ABCApril (Sarah Drew) and Jackson (Jesse Williams) wasted no time after their surprise wedding—the BFFs-turned-newlyweds are already expecting a little bundle of joy on Grey's Anatomy!
Obviously this means huge things for their fledgling marriage, but does it mean happy times are ahead...or more rough roads to navigate?
"She and Jackson are walking into a pretty gigantic new chapter of their lives together," Drew tells E! News. "They really hit the ground running in their relationship with the total last-second surprise wedding and then almost immediately after, a surprise pregnancy. They've got a lot of changes ahead of them and they will have to grow up really, really fast. We're going to see how this pregnancy is affecting both of them, and it's an emotional roller coaster as all things are on Grey's Anatomy. It's been really fun to explore that."
Unfortunately, fans of April and Jackson's relationship are going to have to wait a bit to really see that impending-parenthood story unfold.
"Our story arc doesn't really start until a few episodes into the season," Drew reveals. "We're really just getting into it now. It picks up in episode 6."
So when their story does start to unfold, what can fans expect to see?
"We're going to see some interesting family dynamics," Drew says. "April's mom comes to visit [in episode 6] and I just love that episode. It's interesting because marriage is a wonderful thing and it really forces two people to recognize that they're very different in a lot of ways and part of that comes from your family origins. We've met her sisters and now we get to meet her mother."
Being around her mother will have a major effect on April of which Jackson might not be the biggest fan.
"April turns into a teenager and regresses around her mother," Drew says with a laugh. "It's going to be interesting to see how Jackson handles it. What I love about the Jackson and April relationship is that they have such a deep friendship and such an incredible comfort level with one another that they're not afraid to call each other out on their nonsense and apologize and forgive each other. It's wonderful and warm but the dynamic of the mother and the daughter is something that I think a lot of mothers and daughters out there are going to really relate to and might even get uncomfortable about."
If you're a fan of Grey's, you know there's never a shortage of drama on the Shonda Rhimes hit show. Drew promises that season 11 is not holding any of that back.
"The first several episodes of this season, there's always the fun and delightful stuff that we all love about Grey's Anatomy but there's also some deep, heart-wrenching relationship things that are going on between a lot of different characters," she says. "It's pretty intense. At the table reads, people will read some lines out loud and we'll all go, ‘Ooooh wow, that is so rough!' People are going to be saying some deep truths that you hope and pray no one ever says to your face. But it's all really great and meaty and exciting."
Drew is excited to see where Grey's Anatomy goes from here. "With Cristina's exit at the end of last season, I feel like we're entering into a new era and we've started a new chapter of Grey's Anatomy," she says. "I'm hoping and I think this will be the case that our fans will jump on board whole-heartedly and get excited about this new chapter and the new energy from the new characters on the show. We miss Sandra [Oh] so much, we really do, and no one will ever replace her but we're shifting the show in a new direction and I hope our fans come along on the ride with us."
Something else Drew is excited about? The fact that she, along with her Grey's Anatomy co-stars, got to guest-judge on an episode of Top Chef Duels this season.
"It was so much fun," Drew says. "First of all I just love food. I love to eat so any opportunity to sit down and have a fancy meal is an exciting opportunity for me. It was really fun to be in the circle and hear from the judges and from the chefs to get a deeper picture of the whole culinary artistry experience is. Everything was so amazingly delicious. We were all just 'ooh-ing' and 'ah-ing' the whole way through."
Her time on Top Chef Duels really opened her eyes to how the judging process works.
"It was surprising to hear how subjective the whole thing is," Drew says. "Different people respond to different kinds of food for different reasons. It was a cooking challenge between Art [Smith] and Kevin [Gillespie] where they had to cook meals that would cure various ailments, since we're all pretend doctors sitting around the table, and one of those ailments was homesickness. It was interesting to see how everyone has different things they associate home with since everybody on Grey's comes from different places: Jim [James Pickens, Jr.] grew up in the south and so did Jerrika [Hinton], Camilla [Luddington] grew up in England and Kevin [McKidd] grew up in Scotland."
So what was her favorite dish that she tried on the show? "It's a toss-up between two of Kevin's. I just loved everything he brought out to us," Drew says. "Art's dishes were also incredible but there was just something about Kevin's that just resonated with me. He made this dish that involved a pork meatball wrapped in collard greens, sitting on top of pork loin. That meatball just melted in my mouth. But I think my favorite was his warm banana pudding with meringue on top. I remember diving into that and it was just so warm and comforting and sweet. Oh my gosh, I've never had anything like it. Basically, if you watch the show, you're going to get hungry."
The Top Chef Duels finale airs tonight at 10 p.m. on Bravo, and Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)