Patrick Dempsey Hasn’t Ruled Out Another ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Return

Meredith Jacobs April 29, 2021

Patrick Dempsey - Grey's Anatomy Season 17 - Return Derek Meredith — ABC

Now that Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is awake on Grey’s Anatomy, she has said goodbye to the beach in her mind where she was seeing dead loved ones as she battled COVID. That was how Patrick Dempsey returned to the ABC medical drama for four episodes for the first time since 2015 as her husband, Dr. Derek Shepherd.

But was their goodbye in the April 22 episode a final one? Dempsey isn’t ruling out a return. “Who knows? Never say never with this show, right? I’m glad we did it this year,” he told Variety. “[Showrunner] Krista Vernoff did a fantastic job telling the story. It was just a great way to give people some hope.”

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But he does consider Meredith and Derek’s last scenes on that beach in her mind to be “a beautiful way to close it,” he said. “It was a beautiful ending to this story.”

After all, fans watched the couple’s love story from the series premiere in 2005. After ups and downs and love triangles, the two did eventually get together (though it wasn’t until that beach that they got their dream wedding). Derek then died in Season 11.

With Meredith waking up after deciding not to leave their kids to be with him in the afterlife, how could Derek return again? Might Meredith have another brush with death? Could the series end with her dying (whether in the present or a flash-forward) and reuniting with him? All good questions. At least it gives fans something else to McDream about.