Attention, Grey’s Anatomy fans! If you’re still reeling from the midseason finale, or if you’re intensely committed to the impossibly attractive individuals that are the doctors at Grey-Sloane Memorial Hospital, you have probably recent photos and videos of the show’s eponymous main character, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), in yet another situation of extreme duress.
In the promotional video for tonight’s episode, Meredith can be seen treating a patient who suddenly attacks her. Various shots of her bruised, bloody face and fellow doctors peering over her suggest that Shonda Rhimes & Co. are not messing around, and that anyone expecting a lighthearted night of TGIT is watching the wrong show.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly while talking about the show and what fans can expect, Pompeo stated that the first episode of the new year is “for sure the [best] thing” she has done in all of her time on the Grey’s set. Those are some high stakes.
If you follow any of the show’s stars on Instagram (for ab shot-related reasons or otherwise), you could have caught a glimpse of a certain megastar walking the fictional hospital’s halls; it was none other than Denzel Washington who guest-directed tonight’s episode.
Pompeo said that Washington’s presence and directorial nature on the show were “so needed and so refreshing 12 seasons in” and that, because of his background and relative unfamiliarity with Grey’s, viewers can expect to feel reenergized. Hopefully this means that each episode of the upcoming season won’t reduce viewers to an inevitable puddle of tears and melted chocolate. Or is that what we like so much about Grey’s? Tonight’s episode will surely deliver its usual shot of simultaneous heartbreak and hopefulness, so don’t forget your tissues and comfort food.
Grey’s Anatomy returns for its midseason premiere tonight, Thursday, February 11th, at 8 p.m. Eastern time.