'Grey's Anatomy' preview: How Amelia's past comes back to haunt her

Theres quite a commotion at Grey Sloan Memorial. A woman is gettingincreasingly angry, making a scene in front of half the hospital. She has good reason to be demanding a new doctor: Shes just realized that the surgeon working withher mother also happens to be an addict she knows fromNarcotics Anonymous meetings. Anonymous, of course, is a relative term here:EW has hit the set of Greysto seeAmelias (Caterina Scorsone) pastincluding her hardcore drug use and the details of her late boyfriends overdoseunravel for all to see in the span of roughly 30 seconds.

Amelia has left a great deal of her life behind in L.A., Scorsone tells us between takes. Shes established herself at the hospital as the head of neurosurgery. Shes got this really sweet life that shes set up. In this episode, her anonymity is severely compromised. A lot of stuff that she thought she had left behind is thrown into her present.

For those who may not be in the know, the former Private Practice character struggled with addiction from a young age after witnessing the murder of her father alongside her older brother, Derek (Patrick Dempsey). After overdosing in her youth, Amelia got on the straight and narrow and becamea doctorbut struggled in later years, eventually turning to pills and alcohol. The tipping point came when her new boyfriend Ryan, whom she met in AA, died of an overdose after the two took the last of their pills and swore to get clean the next day. After rehab, Amelia later discovered she was pregnant with the late Ryans babybut the child was born without a brain. Suffice it to say, thingshavent been easy for the youngest Shepherd sibling.

This episode allows us to go back and revisit all of that stuff and bring her past into the present, so that all the Greys fans who werent familiar with that hardcore journey she went on in Private Practice will start to see that backstory, and start to see all the layers of thisquirky, wacky neurosurgeon. Who is also Little Dreamy, Scorsonesays.

Among the crowd thatwitnesses Amelias confrontation is Owen (Kevin McKidd), whos forcedto reevaluate whether Amelia is the best person for thisjob. You can understand why people would be slightly concerned, knowing that their neurosurgeon had a history with hard narcotics, Scorsone says. He doesnt know how hard shes been working on her sobriety.

That all may work in Dereks favor, as hes been playing second fiddle to his younger sister after deciding against moving to Washington D.C. this season. Theres been a lot of tension since she came to the hospital, because she originally moved and left her whole life with the idea that she was going to take over his position in the hospitalso that he could feel good about leaving and going to Washington. And of course, at the last minute, he decides to stay, Scorsone says. Were stuck with two highly talented, brilliant neurosurgeons in a very small space. Theyve been having some sibling rivalry since she got there. In this episode, theres an interesting and key moment when her credibility is thrown into question. It lands on Derek to make a decision about how hes going to represent her, defend her honor and credibilityor not defend it.

Image Credit: Adam Taylor/ABC

It goes without saying that Amelia hasnt made a great first impression with some of her new co-workersespecially Owen. It is not an ideal circumstance that theyve come together like this, she says. Hes the chief of the hospital, and hes confronting her about potentially having killed her boyfriend through drug use. Its going to be an interesting challenge to see her rise above the demolished reputation that occurs in this episode.

But this experience may just be the catalyst that brings the long-rumored Owen-Amelia romance one step closer to fruition. They have both witnessed a lot of tragedy and experienced a lot of tragedy, Scorsone says. They both have mental health problems due to trauma, and both had journeys with babies. But I think Shonda has a great eye for romantic couplings. Shell know when the right one is happening. I just trust that shell know.

All thatbeing said, could Amelias confrontation send her spiraling once again? She has built herself a lot of support and structure emotionally, she says. She has done so much work on building her foundation and core, having meetings available to her. Shes really been on her program and her recovery. That said, I think that addiction is a mercurial, tricky, tricky disease. Anybody who has suffered from it and really understands what it is knows that you cant get cocky. No matter how sober you think you are, youre one drink away from seeing that demon. Amelia has a very healthy respect for that.

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'Grey's Anatomy' preview: How Amelia's past comes back to haunt her