Gray’s Anatomy has formally mentioned goodbye to Jake Borelli as a collection common, along with his episodes on the 2024 TV schedule marking the top of a seven-season run as fan favourite physician Levi Schmitt. It’s been a memorable experience for the actor, whose character went from the clumsy intern referred to as “Glasses” to changing into one among Gray’s Anatomy’s most iconic queer characters. As he mirrored on his time on the present, one reminiscence that caught out to him concerned one of many collection’ largest shockers, and what made it so noteworthy is that he skilled it the identical approach the followers did — when the episode aired.
Flash again to 2020, Meredith’s storyline on the Season 17 premiere mirrored actual instances, with Ellen Pompeo’s character getting COVID. Whereas she was unconscious, she retreated to a seaside in her thoughts, and on the finish of the episode, she encounters none aside from McDreamy himself — her late husband Derek Shepherd — who died in Season 11. Besides, that’s not what occurred within the script Jake Borelli and Gray’s Anatomy co-star Jaicy Elliot had learn. As Borelli informed BuzzFeed:
Jaicy Elliot [Dr. Taryn Helm] and I, mid-pandemic, are watching the season premiere of Season 17 of Gray’s Anatomy reside. Thoughts you, we have learn all of the scripts. We have been in all of the episodes. These people lied to us. The script was Meredith speaking to her useless mother. And rapidly, McDreamy runs down the seaside. Jaicy and I misplaced our shit. We had no concept. After which subsequently, we had no concept that any of the opposite folks had been coming again.
It appears like their response to Patrick Dempsey’s return to Gray’s Anatomy was just about the identical as each different one who was watching that evening, besides Jaicy Elliot and Jake Borelli might need even been extra stunned, as a result of that they had anticipated to see Ellis Gray (Kate Burton), not Derek-freaking-Shepherd!
Then-showrunner Krista Vernoff has admitted to pulling one over on the solid for the sake of maintaining that massive second a secret, saying she saved writers’ assistants out of the author’s room throughout that point, and the cuts she despatched to studio didn’t embody that scene. Throughout the desk learn — as Jake Borelli talked about — the scripts mentioned “Ellis Gray,” and Vernoff had instructed Ellen Pompeo to say, “Mother,” quite than “Derek,” in these breath-taking closing seconds.
It undoubtedly made for a memorable expertise, not only for followers, however apparently for the solid and crew as nicely.
Jake Borelli’s exit from Gray’s Anatomy was introduced forward of Season 21 amid price range cuts at ABC, and whereas some followers have been pissed off over dropping collection regulars like him and Midori Francis, at the very least Levi went out on a excessive be aware.
We’ve bought some time to attend earlier than the medical drama returns, with its spring premiere set to air on ABC’s 2025 TV schedule at 10 p.m. ET Thursday, March 6. Within the meantime you’ll be able to relive Jake Borelli’s stint on the present beginning with the Season 14 premiere, or rewatch from any of those nice Gray’s Anatomy beginning factors. Each episode is accessible to stream with a Hulu subscription, and the primary 20 seasons might be seen with a Netflix subscription.