Spoiler alert! This story contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 through the February 26 episode, “(If You Want It) Do It Yourself.” These episodes can be streamed with a Hulu subscription.
Grey’s Anatomy returned to the 2026 TV schedule this week following a brief hiatus, and equally as important, Amelia Shepherd was officially back from her sabbatical after previously being dragged out of the house for a “very intimate” reunion with Kate Walsh’s Addison. A new love interest served as a welcome-back gift for the neuro goddess, and Caterina Scorsone shared some insight into the potential relationship, as well as how “shattering” that sabbatical actually was for her character.
Grey's Anatomy paid tribute to McSteamy with the perfect song.
Behind the scenes of Grey’s Anatomy, series regulars have seen their episode counts cut for budgetary reasons — which is also why we’re likely to lose at least one cast member for Season 23 — but on the screen, the reason for Amelia’s absence was written into the show. She felt guilty when the explosion caused by her patient’s mother (Yellowstone’s Piper Perabo in a guest role) resulted in Monica Beltran’s death. Amelia chose to take some time away from the hospital, and Caterina Scorsone told The Wrap why that was so significant:
What happened just before that sabbatical was such an extreme event. Medicine is her love story and her attachment figure is surgery to a great degree, and always has been. There have been so many ups and downs and tragedies in her life, but the thing that’s always been there for her is her passion for medicine and surgery … I think the sabbatical, in part, was this true shattering of the most important attachment that she has in her life.
It makes so much sense to think of medicine as the strongest relationship in Amelia’s life, especially given her addictive tendencies, and I hadn’t considered the full weight of what it meant for her to voluntarily take a step away from that.
It’s kind of funny, then, that as soon as she returns to Grey Sloan Memorial, she’s hit with a blast from her past. Dr. Toni Wright (Jen Landon) made her first appearance as a plastic surgeon who went to med school with Amelia.
At first, Amelia thinks Toni hates her, but it’s soon revealed that they both had secret crushes on each other back in the day. By the end of the episode, they’d found their way to the on-call room, and I can only hope Amelia’s dealings with this Yellowstone star are explosive in less disastrous ways.
It definitely could be interesting, as Caterina Scorsone pointed out:
Suddenly we meet this person who reminds her of the Amelia that existed before all of these massive traumas happened. There’s potential for a lot of fun there.
Thinking back to the Amelia we first met on Private Practice, it’s an understatement to say the character has changed a lot over the years, so I’m excited to see where this goes. The first rumblings of past trauma are teased in the preview for next week’s episode, which you can see below:
It looks like Amelia is afraid to tell Toni about her son Scout, which makes sense when you remember that Kai (E.R. Fightmaster) left her because they didn’t want kids. Who knows? Maybe Amelia will be the one responsible for the “messy” stories to come.
Tune in to find out, as Grey’s Anatomy airs at 10 p.m. ET Thursdays on ABC, streaming the next day on Hulu.
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