The promotion of Sarah Drew (April) to full-time series regular status on Grey's Anatomy next season understandably elicited mixed reactions from legions of fans.

Being obsessed with Derek wasn't a good way to get in viewers' good books, and nearly getting him killed during the harrowing hostage-themed finale didn’t help.

You can count Sarah Drew herself among April's critics.

In a Q&A with Entertainment Weekly, the actress reflects on her roller-coaster first year on the show and what we might see from her this fall. Excerpts below:

On being "part of the tribe" after the finale: I definitely had that feeling. April was kind of annoying this past season. [Laughs] Neurotic and really insecure."

"This was the first time she was able to band together - both with Cristina and Meredith - to help solve a [crisis]. Most of my stuff before was with Patrick [Dempsey] and fawning over him awkwardly. So this was the first opportunity to actually bond in a positive way with them."

"They say tragedy brings people together, so I guess that’s what happened."

On whether April can be redeemed: "Lord, I hope so. [Laughs] I think [the heart-to-heart April had with Mer in the finale] was a gigantic step forward."

"The thing that’s fun about April is she creates controversy and that’s interesting to watch, even though people might hate her for it. The people pleaser that I am, I always want everyone to like me and my character, so it’s hard for me as an actress. But I think as a character she’s so interesting, because she stirs stuff up between Meredith and Derek."

On a Mer-Der-April triangle: "This is my own speculation, but I don’t think that she’s going to come between Meredith and Derek. I don’t see it happening after everything that transpired in the finale. After her hearing how much Meredith is in love with Derek. After she witnessed the miscarriage. It feels like April’s going to move on."

On being hired then re-hired: "I definitely did my fair share of sweating in the past year. It’s all been really good news, though. Shonda wrote April for me because I’ve worked with her twice before. I walked into this role knowing it was only two episodes."

"I knew my character was going to be fired, so I wasn’t expecting anything beyond those two episodes. And then they called me the morning after the “firing episode” aired to check my availability and talk about a contract, and I was just floored."

"It was wonderful because when I came back to work I had so much support. A lot of the cast members were like, “We were rallying for you to stay. We’re so glad you’re back.” It was a wonderful surprise to move past those two episodes."

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