Maggie is back again! After the consequential Season 22 opener for Grey’s Anatomy took away one full-time, it looks like the second episode of the season will welcome back a familiar face in Kelly McCreary‘s Maggie Pierce.
Maggie’s return was foreshadowed in the post-episodic teaser, which promised to follow the fallout of the premiere episode’s fatal loss, as Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) reels from the death of Dr. Monica Beltran, who died after being crushed in an equipment collapse due to the explosion caused by the events of the Season 21 finale.
McCreary first left Grey’s Anatomy in Season 19 after nine seasons on the show. She previously returned for the Season 20 finale, briefly, to sign divorce papers with her then-husband Winston Ndugu (Anthony Hill).
Grey’s showrunner Meg Marinis teased that fans should expect some familiar faces to grace the halls of Grey Sloan Memorial in Season 22. She also indicated that Amelia in particular would bear the brunt of the loss of Dr. Monica Beltran (Natalie Morales), telling TV Insider, “This will have a drastic impact on Amelia.”
Grey’s Anatomy‘s next episode marks the series’ 450th episode, and it’s titled, “We Built This City.” The description for the episode tells us, “The team at Grey Sloan navigates a chaotic first day of surgical rotations amid hospital renovations. Meanwhile, Meredith spends time with Amelia.”
It looks like Meredith won’t be the only one pitching in to give Amelia an assist right now, as her sister-in-law-ish Maggie will also be on hand to do some much-needed damage control.
Interestingly, her return coincides with a question mark surrounding Ndugu’s potential future with Jules Millen (Adelaine Kane). The two have had a very “will-they-or-won’t-they” type of relationship thus far, but when Monica died after guiding Jules through a surgery post-explosion, Jules rushed into the arms of Ndugu, which seemed to elevate the chances that they might finally go there and give their chemistry a chance at coupledom. We’ll have to wait and see whether and how Maggie’s return to Seattle might affect that when next week’s episode airs.
Elsewhere in the teaser, it looks like Atticus “Link” Lincoln (Chris Carmack) is still not completely in the clear after the near-catastrophic injuries he sustained in the explosion incident. The preview, embedded above, shows him and Jo (Camilla Luddington) dealing with his limitations after the accident. Plus, the case of the day looks gnarly as a patient deals with a forklift piercing his abdomen. In other words, it’ll be another day at Grey Sloan when the show returns next week!
Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC