With Gray’s Anatomy in its twenty first season — set to renew on the 2025 TV schedule — we’ve seen characters go away the present in every kind of how. Cristina Yang acquired her dream job in Switzerland; Lexie Gray died in a aircraft crash; George O’Malley jumped in entrance of a bus to avoid wasting a stranger. It was Alex Karev, although, who boasts probably probably the most controversial exit, leaving his spouse Jo with nothing greater than a goodbye letter. Followers have been incensed over the betrayal, however surprisingly, Camilla Luddington wasn’t. The actress defined why she truly favored the storyline, and I actually had by no means considered it from that perspective.
After 15 years of taking part in Alex Karev on Gray’s Anatomy, Justin Chambers determined in 2020 he was able to pursue different roles. Reasonably than a number of the lengthy, drawn-out goodbyes that we’ve seen, nevertheless, halfway by Season 16, Alex simply disappeared. In notes to Jo Wilson, Meredith Gray and Miranda Bailey, he defined that he’d reconnected with Izzie Stevens and was staying together with her to lift the youngsters he hadn’t identified about. There was prompt backlash from the Gray’s fandom on Jo’s behalf, however Camilla Luddington had a way more considerate take, telling Selection:
It’s attention-grabbing, as a result of on quite a lot of reveals, you need this second of with the ability to inform any individual in a breakup, or see somebody in a breakup have the ability to say, ‘Screw you!’ or have this entire large argument. And in life, there are quite a lot of breakups the place individuals don’t get that form of closure. So, I truly actually favored that we performed a breakup the place somebody was not going to get that final second with that different individual. So, what does that imply for that character? Effectively, they’ve to finish up discovering closure for themselves.
Personally, I felt just like the abrupt exit was disrespectful to the followers who had adopted Alex Karev’s journey for as long as nicely as to one of many Gray’s Anatomy’s OG actors. I additionally needed that closure for Jo, as a result of how dare Alex attempt to say he was doing the honorable factor if that meant simply leaving his spouse in a letter?
Nonetheless, I hadn’t considered it from the angle of that being lots of people’s precise expertise. Possibly not “breakup by letter” particularly, but it surely’s true that so many individuals don’t get that closure and have to seek out that therapeutic inside themselves. Camilla Luddington stated she heard from so many individuals with these tales:
I keep in mind when [Alex’s goodbye] episode aired, there have been lots of people that really wrote to me on social media saying, ‘I do know this sense. I do know not with the ability to have that final struggle or that final say,’ and simply form of having to seek out that themselves. I really feel prefer it’s not so frequent to see that form of breakup on TV, so I loved it, and I favored that she ended up once more having to seek out that for herself. That’s powerful. That’s actually powerful. However I felt like she’s stronger for it.
Figuring out that Alex Karev’s infuriating non-goodbye was one thing that made so many individuals really feel seen and perhaps even helped them course of their very own experiences positively takes away a number of the bitterness I’ve over that storyline.
If you wish to relive Alex Karev’s Season 16 exit or rewatch any of Gray’s Anatomy’s greatest eras, the primary 20 seasons are a number of the greatest issues to binge on Netflix proper now, and all 21 seasons up to now will be seen with a Hulu subscription.