Why Did ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Kill Off Monica Beltran? The Reason Behind Her Tragic Death

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Grey’s Anatomy Season 22, Episode 1, “Only the Strong Survive.”

Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital is mourning the loss of another doctor. The Season 22 premiere of Grey’s Anatomy revealed that one of their own didn’t survive the deadly hospital blast from the Season 21 finale.

Season 21’s final episode in May ended with a hospital explosion caused by an acetylene tank leak from a deranged parent, leaving the fates of multiple Grey Sloan doctors uncertain. Series showrunner Meg Marinis revealed that every character except Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Ben Warren (Jason Winston George) was at risk of being killed off.

Dr. Monica Beltran (Natalie Morales), who was operating on a young patient in the finale, ultimately lost her life in the blast. The Season 22 premiere revealed that Dr. Beltran succumbed to her injuries, while Dr. Atticus “Link” Lincoln (Chris Carmack), who had just married Dr. Jo Wilson, survived and was in recovery.

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“I loved working with Natalie so much,” Carmack, whose character was revealed to be alive, told TVLine. “She’s such a light, funny, wonderful, kind, great actress. Link and Beltran don’t have an extensive history together on screen, but Natalie made a huge impression in the time that she was working on the show, so it definitely hurt to see that Beltran didn’t make it.”

Why did Grey’s Anatomy decide to kill off Monica Beltran, and was it a creative choice from the show’s writers? Here’s why Dr. Beltran became the latest member of the long-running medical drama’s “dead doctors club,” which includes fan-favorite characters like Derek Shepherd, Lexie Grey and Mark Sloan.

Why Did Grey’s Anatomy Kill Off Monica Beltran?

In a recent interview with Variety, Marinis explained that she didn’t want to “kill anybody,” but that sometimes, that’s where the story leads, revealing that it was a creative choice to kill Dr. Monica Beltran.

Marinis stressed that any character could have been killed off, with her team thoroughly discussing each one before making their final decision. (However, she hinted to The Wrap that killing Dr. Miranda Bailey wasn’t an option: “I am not going to be the person that does that.”)

“When you sit down to tell a story, you think about everybody who we saw that was in danger, and you go through the chain reactions if you did kill that character off, and who that would affect, and how that would help or derail the next season for us,” she explained.

The showrunner continued, “Obviously, I didn’t want to kill anybody. It’s not a fun thing to do. It’s just sometimes where the story leads. Those decisions are extremely difficult. They’re painful because not only do you love the character, but you love working with the actor. It could have been any of the people that were on that floor — we had discussions about everybody.”

Ultimately, Marinis made the decision to kill off Dr. Beltran, who had joined the show in Season 20 as a pediatric surgeon. Dr. Beltran died from internal bleeding caused by injuries sustained in the explosion.

“I made the decision on Monica as I was sitting down to write those OR scenes between her and Jules,” Marinis added. This was the showrunner’s first time killing off a character since taking over in Season 20. “I always knew that I wanted her to guide Jules through a surgery. But as the scenes started to be written, it became clearer and clearer that that was the way the story wanted to go.”

How Did Natalie Morales React To The News Of Being Written Off Grey’s Anatomy?

Marinis told Variety that she had to make “a very difficult” phone call to the actress, though she noted that Morales was an “absolute professional” during their conversation.

“She’s a writer and director as well as being an actor. She understands story, and she just wanted to make sure that we made it the best story possible. We walked through every scene together,” she said. “She gave me her notes, and I talked about what I was thinking, when, and where. Those two days were really hard to film, because not only was her performance heartbreaking, but we were all sad to see her go.”

Marinis added that with Monica’s death, they wanted to show “how amazing of a character that Monica was, how selfless she was, how she died doing what she was called to do in life, which is to be a pediatric surgeon.”

Following the premiere, fans flooded Morales’ Instagram page with messages of grief over her character’s death. While the actress hasn’t directly addressed Monica’s fate on social media, she shared a collage of photos with the caption, “Take care of each other. It’s the only way through.”

“you deserved so much better on grey’s, thank you for everything you brought to monica ❤️‍🩹 we ride at dawn,” one fan commented.

Another fan added, “i’m so upset over this loss but i’m eternally grateful for monica and everything you gave us on this show and i can’t wait to see what you do next ❤️‍🩹.”

“don’t think I’ll ever move on from Monica’s death💔 you brought something so special to the show, it truly sucks to see you go🥲,” commented another fan.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. New episodes become available the following day on Hulu and Disney+.