‘Grey’s Anatomy’ season 12, episode 9 video: Why is Meredith’s life on the line?

If you’ve seen some of the previews that are out there already for the twelfth season of “Grey’s Anatomy,” you have every reason to be afraid for Meredith Grey’s future. The promo below may have you worried on the same sort of level.

What happens to her? The promo below maps out the story for Ellen Pompeo’s character, beginning with an attack that never should have happened: A patient goes after her in a violent fashion, which has her fighting for her life. It’s not entirely clear why this attacked happened, if they were provoked in some way, or if they are just suffering from some sort of mental instability or side effects that caused them to become violent.

No matter the reason, the end result is the same and we are left to ask a question that at one point, we could never imagine whispering out loud: Could we really see this show move forward without Pompeo in the cast? Her contract is up at the end of the season, and if Shonda Rhimes wanted to remove the character in the same way she did Patrick Dempsey’s Derek, this could be the manner in which to do so.

With that said, we doubt that lightning strikes twice in this terrible fashion. There’s no reason to kill off Meredith, let alone now. For Derek, you had no choice since you would otherwise have to write him off the show in a way that looked like he was abandoning his wife and children. You could always just have her take a job elsewhere and move away with the family. Maybe at one point we would’ve said that “Grey’s Anatomy” could become Lexie’s story, but she’s long gone. We ultimately feel like you need Meredith to remain the glue of the show, and therefore she will find a way to emerge from this.

If you do want to see some other news from this show (which returns on February 11 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern), head over here! Also, sign up right now to score some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)