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'Grey's Anatomy' Season 17 Episode 7 Spoilers: Where is Derek Shepherd? Here's all about Patrick Dempsey's return

Sigh, Derek's presence was the one thing that kept ‘Grey's Anatomy’ fans glued to their screens

Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is finally awake. ‘Grey's Anatomy’ starts its fall finale with a new twist as the experimental treatment for her Covid-19 symptoms works. Eager to leave the hospital, she just can't wait to see her children. Now that she is awake, will Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) no longer be a part of her dreams? Sigh, Derek's presence was the one thing that kept fans glued to their screens.

On Twitter, fans have gone berserk. "I know I am wasting my time... still no Derek Shepherd! Give me what I am here for!" one tweet read and another said, "The real question is can I see Derek yet?" A third posted, "I feel like the episode will end with Meredith flatlining and running into Derek’s arms... how amazing would that be but so sad!!" A fourth even went on to say, "If @GreysABC don’t end up showing Meredith on the beach with Derek this episode, I’ll sleep for her so I can see @PatrickDempsey for myself LMAOO."

So, is that goodbye for Derek? Talking to Deadline, Krista Vernoff had said, "It’s more than the one scene you saw, Nellie, and it was just joyful. I really want to echo that. Patrick and Ellen and I were all there at the beginning of this; I wasn’t there for the pilot, but I was there for the first seven seasons, and that was 17 years ago. That was, like, a lifetime ago; my kids weren’t alive. It was so wild to walk out on that beach, and just be together again as these different people that we are now. But I can’t overstate how joyful and healing an experience this was."

That doesn't really spell out how long he'd be on the show. Moreover, when asked if he's game for more episodes, Dempsey said, "Yeah, it was fun, because I really love the message of what the dynamic is in this story. With everything that we’re dealing with right now, and certainly we have been distracted with the election, but we’re going to get back into the reality of COVID and being in a pandemic, and all the lives that have been lost. Where are these souls going? And I think that’s what attracted me to this storyline, I think it can be really helpful and healing to so many people."

Begging to see MerDer again, fans are going bonkers. "They should have left us on a cliffhanger of Derek walking up to Mer... that would have been Chef's Kiss," one said and another posted, "WHERE DEREK IS? I NEED TO SEE MERDER TOGETHER." 

A third posted, "But we should've known Grey was going to go back down because Derek is coming back before the season is finished. (I watch updates and interviews in YouTube). If nobody else knew, spoiler alert!" And a fourth added, "She’s gonna be fine. It has happened so many times! We’ll again get the same scene of Derek far away hand wave d sand shift n she wakes up all d hype abt Derek n we didn’t get 1 #merder scene."

So, is Derek coming back? Well, only time will tell. But, stay tuned for all the updates. 

The crossover episode of ‘Station 19’ Season 4 and ‘Grey's Anatomy’ Season 17 premiered on Thursday, November 12, 2020. After it aired a brilliant set of six episodes, the seventh one will only be back after a break of three months. Hold your breath! You'll be waiting till Thursday, March 4, at 9 pm ET. It will return the same night as 'Station 19' and 'A Million Little Things'.