Will Bailey Ever Return to Grey Sloan? ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Boss Explains

Dan Clarendon October 9, 2022, 11:01 am

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Grey's Anatomy Season 19 Episode 1 Bailey — Liliane Lathan/ABC

After visiting her old workplace to get a glimpse of Grey Sloan Memorial’s new, “bottom of the barrel” intern class — and getting an earful from the guy who wanted to be the “vagina” of the surgical program — Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) seemed all too happy to let Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) handle the situation.

“Good luck with that,” she said over her shoulder as she sashayed out of the Grey Sloan ER in Grey’s Anatomy’s Season 19 premiere on Thursday, October 6,

Bailey “got really tired of carrying Grey Sloan on her shoulders” last season, Grey’s showrunner Krista Vernoff explained to TVLine recently. “And she made a decision to step away for her sanity and her well-being.”

But how long will Bailey’s fun-employment last? Is she ever coming back to the hospital?

Grey’s Anatomy spoilers ahead!

Bailey will indeed scrub in again at Grey Sloan, per TVLine, which previously reported that the character will soon team up with Addison, played by returning alum Kate Walsh.“We’re telling a really powerful story about Addison and Bailey joining forces that is in turns funny and gut-wrenching,” and through that story fans will “learn a little bit more about Addison’s life back in Los Angeles,” Vernoff told the site last week.

The Grey’s boss added that the ABC show will delve into what an ambitious person like Bailey does “when they sort of reach the top rung of where they want to go” and need to find other areas where that ambition can be useful.

“For Bailey, it’s in so many areas,” Vernoff, who also handles the fate of Bailey’s husband, Ben, as showrunner of spinoff Station 19. “It may also be a case of, in some ways, more being less.”

Vernoff also teased that the key for Bailey may be “finding the joy in taking a lesser title at work in favor of having a richer, happier life.”

Nino Muñoz/ABC

Actor Chandra Wilson told TheWrap recently that Bailey is “too nosy” to stay away from Grey Sloan for long. “She is actually kind of going through that same transition that most folks in the world are going through right now, where your priorities change as a result of everything that we’ve been through in the last three years, at this point,” she added.

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Wilson also said that we’ll see a different side of Bailey in Season 19 as the character redefines her Grey Sloan role. “We have seen a person who had goals from Day 1; we got to see her achieve those goals in real time,” the SAG Award winner observed. “And we also got to see the difference between who she thinks she is and who the audience knows she is. So I think in Bailey’s mind, she’s still the person that you met in the pilot for the most part, but as an audience member, you know better now, right?”

Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC