Grey’s Anatomy boss on Bailey’s season 20 reset, Teddy’s fate, and more

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy season 20, episode 1, “We’ve Only Just Begun.”

She has five rules.

Grey’s Anatomy ended its season 20 premiere with the news that Nick (Scott Speedman) is leaving the hospital, seemingly to be with Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) in Boston, which means someone needs to take over the (struggling) intern program. And who better than the woman who taught Meredith Grey, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), George O’Malley (T.R. Knight), and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers)? That’s right, Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is back!

“You’re not going to find a bigger fan of the show than myself,” new showrunner Meg Marinis tells EW. “And there are certain pieces of the show that I love historically, and Bailey being at the helm is one. She just had the moment of her career with winning that award and we felt like, where does one go once you’ve reached the top? And I think thematically, the interns are having this reset. They’re going to go back to basics because of what happened at the end of last season, and she just won an award for teaching people. This is the thing that she’s always excelled at. The mentorship that comes from Bailey is a huge piece of the show. And yes, we’ve seen it, but we haven’t seen her do it with 20 years of experience.”

As for what this all means for Speedman’s Nick, Marinis says: “What’s so amazing about our show is we have an open-door policy, so I think you’re just going to have to tune in to see who pops up. But we love their relationship. I find that they have amazing chemistry. I love that he challenges her and I love that she becomes a little undone by him, too. So I just say stay tuned.”

The premiere also answered a huge question posed by the season 19 finale: Has Richard (James Pickens Jr.) fallen off the wagon? Thankfully, he has not, but he is considering this a reset for his sobriety journey.

“It’s something that even though we don’t talk about it every episode, when someone struggles with that in their life, you think about it every day,” Marinis says. “The character may not talk about it every day, but it’s definitely in his head for the first part of this season as he goes about his workday and knowing how to handle the pressures at work. I also think it’ll affect his relationships and how he interacts with people. But sometimes when you’re resetting something like that, you have to slow down everywhere and just kind of look at what’s important and how to move forward. And there are challenges in that.”

And then there’s the question of Teddy’s (Kim Raver) fate after her collapse in the season 19 finale. The good news is that she’s made it through surgery. Now the question is what lies ahead for her and Owen (Kevin McKidd). “When any member of a couple goes through something like that, it’s super challenging. They have been through so much, and they’re definitely going to be impacted by that. Things get tested, but I think that I’m excited for y’all to see how it plays out. They’re just so great together and they have been through so much the past season.”

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.