Season 12 of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" will be lighter in tone compared to the previous season, which featured the death of a fan-favourite character, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey).

The upcoming season will see the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital trying to move on with their lives post the tragedy, with spoilers hinting that a majority of them will become adventurous with their romantic relationships.

For instance, Callie and Arizona will find new partners, and Amelia and Owen will also take the next step in their relationship. Maggie, who stayed away from any sort of romantic relationship in the previous season, is also set to fall in love.

Meredith, in the meantime, will be trying to juggle her professional and personal life, as she is now a single mother with three children and also a busy surgeon.

Although things are going to be hard for her, Meredith will have help from her sisters as well as Alex, who has taken the role of her brother.

Will Alex's involvement in Meredith's life create a distance between Jo and Alex? Showrunner Shonda Rhimes hinted that problems are going to crop up in their relationship, but it might not be due to Meredith.

"They're really cute," Rhimes told Entertainment Weekly. "I'm enjoying them. We're watching Alex be more of a man. I also think we've been talking about this idea of him being more of a man in everybody's life in a weird way. He feels a responsibility for Meredith in a brotherly way, and he's got Jo. There's a lot of romance going on there. They're going to be struggling through the problems of any relationship."

Rhimes had planned a bigger storyline for Jo and Alex in season 11. But it had to be sidelined to focus on Derek's death, which facilitated Dempsey's exit from the show.

"Grey's Anatomy" is set to return to ABC on 24 September with the episode "Sledgehammer."

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