'Grey's Anatomy' mid-season premiere blindsides viewers with an unexpected death

"Grey's Anatomy" returned for its mid-season premiere Thursday night, but an unexpected death on the show is leaving fans of the long-running drama devastated.

During a plotline on Thursday's two-hour crossover episode with "Station 19," Dr. Andrew DeLuca, played by Giacomo Gianniotti, attempted to pursue a sex trafficker and was stabbed. Deluca, a character on the show since 2015, died on the operating table after saying goodbye to Meredith Grey, who is suffering from Covid-19. In a dream sequence on the same beach Grey (Ellen Pompeo) has been on during her dream sequences while sick, DeLuca tells her: "No matter what happens, I want you to know that I never felt seen the way you saw me. I never felt inspired the way you inspired me. You made me want to be not just my best self, but better. And yeah, I felt small around you sometimes. I felt insecure. I wanted something from you that I needed to give to myself. But here, now, on this beach with you, I get it. I don't just get it, I feel it. I get who I am. I know my own soul, my strength."