SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains major spoilers from “Only the Strong Survive,” the Season 22 premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Death strikes at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital once again.
In May, after she decided to blow up the hospital’s OR floor again in the final moments of the Season 21 finale, “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner Meg Marinis said that every character — other than protagonist Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Ben Warren (Jason Winston George) — could potentially be on the chopping block.
Heading into the 22nd season’s Oct. 9 premiere, which picks up in the immediate aftermath of that explosion, eagle-eyed viewers waited with bated breath as they pored over photos and teasers from the new season to see which characters they could safely rule out from the death count. There were a few doctors, however, who were suspiciously MIA: Dr. Atticus “Link” Lincoln (Chris Carmack), who had just gotten married to and was expecting twins with Dr. Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington); Dr. Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane) and Dr. Monica Beltran (Natalie Morales), who were operating on a young patient; and Dr. Lucas Adams (Niko Terho), who was on his way to inform Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) about the presence of flammable gas on the OR floor.
“When you sit down to tell a story, you think about everybody who we saw that was in danger, and you go through the chain reactions if you did kill that character off, and who that would affect, and how that would help or derail the next season for us,” Marinis tells Variety. “Obviously, I didn’t want to kill anybody. It’s not a fun thing to do. It’s just sometimes where the story leads. Those decisions are extremely difficult. They’re painful because not only do you love the character, but you love working with the actor. It could have been any of the people that were on that floor — we had discussions about everybody.”
The jam-packed premiere follows three main storylines. Meredith opens up the clinic next to the hospital and, with the help of Dr. Simone Griffth (Alexis Floyd) and a new class of interns, treats patients, including an intern who has been injured in the blast. After being unable to move an operating light that had fallen on her pelvis, Beltran walks Millin through the rest of the pediatric surgery. Ben, his wife Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), Dr. Winston Ndugu (Anthony Hill), Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) and Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) work together to save Link, who has been crushed underneath a piece of the ceiling.
Beltran (Natalie Morales) in better days.
Courtesy of ABC
In the end, Marinis decided to kill off Beltran, who dies of internal bleeding due to her injuries. “I made the decision on Monica as I was sitting down to write those OR scenes between her and Jules,” explains Marinis, who had yet to kill off a doctor since stepping into the role of showrunner in Season 20. “I always knew that I wanted her to guide Jules through a surgery. But as the scenes started to be written, it became clearer and clearer that that was the way the story wanted to go.”
In the conversation below, Marinis elaborates on her decision to kill off Beltran and how that character’s death will have lasting effects on Millin, Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) and even Link; how involved Meredith will be in the rebuilding of her home base after she had just committed to returning to Grey Sloan on a more regular basis; what she has in store for the rest of her very large ensemble cast — and what to expect from the show’s landmark 450th episode (which airs on Oct. 16).
How did Natalie Morales react to the news that you were killing Beltran off, and what kinds of conversations did you have with her about crafting her character’s final scenes in the premiere?
I had to make a very difficult phone call to her, and she’s an absolute professional though. She’s a writer and director as well as being an actor. She understands story, and she just wanted to make sure that we made it the best story possible. We walked through every scene together. She gave me her notes, and I talked about what I was thinking, when, and where. Those two days were really hard to film, because not only was her performance heartbreaking, but we were all sad to see her go.
I think we wanted to show how amazing of a character that Monica was, how selfless she was, how she died doing what she was called to do in life, which is to be a pediatric surgeon. She was always about the kids. She always put them first, and we’ve shown her and Millin having this dynamic together before in previous episodes where Jules would freeze in an OR on a case, and Monica would have to break her out of that. And this was obviously the ultimate one of those stories. Jules is someone who has historically not been a fan of children, and this, I think, obviously has changed her mind. But also, this is going to have a profound impact on Amelia.
How will Beltran’s death affect Millin and Amelia going forward?
I think that Jules is going to have a bit of trauma from being in this OR that was obviously destroyed, and being in a stressful situation, but the fact that she witnessed Monica’s last moments — that will definitely be picked up in Episode 2. Also being picked up in Episode 2 is Amelia’s response to this. She feels ultimate guilt for the belief that she could have taken on that [Dylan Gatlin] surgery to begin with, and then having to go back in [for another surgery]. Obviously, she was taken hostage and that’s not her fault, but she’s going to take on a lot of that culpability.
Caterina Scorsone
Courtesy of Disney/Anne Marie Fox
Monica’s untimely demise will likely reignite talks of the infamous “bury your gays” trope, and some viewers who had been rooting for Monica to get together with Amelia will certainly be upset about this outcome. What would you say to fans who are disappointed that you chose to kill off Monica before a potential romance between her and Amelia could have even been explored?
