Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 Just Brought Back A Major Character From The Dead

Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 Updates: Patrick Dempsey is really back as Dr. Derek Shepherd at Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 premiere.

After McWidow found out that Meredith had passed through the Grey Sloan parking lot, ABC gave fans one last chance, including a well-known surgeon and her late husband at sea somewhere deep in his mind.

Don’t worry: Meredith isn’t really dead, she’s just dreaming, and fans will learn more about episode 2 about what happened to her.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 Meredith  Answers Derek’s Call

Although the remaining seconds of the premiere left only enough time for the astonished Meredith to answer Derek’s call by saying his first name (while holding his chest, like the rest of us), the preview of the second episode shows very little of their exchange. “I miss you,” he told her, before Derek replied, “I know.”

Image Source: Bustle

In an episode where Gray Sloan doctors were fighting the coronavirus, losing a growing number of patients, and facing a shortage of PPE, Derek’s return was intended to “bring happiness, and escape, and the candy driver” Kristi Vernoff explained until the deadline.

After going to Ellen Pompeo (Meredith) about the hope of bringing back a dead character to dream of, it was Pompeo’s idea to make Dempsey that person.

“It’s just too dark, and we knew the reunion could be a small ray of light,” Pompeo told the deadline. So, he liked the idea, and we were very happy, and we had a ball recording it.”

Vernoff also joked that viewers will see much of Derek outside of the first seaside venue – and Dempsey is a game that will appear in many episodes, too.

For the first time in 15 years, September came and went without a new season of Gray’s Anatomy. ABC’s medical soap has been a sign of a network collapse since 2005, so for many fans, it would have felt like they could have fallen without doctors at Grey Sloan Hospital.

But now the long-awaited wait is over: COVID’s 17-late season arrives on Thursday, November 12, and you’ll definitely need Grey’s Anatomy Season 16 recap to remember all the ups and downs of last year’s turmoil.