In Which Episode Does Derek Fall for Meredith Again
SPOILER Alert: This story includes details well-nigh tonight's Season 17 premiere of ABC'due south Greyness'due south Anatomy.
Sectional: ABC's promo for the Flavor 17 premiere of Grey'southward Anatomy teased a "shocking, jaw-dropping ending." That was an understatement.
In one of the series' biggest twists ever, a beloved character, Patrick Dempsey's Derek Shepherd, whose tragic expiry in an April 2015 episode left fans heartbroken, came back. Accordingly, the late McDreamy appeared in a dream sequence, joining Ellen Pompeo'south Meredith Greyness on a beach seconds after Meredith complanate in the parking lot of Grey Sloan Memorial.
The sweet Meredith-Derek reunion was the joyous coda to an emotional 2-60 minutes season premiere of Gray'southward Anatomy'due south 17th season, defended to frontline healthcare workers, which marked the conclusion of a Station xix crossover. Information technology was marked by tragedy, as Meredith struggled to cope with the mounting COVID deaths at the infirmary; anger, as medical personnel were left to fight the disease without plenty PPE; hope, as the teenage girl whom DeLuca had unsuccessfully tried to save from human trafficking was reunited with her family; heartbreak, every bit Owen refused to reconcile with Teddy despite her pleas for forgiveness; and happiness, as Link and Derek'due south sister Amelia took their newborn baby male child dwelling. In fact, just minutes later on Link announced their son's proper name, Sentinel Derek Shepherd Lincoln, Derek made his appearance. While not necessarily designed as a clue, "it all came together quite beautifully," Greyness's Beefcake showrunner Krista Vernoff and star Pompeo said.
Related Story
'Grey's Anatomy': Mackenzie Marsh To Recur In Season 17 Of ABC Medical Drama
In an exclusive interview with Deadline, which had known almost the big twist, Dempsey, Vernoff and Pompeo reveal how the idea for McDreamy'southward render came about, how long he will stick effectually, how the scene was filmed, and the bang-up lengths to which the evidence went in order to keep the cameo a secret so fans can fully bask it.
Vernoff and Pompeo likewise accost Meredith's fate following her medical emergency and in the context of Pompeo'due south contract coming upward at the end of the flavour, how the real-life coronavirus pandemic changed Grayness's Beefcake on and off the screen, whether will at that place exist COVID casualties among the staff of Grey Sloan, are there plans for a time leap, and is in that location hope for Teddy and Owen.
Dempsey, who has a cancer foundation, had his own questions for Vernoff and Pompeo about whether advancements in COVID treatments and the outcome of wearing masks are reflected on the evidence.
DEADLINE: Earlier nosotros talk about Patrick's render, let'south accost the incident that brought on the cameo, Meredith'due south plummet, because nosotros usually associate those kind of visions with somebody on the brink of death. Is Meredith OK? Is this only her being overworked, or is information technology COVID or something else very serious?
VERNOFF: Well, y'all accept to melody in adjacent week. We started the episode with Meredith dreaming of a beach, and at the end of the episode, she's dreaming of the embankment where Derek happens to exist, and that's what we know then far.
DEADLINE: How did the idea to bring Patrick back come up about?
VERNOFF: From a author's perspective, it happened because it was my job to detect a fashion — once nosotros adamant that we were doing the pandemic — to also bring joy, and escape, and fan candy, and all the things that at Grey'south Anatomy we requite people. We give them romance, and nosotros give them humour, and we give them joy, and a lot of that is lacking for the medical customs in this pandemic. And so, I was walking on the beach one solar day, and I was like, what if there's a Meredith dream motif?
At that place have been studies about how intense our dream life has been. In the pandemic, people are having really intense dreams because of the lockdown. We're not getting enough stimulation, and so, it'south happening in our dreams. So, it started as that. It started as, how practice nosotros give people some escape. I had this imagining of a beach motif throughout the flavour, and I called Ellen, and I said, what if we bring back, I don't know, some expressionless character that you could dream of on the beach, that would be so fun for the fans.
And she said, let'southward get Patrick. Even in my most excitable dream life, that thought hadn't occurred to me every bit an option, and there information technology was.
Borderline: Ellen, what fabricated you recollect of Patrick?
