‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Meredith to Have Another Unexpected Reunion (VIDEO)

Ellen Pompeo
ABC

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers from Season 17, Episode 3 of Grey’s Anatomy, “My Happy Ending.”]

Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) has already gotten one major blast from the past in Season 17, and another is coming her way.

The two-part premiere ended with her reuniting with her late husband, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), on a beach, and the November 19 episode confirmed the reason for her collapse (and subsequent hospitalization): Meredith has COVID.

Her condition is worse at episode’s end and she’s not improving by the next one, airing on December 3, as the promo (below) shows. “Meredith’s not improving,” Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) tells Link (Chris Carmack). “They can’t wake her.”

“Another person from her past returns,” the video promises, showing Meredith calling out to someone else on that beach. And going by her reaction, she’s happy to see that person. But who could it be?

Let’s first operate under the assumption that this person is, like Derek, dead. That rules out Sandra Oh’s Cristina Yang (they better not have killed her off-screen) and Katherine Heigl’s Izzie Stevens (would they really have her die after Justin Chambers’ Alex Karev blew up his life by leaving his wife and life in Seattle for Izzie and their kids?).

But that does leave the door open for someone in Meredith’s family: sister Lexie (Chyler Leigh), mother Ellis (Kate Burton), and father Thatcher (Jeff Perry). Then there’s George O’Malley (T.R. Knight), who died after getting hit by a bus, and Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), who died as a result of injuries sustained in the same plane crash as Lexie.

Though Meredith’s reaction suggests it’s someone to whom she was close, the person could always be Dylan Young (Kyle Chandler), who worked alongside her to care for the patient with the bomb inside him, or Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), both of whom she has seen when near death before.

Plus, for all we know, whoever Meredith’s looking at in the promo won’t be the last familiar face we see this season.

Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 9/8c, ABC