SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Episode 2210 of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, “Strip This Down”.
The extended hiatus of Grey’s Anatomy cast member Caterina Scorsone came to an end in tonight’s episode, which also marked the return of Grey’s alumna Kate Walsh after a three-year break.
Amelia’s (Scorsone) sabbatical from Grey Sloan came at a very unfortunate time. As Link (Chris Carmack) and Jo (Camilla Luddington) had been struggling with Jo’s medical complications and their premature babies’ own health issues, Link shared in a previous episode that he also had to take care of the couple’s two other children at home. Inexplicably, Amelia, who shares one of the toddlers, Scout, with Link, was not around to give a hand, leaving fans wondering what she had been up to.
Baking, apparently. Tonight’s episode finds Amelia trying a cookie recipe when Addison (guest star Walsh), after getting shut down on the phone, shows up at Amelia’s door to make her break her sabbatical for a consult on a patient of Addison’s, a pregnant woman. Amelia reluctantly agrees.
“I thought I’d feel weirder after being gone for so long, but feels like I was just here,” Amelia says when she walks into Grey Sloan.
“Yeah, that never goes away,” Addison replies.
The mom-to-be’s condition rapidly worsens, with Addison convincing Amelia — again reluctantly — to restore her privileges and scrub in. After Addison loses her cool in the OR, jeopardizing the patient, she is kicked out by Amelia who successfully completes the surgery.
Caterina Scorsone, Adelaide Kane, Kate Walsh in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Disney/Anne Marie Fox
Addison, after seeking advice from Richard, later apologizes to Amelia and reveals more about the personal turmoil she had been going through having told Amelia earlier that “Jake’s leaving me, I don’t wanna talk about it.”
Jake Reilly is Addison’s husband whom she married in the series finale of Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Private Practicewhich aired in January 2013. They share Addison’s son Henry whom she had adopted while single.
“Jake used to be in it with me,” says Addison, who had been traveling with a Physician Response Team. “He used to call me every morning when I was on the road and give me these pep talks, tell me how brave I was for doing work no one else would do. He’d send me these care packages with birth control pills, talk through difficult cases with me. He was on my side. But now he hardly calls, and when he does, he complains about traffic on the 405 or Henry’s school.”
When Amelia suggests that he may be doing that because he wants her home, Addison replies, “He says, when I’m home, I’m barely there, you know? And he’s right, I’m not a good partner. I forgot an anniversary, forgot a birthday. I am not the woman he married anymore.”
She later adds, “All I know is that I can’t stomach sitting on the sidelines and watching people die. So I’m gonna choose work. And if that blows apart my life, then I think I’m OK,” to which Amelia responds, “if he’s asking you to choose, something’s probably already fundamentally broken.”
While Addison is mourning the potential dissolution of her marriage, she helped Amelia get her passion for medicine back.
“I am sorry if I rushed you back into an OR,” Addison says.
“No, I’m not,” Amelia replies, noting that she saved a patient. “I was able to do that because of my time away. If I had just kept powering through, I don’t know where I would be right now.”
To avoid any ambiguity, Amelia later says, “Fine, I’ll go back to work.” Deadline can confirm that indeed Scorsone will be back on Grey’s next week.
Caterina Scorsone in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Disney/Anne Marie Fox
As Deadline reported exclusively in October, Scorsone’s lengthy break, which lasted seven episodes, is tied to her deal to do 10 of the series 18 episodes this season, which was built into Amelia’s storyline.
Walsh, who had left Grey’s Anatomy to headline spinoff Private Practicehas done guest stints on Grey’s following the spinoff’s end. This is her first appearance since recurring on Seasons 18 and 19.
