Season 16 of Grey’s Anatomy was cut off early due to COVID in the spring. Season 17’s two-hour premiere is what would’ve been season 16’s finale. Fans not knowing what will happen at the end of the premiere, seeing a dead character wasn’t it. McDreamy is back.

       Derek Shepard died in a car crash in season 11 of Grey’s Anatomy. Senior Tori Simms says, “he was one of the best characters on the show. When he died it was heartbreaking. I always wanted him to come back; he died so how could he.”

      In the show, Meredith Grey contracted COVID and was hospitalized because of it. At the end of the two-hour premiere, Grey collapses in the parking lot. I fade  The scene fades to a beach where she’s sitting on a rock and she hears someone call her name. As she turns around, she sees Derek, the love of her life.

      Senior Ashley Worden says, “when my friends and I would talk about this season we all had our theories, Derek coming back being one of them, but we never believed he would come back.” 

       McDreamy making his return isn’t the only thing happening in season 17. At the end of last season, Teddy Altman cheated on her fiancé, Owen Hunt with her ex-boyfriend Tom Koracick. She had done so multiple times and planned on cutting Koracick off once she was married to Hunt but Altman sent a voicemail to Hunt by accident when she was with Koracick. 

       With the new season jumping a few months forward from where last season ended, fans are getting the missing pieces of what’s going on with the characters in chunks of flashbacks. Simms says, “I think Owen and Teddy are going to separate for good and Teddy will get back together with Koracick.”

         After the turmoil that’s been Amelia Shepherd’s love life from her first fiancé overdosing, to Hunt and her divorcing, she found Atticus Lincoln, fellow surgeon and the father of her child. Simms believes that “Amelia and Link are going to get married.” 

       As for other characters like Maggie Pierce, Jackson Avery, Jo Wilson, and Richard Weber, they all have their storylines. Simms thinks “Maggie and her boyfriend are going to stay together, maybe Jackson and Jo will get together because Jo is moving on from Alex and with Richard being co-chief now he and Bailey can be a power duo.” 

      When it comes to Meredith and Derek’s story, the only thing keeping them apart is the beach. The beach is the path Grey needs to cross if she wants to be with Shepard again, but that means leaving behind their children, friends, and family. 

        Grey is in a coma state from being sick and that’s when she sees Shephard. Worden believes “Meredith is going to keep seeing all of the old characters that have died while she’s on the beach.” Grey’s lungs and heart aren’t doing well either and Altman must fix her. 

       Worden thinks “Christina is going to come back to help with Meredith’s heart or to just be there, and all of the rest of the characters who are alive will be making an appearance.” Both Simms and Worden believe that Meredith Grey will pass away from COVID, but it’s only the beginning of the season so time will tell.