Meg Marinis' "Grey's Anatomy" EP Season 23 time jump, surprise pregnancy, James Volk's arrival and Doctor's exit; Texas spin-off status
SPOILER ALERT: The story contains details about the season 23 premiere of ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Time didn't stand still on Gary Sloan as Grey's Anatomy returned with its first jump between seasons in four years. Season 23 began airing one month after the events of Season 22's finale. introduced […]
SPOILER ALERT: The story contains details about the season 23 premiere of ABC's Grey's Anatomy.
Time didn't stand still on Gary Sloan as Grey's Anatomy returned with its first jump between seasons in four years. Season 23 began airing one month after the events of Season 22's finale. The film introduced the finished VIP floor and starred Seth Norton as James Wolk, a handsome and arrogant surgeon whose Olympic company, Regent Health, sponsored the luxury medical complex. His focus on the bottom line immediately clashed with Meredith's (Ellen Pompeo) compassion, putting the two on a collision course as Norton was revealed at the end of the episode as Gary Sloan's new chief of surgery, Teddy's (Kim Raver) old job. RELATED STORIES BOOKS Chuck Lorre's Q&A on the Care and Feeding of Comedy Stars and Why the WGA Strike Is Dooming Democracy
There was no sign of Nick's (Scott Speedman) debut or his engagement to Meredith in the S22 finale, and no news of Teddy and Owen (Kevin McKidd) and their new life in France. Watch on Deadline
At the end of last season, Simone (Alexis Floyd) faced a Wes (Trevor Jackson) vs. Lucas (Nico Treho) dilemma after the former suggested they make their casual relationship official and she drunkenly hooked up with the latter. A month later, she's with Wes (and has a new haircut) but can't stop running into Lucas shirtless (and sometimes completely shirtless). In one of the episode's big twists, Simone finds out she's pregnant.
Ben (Jason George) is still a gentleman and doesn't appreciate Winston (Anthony Hill) to Billie (Chandra Wilson) who is having an affair with an intern named Jules (Adelaide Kane), giving Winston another chance to clean himself up. By the end of the premiere, Jules and Winston find themselves in an even bigger predicament when Billy, trying to get him to do more so he can pursue a master's degree, becomes manager of Winston's residence—and Jules' direct boss.
Cowan aka Blue (Harry Shum Jr.) is still fired and "self-employed." He secretly returned to Gary Sloan to save the life of his online French teacher with the help of Simon. Jo (Camilla Luddington) came out fine and went back to work, but a sick programmer triggered painful memories and told Link (Chris Carmack) in the final seconds of the episode that she had quit. Just moments before, Link had removed some of Joe's old pain meds, as his addiction problems seem to have worsened.
Amelia (Katrina Scorsone) and Tony's (Jen Landon) ongoing tension exploded after Amelia's fight with Cas (Sophia Bush) in the S22 finale in a public fight over caring for a patient. The two eventually reconciled and reunited.
In an interview with Deadline, Grey's Anatomy executive producer and showrunner Meg Marinis broke down the decision to introduce a time jump and a new antagonist starring Welk, as well as the availability of Pompeo and Scott Speedman, and the episode's biggest twists, including Simone's pregnancy, Joe's resignation, Tony and Amelia's shenanigans, and Winston and Jules' new dynamic.
The Texas native also gave an update on the rural Texas spinoff he's developing with Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, who has a straight-to-series order for midseason.
Deadline: This was the first time since Grey's introduced new interns at the start of Season 22. Why did you decide to do it?
Marinis: It always gives a little more flexibility and storytelling, and I wanted to do something different, but it also allowed us to be creative with that VIP floor, because obviously we didn't see that VIP floor at the end, and so yeah, that's behind the decision. And I also didn't know if I could have Scott Speedman because of R.J. Decker, and we left him in the hospital bed, so that was a bit of a problem.
DEADLINE: Nick and Meredith Scott get engaged in the Season 22 finale, but she doesn't get a ring in the premiere. Is the engagement still going on? It was not even mentioned
Marinis: Well, the engagement is still going on. Meredith Gray never really wore a ring, even when she was with Derek. So she doesn't necessarily have a ring, but that doesn't mean they might have wedding bands after marriage. We will, however you choose that story, don't worry.
Deadline: Renewing the second season of Scott R.J. Does Decker mean in terms of his availability? Can you have him by your side this season?
