\n\tHeading into the 22nd season\u2019s Oct. 9 premiere, which picks up in the immediate aftermath of that explosion, eagle-eyed viewers waited with bated breath as they pored over photos and teasers from the new season to see which characters they could safely rule out from the death count. There were a few doctors, however, who were suspiciously MIA: Dr. Atticus \u201cLink\u201d Lincoln (Chris Carmack), who had just gotten married to and was expecting twins with Dr. Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington); Dr. Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane) and Dr. Monica Beltran (Natalie Morales), who were operating on a young patient; and Dr. Lucas Adams (Niko Terho), who was on his way to inform Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) about the presence of flammable gas on the OR floor.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen you sit down to tell a story, you think about everybody who we saw that was in danger, and you go through the chain reactions if you did kill that character off, and who that would affect, and how that would help or derail the next season for us,\u201d Marinis tells Variety. \u201cObviously, I didn\u2019t want to kill anybody. It\u2019s not a fun thing to do. It\u2019s just sometimes where the story leads. Those decisions are extremely difficult. They\u2019re painful because not only do you love the character, but you love working with the actor. It could have been any of the people that were on that floor \u2014 we had discussions about everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe jam-packed premiere follows three main storylines. Meredith opens up the clinic next to the hospital and, with the help of Dr. Simone Griffth (Alexis Floyd) and a new class of interns, treats patients, including an intern who has been injured in the blast. After being unable to move an operating light that had fallen on her pelvis, Beltran walks Millin through the rest of the pediatric surgery. Ben, his wife Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), Dr. Winston Ndugu (Anthony Hill), Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) and Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) work together to save Link, who has been crushed underneath a piece of the ceiling.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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\t\t\t\t\tBeltran (Natalie Morales) in better days.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of ABC<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the end, Marinis decided to kill off Beltran, who dies of internal bleeding due to her injuries. \u201cI made the decision on Monica as I was sitting down to write those OR scenes between her and Jules,\u201d explains Marinis, who had yet to kill off a doctor since stepping into the role of showrunner in Season 20. \u201cI always knew that I wanted her to guide Jules through a surgery. But as the scenes started to be written, it became clearer and clearer that that was the way the story wanted to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the conversation below, Marinis elaborates on her decision to kill off Beltran and how that character\u2019s death will have lasting effects on Millin, Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) and even Link; how involved Meredith will be in the rebuilding of her home base after she had just committed to returning to Grey Sloan on a more regular basis; what she has in store for the rest of her very large ensemble cast \u2014 and what to expect from the show\u2019s landmark 450th episode (which airs on Oct. 16).<\/p>\n
\t\tHow did Natalie Morales react to the news that you were killing Beltran off, and what kinds of conversations did you have with her about crafting her character\u2019s final scenes in the premiere?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI had to make a very difficult phone call to her, and she\u2019s an absolute professional though. She\u2019s a writer and director as well as being an actor. She understands story, and she just wanted to make sure that we made it the best story possible. We walked through every scene together. She gave me her notes, and I talked about what I was thinking, when, and where. Those two days were really hard to film, because not only was her performance heartbreaking, but we were all sad to see her go.<\/p>\n
\n\tI think we wanted to show how amazing of a character that Monica was, how selfless she was, how she died doing what she was called to do in life, which is to be a pediatric surgeon. She was always about the kids. She always put them first, and we\u2019ve shown her and Millin having this dynamic together before in previous episodes where Jules would freeze in an OR on a case, and Monica would have to break her out of that. And this was obviously the ultimate one of those stories. Jules is someone who has historically not been a fan of children, and this, I think, obviously has changed her mind. But also, this is going to have a profound impact on Amelia.<\/p>\n
\t\tHow will Beltran\u2019s death affect Millin and Amelia going forward?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI think that Jules is going to have a bit of trauma from being in this OR that was obviously destroyed, and being in a stressful situation, but the fact that she witnessed Monica\u2019s last moments \u2014 that will definitely be picked up in Episode 2. Also being picked up in Episode 2 is Amelia\u2019s response to this. She feels ultimate guilt for the belief that she could have taken on that [Dylan Gatlin] surgery to begin with, and then having to go back in [for another surgery]. Obviously, she was taken hostage and that\u2019s not her fault, but she\u2019s going to take on a lot of that culpability.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCaterina Scorsone<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Disney\/Anne Marie Fox<\/p>\n
\t\tMonica\u2019s untimely demise will likely reignite talks of the infamous \u201cbury your gays\u201d trope, and some viewers who had been rooting for Monica to get together with Amelia will certainly be upset about this outcome. What would you say to fans who are disappointed that you chose to kill off Monica before a potential romance between her and Amelia could have even been explored?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tObviously, it was not my intent to go into the trope, but I\u2019m aware of it. What I would say is that I didn\u2019t want to lose the character. It\u2019s where the story was going. Unfortunately, that relationship will not pan out, but it will have an effect on Amelia, and we will be honoring the character. Her death is not just over in Episode 1. We\u2019ll also continue to honor that character and honor that community by continuing to have those kinds of relationships depicted on the show.<\/p>\n
\t\tLink\u2019s prognosis certainly didn\u2019t look good for most of the episode \u2014 he had a penetrating trauma to the chest, a pneumothorax and multiple rib fractures, and he also had to be resuscitated \u2014 but he has pulled through. What does his road to recovery look like going forward? Will there be any long-term effects of coming so close to dying?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThere absolutely will be both emotional and physical consequences. He is obviously still going to be in the hospital in Episode 2, and we\u2019re going to play the reality of how difficult recovery is with his physical recovery, but also what he went through and the fact that it happened when he was trying to do a knee replacement on someone. He is obviously going to be deeply distressed about the other people that were in that OR. He\u2019s going to be distressed about Monica \u2014 why [he survived] and not Monica. That will all be addressed.<\/p>\n