Thursday's episode of "Grey's Anatomy" hinted the return of Preston Burke, played by Isaiah Washington, and rumors swirling around suggest a romance might be on the cards for Cristina Yang and her former beau.

Sandra Oh, who plays Cristina in the series, will exit the show after the current season, and "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes believes Burke's return is important to wrap up Cristina's journey.

“It’s important to me that Cristina’s journey unfolds exactly as it should,” said Rhimes in a statement to the media. “Burke is vital to that journey — he gives her story that full-circle moment we need to properly say goodbye to our beloved Cristina Yang.”

As viewers might recall, Preston was last seen in season three and he and Cristina were on the verge of getting hitched. But Cristina was left heartbroken, when he dumped her at the altar. The character of Burke was chopped after show executives decided not to renew Washington’s contract, after he allegedly used homophobic slurs aimed at co-star T.R. Knight.

It is not yet known how Burke will aid Cristina's exit from the show, but fans hope that a romance might be on the cards for the duo, and many believe Cristina will leave Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital to start a new life with Burke.

The show is expected to take an interesting turn with the re-introduction of Burke, as the previous episode showed Cristina rekindling her relationship with Owen.

The previous episode sees Cristina and Meredith Grey, who have put aside their differences, celebrating their friendship by getting drunk. But, their revelry is cut short by Derek, who had gone to meet the President after being asked to be part of a brain-mapping project.

A drunk Cristina leaves Meredith, and in the spur of the moment, heads out to meet Owen to congratulate him on his decision to buy an apartment with Emma.

However, they end up spending the night together and this complicates Owen’s relationship with Emma, who had earlier confessed her desire to leave surgery for kids.

Owen is fond of children and has always wanted to have a family. But he ditches Emma saying that they want different things in life and viewers are sure to note the irony in it as his relationship with Cristina burned out after she expressed her unwillingness to have kids.

When Cristina knocked on Owens door, she might have wanted just a one night stand. But with Owen clearly wanting to take the relationship to the next level, it appears that Cristina will have to tough time choosing between Owen and Preston.

The episode “You Got to Hide Your Love” also shed light on how everyone’s life becomes messier after Owen announces the new non-fraternization policy of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

After Alex Karev and Jo staged a fake break up in front of the entire hospital staff, they were found by Richard Webber, who calls himself the panty police, making out in a closet. April Kepner and Jackson Avery, who were debating whether to keep their marriage a secret, were also found in various levels of undress.

Sadly, what happened in the storage room did not end there as Alex calls out the board on their hypocrisy. Alex tells the board that he is not “gonna let a buncha hypocrites tell me to keep my pants on at work when this place was built on all of you feeling each other up in our on-call room!”

Jackson and April, too, come clean about their marriage.

(Edited by Vanilla Sharma)