Showrunner Vernoff recently spoke about Dempsey and Pompeo’s reunion during an interview with Deadline. “There have been studies about how intense our dream life has been,” she explained of her inspiration. “In the pandemic, people are having really intense dreams because of the lockdown. We’re not getting enough stimulation, and so, it’s happening in our dreams. So, it started as that. It started as, how do we give people some escape?”
Shortly after, the entire scene came together for her. “I had this imagining of a beach motif throughout the season, and I called Ellen, and I said, what if we bring back, I don’t know, some dead character that you could dream of on the beach, that would be so fun for the fans,” Vernoff continued. “And she said, let’s get Patrick. Even in my most excitable dream life, that thought hadn’t occurred to me as an option, and there it was.”
Fans can see how this season plays out by watching Grey’s Anatomy Thursday nights on ABC.