'Grey's Anatomy' teases two beloved ex-characters will make returns

Lexie, Meredith's younger half-sister, was last seen during the Season 8 finale "Flight" in May 2012. The promising young doctor tragically died in the wreckage of the plane crash that left Meredith, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) and Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) stranded for days on end in a deserted forest. Sloan, Lexie's longtime on-and-off lover, died in the Season 9 premiere.

As if Leigh's return weren't enough to look forward to, Grey's showrunner Krista Vernoff revealed in a cryptic tweet that Sarah Drew will reprise her role of Dr. April Kepner "soon":

It will be especially interesting to see how Grey's incorporates Kepner into the storyline. The character was not killed off—rather last seen blissfully married and ready to start a new life outside of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital—like Lexie, McDreamy or George O'Malley, who have each visited Meredith on the beach while she remains unconscious from a severe case of COVID-19.

As for the doctors still at Grey Sloan, "In My Life" was a doozy—especially for Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver). The episode centered around Altman's debilitating PTSD triggered by Dr. Andrew DeLuca's (Giacomo Gianniotti) murder in the spring finale. She, similar to Meredith, enters an in-between space that allows her to retrace the most formative and traumatic moments of her life. She even encounters a perky Meredith in her hallucinated hospital:

Altman confronts losing the true love of her life, Allison Browne (Sherri Saum), in the 9/11 attacks, and plays out how her life would look if she had made different decisions. DeLuca, as previously promised, even made a posthumous appearance to help convince Altman that none of these tragedies were her fault. Meanwhile, in reality, Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) gives Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) some tough love. He needs to forgive Altman, she says, for lying to him over the years about the nature of her relationship with Allison, whom they named their daughter after when Owen was still under the impression she was just Altman's best friend.

The hour concludes with an imagined Meredith leveling with Altman about her lifelong pattern of running from pain, which wakes Altman out of her catatonic state. The final scene shows Owen finding Altman soothing their baby in the nursery.

On top of Lexie's cameo, next week could or could not be the episode where Meredith is finally taken off her ventilator. Will she choose to stay on the beach—effectively choosing death—or wake up?

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.