SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Episode 2202, “We Built This City,” of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy.
EXCLUSIVE: The deadly explosion in the Season 21 finale of Grey’s Anatomy left all of the doctors at Grey Sloan reeling. No one felt the impact more than Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone), whose patient Dylan’s mother was responsible for the blast. Not able to cope despite an intervention by Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Maggie (Kelly McCreary), Amelia announced at the end of tonight’s episode that she is taking a sabbatical. (You can read Deadline’s recap here.)
That sets a lengthy hiatus for longtime Grey’s Anatomy series regular cast member Scorsone. According to sources, it will span the next eight episodes, with the actress returning in 2026.
As Deadline has reported, starting in 2024-25, Grey’s Anatomy reduced the minimum guarantees for its veteran cast members to 14 out of the show’s 18 episodes per season, a cost-saving measure employed by a number of long-running series, including the Dick Wolf dramas. It resulted in Grey’s long-tenured cast members not appearing in four episodes each, usually sprinkled throughout the season.
That again is the case for 2025-26, I hear, with the veterans doing 14 out of 18 episodes except for Scorsone who will be doing 10 out of 18. The reduction was built into Amelia’s storyline as she goes on sabbatical, with the off episodes believed to be consecutive.
The move is said to be specific to this season. Scorsone remains a series regular, and Amelia, first introduced in Season 7 of Grey’s after making her debut on spinoff Private Practice, remains a fan favorite character and one deeply rooted in the show’s mythology as the sister of Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and sister-in-law to Meredith.
In an interview after the Season 21 finale, Deadline asked Grey’s Anatomy executive producer/showrunner Meg Marinis about the Season 22 plans for Amelia who is overdue for a strong arc after she was not given a lot to do last season.
“She was very medical this season,” Marinis said at the time. “We’ll see if her strive and desire to keep taking on medical cases, we’ll see if that continues after what happens to Dylan. I think that’s a moment of hubris for her. She took on something that, there’s a possibility she shouldn’t have operated on that girl to begin with.”
The last line has been at the heart of Amelia’s emotional struggles as she blames her decision to take on Dylan’s case for everything that happened, including the death of her friend, Dr. Monica Beltran. Compounding her grief is the fact that, as Amelia revealed in tonight’s episode, after two surgeries, Dylan remains locked in awake in her body, can’t blink and is looking at spending her life in a longterm care facility.
She will hopefully improve later this season, before or after Amelia makes her return.
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