Obviously, it was not my intent to go into the trope, but I’m aware of it. What I would say is that I didn’t want to lose the character. It’s where the story was going. Unfortunately, that relationship will not pan out, but it will have an effect on Amelia, and we will be honoring the character. Her death is not just over in Episode 1. We’ll also continue to honor that character and honor that community by continuing to have those kinds of relationships depicted on the show.
Link’s prognosis certainly didn’t look good for most of the episode — he had a penetrating trauma to the chest, a pneumothorax and multiple rib fractures, and he also had to be resuscitated — but he has pulled through. What does his road to recovery look like going forward? Will there be any long-term effects of coming so close to dying?
There absolutely will be both emotional and physical consequences. He is obviously still going to be in the hospital in Episode 2, and we’re going to play the reality of how difficult recovery is with his physical recovery, but also what he went through and the fact that it happened when he was trying to do a knee replacement on someone. He is obviously going to be deeply distressed about the other people that were in that OR. He’s going to be distressed about Monica — why [he survived] and not Monica. That will all be addressed.
You told me at the end of last season that part of the reason Meredith made a new deal with Catherine (Debbie Allen) to spend more time back at Grey Sloan is that you wanted to see her teach and operate more. Meredith ends up operating — albeit in the clinic — on an intern named Dani (Jade Pettyjohn) who suffered a blunt force trauma during the blast. What did you want to accomplish with Meredith’s arc in these first few episodes of the season?
The difference between Meredith and a lot of these characters on the show is that she’s been through multiple hospital catastrophes, so it doesn’t make it less scary, but she has this ability to compartmentalize and just focus on, “Let’s save lives and let’s do what we can.” She knows how to improvise. She knows how to think on her feet. She’s not fazed about having to do a surgery in the reproductive clinic, unlike the residents, and I think she’s not fazed when an intern collapses. She just has seen and been through so much. She is the captain on the ship that you want to be with when you go down.
Also, I wanted to honor a parallel of what happens with this show. So many people have gone to med school because of Meredith Grey, and I wanted to also play that on the show a little bit. I think Dani has known who Meredith Grey is ever since she wanted to be a doctor.
Will we see more of Dani going forward, or was this really a one-off storyline?
You’ll see her again.
How much will we see of Meredith this season? Is Ellen Pompeo still contracted to appear in seven episodes while continuing to do the voiceovers for each episode?
Yeah, it’ll look similar to what she’s done in the past. We want to have her as much as we can, and we will have her as much as we can. It just depends on the schedule, but we see a lot of her at the beginning of the season.
How involved will Meredith be in the rebuilding of the hospital then?
She’ll be pretty involved, I think. Obviously, with the lack of an OR floor, there’s not many working ORs, so there’s fewer surgeries. The second episode talks about how all elective surgeries are canceled, so it’s just really trauma surgeries. But no, she’ll have a big role, and I think Richard is really grateful to have her as his partner in this.
Scott Speedman’s “RJ Decker” pilot was just ordered to series at ABC, but given that Meredith and Nick are still together, will we be seeing Nick around at all? Have you had discussions with Scott about how he could do both shows?
Yes, and he will pop up. You’ll see him at the beginning of the season as well. He loves being on the show. I’m thrilled for him. I’m really excited to be able to see him on screen — and not just on “Grey’s Anatomy.” It’s the same family. We’ll try to work out what we can, but I’m just happy for people to get these opportunities. So it’ll just be a scheduling puzzle, but they’re going to send me the schedule, and we’ll do what we can because we still want to see him on the show.
At the end of the premiere, as they stare at the debris from the explosion on the OR floor, Meredith tells Richard that they’re going to do what they always do: rebuild. Would you say “rebuilding” is the overarching theme of the season?
There’s definitely a theme of rebuilding. There’s also a theme of hope — when it’s all gone, who helps you find it? And what keeps you having it?
Alexis Floyd
Courtesy of Disney/Anne Marie Fox
Meredith seemed to be too focused on Dani to notice, but Simone ends up working with Dr. Wes Bryant (Trevor Jackson), the surgical intern that she hooked up with at Joe’s Bar while she was technically on a break from Lucas. Simone finally tells Lucas that she slept with someone else at the end of the episode. How will Lucas handle that news, and how will their dynamic shift again this season with all of them now working at the same hospital?
