'Grey's Anatomy' Season 11 Spoilers: Premiere To Air Flashbacks; Will Return Of Ellis Grey Explain Backstory Of Meredith's Half Sister?

“Grey’s Anatomy” fans will get their fair share of mama-drama when Season 11 of the hit ABC series premieres on Thursday, Sept. 25, at 8 p.m. EDT. Kate Burton, who portrayed the character of Ellis Grey (Meredith’s mother and legendary surgeon), will reprise her role in episode 1 of the new season through a slew of flashbacks, according to TVLine.

Excited? You should be! The last time we saw Ellis on “Grey’s” was in Season 8 when she appeared on the episode “If/Then.”

Fast forward two seasons later, Meredith’s mom will return to help give context to the surprising backstory of Margaret Pierce (played by Kelly McCreary) – Meredith’s half-sister and Dr. Richard Webber’s daughter.

During the last scene of the Season 10 finale Margaret broke the explosive news of why she yearned to be Yang’s replacement while sitting on a bench with Dr. Richard Webber. According to the new head of cardio, she had applied to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital because it was where her birth mother used to worked – turns out her mom just so happened to be Ellis Grey.

That’s when Dr. Webber realized he was sitting next to his child. Talk about an awkward daddy-daughter reunion.

“That was one of the original pieces of story since the beginning with the Richard-Ellis dynamic, but it's been a piece of story since Season 4 when we talked about introducing her,” creator Shonda Rhimes explained to TV Guide about the inevitable introduction of Margaret.

“Because we've all known about it for so long, it's always been layered in. It's not a thing where we're going in and backdating. It's literally always been layered into the story line. We can literally go back and pull out moments of the show and I'm excited to do so, and point out where it was talked about. It's not going to be so hard to do,” she revealed.

How do you think Ellis will help explain Margaret’s story? Sound off in the comments section below what flashback you think Rhimes will add into the Season 11 premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy