Grey’s Anatomy Showrunner Teases a Season 20 ‘Reset,’ Teddy’s Fate, Simone’s Dilemma and More
New Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Meg Marinis has a gift for understatement. “We left off with a crazy mess of a bang at the end of last season,” she reminds TVLine as our interview gets underway. And even “a crazy mess of a bang” is putting it mildly, considering that Teddy was left unconscious on an operating-room floor, the interns had broken protocol to try to keep Sam alive, and Blue had ignored Max’s DNR to save Jules’ beloved roommate. (Read the full recap here.)
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Where do Grey Sloan’s embattled doctors — and the long-running ABC drama — go from there? Season 20, which premieres Thursday, March 14, at 9/8c, “is kind of a reset. It’s back to basics,” says Marinis. The question is, “how do we recover and come through what happened at the end of last year?”
For that matter, do we recover? On this show, characters tend to bounce back from the crashing of one wave, only to find that another is coming right at them. “Exactly,” Marinis laughs. “Because we know that things are never calm at Grey Sloan.”
Read on to find out what the EP has in store for Teddy and Owen, Lucas and Simone, Jules and Blue, and more.
Teddy Lives, But…
If you were worried that Teddy might not pull through, you can go ahead and exhale — she does. But her brush with death, says Marinis, “is absolutely going to change her. That’s part of the reason to tell the story, right? To see what it brings out in the character.
“We’ve seen Owen have a life-and-death situation, but we haven’t seen Teddy recently have one,” she notes. “So like it would with anyone, it has an impact on her relationship with Owen, as well as with patients and how she treats other surgeons. It’s not going to be one of those things where she recovers and forgets.”
Simone and Lucas Are Put to the Test
Though Simone went so far as to leave her fiancé at the altar to hook up with Lucas, the residents’ road to true love will be paved with a lotta bumps. “The main conflict is that clearly there are consequences to what happened at the end of last season” with Sam, Marinis previews. “There is going to be some disagreement about how each of them views what happened” in the O.R.
For Griffith, that’s an especially difficult space to occupy. “Simone has already been through a previous residency. So her position here in this current residency is very important to her,” Marinis points out. “When that gets jeopardized, she can’t look away from it.”
Conflict Is Coming for Jo and Link
The friends-turned-lovers are happy at last… but can it last? “They work together and they live together — that’s conflict already,” notes Marinis. “They’ve been close for so long, and they’ve worked together and lived together for so long, that this adds a whole other layer. That’s going to take some adjustment.
“I mean, you can be in a happy relationship,” she adds, “and still fight! [Camilla Luddington and Chris Carmack are] very versatile, and they play funny very well — that’s one of the reasons fans love them so much. They have this banter but can still drop in with one another emotionally and make you cry.”
A New Love for Amelia?
The Season 20 trailer (which you can watch above) introduced Amelia to guest star Natalie Morales’ Dr. Monica Beltran in what seemed like meet-cute fashion… or was that our imagination? “People always read into things immediately,” Marinis says. “We haven’t been on the air in so long that any time we release a promo, fans are hungry to see what stories they can predict.”
So, no, those weren’t sparks that we saw flying? “Natalie’s character is a surgeon at the hospital, so she’ll interact with a bunch of people,” Marinis says. “It’s just in that particular trailer, she’s in scenes with Amelia.” Dang.
Nico Returns… for Levi?
With Alex Landi scrubbing back in as Nico, is it a fair assumption that we’re getting “Schmico” 2.0? “A fair assumption is that Levi and Nico will interact,” Marinis allows. “You’ll have to see how that interaction goes. Levi has grown quite a bit since we last saw them together. He’s co-chief resident, and he’s had a lot more doctoring under his belt since he’s seen Nico. So their interactions will look different, given how much he’s matured.”
What about Nico, though? He was such a crummy boyfriend, he made TVLine’s list of the worst ever. “He’s done some growing since last they were together. He seems like he’s the same, but he’s not,” Marinis promises. “He’s clearly had two years of things happening in his life.”
Winston Is Single… But Not Ready to Mingle
Despite the fact that Maggie stuck a fork in her marriage to Winston, he’s in no rush to move on. He “is definitely single, but he’s also the new chief of cardio,” Marinis points out. “His career and kind of getting out of the shadow of Maggie Pierce is something that has been a long time in coming.
“When we see him in the first part of the season, we’re going to see how he takes this career opportunity and how it changes him,” she adds. “He’s not going to waste this opportunity.”
Jules and Blue Fight Their Feelings
Interns Jules and Blue are clearly head over heels for one another. But “they’re just too proud to admit it,” says Marinis. “Whether or not they can ever get over their pride is the question. And this intern class, this is their second chance, right? It’s hard for them to focus on relationships because they fought so hard to get a spot somewhere. That is the No. 1 issue for them.”
Could Work and Play Be Mixed?
In Season 19, Jules expressed a keen desire to work with Winston. Could there be more to that interest than meets the eye? “It’s quite a different ballgame right now. In Season 20, it’s not as simple as an intern and an attending being together the way it was back in Season 1,” Marinis observes. “But never say never with characters. There are no limits to where we can go.
“Jules is very interested in cardio,” she continues, “so I can definitely see her working in cardio this year.”
A Helm-Worthy Love Affair
At last, Season 19 gave perpetually single Helm a proper love interest in intern Mika. But as quickly as they got together, Taryn returned to Grey Sloan as co-chief resident… meaning that she’s now her girlfriend’s boss. Says Marinis: “We’ll see how that dynamic impacts their relationship, for sure.”
Meredith and Nick’s ’Ship Is in Shape
Ellen Pompeo and Scott Speedman are only recurring again as Drs. Grey and Marsh. But not to worry, says Marinis. We will see enough of them to get a sense of how their hard-won relationship is progressing. “Oh, absolutely!”
Hit the comments with your Season 20 wish list for Grey’s Anatomy.
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