episode, writing, "Watching the season premiere tonight was like welcoming an old friend back into your home. It was so easy to slip back into Grey's world and get caught up in all of the amazing moments that make this show so much fun to watch. And while I expected the night to start off on a somber note, by addressing Burke and Cristina's fallout, I was pleasantly surprised by the way the attendees paid tribute to Bailey, by giving their new interns the same exact first-day speech Bailey had given them." Lulevitch praised Meredith's story-arc, noting the surprising turn her character evolution has taken, as she praised Lexie's introduction. While expressing a negative perspective on the writers' decision to have Torres be the Chief Resident, instead of Bailey, Lulevitch described Torres' adjustment to her new position as one of the episode's focal points. Despite praising Yang's storyline in the personal background, the concept of her interaction with the patient she was assigned to was regarded as predictable and obvious, "When the man's family came to see him, and Cristina told them it could be for the very last time. It was that moment that really got Cristina thinking about how much she did in fact miss Burke, as we later learned in the episode." Writing for IGN, Laura Burrows was favorable of the episode. Regarding the storylines developed in "A Change Is Gonna Come", Burrows elaborated, "The season opener was promising in that it had the interns in a new role and introduced a new side of George. As all of his friends progressed from interns to residents, George was forced to re-sit his internship. This created new drama and also opened up the hospital to a whole new set of interns rife with their own set of emotional baggage and drama. There were a series of interesting and new plots." Heigl, who portrayed Stevens, was particularly critical of her character's relationship with O'Malley, deeming it "a ratings ploy". Heigl further explained her outlook on the progression of her character, "They really hurt somebody, and they didn't seem to be taking a lot of responsibility for it. I have a really hard time with that kind of thing. I'm maybe a little too black and white about it. I don't really know Izzie very well right now." Former The Star-Ledger columnist Alan Sepinwall expressed a negative perspective on the