The end of an era. A teaser for the "Grey's Anatomy" season 19 midseason premiere, set for Feb. 23, shows Ellen Pompeo's Meredith Grey -- the show's namesake character -- bidding farewell to her fellow doctors as she prepares to leave Seattle for Boston.
"Big last day," Meredith says in the episode's teaser, which was shared to the show's official Instagram page alongside a caption that promises "one chapter ends and a new one begins."
MORE: Ellen Pompeo limits role for 'Grey's Anatomy' season 19, will appear in 8 episodesLater in the clip, when being toasted by her loved ones, Meredith reacts to the celebration with her signature sass. "This is very thoughtful and ridiculous," she says.
Grey announced in the midseason finale, which aired Nov. 10, that she was leaving Grey Sloan Memorial in Seattle to take a job with the Catherine Fox Foundation doing research for an Alzheimer's cure. This, in typical "Grey's Anatomy" fashion, happened as Meredith's house -- minus her and Derek Shepherd's Post-It note wedding vows -- went up in flames.
As was reported before season 19 premiered, Pompeo -- who was appeared in more than 400 episodes of the series to date -- returned this season in a limited capacity. She will appear in eight episodes, with the upcoming farewell episode being her seventh so far.
While fans won't be seeing Meredith much moving forward, they'll still hear Pompeo, as she will continue to provide voiceover narration for all episodes this season. Pompeo will also continue on as an executive producer.
Season 19 has seen "Grey's Anatomy" rekindle the magic that it had when it premiered in 2005. That first season introduced us to Grey's fellow interns Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers).
MORE: 'Grey's Anatomy' season 19: Everything we know so farA new crop of loveable interns have enrolled at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital this season, including Simone Griffin (Alexis Floyd), Lucas Adams (Niko Terho), Mika Yasuda (Midori Francis), Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane) and Daniel "Blue" Kwan (Harry Shum Jr.).
With Pompeo's departure as a series regular, Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey) and James Pickens Jr. (Richard Webber) become the last two remaining original cast members.