Grey's Anatomy returns tonight with two love triangles (or a love triangle and 2/3 of a love triangle) stuck in elevators, and in typical Grey's fashion, everything's a bit of a hot mess.
In elevator number one, we've got Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti), who've been kissing and nearly kissing and professing feelings and denying feelings for months now, with some interruptions from Dr. Link (Chris Carmack). DeLuca's into Meredith and he wants her to know it, and she doesn't want to be into him and doesn't think she should be, but she kind of is? It's complicated, but when are two uncomplicated people ever trapped in an elevator together?
"You know Grey's and elevators and hot Italian guys, so you can, I'm sure, figure it out," Pompeo told Zuri Hall when E! News visited the set of the ABC show.
She wasn't about to spill any further on what actually happens in the elevator, but she couldn't wait to gush over her costar.
"He's such a sweet spirit and a talented actor and very handsome, and he's just a lovely scene partner, and again, to be on a show 15 years, it's not easy to get just anybody to come in and participate this late in the game, so I feel really lucky to have Giacomo as a scene partner, and we're having fun," she says, and all we can do is hope it's the kind of fun we're hoping for. (Big MerLuca shippers over here...)
Showrunner Krista Vernoff says she felt totally comfortable spending some time this season finding Meredith somebody to hook up with after spending all of last season focusing heavily on her career. She finally won that Harper Avery, and now it's her turn to get some other kinds of happiness.
"All of last season, we focused on Meredith's career and Meredith as a brilliant medical superhero, and that felt like it had earned us the right to spend a little more time this season with her love life," Vernoff tells us. "And so we work to strike a balance, and Ellen seems happy, and we're having fun, I'm having fun, the fans seem happy, so..."
Fair enough and bring it on, TBH.
Over in elevator number two, we've got Owen (Kevin McKidd), his girlfriend/ex-wife Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), and his best friend/soon-to-be baby mama, Teddy (Kim Raver). Owen has just learned that Teddy is carrying his baby and Amelia has just announced that she wants to become the official foster mom to the teen mom of Owen's foster baby.
"I think what's so exciting about this love triangle is that really from the get-go, we wanted it to be a little bit different, and not be like this catty, woman-against-woman, like 'let's get the man,' because that's so un-Grey's Anatomy," Raver tells us, explaining that this love triangle is different from any she's ever seen.
She says that while it has all the typical thrills and insanity of a love triangle, it's "kind of speaking a different language."
"We're adding another element into it, which I'm not going to give it away, but it's really cool and it just adds even more complications to it," she teases.
"It's cool because we don't know where it's going," McKidd says of this "messy" situation. "It's going to create a lot of challenges, I think, for Owen and Amelia. ... And they're really in a good place, it's kind of heartbreaking that they're in such a good place and that this kind of atomic bomb is going to hit them. I hope they survive, but who knows?"
For more from the stars and Vernoff, hit play on the videos above!
Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.