Patrick Dempsey makes fun of Meredith’s diagnosis, the duration of her Grey’s Anatomy return to Ellen – Deadline

A few days after her character’s surprise appearance in the season 17 premiere of Grey’s Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey appeared Ellen DeGeneres’ show to talk about his return to the ABC medical drama.

Derek, who tragically died five and a half years later, is back in a beach dream where Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) slipped after collapsing in the Gray Sloan Memorial parking lot.

Speaking to Deadline about the premiere last week, Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff didn’t say if Meredith was okay, and if the collapse was a result of her work overload or something serious, like COVID, since she worked almost exclusively with COVID patients.

The promo for this week’s episode (you can watch it below) shows Meredith in a hospital bed being cared for by her colleagues in full PPE as she is struggling to breathe.

In answering DeGeneres’ question about how her secret cameo came about, Dempsey confirmed Meredith’s COVID diagnosis.

He talked about how he and Pompeo met in July and brainstormed what they could do to get people to wear masks, reflecting on “how cool it would be for fans to see everyone reunited in this bizarre way” when Pompeo suggested. that he returned to the show.

“And to the credit of the writers, Krista had this great idea where I’m going to come and find her in her COVID dream,” Dempsey said.

He also provided more information on how long his character will remain, and that’s great news for Meredith-Derek fans. In last week’s interview with Deadline, Dempsey said he liked the reunion in the premiere and was ready for more episodes, while Vernoff said this about Dempsey’s presence on the show this season, “it’s more of a scene that. did you see “in the premiere. Derek’s presence will be quite large, Dempsey revealed Ellen.

Asked by DeGeneres how many more episodes there will be this season, Dempsey said, “I’m not sure how many I know I am this season, come back and visit us.”

And that’s OK for Dempsey who likes to play a vision that brings joy and peace to Meredith.

“There are so many souls that we have lost right now, so the idea of ​​having angels around us is very comforting, at least for me,” she said.

Here’s Dempsey’s Ellen interview, followed by this week’s promo Grey’s Anatomy episode.

It’s really, really happening. #GreysAnatomy pic.twitter.com/EE1GTygjAi

– Grays Anatomy (@GreysABC) November 13, 2020