‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Who Plays McWidow? Richard Flood’s Cormac Hayes Means Trouble for Meredith and DeLuca

The Grey’s Anatomy Season 16 winter finale left fans hanging on the edge of their seats after a car crashed into Joe’s. But quite frankly, we can’t stop thinking about Cristina Yang’s (Sandra Oh) “gift” to Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo). So who is McWidow — aka Cormac Hayes? The character played by Richard Flood will certainly bring some drama for Meredith and DeLuca’s (Giacomo Gianniotti) relationship.

Richard Flood plays McWidow on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

In October 2019, Deadline reported Flood’s casting in Grey’s Anatomy Season 16. The 37-year-old actor landed a recurring role as Dr. Cormac Hayes — now known as McWidow — the new head of Pediatric Surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

From his title, it was indicated McWidow would replace Alex Karev (Justin Chambers). And at the time of the announcement, fans assumed McWidow would simply fill in for Alex after he was fired and joined Pacific Northwest General Hospital with Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.). However, with Chambers’ departing Grey’s Anatomy after 15 years, it’s possible Flood’s McWidow will stick around for a little while longer.

Regardless, Flood has a number of notable roles, per his IMDb page. He is known for portraying Ford Kellogg on Shameless, opposite Emmy Rossum as Fiona Gallagher. You may also recognize Flood from shows like Red Rock and Crossing Lines or films such as Killing Kennedy and Amaurosis.

What happened to Meredith and McWidow in the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ midseason finale?

Grey’s Anatomy fans receive their first look at Cormac in the season 16 winter finale. At the start of the episode, Meredith returns to Grey Sloan Memorial for the first time since being rehired. Along the way, Cristina texts Meredith about a package she sent over.

Then Meredith runs into DeLuca, who broke up with her in the previous episode. He is stunned and Meredith quips, “I was gonna tell you, but you were too busy dumping me.”

Meanwhile, Meredith meets Cormac as they care for a 13-year-old patient together. Both parties clash over their methods over the peds case. But when Cormac gets vulnerable with their patient and reveals himself as a widowed father of two teenage boys, Meredith seems to give him more slack.

Later — in an elevator, because of course — Meredith and Cormac have a moment together and Cormac offers an olive branch. “Listen, Grey,” he says. “This is your house. But someone gave me a key. So I think it’s best if we learned how to live together. Welcome back, Dr. Grey. I can see why you were missed.”

And at this time, Cristina messages Meredith about her package, teasing that her gift isn’t an “it” but a “he.” Cristina then writes “McWidow” followed by a few shamrocks, indicating McWidow is Cormac.

Krista Vernoff says Dr. Cormac Hayes is a ‘complicated gift’

Naturally, fans wonder whether McWidow is Meredith’s next love interest. But what about the whole DeLuca situation? Prior to the Grey’s Anatomy Season 16 winter premiere on Jan. 23, showrunner Krista Vernoff teased how McWidow will affect Meredith and DeLuca moving forward. And as always, it seems complicated. She said:

It’s a complicated gift. He’s a complicated gift. He’s a sexy Irishman, who is a widower and a father of two. It feels like the perfect character for Meredith to ask herself the questions that many of us and many fans have been asking since “MerLuca” became a thing. Could this man ultimately be enough for Meredith? Is he enough of a grown-up, is he enough of an equal? You need someone to come in and play the role of “grown-up equal” to ask that and answer that question, and that’s all I can tell you.

Nevertheless, there is still hope for Meredith and DeLuca, even with McWidow’s presence at Grey Sloan right now.

“If this were the final season of the show. I might have gone a different path,” Vernoff said when speaking about Meredith and DeLuca’s current relationship. “But when you’ve got another 50 hours at least of TV to fill, hot in an elevator does not sustain a dramatic storyteller’s need to tell dramatic stories.”

Read more: ‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Fans Agree This Was Meredith Grey’s Worst Love Interest