Summary

Nearly 50 years into its existence, Star Wars is deeply embedded into pop culture around the world. Popular movies and TV shows have parodied and referenced it over and over for decades now. Surprisingly, the long-running ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy once included an entire monologue referencing a galaxy far, far away so specifically that it may have gone completely over casual fans' heads. It's such a deep cut that only someone familiar with the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now called Legends) could have written it. Does this mean it remains one of the greatest pop culture references of all time?

Many pop culture fans will know the most commonly referenced lines and events from Star Wars over the years. The iconic "I am your father" moment was parodied by Disney long before the company owned the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars books are a more niche offshoot of the fandom, however. While there are hundreds of novels and far more comic book issues, the vast majority of those familiar with Star Wars have not read them. This is what makes Grey's Anatomy's Season 4 reference even more impressive -- whoever wrote the monologue had to have been a huge fan of the franchise.

The show referenced dozens of Star Wars books, actually, if you count how many books the Solo children appear in. A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, a 2008 Grety's Anatomy episode featured a Star Wars-specific monologue that got more niche as it progressed. In Season 4, Episode 16, "Freedom, Part 1," an emergency situation arises when a teenager is brought in encased in concrete. "I'm like Han Solo. In Star Wars?" the patient, Andrew, tells Dr. Miranda Bailey as a surgical team slowly removes concrete pieces and begins treating burns on his skin. As he becomes more embarrassed about jumping into cement to impress a girl, his heart rate shoots up, which is dangerous in his situation. Bailey, therefore, tries to calm him down by talking to him, remembering his mention of Han Solo, and attempting to reassure him that he's not a loser just because he made one dumb mistake. Han Solo freezing in carbonite, she says, is not the end for him. The following monologue ensues:

"Uh, Andrew! Andrew, hey! Hey! Listen to me. HAN SOLO IS NOT A LOSER. Han Solo got encased in carbonite, and that was a big mess, but thats not what hes remembered for. Hes remembered as the guy who made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs and who braved the sub-zero temperatures of the ice planet Hoth in order to save someone he cared about from the big ugly Wampa. Hes remembered as the guy who swooped down at the last minute, blasted Darth Vader out of the sky so that Luke could use the Force andand destroy the damn Death Star! Ok? Princess Leia saved him from the carbonite and they fell in love, and they saved the universe and had twin Jedi babies that went on to save the universe again. Right? Now thats the whole picture. The carbonite was just a piece. Ok?"

Several members of the surgical team pause to look at Bailey questioningly when Andrew's heart rate slows to normal and her monologue finishes, as if surprised that a medical doctor would know anything about Wampas and the Kessel run from Solo: A Star Wars Story. She replies defensively to the room: "What? I like science fiction!" So does the writer responsible for the above monologue, apparently -- and they must like Star Wars specifically in order to have referenced Han and Leia's twins, who only ever appeared in books and never on-screen. Thankfully, when writers write TV episodes, they get credited for those episodes so that anyone who might want to dig deeper into their science fiction interests could theoretically do so.

The episode's writer is none other than Grey's Anatomycreator Shonda Rhimes, which raises an important question: Is Rhimes a Star Wars fan? She's actually a "huge" fan, according to a 2015 post on X (formerly Twitter) promoting a special look at Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens on ABC. Whether or not Rhimes has read a plethora of Star Wars Legends books remains a mystery. However, Bailey's deep-cut monologue had to have at least been fact-checked or filled out by someone in that writer's room, whether Rhimes originally included the Legends reference or not. It just goes to show that when a Star Wars fan becomes a highly successful individual in their industry, they not only have the opportunity to weave references to their favorite franchise into their work -- they'll do it, too.

In fact, there are a number of Star Wars references throughout the series, such as Season 5, Episode 18, "Stand By Me," when Derek Shepard tells Meredith Grey he loves her, and she replies, "I know." Keeping with continuity, having established Bailey as a fan of Star Wars early on in the series, most of the references come from her character throughout the seasons. Unfortunately, as Rhimes became less directly involved with the series in later seasons, the frequency of Star Wars references has also significantly decreased. It is possible that Krista Vernoff, who ran the show until Season 20, wasn't as big of a science fiction fan as Rhimes. With a new showrunner steering the ship, more Star Wars references could make a grand return to the show.

It's not at all uncommon for movies and TV shows to reference Star Wars directly or indirectly in their scripts. Characters might make lightsaber noises, quote famous lines, or dress up in costume as characters for Halloween or other occasions. It's not as common for a medical drama, for example, to reference even such a well-known fictional universe, especially one set in the real world decades after the movie that started it all was released. It is much more feasible now, however, as fans who grew up with Star Wars are getting older, becoming more successful, and finding ways to incorporate their fandom -- in big ways and small -- into their work seen by audiences of millions.

Han Solo is a well-known Star Wars character, whether you've seen all the movies or just snippets of the original trilogy. Grey's Anatomy's reference to the character is the best in pop culture history because of the book reference alone. If a viewer had only seen the movies and TV shows, they wouldn't have known about the Solo twins or their efforts to save the galaxy as Jedi. Thankfully, the person responsible for creating Grey's Anatomy just so happens to like Star Wars as well. Dr. Bailey was right, of course: Heroes are best remembered by their most impressive achievements, such as Rhimes sneaking a Star Wars book reference into a hugely popular primetime network television show.

The rest is here:
Grey's Anatomy Delivered the Greatest Star Wars Reference of All-Time - CBR