Grey’s Anatomy Boss Reveals Surprising Fate of Fan-Favorite Character After Teasing Death

The 19th season of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy ended on a major cliffhanger for one fan favorite character when the season finale ended with Kim Raver’s Teddy Altman collapsing in the operating room mysteriously after having complained of a toothache the whole episode. The moment left Teddy’s fate in the balance and while teasers and trailers for the show’s upcoming Season 20 have suggested that Teddy will make it, Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Meg Marinis confirms Teddy’s story is far from over — but survival is only part of it.

According to Marinis, what happens to Teddy is “absolutely going to change her” going forward.

“We’ve seen Owen have a life-and-death situation, but we haven’t seen Teddy recently have one,” Marinis told TVLine. “So, like it would with anyone, it has an impact on her relationship with Owen, as well as with patients and how she treats other surgeons. It’s not going to be one of those things where she recovers and forgets.”

There Are Changes in Store For Other Grey’s Characters As Well

It isn’t just Teddy who is going to be dealing with change and upheaval after the events of the Season 19 finale, either. The end of Season 19 saw Simone and Lucas finally get together — with Simone going so far as to leave her fiancé at the altar for Lucas — and according to Marinis, things will not necessarily be smooth sailing.

“The main conflict is that clearly there are consequences to what happened at the end of last season,” Marinis said. “There is going to be some disagreement about how each of them views what happened.”

Some Familiar Faces Are Returning For Season 20 of Grey’s Anatomy

When Grey’s Anatomy returns for Season 20 on Thursday, March 14th, the series will be bringing back some familiar faces. It was previously announced that Jessica Capshaw will be reprising her role as Dr. Arizona Robbins on April 4th while Alex Landi is returning during the season as Nico Kim. Ellen Pompeo is also set to return as Meredith Grey in Season 20. Pompeo departed as a series regular in Season 19. When Pompeo departed Grey’s as a series regular, she said that she’d be making some appearances. She also revealed some frustrations with playing Meredith for so long.

“When you stay on a show and with a character that long…for me, I really need to make sense of things and I really need to see evolution and growth,” Pompeo said. “And with network television specifically, there has to be some consistency for the audience. The audience wants familiarity. The writers get stuck in the consistency of something, and it’s harder, which I always would argue against and say, ‘We have such an incredible fan base. They’re so loyal. They’ll literally come along with us no matter what we do.’ I think it’s okay for Meredith to stop making bad decisions.”

Grey’s Anatomy returns for Season 20 on Thursday, March 14th on ABC.