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Grey's Anatomy Season 17: Everything We Know So Far


Warning: This post contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy.

Grey’s Anatomy wrapped up its 16th season on April 9 with an episode that very much felt like a season finale, even though it wasn’t planned as one. The show, like the rest of the Hollywood, was forced to shut down production due to the coronavirus pandemic, which meant the final four episodes were never shot and won’t be seen.

Shortened or not, the show’s season ended in true Grey’s fashion—with a lot of drama. The Grey-Sloan team finally figured out what was wrong with Dr. Richard Webber—thanks in no small part to Dr. DeLuca, who’s still struggling with his mental health—and performed a life-saving surgery. Meanwhile, Amelia gave birth to her and Link’s son. Owen discovered Teddy cheated on him with fellow doc Tom Koracek. And Meredith is still sort of flirting with the hot doc that Cristina Yang sent her way earlier this season, Cormac Hayes. And, of course, fans are still recovering from the sudden departure of Alex Karev after Justin Chambers left the show.

The creative team behind Grey’s Anatomy is already looking ahead to next season, even if they’re not yet sure when they’ll be able to resume shooting. Showrunner Krista Vernoff spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about what’s next and said the writers will start working again in early May.

“We’re waiting to see what happens with the world. I will start a season 17 writers room in May, and, at that point, I imagine our conversation will be about starting our story from where we left off in season 16. But I don’t think we can take unproduced scripts that we didn’t shoot and shoot them,” she said. “We’re going to have had a break and have new ideas. We’ve been texting each other ideas already. Some of those things that we had decided, we’re changing because we’ll have had a break and have come up with better ideas. And some of it is going to have to change because you’re taking what was going to be a regular episode and have to turn it into a season premiere and that will require some reimagining.”

Here’s everything else we know so far about season 17:

The premiere date. Typically, a show like Grey’s Anatomy would return to ABC in September, but given the state of the world right now, everything is up in the air. Vernoff told THR there are a lot of factors that will determine when people can get back to work. “The Writers Guild is thinking about all of those things,” she said. “There are conversations about, will testing be more widely available by that point? Are you testing people when they go to work?…I’m trying not to think about it too much because no one knows anything and next week everything could change.”

The cast. “There are no notable cast member departures happening between seasons,” Vernoff said. PHEW.

Ali Goldstein/ABC



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Grey's Anatomy's Showrunner and Ellen Pompeo React to The Shortened Season Due to Coronavirus


Grey’s Anatomy season 16 is coming to an end sooner than expected. On March 27, ABC announced that the medical drama will not resume production on the final four episodes of Season 16, meaning the season will end Thursday, April 9, with episode 21 serving as the finale.

After learning that the current season of Grey’s Anatomy will officially be cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ellen Pompeo and showrunner Krista Vernoff took to Twitter to reassure upset fans the impromptu finale will still be a “satisfying” one.

Though some fans are disappointed, the good news is the new finale episode, titled “Put on a Happy Face,” will be jam-packed with drama and a new potential love story. According to the description, “Hayes asks Meredith a surprising question, Owen makes a shocking discovery,” and “Link tries to convince Amelia to take it easy during the final stage of her pregnancy.”

Plus, Vernoff promised fans that any lingering question will be answered next season in a new Twitter statement. (The series had already been renewed for Season 17.) “We are disappointed that we don’t get to complete our storytelling this season,” she tweeted on March 27. “The good news? 1621 plays like a satisfying finale! It’s not where we planned to end, but it’s beautiful & the questions that linger we will answer next year. #GreysAnatomy #StayHome”

Ellen Pompeo, who has played Dr. Meredith Grey for the past 15 years, also reacted to the show’s shortened season via Twitter.

“When you hear the full season of #GreysAnatomy is not going to air,” she tweeted with a throwback pic of Meredith.

Although clearly not ecstatic about the news, the actor is looking on the bright side. For one, Killing Eve, starring her former co-star Sandra Oh, is returning earlier than planned!

Pompeo even teased a fan after they asked if this means the season finale will not be “full of people dying.”

“That’s what that means,” she quipped.

Grey’s Anatomy is just one of many TV and movie productions that shut down in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. They’re also among a number of medical dramas that donated supplies to hospitals amid the pandemic.

“At Grey’s Anatomy, we have a back-stock of gowns and gloves which we are donating as well,” Vernoff said in a statement to Good Morning America on March 19. “We are all overwhelmed with gratitude for our healthcare workers during this incredibly difficult time, and in addition to these donations, we are doing our part to help them by staying home.”





