ABC/Eric McCandlessMama's home!
April Kepner (Sarah Drew) is going to be thrown for a loop when her mother (played by Connie Ray) stops by for a visit tonight on Grey's Anatomy, and it sounds like we're about to see a whole new side of this neurotic doc!
"[Mama Kepner]'s pretty great! But there's definitely some tension there," Drew told E! News with a laugh. "April's relationship with her sisters sprung out of her relationship with her mother and they're pretty similar."
Drew is excited for fans to see how April reacts to her mother while she's in town, because she thinks it shows off something that everyone can relate to.
"What's great about this episode is that it shows what we as adults often do when we're visiting with our parents or our parents come to visit, which is we kind of regress!" Drew said. "We show sometimes the worst parts of ourselves and the parts we've grown out of. They just come right back and haunt the people around us."
And yes, that's exactly what April is about to do.
"We see April turning back into teenage April," Drew teased. "We'll get a little glimpse of that and she has a temper tantrum, all just based on miscommunication! She assumes that mom is doing things and makes assumptions about her motivations when mom doesn't have those motivations that April assumes she has!"
But don't worry: this doesn't mean we'll see the annoying, insecure April Kepner we first met back in season six. "It's a totally different kind of April," Drew promised. "It's like the teenage version of April. She was completely different back then. Because of how she's progressed and how she's learned to stand up for herself, she's on edge and assuming that her family members are out to get her because she's spent a lot of her life getting shut down by them. It's a different energy than what she was like when she was first on the show, for sure."
But Mama Kepner's arrival doesn't just have an effect on April...Jackson's (Jesse Williams) in for a major surprise as well!
"What's great is that we'll see Mama Kepner bond with Jackson because when she comes into town, April has a crazy busy day and Jackson ends up showing Mrs. Kepner around and taking care of her so they end up bonding," Drew said. "It's sweet to see that. And this will be the first time they've met. She was at April's wedding but that was awkward for everyone! I'm pretty sure Jackson did not have a chance to meet her since then."
Expect to see Jackson acting as a referee of sorts when it comes to diffusing the bomb between April and her mother.
"Jackson doesn't come into this relationship with any baggage whereas April does," Drew explained. "For anyone else looking at Mama Kepner, you would just assume that she's very sweet and kind and helpful. But April sees that all as something very different whereas Jackson doesn't. We'll see a fun relationship developing between Jackson and April's mom. And he has to actually pull the reins on April's temper tantrum and adolescent behavior which is really fun to see. When you know someone well enough to tell them they're behaving horribly and they need to stop, it's good."
So what exactly does April's mother do that sets April off? "She's so excited to become a grandma that she can hardly contain herself," Drew revealed. "She just wants to do all kinds of things to help which is not exactly what April wants."
But something very good is going to come out of the drama surround April's mother's visit.
"It's going to bring out some fears that Jackson has about impending fatherhood and it's going to cause April to see his perspective and see where he's coming from in a new way," Drew said. "And ultimately, it's going to bring them closer together."
Drew can't wait for fans to see where April and Jackson's story goes from here.
"This is really the episode where April and Jackson's storyline kicks off for the season, which is very exciting," Drew said. "We're really going to be focusing more on the pregnancy and how they're preparing to become parents. There are a lot of really interesting things that are coming up in their relationship and in their marriage and in their preparations for parenthood. It's great, it's deep, it's meaningful and it's really fun to play, especially since Jackson and April have a lot more screen time in upcoming episodes!"
Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 pm on ABC.