Marinis: Yes, we will see Nick. Obviously, scheduling is always tricky, but the good thing is that it's a family show, so they help us out a little bit. But yeah, it's difficult because they don't shoot here, so it takes some logistical magic, but yeah, we'll see him. [Both Grey’s and R.J. Decker is produced by 20th TV for ABC, filming in California and North Carolina, respectively.]
DEADLINE: Was James Welk's character introduced because you knew you weren't going to have Scott Speedman for a long time, or did you just have to have someone else in Meredith's life?
Marinis: He was introduced as someone for the whole hospital, not necessarily just to play with Meredith. He will be the source of this conflict between this new floor and the rest of the hospital, and how our other characters will use it. In particular, we're going to see Richard and how he feels about working with someone who doesn't really know... It's the craziest thing, we've never had a boss like this who wasn't part of the hospital to begin with, so he's basically a stranger to a lot of our people and he might not see the interpersonal dynamics that others have.
DEADLINE: But Seth and Meredith will continue to interact, even if it's not romantically, right? There was something about them together in the premiere.
Marinis: You will see them together again. Nick is the romantic partner, but it's always good, I feel like Meredith fights all our battles for us. He's the one who always says what we're always thinking but can't say, and so we see him say some of that to Seth.
DEADLINE: And Nick has fully recovered from the accident, right?
DEADLINE: Meredith was at the premiere before leaving for Boston. How many episodes is Ellen in this season? Marinis: We don't have an exact number because we always have to wait and see how our program is. But don't worry, this isn't the last you'll see of him. You will see him several times
Deadline : There was only a passing reference to Teddy and Owen in the premiere as Winston complained that he had to look into their case, but made no mention of their situation in France.
Marinis: Since it's been a month since the story, I guess it's a little weird to talk about them, but man, do we miss them. And I miss the actors too. It looks like some doctors are missing in the hospital, and I didn't want it to look like they were replaced by the hospital, so that's what Winston talks about, he has to cover for them, and it's devastating.
DEADLINE: Speaking of missing doctors, Cowan is still fired a month later. He said he was self-employed in French class. What does he do as self-employed?
Marinis: He was saying that to cover himself with his class. But no, he's a freelancer, and I think he's in a bit of denial and says he likes being unemployed, but we know that's not true. He definitely misses her.
Deadline: Share Shum Jr. How has it been with Dancing? Did you have to tone down his presence on Grey's this season?
Marinis: No, we didn't have to reduce his presence at all. We haven't set the creative yet because blue is such an important part of the show. Obviously scheduling can be difficult, but we knew about that, we had everything on the table at the start of the season. We know what day and a half they always need him and we've been able to do that. He trains here, he trains outside the stages with his wife. He'll be taping [Dancing] on Tuesday night and he'll be here at 6:15 the next morning.
DEADLINE: Aren't you worried that Junior's ominous dance video packages, which show him wearing scrubs on the set of Gary's hospital, will ruin any suspense about Blue being fired and suggest that he'll be back as Gary Sloan?
Marinis: I feel like after watching the premiere, people know that she's kind of opening up. This is what we will discover.
Deadline: Any chance of Harry dancing on Grey's?
Marinis: Well, now you know I want it.
Deadline: Simone's surprise pregnancy. Wes and Simon saw in the premiere that they were careful about using condoms. Does this automatically mean that Lucas is the father because his and Simon's connection wasn't planned, or are we going to have another mystery of who the daddy is like the one with Amelia's baby?
Marinis: It doesn't automatically mean it's Lucas. It's a big old question, and it's messed up, and I guess yeah, we did it with Amelia, but it's just as fun, and it's going to play out differently. He's an amazing surgeon, but when it comes to his personal life, Simon is a bit of a mess.
DEADLINE: So we won't find out right away, the secret will continue for a while?
Marinis: Yeah, I don't know how you know.
Deadline: I guess Simon can count the dates.
Marinis: Everything happened at once, so it's very difficult.
DEADLINE: I'm glad you did a course correction on Joe because he seemed pretty well adjusted at the start of the show for someone who was spiraling after an accident a month ago. We saw things unravel after he witnessed a patient being cut open. Was it a trigger for him?
Marinis: We'll find out more specifically what his true triggers are in later episodes, but after enduring a near-death experience, when he sees other people doing the same thing, to me that's a trigger. Obviously, the guy, his ribcage was cut, his chest was cut, so he's got the exact same wound, things like that. I just think we see people at that pivotal point, if they're going to be successful or not, coding experience. That elevator was definitely a trigger.