'Grey?s Anatomy': Debbie Allen and Kelly McCreary Tease Season 12 'Growing Pains'
Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) looking right at home in Ellis Grey?s house on ‘Grey?s Anatomy? (ABC)
You?ve already heard it a few times before: Despite the death of Dr. McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey), Grey?s Anatomy is getting back to its roots. But those saying it aren?t just talking about the promised return of ?lightness? coming back to the show. They?re talking about the physical roots, too: the home of Ellis Grey, where Meredith Grey was living at the beginning of the series, and where she?ll be calling home as the curtain raises on Season 12.
Unlike when the show first kicked off, she won?t be there alone. She and her three children will be living with her two ?sisters,? the term newly-tapped executive producer Debbie Allen has given to Meredith?s sister-in-law, Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone), and her half-sister, Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary), Ellis?s daughter with Richard Webber.
?That?s going to be a challenge,? Allen tells Yahoo TV. ?We can look forward to some good fun with that.?
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McCreary mirrored those thoughts, noting that there probably won?t be many ?dance it out? moments between the trio like there was in the Season 11 finale. ?Three adult women living together in a house ? I think there?s going to be some growing pains before there?s any dancing,? she says.
Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) in 'Grey?s Anatomy? (ABC)
That said, there will be plenty of gentlemen callers. ?These three women are single in different ways,? McCreary explains. ?Meredith is a widow and recovering from that, and discovering whether she wants to find love again. Owen and Amelia are doing their little dance back and forth of will-they-or-won?t-they. And then Maggie is the one in the house who?s going to be out in the world dating and maybe acting a little bit more impulsively.?
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Meredith won?t be jumping into the dating pool right away, Allen promises. ?It?s going to be interesting for Meredith to realize that she?s a single woman, and that she is without a man, and if that is something that she?s going to act on or not. When you have children, it really does inform the decision-making.?
It looks like we will catch a glimpse of Maggie?s newfound impulsiveness right out the gate, though. After all, she?s seen punching someone who looked like the parent of a patient in that very short trailer released last week.
?We?ve got this great bullying storyline in the premiere episode. We?re going to learn about Maggie?s past experience socializing, her history with the kids on the playground, if you will,? McCreary says. ?You?ll find Maggie a little bit less together than she was in the last season, a little bit more messy. She had a lot to prove as the new sister in town and as the new head of cardio, and had to really keep her stuff together for a while, but the revelation about her family [her idealized parents announced their plans for divorce in the Season 11 finale] has cracked her a little bit. She?s been with these new people long enough now that those cracks can show a little more.?
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Maggie?s won?t be the only backstory that will be expanded this season. ?We have some new interns who are adorable and always make things very interesting,? says Allen. ?But there?s a wealth of material to be navigated with our existing cast that we?ve not explored.?
Grey?s Anatomy Season 12 premieres at 8 p.m. on Thursday on ABC.