Grey’s Anatomy continues to take out all the stops with its familiar faces signing up with Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) on the sand.
After the long-running ABC medical drama started season 17 last month with Patrick Dempsey‘s spectacular return as Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd, it wasn’t finished with the surprises. On the Thursday, Dec. 3 episode, T.R. Knight was back as Meredith’s close friend George O’Malley, who passed away in the season 5 ending that ran in 2009.
In a Deadline interview that released after this week’s episode aired, Knight signed up with showrunner and executive manufacturer Krista Vernoff to discuss how the episode happened.
As it ends up, George was the very first character that Vernoff idea of to go to Meredith in dream series as she fights COVID-19. The manufacturer described that the idea concerned her as she herself was strolling on the beach, and she might visualize “Meredith walking with her feet in the water with George.”
She continued, “That was the first image that came to me, and the joy that filled me up when it came, I believe, is translated on screen, and I believe we have given many millions of fans that moment of pure joy. Right now in our lives, in this pandemic, pure joy is rare, and so I’m so grateful to T.R. for coming and playing, and offering that to everyone, because I think it’s meaningful.”
Vernoff then provided the concept to Pompeo, who was instantly thrilled and recommended that the program revive Dempsey also.
“Ellen and T.R. are close, and George and T.R. were both always favorites of mine, and so he was my first idea of, as a fan, who do I want to see again?” Vernoff described. “I wanted to see George, so that’s where it started.”
For his part, Knight stated he was “still trying to put into words how profound the experience was for me,” which he missed out on not just his character however likewise individuals he utilized to deal with on the program.