Well, he doesn’t know who it is yet, so that information still needs to play out — and it will. I think we decided to have her blurt out and tell him in this episode because she feels like it’s the only thing that will make him listen to her saying, “We shouldn’t get back together.” She doesn’t want to be dishonest with him and get back together with this hanging in the balance. I think she’s also a little confused about the day that she’s just spent with this [new] guy. She clearly has an attraction to him, as much as she wants to deny it, and I think she’s enough of a good person that she’s like, “I can’t get back together with Lucas if this exists and I’m going to be seeing this person in the hospital.” That isn’t to say that she wants to be with Wes. She definitely doesn’t want to be with Wes. She wants to tamp those feelings down, but I think she’s trying to be fair — and it will only get messier!
Teddy is still reeling in some ways from her decision to separate from Owen at the end of last season, and she admits that she doesn’t know what the future will hold for them. What can you say about what is ahead for her either personally or professionally?
I think she’s going to be very overwhelmed as chief, and we’re going to pick that story up in Episode 2. She was a surgeon in the military — she was a trauma surgeon — so she should be used to this kind of thing, this hospital disaster. I think because she’s been a suit for so long, she’s kind of forgotten the type of doctor and person that she used to be, and she recognizes that when she sees Ben, and she has realized maybe she’s made a mistake [firing him], because he’s only doing what she used to do. I’m really interested in seeing that side of Teddy again, bringing back that trauma surgeon version of Teddy.
After working together to save Link, Teddy has a change of heart about Ben and allows him to complete his residency at Grey Sloan. What’s ahead for Ben this season?
We are going to tell fewer stories of Ben being behind and more stories of him coming into his own, being a leader — and Bailey recognizing that, as well as [him getting] the respect that he deserves from other people.
Anthony Hill
Courtesy of Disney/Anne Marie Fox
Winston is given the difficult job of having to comfort Jules and break the news to Amelia about Beltran’s death. What’s ahead for him?
His career is going to be on the rise a little bit because he just did this amazing thing with Teddy, so they’re going to get recognition for that, and we’ll see him continue to challenge himself with difficult cases and surgeries. For the Jules dynamic, he’s a standup guy at work. He’s not going to actively pursue something that could be inappropriate, but those feelings don’t just go away, obviously. I think it’s going to be interesting to see her side of it, because we really played his side of it at the end of last season, so now we’ll be looking at hers.
The 450th is your first milestone episode as showrunner. The synopsis teases that “Meredith spends time with Amelia.” What can you preview about that hour?
That sisterhood relationship is very important on the show. Sisterhood has been a very consistent theme for our show for 22 years. The 450th is a perfect blend of nostalgia, but it also has high stakes with some medicine, and you’re going to see things that we’ve seen before but done in different ways. I really believe it’s a celebration of the show. It honors the show, but it still has its place, in that it’s the second episode of this season, so it’s still related to the premiere and the aftermath of what happened at the hospital.
Phylicia Rashad was at the “Grey’s” 450th episode celebration last week, because she is directing an upcoming episode. Do we have Debbie Allen to thank for getting Phylicia in that director’s chair?
Oh, absolutely, we have Debbie to thank for that! She and Debbie are very close. I mean, has she seen every episode? Probably not, but that’s a really tall order. But we are so honored and thrilled to have her. I mean, it’s Phylicia Rashad! When I spoke to her, I kind of had this moment of, “I just spoke to Clair Huxtable?!” But she is so lovely. And also, just to see the two of them together, you’ve got two iconic legends in the same room.
Is there anything else you can tease that we haven’t already talked about?
Those babies are going to be delivered!
Jo and Link’s babies? Is that happening in the first half of the season?
Yes.
Are you still dealing with the same issue as last season in terms of not being able to have all of the series regulars in each episode due to industry-wide budget cuts?
Yes, it’s a similar setup, and that’s always hard. It takes a lot of puzzle solving, but we’ve gotten pretty good at what we do, so we’re getting through it.
Kim Raver, Harry Shum Jr.
Courtesy of Disney/Anne Marie Fox
Do you have any plans to address the Trump administration’s impending cuts to Medicaid or anything else in the political climate right now?
We’re obviously not a political show, and we’re always going to address it from the doctor’s point of view, so we are going to tell the facts from how the doctors are experiencing it. But we are “Grey’s.” We’re a show that’s been on for 22 years, and we’ve always adapted to what’s going on in the world. We do it strictly from doctor’s points of views, not politicians.
The reason why I’m asking is because “The Pitt” will be confronting those issues in its second season. Out of curiosity, as someone who has basically grown up and cut their teeth in this genre, have you watched that new medical drama yet?
I haven’t finished it, but I’ve definitely watched some of it.
What did you think?
It feels very different just because it’s a very different show, but I love medical shows, so I celebrate all of them. It doesn’t matter that I’m [working] on one of them too. It’s not a competition. What’s good for one medical show is good for all of us. And I’m an “ER” girl, so seeing Noah Wyle in the ER, I’m happy!
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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