POMPEO: Patrick and I both have homes in Malibu, and we went for a hike one twenty-four hour period. I had known that Krista wanted to do a beach thing, and I was at the beach. Patrick and I weren't hiking on the beach, but we were hiking in Malibu, which, you can run into the embankment.
And the idea just struck me so I but said to him, would you e'er consider coming and existence a part of the storytelling this flavour? I know that Patrick has his foundation in Maine where he helps cancer patients and cancer survivors, and that'southward a huge effort of his, and I know that information technology'south important to him, as well, to give people hope, and give people joy, and nosotros wanted to bring something to this moment.
There'southward just and so much darkness, and we knew that coming together would exist a little ray of calorie-free. And then, I recall we had the same idea, at the core, to want to help people and bring a grinning to people'southward faces. So, he loved the thought, and we were just and so excited, and nosotros had a ball filming it.
Borderline: Patrick, were you surprised when Ellen asked? What made yous say yeah?
DEMPSEY: I had a lot of calls from a lot of local government officials in Maine saying, we really need to get the bulletin out there, to get people to socially distance, to wear a mask. I came across a photo that I was going to mail that had Ellen and I, and I recollect that produced a call where I reached out to Ellen, and this was right around, the conversation was starting for Flavor 17. And Ellen'southward like, let'south get together, I desire to go over a couple things, I desire to catch upward.
We hadn't spoken or been together for a while. It was a great opportunity to grab up and say, OK, what can nosotros do for all the frontline responders? I've been tracking what Grey's had been doing with giving masks, and making sure that people had the right equipment, and it came from that place — OK, what can we practise to brand people feel better, to give some comfort in this time of uncertainty, and that'south how it began. And it was really a wonderful feel to get back, to work with [managing director/EP] Debbie [Allen].
I retrieve the whole atmosphere has changed, certainly working at the beach, and seeing everybody again was really a very healing process, and really rewarding, and a lot of fun. And hopefully, that feeling translates, and the fans enjoy it. I know that they've been wanting us to go back together, and I call up this will satisfy a lot of people, and surprise a lot of people, hopefully.
DEADLINE: Was it easy to get back into character?
DEMPSEY: It was really enjoyable. It was really exciting, and fun, and it was bang-up to meet everybody. Kevin [McKidd, who directs Episode iii] was at that place equally well, so at that place was a lot of familiar faces, a lot of new faces. The dynamic behind the camera had changed. There'southward much more diversity within the coiffure. There was a nice balance, too, of equality that I was seeing. And so, culturally, there was a lot of things that were different, that I thought were very positive and very inspiring, actually.
Deadline: Ellen, Patrick, did you lot filmed the beach scene together?
POMPEO: Yes.
DEADLINE: How was information technology looking at each other, on fix, in grapheme, after so many years?
DEMPSEY: Well, I take less eyesight than I used to, so (laughter). It was great. Information technology was really fun, very special. information technology felt really comfy, incredibly prophylactic. The whole procedure, I take to say, from getting tested before fifty-fifty showing up to the set up, the whole process in which we shot, I felt condom the whole fourth dimension. Yous felt the crew was protected. We had the outdoor space, and it was easy.
POMPEO: It felt great. Patrick and I have this chemistry, where I think, even from when nosotros commencement met, for some reason it simply felt like we've known each other for a hundred years, and information technology's just the same feeling. Information technology'due south like riding a cycle, we just accept a chemistry and a dynamic that'southward ever served us well, and I think we have a 18-carat affection for each other.
And it was very healing to come up back, and know that we're doing something good, putting out a positive story, a healing story, going to make people smiling, and I remember, for me, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to exist able to be at this place in the show where we tin practice this. Nosotros constantly get to rewrite, I don't want to say the ending, but we get to keep the rewrites going, which, I guess, yous writers love, right?
They love to start over, to chip it and rewrite it, and make it better, and that'south what'south fun about this process this far along, is getting the opportunity to work with Patrick again, and merely coming up with ideas, how exercise we keep surprising the fans, and how do we keep the quality of the show up, is what makes information technology continue to be fun.
DEADLINE: How long is Patrick going to stick around for?
VERNOFF: It'due south more than the one scene y'all saw, Nellie, and it was but blithesome. I really want to echo that. Patrick and Ellen and I were all there at the showtime of this; I wasn't there for the pilot, but I was there for the commencement seven seasons, and that was 17 years ago. That was, like, a lifetime agone; my kids weren't alive. It was and then wild to walk out on that beach, and just be together again as these different people that we are now. But I tin can't enlarge how blithesome and healing an feel this was.
