People love Grey's Anatomy — obviously, they've been watching it for 14 years — but let's be honest: the show isn't above pulling some sudsy soap opera shenanigans to drum up drama among its cast of sexy surgeons. And the revelation that Owen's sister is alive on Grey's Anatomy is one of the soap opera-iest twists the show has pulled in its decade-plus history. The return of the presumed-dead love one is right up there with secret siblings, shocking deaths, and ever-evolving love triangles in the daytime TV book of tricks that the ABC medical procedural borrows liberally from. But the reason Megan's sudden (if not quite "surprising") return from the dead feels so promising is because of the massive shockwaves her presence will inevitably send throughout Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in Season 14.
First, a brief refresher on everything we know about Megan Hunt. The younger Hunt sibling also served in the Army alongside her older brother Owen and their mutual friend Nathan Riggs; the three had met in medical school, and eventually Nathan and Megan developed a romantic relationship. Sometime before viewers first met Owen in Season 5 (roughly 10 years before she turned up alive in the Season 13 finale), Megan was declared dead after the helicopter she was in, transporting a patient through a war zone, went missing and was never found.
Depending on who you ask, there are very different versions of the events that led up to Megan getting on that fateful chopper. According to Nathan, there was only room for one of them to go with the patient and, despite him asking to be the one to take the risk, Megan refused and got on anyway. According to Owen, Megan had found out that Nathan was cheating on her and took the helicopter to run away. The truth appears to be somewhere in the middle: Nathan did cheat on her, but it was Owen who demanded that she get on the chopper to get away from her fiancé. So both men share a portion of the blame… and all of the guilt.
10 years later, Owen was abruptly informed that his sister had been found alive — though not entirely well — in the basement of a home in a rebel-held village after a military raid. Owen was warned that his sister might not be especially communicative after her decade-long ordeal, but her resurfacing should create ripple effects through much of the show's sprawling cast regardless.
When Megan appears in Season 14, she'll be played by Timeless star Abigail Spencer — since original portrayer Bridget Regan couldn't reprise her role due to her commitment to The Last Ship. Her return will obviously have a huge impact on Owen, as he reconciles with his long-held belief that his sister was dead. By extension, Amelia will also be impacted, as Owen and his wife have struggled to reconnect ever since their nasty fight over children. Will Megan's return help them grow closer? Or will it just be one more stressor in their doomed marriage, with Owen feeling like he doesn't have time to re-commit to Amelia since he has to help his sister heal?
Additionally, Megan's miraculous resurrection will also have big ramifications for her former fiancée, Nathan. Will he want to pick up where they'd left off? Or has too much time passed for any hope of rekindling their relationship? Would she even forgive him for cheating in the first place? Those questions also have ramifications for Meredith, who recently consummated her attraction to Dr. Riggs after a nearly disastrous flight in Season 13. That domino effect might also extend to Maggie, who's still getting over her crush on Nathan; will the obvious termination of that possibility push her more firmly into Jackson's arms?
And then of course, there's Teddy. Megan's rescue will arguably have the biggest impact on Dr. Altman — since it means she'll be making her triumphant return to Grey Sloan for the first time since she was fired by Owen in the Season 8 finale. What complications will Teddy's presence bring to the already-strained relationship between Owen and Amelia? How will Teddy have changed since the last time fans saw her five years ago?
The fact that Megan is alive raises so many tantalizing questions and conflicts for a large portion of the show's main cast — and she won't be the only previously unseen sister making shockwaves through the halls of Grey Sloan this year, either. Grey's is also adding Italian actress Stefania Spampinato to its roster as Andrew DeLuca's sister Carina, a "controversial" new hire at the hospital in Season 14. Given these surprise returns and complicated love triangles/quadrangles, the new batch of episodes is already shaping up to be the juiciest in recent Grey's memory.
