The 10 Best Grey's Anatomy Moments From Dr. Bailey's Intern Era

Grey’s Anatomy’s Season 20 premiere ended with Nick Marsh stepping away from Grey Sloan Memorial’s residency program, assuring the interns that he’d found them quite the capable replacement: Dr. Miranda Bailey.

“I have five rules,” she said upon walking into the room, like a hero in an Avengers post-credits scene. Except better because Chandra Wilson’s Bailey has been the steadfast, no-nonsense, beloved heart of the hospital for two decades now. As she steps in to guide the young doctors once again, she’s bringing a major dose of Grey’s nostalgia with her.

As the show’s newly appointed showrunner (and longtime writer) Meg Marinis recently told Bustle, there’s a reason Season 20 is giving throwback MAGIC vibes. “I love telling stories with interns,” she explained. “Attendings shouldn’t be messing up all the time, but interns can, and that’s really fun to write.”

And where there are interns messing up, you can be sure Bailey won’t be far away — to supervise them, inspire them, and maybe talk some tough love into them as needed.

In honor of Bailey’s return to her intern boss era, here are her best Grey’s moments from helming the original class of Meredith, Alex, George, Izzie, and Cristina.

When She Met MAGIC

Bailey’s “I have five rules” in Season 20 was a callback to her first day with the interns in the Grey’s Anatomy series premiere. As a refresher, 1) Don’t suck up; 2) Answer every page at a run; 3) Don’t wake up Bailey unless your patient is dying; 4) Don’t let your patient die before Bailey gets there; 5) When she moves, you move.

Looking back, it’s amazing that Bailey already had such a fully formed, commanding presence early on. She was still a resident herself, light blue scrubs and all!

Crashing MerDer’s Hookup

Bailey was decidedly not a Meredith-Derek shipper, at least not during the early days of their relationship, when they sneaked around and blocked her in during a clandestine car hookup. The shot of her walking up to interrupt them? Cinema.

Putting Derek In His Place

Soon, Bailey took Derek to task about his “talented, neurotic, overly moussed” charm, and the way his affair with an intern was problematic. On another show, a higher-up might have used this as an opportunity to shame her intern. But after countless rewatches, it becomes clear that Bailey was looking out for Meredith’s career the entire time, and it’s fun to watch her stand up to Derek to do it.

“I’m Fine Right Here.”

When Cristina had to undergo emergency surgery following her ectopic pregnancy in Season 2, Bailey stood by her the entire time. “I’m fine right here,” she assured Addison, who didn’t really need her during the procedure. It was moving to see Bailey be there for her intern in such a vulnerable situation, revealing a new layer of her character in the process.

Her Understanding Elevator Moment

Another quiet moment of compassion can be seen a few episodes later, when Derek and Bailey found themselves in the elevator together following the devastating train crash ordeal. Bailey saw Derek’s typically cool exterior beginning to crack, and as he tried to stifle his cries, she silently pressed the elevator’s emergency stop button, giving him the chance to come undone.

When She Invented “Va-jay-jay”

The Grey’s Anatomy bomb episode had everything: dreamy bomb-squad boss Kyle Chandler, an all-time great soundtrack moment with “Breathe,” and, most importantly, Bailey telling George to stop looking at her “va-jay-jay” while she gave birth — adding a new word the pop culture lexicon in the process.

As Shonda Rhimes told Oprah Winfrey in 2006, she overheard an assistant use the term and committed it to screen, adding that broadcast standards guidelines previously bristled at “vagina.”

“We fought that and won — but ‘va-jay-jay’ is our favorite alternate term,” she explained.

The LVAD Situation

“You fools better have a good explanation for this,” Bailey told her interns after Izzie cut Denny’s LVAD wire. Her arrival on the messy scene raised the stakes of Season 2’s chaotic finale, and she quickly went into action mode, letting the interns tell her just enough so she could help Denny, but not so much that she’d have to testify against them in a court.

She’s exactly the type of person you’d want by your side in an emergency, and this scene proves it.

“Whose Damn Panties Are On The Bulletin Board?”

As a paragon of professionalism in the workplace, Bailey was understandably horrified to find one of her intern’s underwear pinned under a “lost and found” sign on the hospital bulletin board — and her line delivery remains an all-time great Grey’s Anatomy moment.

When She Didn’t Give Up On Meredith

Bailey was never more scared than when she was trying to revive Meredith after her drowning in Season 3. Not only was it touching to see Bailey persevere against the odds, but it also marked a shift in how she understood Meredith. She realized that the intern, sometimes a thorn in her superiors’ side, was just as vulnerable as any other patient in the hospital.

Her Heart-To-Heart With George

Bailey had a soft spot for George. She even honored him with her son’s middle name! So it was heartening to see that she could be there for him when he stumbled, too, like when he didn’t pass his intern exam at the end of Season 3. Asking him in tears, “Did I fail you?,” and grabbing George’s hand when he insisted he failed her, Bailey’s cool exterior shed a little more — hinting at the kind of surgeon she’d grow to be in the seasons to come.