Ellen Pompeo teases a 'spoiler' for 'Grey's Anatomy' on her podcast: Meredith is going back to her neurosurgery roots

• Ellen Pompeo revealed a potentially big "spoiler" on Wednesday's episode of her podcast.

• "Meredith is about to change her specialty and go back to neuro," she said.

• Dr. Grey left the specialty she was naturally good at after tampering with a clinical trial.

Ellen Pompeo dropped a "spoiler" for "Grey's Anatomy" season 18 on her podcast "Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo" on Wednesday. During a conversation with real-life neurosurgeon and CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, she revealed the next step in her character Dr. Meredith Grey's medical career.

"Meredith is about to change her specialty and go back to neuro," she revealed. Pompeo explained that her character is making the change "because we want to address these findings that our microbiome and our gut are our second brain and as important as our first brain and we should start treating them as such."

Pompeo added that she's "fascinated" by the topic so she is "excited" about her new storyline this season. She noted that in her own personal life, she is "meticulous, like an athlete" about her diet and the supplements that she puts in her body. "I am a big believer in microbiome and gut health," she said.

But Meredith's specialty change might have a larger meaning for "Grey's Anatomy" fans.

Although Dr. David Hamilton (Peter Gallagher) is currently trying to lure Meredith to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to be a part of a team of doctors looking for a cure for Alzheimer's disease (which Meredith's mother Ellis Grey had before her death in season 3 of the show), longtime viewers will recall how she declared her specialty as general surgery on season eight. But those circumstances were a bit murky.

Meredith had tampered with her husband Derek Shepherd's Alzheimer's trial to try and help Richard Webber's wife Adele get in. When she got caught, to save her relationship, she left a specialty she was naturally good at. Dr. Shepherd, of course, was a neurosurgeon and her mentor.

A return to her roots in neurosurgery also means returning, in a sense, to Derek (who died of complications after a car accident in season 11 of the show), even as Meredith's love life appears to be coming alive again thanks to the return of Scott Speedman's character, Dr. Nick Marsh.

"Grey's Anatomy" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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