DEMPSEY: Yeah, for me also. Information technology was really special. It'due south really hard to believe, 17 years, that's remarkable. I mean, a lot of us didn't accept children at that point, right? So, our kids have grown up, they're now in school. It'southward crazy how much time has passed, merely it really was so comforting, and lovely, and inspiring to get back, and to work together, to come across everybody. Information technology actually was so open, too, that was the thing, really, people were very, I think, vulnerable in a positive way, where we were all grateful to be there and to exist together.
DEADLINE: And you lot are game to exercise more than episodes?
DEMPSEY: Yeah, it was fun, because I actually dearest the message of what the dynamic is in this story. With everything that we're dealing with right now, and certainly nosotros have been distracted with the ballot, but we're going to get dorsum into the reality of COVID and being in a pandemic, and all the lives that accept been lost. Where are these souls going? And I think that's what attracted me to this storyline, I think information technology can exist really helpful and healing to so many people.
POMPEO: I also retrieve that, in a strange style, the backside the scenes of the prove is certainly paralleling what we demand, with the stories that we put out. What practice we dearest most the show? Nosotros love that the show brings people together. Nosotros love that the show hopefully opens people's minds, it opens people's hearts, and I remember that, in the running of the show and the making of the bear witness, if we follow those same principles, if we follow the principles of love first, of credence, of open listen, open heart, forgiveness, all of it is, that's the bulletin of Grey'south.
And for united states to be able to mirror that behind the scenes, and truly walk our walk and talk our talk with each other, those who created the testify, I call up, is a actually astonishing full-circle sort of story for a Television set show that's gone on this long.
DEADLINE: How hard was it to go along Patrick's render a surreptitious?
VERNOFF: I have to say that it was an epic feat, the keeping of this secret. I didn't ship cuts to the studio and network that included that last scene. I didn't have writers' administration in the writers' room for the last couple of months. In that location were writers who didn't know nosotros were doing this on that staff. Most of the actors didn't know we were doing this. The coiffure didn't know we were doing this when they showed up on the mean solar day.
I put the proper name "Ellis Grayness" in the script that we read at the tabular array, and I had Meredith say "Mom" at the tabular array, and so we got in that location on the day, and no one had been told what was happening. Then, likewise watching the crew react, and [producer] Linda Klein, who's been at that place from the outset, we got Norman back, who was our amazing pilus guy from the beginning [Norman T. Leavitt was makeup department head on ABC'south Greyness's Anatomy for the showtime xiv seasons]. I was like a crazy person with this hole-and-corner. And Ellen and I were texting at all hours of the night, like, who knows, I recall this person.
POMPEO: Admittedly.
Deadline: Volition we encounter Ellis on the prove this flavour?
VERNOFF: I don't know. I don't know. Y'all have to tune in and run into who comes to the beach. It'll be a blithesome discovery.
DEADLINE: Ellen, your character is dealing with a lot of tragic COVID deaths in the premiere. For you and Krista, volition nosotros see some tragedy inside the ranks of the Grey Sloan staff as well? A lot of medical professionals have lost their lives to COVID in real life.
POMPEO: I remember we have a responsibility to really show what these healthcare workers have been going through. It'due south and then easy for a big part of the population to simply exist irritated with wearing a mask, and they're sort of disconnected from what real doctors and nurses and anyone who works in a infirmary are actually dealing with.
I don't want to speak for Krista, simply I call back for me, certainly, I saw this as an opportunity to tell the story of how hard this is for our healthcare workers; it's devastating for them. I think Krista volition tell you that they've sat down with so many doctors and nurses, and they hear the stories, and they're writing right from these stories that they're hearing. And this has been devastating, and changed the medical community forever.
And then we take to testify, that's our responsibility, to prove what a struggle this is for healthcare workers, and continues to be as nosotros run across [COVID] numbers spiking again. We take to try to spread some empathy, and show people that this is very real, and it'due south really hard, and the next fourth dimension you want to complain about wearing a mask, call back about what these people have to do. They take to clothing a mask, they accept to wear total PPE, full cappers. They literally have to do 50 things simply to be able to perform their task.
DEADLINE: Krista?
