We recently learned that Grey's Anatomy, which returns for its much-anticipated Season 9 tonight on ABC, was to air a special episode focused solely on the divergent perspectives of Meredith and Cristina this fall.

Ellen Pompeo reveals that the unorthodox episode will have a parallel structure, splitting time between the best friends, with Meredith Grey at Seattle Grace and Cristina Yang at her new job at the Mayo Clinic.

"Usually, we do one episode a year where it's all Meredith," the star, who just signed a two-year deal, told TV Line. "This season, they decided to do Meredith and Cristina to break it up a little bit and just focus on two people."

"They're individual storylines, but in our own storylines, it's sort of ALL us."

In Meredith's half of the episode, "[she] has a super-critical patient. The underlying subtext of my medical case, as usual, is dealing with issues of like my sister's death. Emotionally, things that I haven't dealt with."

"I sort of play out through taking care of this patient."

What do you think happens in Cristina's portion of the episode? In any case, we also recently discerned that fans can expect plenty of MerDer sex this season once the dust settles from the crash. So there's that.

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.