Grey's Anatomy Star Speaks Out on Season 22 Premiere Twist as Showrunner Calls It a Painful Decision

Grey's Anatomy opened season 22 with a gut punch: Dr Monica Beltran is dead. If you made it through last season's gas explosion cliffhanger thinking the show might go easy on us in the premiere, yeah... no.

What actually happens in the premiere

• We pick up right after the season 21 finale blast. Monica (Natalie Morales) and Jules (Adelaide Kane) are still in the OR with the same young patient they were operating on when everything went sideways.
• They are trapped under fallen equipment, and Monica, pinned and injured, starts talking Jules through the surgery to save the boy.
• By the time help finally gets to them, the kid is alive. Monica is not.

Natalie Morales on finding out Monica was a goner

Morales, who joined the show in season 20 as the hospital's pediatric surgeon, told Deadline she had mixed feelings about the call. She loved being part of the series and said the fandom has been welcoming enough that some people are probably going to be pretty mad about this one. She gets it.

She also made a point of praising showrunner Meg Marinis. When Marinis laid out the plan, Morales said it clicked: it was painful, but it made sense for the story. She called Marinis one of the best people she has worked with, full stop.

Why the show did it

Marinis told The Hollywood Reporter the decision hurt, but it was intentional. She wanted a death that meant something, not shock for shock's sake. In her words:

I wanted to see someone die selflessly saving someone else’s life.

Marinis points out that Monica was doing double duty in that moment: saving the kid on the table and saving Jules by guiding her through it while crushed under equipment. That, to her, summed up who Monica was. She also admitted the conversation with Morales was rough; she cried making that call.

The ripple effect

Behind the scenes, Marinis could not say enough about Morales, calling her an exquisite performer and a writer's dream, and even promising she wants to work with her again down the line. On-screen, the fallout is aimed squarely at Jules and Amelia. Expect the show to live in the consequences of losing Monica, not just move past it by next week.