (JACK COLEMAN)

In one of the biggest shocker moments of Scandal's third season, Vice President Sally Langston (Kate Burton) hacked her husband to death with a knife after discovering he'd slept with James Novak (Dan Bucatinsky), the journo husband of White House Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry). Lesson learned: Do not mess with Sally Langston.

PRIVATE PRACTICE: PETE WILDER (TIM DALY)

Unlike most of the shows that come out of Shondaland, Private Practice was pretty tame when it came to character kills. The only major loss the show suffered throughout its six-season run was Daly's Pete, who died after suffering a heart attack during a run outside.

GREY'S ANATOMY: GEORGE O'MALLEY (T.R. KNIGHT)

What Grey's fan isn't still mourning the loss of George O'Malley? The sweetest of the original five's fate turned fatal after he jumped in front of a bus to save someone else's life. In real life, Knight was becoming increasingly frustrated with his lack of screen time and was looking for a way out.

GREY'S ANATOMY: DENNY DUQUETTE (JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN)

Denny's death wasn't a shock: We first met him as a Seattle Grace patient with a need for a new heart. But despite the warnings of her fellow doctors, Izzie (Katherine Heigl) fell in love with the kind Denny – and so did we (Dean Morgan's rugged good and charisma certainly didn't hurt). So when his death finally came at the end of season 2, even though we all knew it was coming, it was still a five-hanky event.

GREY'S ANATOMY: ADELE WEBBER (LORETTA DEVINE)

Devine's Adele was put through the wringer from before the show began to all the way to her death in season 9. She had to deal with her workaholic husband Richard (James Pickens Jr.) and his affair with Ellis Grey (eventual Scandal star Kate Burton). Later on, she suffered from Alzheimer's and eventually died after a heart attack.

SCANDAL: FITZGERALD 'LITTLE JERRY' GRANT JR. (DYLAN MINNETTE)

Little Jerry's age made his abrupt death truly tragic. President Grant's son was just 15 years old when he was poisoned by Rowan Pope (Joe Morton), the shady father of Washington, D.C. white hat – and Jerry's dad's lover – Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). Like all B613 deaths, he made it look like an accident, swindling doctors to believe Jerry had contracted bacterial meningitis from the poison.

SCANDAL: HARRISON WRIGHT (COLUMBUS SHORT)

Short's legal drama off-camera (including domestic abuse allegations) led to his death on-screen. Bet you can't guess who was behind Harrison's untimely demis. (Hint: B613.) When Rowan discovered Harrison knew he was behind the death of Little Jerry, he personally witnessed the take-out of Olivia's righthand man.

SCANDAL: AMANDA TANNER (LIZA WEIL)

Having an affair with a married president is almost never a good idea – for Tanner, it was a deadly mistake. Weil, on the other hand, couldn't be kept down for long – she now has a leading role on Rhimes' hit How To Get Away With Murder.

SCANDAL: VERNA THORNTON (DEBRA MOONEY)

Her complicity in the Defiance Conspiracy led the Supreme Court Justice to her death. After Fitz (Tony Goldwyn) discovered her role in the vote-rigging scheme, he smothered her. To be fair Mooney's Verna was a goner anyway, no thanks to her case of terminal liver cancer. That a sitting POTUS got away with it might be the show's most shocking twist ever.

HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: REBECCA SUTTER (KATIE FINDLAY)

To keep the momentum going, HTGAWM's first season had to go out with a bang. The death of Findlay's Rebecca, who was found dead during the last few minutes of the show's season finale, proved a perfectly murky set-up for season 2.

Oh Shonda. You might love to kill off your characters, but you sure know how to keep a viewer interested.