VERNOFF: I accept to say that I feel like Ellen did an extraordinary job in that premiere, paying respect to healthcare workers with her operation. The matter that she did is exactly what I've been talking about then much, which is that these doctors and nurses who come up to the writers' room every year. They are joyful and excited, and they're e'er there to tell us these exciting stories. And this yr, information technology felt similar, it was the first time they were talking to anybody.
It was the commencement break they were taking. It was the first time anyone was asking them what they were living through, and to a person, it felt like they were on the verge of breaking. They were different people, and I felt like Ellen and then beautifully embodied it throughout this episode, the alter, what this pandemic is doing to people who were trained to help and heal, but not trained to walk through war, and non trained to lose dozens of patients, sometimes in a day.
Information technology's breaking them, and I feel similar nosotros're already showing the strain and the bear upon, and yes, in that location volition be more of that, and somehow, we're also bringing joy. Nosotros've been carefully threading this needle, of paying honor and homage, and telling the truth of this story, while finding ways to also bring joy to the audition, and I'm actually excited almost Season 17.
DEADLINE: You're non going to hint whether anyone on the testify is in jeopardy, are you?
VERNOFF: Well, for sure, Nellie, for sure people are in jeopardy. Meredith collapses at the end of the premiere. People are in jeopardy, and multiple people are in jeopardy throughout the flavor, in myriad ways, because that's the moment we're living through.
DEADLINE: Ellen, should we read more into Meredith's collapse in calorie-free of yous figuring out your future on the show? You have said that you're not sure what you lot're going to exercise beyond this season.
POMPEO: You lot tin can't read into anything. Really, that'south dangerous territory. I remember that, collectively, we, or creatively, it's the same this year as information technology e'er is. Is there a reason to continue? What stories exercise we have to tell? What characters do we have to bring dorsum that gives u.s.a. story to tell? I said in another interview last week, we're always in this incredibly sweet spot with this show, for whatever reason.
We always have incredible circumstances that allow united states of america to continue creatively, whether information technology'southward ideas, or circumstances that happen. Our goal is just to make good Telly. I think we're all aware of the icon status of the evidence, we're so aware of that, and I think that that's why Patrick was and so humble and so grateful to exist able to come dorsum, because we are very grateful that we have this huge platform. And I don't think whatsoever of usa take the platform that nosotros have lightly.
And then, at this betoken, I think, we don't know what we're going to do. We know that we're grateful, and nosotros know that we want to evidence our gratitude, and grateful to each other making the prove, that we're able to keep continuing to grow, and to tell stories that we think are important, and getting this moment. Listen, who gets career runs similar this? Patrick Dempsey's been working since he'south … I know he's been working off-camera even earlier, but I mean, when was your first function, Patrick, when you were 16 or 17?
DEMPSEY: Sixteen, 17, so 30 years.
POMPEO: Who gets a run like that? And then, I just think that we're incredibly grateful to exist able to still be here, and be telling these stories that we feel are of import, and we'll encounter. Creatively, this is our heavy-lifting, to go on raising the bar for ourselves, just we've got something slap-up, which is we've got gratitude, and nosotros're all smart, creative people. So, if there's a way to figure information technology out, we certainly will.
DEMPSEY: The range of emotions, where y'all're getting a run a risk to cry, but you're as well getting a hazard to laugh, I think that's a huge success in the storytelling. The whole ride has been remarkable on so many levels, beingness a office of this testify for so many years, and it'southward greatly changed my life in so many ways. I'm very grateful for that, and hopefully to utilize that platform in a positive way, where you're doing something skillful. And I'yard grateful to be a part of this testify at this particular moment in time.
Deadline: The premiere is set in Apr 2020. Krista, will the bear witness fast forward to now?
VERNOFF: We're non fast forwarding. We're playing information technology through. So, by the time it's airing, most of what nosotros're doing is almost a year ago, in the timeline. And there'south more than joy.
DEMPSEY: Do you go into how the affliction is treated over time as well? Do you get into how the science — and I call up this is an of import matter for united states to remember and to actually believe in the science, in the breakthroughs that they're making on a daily footing. How do y'all runway that, and has that been office of your conversation?
VERNOFF: It is. It's a abiding part of the conversation, and we have 3 doctors on staff now who come into the writers' room most of the time, and we have a lot of conversations of even the development, what you see in terms of the protective gear that they're wearing in the premiere versus the development of the protective gear, when are they treating with ventilators and when are they not. There were drug studies and drug trials, and nosotros're doing our best to exist honest about that progress, and also the development in the hospitals.
