Despite Emotional Send-Off, Ellen Pompeo Returning to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 21 for at Least 7 Episodes

Ellen Pompeo will be on the upcoming season of “Grey’s Anatomy” more than fans might have imagined.

Pompeo will appear on at least 7 of the upcoming season’s 18 episodes, Variety has confirmed. This comes after her character Meredith Grey was given an emotional send-off in Season 19, and despite appearing in 10 episodes in Season 20, her presence in future episodes was uncertain.

Variety‘s Kate Aurthur paid tribute to both Meredith Grey and Pompeo in a story written about the send-off episode.

“Ellen Pompeo could forge chemistry with anyone,” she wrote. “Along with its lexicon-changing writing and intricate yet rowdy plotting by Shonda Rhimes, what’s made ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ a phenomenon was watching Meredith just live her life. She was a character network television never seen before: a brilliant woman whose life had been marred by tragedy (an Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother, an entirely absent father), yet who wasn’t going to let her dark and twisty past get in her way. Meredith had a lot of fun; she saved a lot of lives; she had a lot of sex.”

Deadline first reported the news.