It’s official: Meredith Grey didn’t die last night in “Some Kind of Miracle,” one of “Grey’s Anatomy’s” most intense episodes yet. I know, I know. She is one of the main characters. She couldn’t really die. But I really did start to wonder if she might.

Though Meredith came back to the living after her near-drowning experience (potentially a suicidal one) in the frigid waters along Seattle’s coast, before she woke up she spent some time among the already dead. Viewers got a full hour glimpse of the afterlife–at least according to Meredith Grey. Not surprisingly, it looked a lot like Seattle Grace hospital, and it was populated by former patients of Meredith, most notably Denny, Izzy’s one-time fiance who died tragically at the end of last season. It is Denny who plays angel to Meredith’s newcomer-to-heaven role. As Meredith scurries through the hallways trying to re-save long-dead patients, Denny tries to convince her that death is not what she wants, that she can still go back, she just needs to want life.

But it’s an encounter with her mother that finally convinces her to end her heavenly sojourn.

For all the talk of McDreamy and McSteamy and the soap opera-like relationships ongoing in the show, “Grey’s Anatomy” continues to wow me each week, producing moving, provocative storylines with so much depth and emotion that I can’t help but tune in. Last night’s was one of the show’s best.