Grey Sloan in the premiere has a special COVID ward, and these intake tents, and and then, throughout the form of the season, other spaces evolve to agree COVID patients, and we're hearing news most other hospitals. Washington was hit really hard early on. So, nosotros're trying to play through all of that.
DEMPSEY: Sorry, follow-up question, if I may. Do you get into the politics of the mask, and how that affects in a negative or a positive way? Do you get downward that route at all?
VERNOFF: We try to stay away from overt politics, and the politicizing of the mask is a existent matter that happened. So, we're not talking about politicians. We just don't do that at Gray's Anatomy, partly considering we want the show to be for everybody, and we don't want information technology to go then polarizing, where it feels like nosotros're preaching from some particular pulpit. We're just sticking with the science, and the reaction of doctors to the thought that people are not understanding and/or not believing that masks are imperative to protect other people and themselves.
And then, we're playing it through character, is the answer, like what an outrage it is for these doctors, who spend their lives and their all-24-hour interval, every-twenty-four hour period, trying to save people, to see human being beings out there choosing not to protect their fellow human beings, because they're not believing in scientific discipline, and they're non believing scientists.
Borderline: How is filming going? Greyness'due south was ane of the first shows to shut down production early in the pandemic to protect the cast and crew. How is it now, with the new COVID wave? I write stories about shutdowns virtually every 24-hour interval.
VERNOFF: I mean, knocking wood, so far.
POMPEO: Adept and then far, yeah. Nosotros're expert. Of course, anything can happen at any moment, but I recollect that collectively, everybody's really careful. And once more, we're trying to exist mindful of one some other, and we're trying to be mindful of how we alive our lives when we're not at work, because that'southward the smart thing to do, and we have to come to work and keep everybody safe. Nobody wants to become close downwardly.
VERNOFF: We're really careful in our creating of the prove, as well, to help the actors feel prophylactic. We shut down before other shows, we also came back to production before a lot of other shows, thanks to truly the leadership of Debbie Allen. In that location was some leadership from me, but for sure, it was guided by Debbie Allen going, if we don't come back, we're never going to come up dorsum, come up on, Krista, we're coming back. Set a appointment, ready a date, set a appointment, where's the scripts? Let's go, let's go, let's go.
She kept maxim, if you lot put a date on the agenda, we're going to work toward it, and we're going to figure out how to practise it safely, and we really did figure out how to do it safely. We were lucky that nosotros're set in a hospital, so that our actors, when they're working together tightly, can exist in masks. Just information technology was also my chore, and the chore of the writers, to come up with plans and motifs that allowed the audience to meet the actors' faces, and the actors to feel safe in that.
Then, yous didn't just see a embankment motif, which is a continuing motif through the season, and it was designed, that item motif, and then that Ellen could come up to work without a mask and feel condom, because she's outside; the epidemiologists have been articulate about how much safer outside is. But you likewise saw, for the showtime time in 17 seasons, Meredith's business firm back yard. We built a lawn assail the exterior of the lot, outside the writers' bungalow, so that those actors could give us some no-mask time, and feel safe in the beginning.
And more than and more, we're understanding how to keep everyone rubber indoors, and so we're getting a little bit more without masks indoors, only at the beginning, we had to actually exist creative, in terms of how are we doing this, how are we keeping ourselves safety, how are we helping them feel safety, and how are we giving the fans a show that'south joyful in addition to true.
Deadline: And ane last question: is at that place any hope for Teddy and Owen?
VERNOFF: Teddy is doing good. They've got a long booty, Nellie. If there's hope for them, it's in the ethers, but y'all know, I didn't have a lot of promise that Patrick Dempsey was going to be back on Grey's Anatomy terminal year, and expect where nosotros are. So…
Here is a promo for next week'southward episode:
This is really, truly happening. #GreysAnatomy pic.twitter.com/EE1GTygjAi
— Greys Beefcake (@GreysABC) November 13, 2020
Source: https://deadline.com/2020/11/patrick-dempsey-greys-anatomy-return-shocker-season-premiere-interview-derek-meredith-reunion-fate-1234613511/
0 Response to "In Which Episode Does Derek Fall for Meredith Again"
Post a Comment