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Grey's Anatomy Stars Ellen Pompeo and T.R. Knight Reunited After Justin Chambers' Controversial Exit


Warning: This post contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy.

Ellen Pompeo knows that Grey’s Anatomy fans have been going through it lately. For weeks, the show has teased the fate of Dr. Alex Karev, after it was announced that actor Justin Chambers was exiting the long-running ABC hit. During this past week’s episode, which aired on March 5, the powers that be finally revealed Karev’s absence: He left Seattle, his job, his friends, and his wife Jo to reunite with Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) and the twins she gave birth to from embryos the couple froze many, many seasons ago when she was battling cancer…

Some fans were so upset with the “out-of-character” exit for one of the last remaining original five surgical interns, they actually wished he’d been killed off, instead. You know, George O’Malley style, not McDreamy style.

Leave it to Pompeo, who has played the titular Meredith Grey since the show debuted in 2005, to provide her fanbase with a much-needed pick-me-up. The actress posted an Instagram on March 6 with T.R. Knight, who played the lovable O’Malley for five seasons. “Old friends are the BEST friends @t.r.knight…but like we aren’t old…we’ve just known each other for a very long time yes yes that’s it….,” she wrote in the caption, alongside a photo of the pair on a hike in Los Angeles.

George’s death (in the premiere episode of season six) is one of Grey’s most gut-wrenching—and that’s really saying something for this show. He was hit by a bus trying to save a woman and was unrecognizable at the hospital until he wrote “007” on Meredith’s palm with his finger. Alas, the doctors of Seattle Grace couldn’t save him and it was devastating. Honestly, we’re still not over it all these years later.

…Just like fans probably won’t get over Karev’s exit anytime soon. Pompeo also posted an Instagram defending the way the Grey’s Anatomy writers handled the controversial farewell. “For me personally for Karev to go back to the beginning…was the best possible storyline,” she captioned a video montage of Meredith and Karev’s greatest hits. “It pays homage to those incredible first years and the incredible cast…that created a foundation so strong that the show is still standing. So let’s not be sad. As our fearless leader DA always says let’s PULL UP and celebrate the actors the writers and the fantastic crew who make this show come to life every week.”

If this is the end of Karev’s time as Meredith’s “person,” at least we have the ‘Gram to remind us that George and Mer’s friendship never really died.





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Many Grey's Anatomy Fans Wish Alex Karev Would've Died Instead of Having That Exit


Warning: Major Grey’s Anatomy spoilers ahead.

Whoa. In case you didn’t know, last night (March 5) Grey’s Anatomy bid an awkward farewell to Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), a character who’s been with the show for about 16 years. This was never going to be a smooth exit. Back in January, Chambers announced his leave and, to the shock of fans, that his last episode had already aired. Yeah, that was not going to work for the folks who had been watching him since the very beginning.

Ultimately, he lent his voice for last night’s episode, a true goodbye that featured cathartic flashbacks and some sort of explanation for the doctor formerly known as Evil Spawn’s departure. We learned Alex’s fate via a series of letters he wrote to Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), his wife Jo (Camilla Luddington), and Bailey (Chandra Wilson) after reuniting with…Izzie (Katherine Heigl)…and their kids.

I’m sorry…I can’t…don’t hate me.

ABC

Here’s what he wrote to his new wife, Jo: “You’re more than a letter. This right here, this cowardice, this letter, it’s officially the worst thing I’ve ever done,” he wrote. “I can’t lie to you and pretend the truth isn’t the truth. That I love you, and I love Izzie. But if it was just me missing her or nostalgia or whatever, I would have been able to walk away and come back to you. But Izzie had my kids, and I know you get what that really means.”

You know who didn’t “get” what that really means? The fans. Dear reader, I am not exaggerating when I say that a lot of them wish the Grey’s Anatomy writers had just killed Alex off instead. “When you pray they won’t kill off Alex Karev and they don’t but the way they do write him off makes you wish they had just killed him,” one fan tweeted. This was not an isolated feeling:

Okay, so some people didn’t go that far. Most unhappy fans just seemed upset that his “cowardice” went against 16 seasons of character development. “This is worse than Derek Shepherd being killed off,” another user tweeted. “This is abandonment of a character that has been through hell and back and who GREW from it. A character that is now inflicting intentional pain on his fragile wife. Alex Karev would NEVER have done this. Never.”

That last tweet got 10K likes. Frankly, it’s not easy to find a positive reaction to Karev’s final episode. The closest I could find are denials that it even happened:

One thing I’ll leave you with, Grey’s Anatomy fans, is that there was no right way for this to go down. If what Chambers told Deadline is true, this was the actor’s choice. “There’s no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that’s defined so much of my life for the past 15 years,” Chambers said. “For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is that time.”

So, without the ability to have Chambers return, what were the writers to do? Killing off another major figure in Meredith’s life would be cruel, and yet any other option seems out of character or unfulfilling. One option could have been to send Jo away with her husband—her recent traumas are as good a reason as any for them to take a break from Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital—but would that have been fair to Camilla Luddington, the real-life actor who plays her? All we can do at this point is create our own Archive of Our Own accounts and write some fan-fic. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some writing to do…

Emily Tannenbaum is a writer based in New York City.





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Grey's Anatomy Finally Revealed What Happened to Alex Karev—and It's Major


Warning: Major Grey’s Anatomy spoilers ahead.

Grey’s Anatomy fans were shocked earlier this year when it was announced that Justin Chambers, one of the show’s original cast members, would be leaving his role in the middle of the current season. In fact, once we learned the news, his final episode had already aired.

“There’s no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that’s defined so much of my life for the past 15 years,” Chambers (a.k.a Alex Karev) said. “For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is that time.”

What would become of Alex Karev? How would the show handle a pivotal character’s seemingly sudden departure? Of the original group of surgical interns we first met back in 2005, only Karev and Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) remained—along with two of their mentors, Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.). This being Grey’s Anatomy, really any plot twist was on the table, including an offscreen death, which many fans feared.

But Grey’s had a happier ending in mind, or at least some longtime fans will see it that way. We learned last week that Karev was not actually taking care of his sick mother, as he had told Meredith and his wife, Jo (Camilla Luddington). Nope, he was actually reunited with none other than his long lost love and first wife, Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl).

Scott Garfield/Getty Images

We learned all of this by way of letters Karev sent to Meredith, Bailey, and Jo. He revealed that he called Izzie when he was rallying the troops to help save Meredith’s medical license earlier this season. (After surviving cancer, Izzie left Alex heartbroken and ran off to parts unknown in season six. He eventually married Jo.) They got to talking, and Izzie told him she had used the embryos they created during her cancer battle and given birth to twins, Eli and Alexis. The couple rekindled their relationship and he moved to Kansas to be with Izzie and raise their children. ‘I’m finally exactly where I should be. I never had that before,” Karev wrote, talking about giving his children the stable childhood and family he never had.



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Grey's Anatomy Finally Hinted at Alex Karev’s Exit Last Night


On January 10, actor Justin Chambers surprised everyone by announcing he was leaving Grey’s Anatomy. “There’s no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that’s defined so much of my life for the past 15 years,” he said at the time. “For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is that time.” We also learned that we’d already seen the last of Karev in the November 14 episode.

Each week since then, fans have been tuning in to see if this will be the episode we learn the fate of Alex Karev. Given that this is Grey’s Anatomy, a show that has never shied away from major character deaths, fans feared Karev would be killed off. But given the clues we got in the February 13 episode, that doesn’t seem to be where things are leading.

Karev was referenced multiple times in the episode. During a conversation between doctors Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) and Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), about yet another hospital reshuffling situation, Hunt says, “Does Karev know?” Webber replies, “He’s dealing with family issues in Iowa. I called him to tell him the place was going to close and he texted me a laughing ’til you cry emoji with a party hat.”

But the more telling clues came from Karev’s wife, Jo (Camilla Luddington). She gets into a heated conversation with Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) who asks, “Are you going through something?” Jo then reveals that she can’t get a hold of her husband. “Alex hasn’t been returning my calls,” she said. “He says that he’s going through something and he needs time. And if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was getting revenge for when I needed time. But I know he would never do that so…I’m sorry. I’m anxious.” So maybe that’s what will happen—Karev will stay in Iowa to deal with his family and his issues, never to return to Seattle. With an ending open enough that a return is possible.

Richard Cartwright/ABC

The episode ends with Jo walking into the empty apartment she once shared with Alex, a telling sign of what her future likely holds. As she looks around, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo
) says in one of her famous voiceovers, “When one thing ends, something new always begins.”

But this is Grey’s, after all, so we’re not counting out a shocking twist.



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