‘Grey’s Anatomy’ season 12 spoilers: First photo of Ellen Pompeo!

When “Grey’s Anatomy” season 12 is premiering on ABC on Thursday, September 24, it is pretty clear that you’re going to be seeing a very different Meredith Grey than the one you’ve seen for the better part of a decade. After all, Ellen Pompeo’s character has lost the love of her life in Derek (Patrick Dempsey), but she does have to move forward. She’s got a successful career, and she’s still pushing for more there. In terms of her home life, she is living seemingly with both Amelia and Maggie when the story picks back up.

You can see the first photo of Meredith (in pajama form) above courtesy of TVInsider, and the tease below from creator Shonda Rhimes gives you a good sense of where her head is at:

“Meredith is surrounded by single women who are dating and having a whole life, and she’s not interested in that … It’s a weird rebirth of all the characters, but especially for Meredith.”

Eventually, maybe Meredith will start to open herself up to dating and other parts of her life, but it would be frankly insane to think that this is something she would be openly seeking out when the show returns. It has been over a year for her since losing Derek, but at the same time the show cannot really rush into that without running the risk of alienating viewers.

The good news is that there are so many reasons viewers love the Meredith character, and seeing her succeed more in her career will be more than enough reason to keep many watching. She doesn’t need a man in her life to be happy.

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