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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Reportedly Kept Alex Karev Alive for One Simple Reason


Warning: Grey’s Anatomy spoilers ahead.

If you’re one of those Grey’s Anatomy fans who flip-flopped from fearing the writers would kill off Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) to wishing they had after finding out his fate, listen up.

According to a source that spoke with Us Weekly, there’s a very simple reason the Grey’s Anatomy writers sent Evil Spawn off to live on a farm with Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) and their two kids after Justin Chambers announced his exit in the middle of season 16.

“The reason he wasn’t killed off is because Shonda Rhimes is leaving the door open for a return, in any capacity, if he wants to come back,” an alleged insider told the publication. (If you’re wondering why they mention Rhimes, who is no longer the showrunner of the long-running series, it’s because she still has approval privileges as the executive producer.)

Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo

Though Chambers announced in his statement from January that Grey’s had already aired his final scenes, they were ultimately able to get him to loan his voice-over to the farewell episode.

Showrunner Krista Vernoff expressed her appreciation for the actor and character in a recent statement. “We have loved writing Alex. And we have loved watching Justin Chambers’ nuanced portrayal of him,” she tweeted. “For 16 seasons, 16 years, we have grown up alongside Alex Karev. We have been frustrated by his limitations and we have been inspired by his growth and we have come to love him deeply and to think of him as one of our very best friends. We will miss him terribly. And we will always be grateful for his impact, on our show, on our hearts, on our fans, on the world.”

Though Camilla Luddington, who plays Karev’s soon-to-be-ex-wife Jo on the series, has yet to release an official statement, costar Ellen Pompeo (the titular Meredith Grey) called the exit the “best possible storyline” before reuniting with former castmate T.R. Knight.

Whether or not the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (or the fans) would be happy to see Karev again after all this remains to be seen….





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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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Fans Are Scared ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Is Going to Kill Off Alex Karev


Grey’s Anatomy fans were shocked last week when it was announced that Justin Chambers, who has played Alex Karev since the show debuted in 2005, would be leaving the show—and that his final episode has actually 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,” the actor told Deadline. “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.”

Since Karev’s departure happened offscreen, fans are now afraid that he’s going to be killed off, à la
Patrick Dempsey‘s Derek Shepherd. Though
I don’t think that’s actually what will happen, you never know with this show. “I swear if Shonda makes Alex Karev die tragically with a version of Chasing Cars or some other depressing song playing in the background… I’m going to lose it,” one person tweeted.

“Bro if this bar car crash episode is Justin Chambers last episode and it’s just gonna be Meredith, did Alex die is the car crash? bro ima fight every writer in the room if this is how y’all end Alex Karev storyyyyy ?,” another wrote.

Seriously, the car crash cliff-hanger from the midseason finale has people concerned. A third fan wrote, “SHONDA YOU BETTER NOT MAKE THAT ALEX KAREV CAR THAT CRASHED INTO THE SIDE OF THAT DAMN BAR WHILE GOING TO VISIT HIS MOM AND HAVE HIM DIE ON IMPACT I WILL FIGHT YOUUUUU WHO WILL MEREDITH HAVE NOW???!!!!”

Karev is, of course, not the first character to leave on Grey’s Anatomy. Along with Derek, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) has said goodbye to George, her sister Lexie, Mark Sloane, her mom, and her dad—just to name a few characters who’ve died. Meanwhile, Christina Yang moved to Europe and who the heck knows where Izzie (Katherine Heigl) is these days.

Ugh, the heart can take only so much. Let’s hope Karev is left alive so he can return some day.



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Justin Chambers, a.k.a Alex Karev, Is Leaving Grey's Anatomy After 16 Seasons


Justin Chambers, the actor who has starred as Dr. Alex Karev in all 15 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, is finally saying goodbye to the role.

The cause of his departure isn’t a [deep breath] train collision, ferryboat accident, shooting, psychiatric episode, homemade bomb, or unaddressed head trauma. No: Chambers, who has devoted the majority of his professional career to Grey’s, explained his decision in an announcement on Friday, January 10.

“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 told Deadline. “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.”

Shock number one: Karev, who is arguably the second most central character on Grey’s—next to the eponymous Meredith Grey—will soon disappear from the show. Shock number two: Justin Chambers is 50? He has five kids? What moisturizer does he use?

Kelsey McNeal/ABC via Getty Images

In his announcement Chambers thanked show creator Shonda Rhimes and his fellow remaining original cast-members—Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens—and the rest of the Grey’s team. It’s not clear from his statement whether he’ll be back for the rest of the 16th season, which returns to ABC on January 23. It is clear that we are sad. Very, very sad.

Grey’s Anatomy is a high-class soap opera—a glossy fantasy that delights in making us salivate over abs and weep until we’re nauseous within the same 40-minute block. The character of Alex Karev—the angry, sometimes cruel child of an addict father and schizophrenic mother, who grew up to be an exceptionally compassionate pediatric surgeon—is the best of that. In him, viewers have watched a person be redeemed. Albeit in the form of a conventionally hot, white man, we have joined a character on the odyssey of becoming a better person. We have seen him renounce sexism and violence and isolation.

For all his model looks and talent for making the word “frickin” sound organic, he’s been the ideal male sidekick to protagonist Meredith Grey (Pompeo) for 15 years. Their decades-long friendship, built on their mutual instinct for survival-at-all-costs, made them demand better from one another. Karev moved away from picking on people who were smaller than him and devoted himself to saving children’s lives. He became the ethical heart of the show. He stopped being angry, and started choosing love.



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