In an episode where so much is changed, where relationships, deaths, and surgical positions have all been uncomfortably altered, it serves as the unconscious anchor to a beginning as simple as surgery, the relationship between Derek and Meredith and as the musical epiphany in which all that is wrong appears to root itself back to the Grey’s Anatomy we have become used to over eight seasons.

Seven years later, ‘Into the Fire’ is reused as the penultimate song in alternate reality episode ‘If/Then’. Everything that would come to define the success of Grey’s Anatomy-the operating room, the closing monologue reflecting on her identity as a surgeon, even the catchphrase “It’s a beautiful day to save lives”, as espoused by her love interest and attending surgeon, Derek Shepherd-is present in this moment, and it is all marked by this perfect, subdued anthem of a song by a little group from Penzance. ‘Into the Fire’ sounds out as the protagonist, Meredith Grey, fulfils the promise of the episode (and of the series title) and assists in operating on the brain of her first patient.

The first time the song is used it serves as the coda to the pilot episode. It is perhaps the awareness of how indelibly a song may colour a scene and a scene may colour a song so that neither may ever be fully extricated from the other, no matter how many episodes, years or songs shuffle past. It’s a soulful, soft, imperative kind of song, which celebrates both extremes and subtleties across the passage of two lines (like “From Samaritan to sin/ And it’s waiting on the air”). Perhaps it’s merely that the song is clearly stunning, on first and subsequent listens.

What, then, is the resonance that those three and a half minutes have acquired? Why would music producers on one of the most successful American dramas in recent history employ and re-employ four times over such a relatively obscure tune in the face of a wealth of adaptable pop songs? Can we even credit the repetition of such a song with meaning to any but the most committed Grey’s or Thirteen Senses fan, given the years which elapse between uses?

Loyal viewers, who number in the millions, of the American medical drama Grey’s Anatomy have heard this beginning a remarkable four times over the last twelve years-remarkable, because the song itself only peaked at number 35 in the UK, product of a band which has never even cracked the top ten since the release of their first EP 14 years ago. So begins the 2004 single ‘Into the Fire’, by Cornish indie-rock quartet Thirteen Senses. A punctuated set of piano chords, the sharp injection of an electric guitar, before the music retreats just a little, and a husky male soloist implores: “Come on, come on/ Put your hands into the fire”.

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