Meredith Grey Vows 'Change Is Good' as She Bids Farewell to Seattle in Emotional Grey's Anatomy Teaser
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Meredith Grey is starting a new chapter.
In a teaser for Grey's Anatomy winter return, shared at Wednesday's Television Critics Association panels, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) is preparing to say goodbye to Seattle and move to Boston with her family.
"This is where I learned to be a doctor, this is the place I found my family, the place where I fell in love," she says in a voiceover as iconic moments from the last 19 seasons are shown.
However, Meredith admits she is ready to try something new, saying, "Sometimes change is good, sometimes change is everything."
ABC
RELATED: Ellen Pompeo Says She Feels 'Super Happy' After Grey's Anatomy Exit
The episode, entitled "I'll Follow the Sun," will chronicle Meredith's final day at Grey Sloan Memorial as her fellow doctors surprise her with a farewell toast.
Following the toast, she quips, "You know I probably will be back next week."
"Will you just let us toast you?" Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) responds.
Meredith's boyfriend Nick Marsh (Scott Speedman) also confronts Meredith about the future of their relationship before her big move and the new intern class vyes to scrub in on Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) and Winston Ndugu (Wendell Ndugu)'s partial heart transplant procedure.
Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) also asks Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) an important question.
Liliane Lathan/ABC
Before the winter hiatus, Meredith's storyline ended with her character's decision to leave Seattle for Boston, where she accepted a position with the Catherine Fox Foundation to research Alzheimer's disease.
There have been far more dramatic, and tragic, exits on the series — and Meredith's new job certainly leaves the door open to guest appearances.
Pompeo stepped back from Grey's Anatomy this season to pursue outside projects, including Orphan, which follows a terrifying adoption story in which a couple's new daughter turns out to be a grown woman masquerading as a child.
On The Drew Barrymore Show last month, Pompeo opened up about her reduced role on ABC medical drama.
"I feel super happy, but listen the show has been incredible to me and I've loved a lot of the experience," she shared. "Listen it's just I gotta mix it up a little bit. I'm 53, my brain is like scrambled eggs ... I gotta do something new or I'm literally gonna turn into, like, [someone who] can't do the New York Times crossword puzzle every single day."
RELATED VIDEO: Ellen Pompeo Has 'Immense Gratitude' for 'Grey's Anatomy' Fans as Meredith Grey Readies to Leave Seattle
At the 2022 People's Choice Awards in November, Pompeo teased that fans will still see her character on screen a few more times this season.
"I think I am really just in the finale this year," she told E! "I think we've aired six episodes or seven episodes, possibly. Maybe after the winter hiatus, I am in one more, maybe, and then the finale, actually."
She also thanked the fans for making "it all possible," adding, "Power to the people!"
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Grey's Anatomy returns to ABC on Feb. 23 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
