The ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ elevator scene with Addison and Meredith was so moving that even the writer cried when he saw it come to life

• Kate Walsh returned to “Grey’s Anatomy” Thursday night.

• In an emotional elevator scene, her character Addison Montgomery expresses a range of emotions.

• Episode writer Jamie Denbo told Insider that when she saw the scene, “even I cried.”

Kate Walsh returned to “Grey’s Anatomy” as Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery on Thursday night in an episode titled “Hotter than Hell.”

While the presence of the world’s OBGYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist in the halls of Grey-Sloan might have intimidated residents, fans of the medical drama recalled that while at the famed hospital in Seattle, no one escapes an epic elevator meltdown at some point.

Addison’s emotionally uplifting moment comes after she completes uterine transplant surgery on one of her clinical trial patients. After laughing with residents Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) who had been frantically whispering gossip about women all day, Dr. Montgomery suddenly breaks down crying because she doesn’t sense Derek Shepherd’s presence at the hospital that he loved as much as she expected. at.

In an interview after the episode aired, writer Jamie Denbo told Insider that while she wrote the words to the scene and knew what was to come, seeing the moment come to life was emotional for her. “Even I cried when I saw it and I knew what the scene was like,” she said, “to see it come to life was really, really, really spectacular to me.”

Denbo told Insider that she personally believes Addison returned to Seattle because she felt that so long after her ex-husband Derek’s death, “the chapter is closed” and that she would feel his presence in such a way. positive to Grey-Sloan because “he died in the town he loved with the people he loved.”

But Addison breaks down in the elevator because she’s never felt this kind of positive closure. “I think she came back and instead felt the absence and not the presence,” Denbo said.

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The writer credits ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ showrunner Krista Vernoff with helping create the scene, as Denbo said Vernoff “wanted to make sure Kate handled the full range of emotions” that would come with the return to Seattle for the first time after Derek’s death. “We knew Kate and Ellen could really handle this kind of emotional roller coaster,” she added.

Denbo was on set when the scene was filmed and said the episode’s director Chandra Wilson was “the perfect director for this” because she “nurtured” and helped Walsh and Pompeo feel all the necessary emotions “on the moment”.

She added that on a long-running show like “Grey’s Anatomy” with such a large cast, “there’s something great about doing a little one-act mini-play in an elevator,” because the ability to explore raw emotions like this can be rare.

Denbo couldn’t divulge details about Addison’s potential future in Seattle, but as to why the surgeon waited so long to return, the writer mused, “When Addison heard of Derek, she probably went to the beach alone, cried, and stared at the ocean “remembering her time with him instead of going to a funeral and “causing more pain.”

“Grey’s Anatomy” airs Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Read the original Insider article