The 7 Trickiest Love Triangles on Grey's Anatomy

Ah, the inaugural Grey's love triangle. The Meredith/Derek/Addison situation sets the standard for all other subsequent triangles. Just as we think we're witnessing the start of a beautiful, budding romance, enter Addison, and the whole game changes. These three are the reason we fell in love with Grey's in the first place and triggered the start of our trust issues with Shonda Rhimes.

Meredith finds herself in the awesome position of having to choose between two of the hottest doctors in the hospital (which is really saying something, as all Grey's doctors are hot). Meredith dates Finn Dandridge (McVet) to get over One True Love, Derek. Things seem to be going pretty well until Derek finally confesses his love for her, and now she must choose. Will it be smooth, good-looking doctor one? Or rugged, good-looking doctor two? It's hard to feel sympathy for Meredith at the best of times, but now it's near impossible.

This is the most heartbreaking of all the love triangles. While Denny is the love of Izzie's life, he's sadly just a memory. A literal ghost. Unbeknownst to everyone, Izzie's health slowly deteriorates. She accepts that she's having an affair with a hallucination and attempts to live accordingly. It seems that the more Izzie pushes Alex away, the more he wants to support her. This is one of the first times we see Alex caring about someone other than himself.

Imagine the Meredith/Derek/Finn triangle, but much hotter. Even though Bailey is meant to be going through a "healing time," that doesn't mean she cannot indulge in a little . . . sexual healing time (sorry). Just as things start heating up between Bailey and Eli, Ben pursues her again. Bailey clearly still has feelings for Ben, which means the end of Eli and the end of one of the hottest triangles in Grey's ever.

The oldest (as in time, not age!) triangle in Grey's history. Without this one, the show wouldn't be half as dramatic as it is today. Ellis may be cold and distant in every way possible, but when it comes to Richard, she's a burning pile of love. Ellis's love for Richard is unhealthy and, at times, dangerous. Although Richard loves Ellis, he's intimidated by her infatuation for him. Richard recognizes he has a duty to his wife, Adele, and stands by his marriage. A decision that crushes Ellis.

George's decision to marry Callie right after his father's death may not be the best decision he's ever made, but he sticks to it. Unsurprisingly, George and Callie's marriage is rocky from the start. There's not much chemistry between them, which isn't helped by George's obsession with Izzie. George and Izzie have been best friends since day one, however, it's only when George becomes unavailable that Izzie's true feelings come out. A classic tale of "you don't know what you've got till it's married."

Callie and Mark's relationship is both simple and complex in equal measure. They're not in love with each other; they just love having sex with each other. They're on-call room buddies. Simple. Where it starts to get tricky is when Arizona enters the picture. All this time, Callie uses Mark to try and reconcile her newfound feelings towards women (which is fine by Mark). However, Arizona comes along, and Callie is even more confused than before. Oh, and as if things weren't confusing enough, Mark gets Callie pregnant, making them one, big, happy Grey's family!