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Grey’s Anatomy season 16 episode 16 review: The end of Alex Karev

By Meg Dowell

GREY'S ANATOMY - "Nothing Left to Cling To" - Meredith, Richard and Alex must deal with the consequences after Bailey fires them from Grey Sloan for insurance fraud. After disappearing in the fog, Jackson helps a man in a dangerous situation, as his relationship with Maggie comes to a new crossroad. Meanwhile, Tom gets new responsibilities at the hospital that throw the doctors for a loop on the season premiere of "Grey's Anatomy," THURSDAY, SEPT. 26 (8:00-9:01 p.m. EDT), on ABC. (ABC/Kelsey McNeal)JUSTIN CHAMBERS, JAMES PICKENS JR.
GREY'S ANATOMY - "Nothing Left to Cling To" - Meredith, Richard and Alex must deal with the consequences after Bailey fires them from Grey Sloan for insurance fraud. After disappearing in the fog, Jackson helps a man in a dangerous situation, as his relationship with Maggie comes to a new crossroad. Meanwhile, Tom gets new responsibilities at the hospital that throw the doctors for a loop on the season premiere of "Grey's Anatomy," THURSDAY, SEPT. 26 (8:00-9:01 p.m. EDT), on ABC. (ABC/Kelsey McNeal)JUSTIN CHAMBERS, JAMES PICKENS JR. /
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Last night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy gave fans a finale to Alex Karev’s 16-year storyline — and the big reveal completely shocked everyone.

“There’s no easy way to say goodbye.”

This line came straight from the hearts of Grey’s Anatomy‘s key players. Last night’s “finale” wasn’t just for longtime fans of the show. It was also for the cast members who had worked steadily with Justin Chambers for so many years.

When Chambers announced his immediate departure from the series in late 2019, it became very obvious very quickly that the writers were going to have to come up with a way to write him off for good.

And they decided to dedicate an entire episode for his farewell. But while many fans were prepared for a death — what many thought to be the most respectful or logical way to end his story — they got just about the exact opposite.

The show didn’t wait long to drop the first of this episode’s many bombshells. Within the first few minutes, we learned Alex wasn’t kidnapped or dead on the side of the road somewhere.

He did lie about being in Iowa. But that’s because he was actually in Kansas. With Izzie Stevens. Who, as it turns out, used the embryos they saved before her cancer treatment and now has five-year-old twins. Alex became a father after all, and he never knew until he called her asking for help during Meredith’s trial.

As a means of departing, Alex wrote four letters: one to each remaining original character (Meredith Grey, Richard Webber, and Miranda Bailey) and one to his wife Jo — along with signed divorce papers.

Both the letters to Meredith and Jo explain in detail how he reconnected with Izzie and why he chose to leave his life in Seattle to be with her. His excuse was that he didn’t want to be an absent father and wanted his kids to have two reliable, loving parents unlike his own or Jo’s growing up.

He asks Bailey for a job recommendation, which she implies she will provide. He also tells Meredith she should come visit.

At the end of it all, Warren and Bailey make a pact to communicate better. Jo and Linc agree to support each other. And Meredith is faced with the task of breaking the news to Zola that “Uncle Alex” will probably never see her again.

Some fans are completely in love with this ending, saying that Alex’s decision to be a present father to his kids is the best move the writers could have made. Others can’t forgive the fact that he left Jo, seemingly undoing years of character development by suddenly deciding he wasn’t going to stand by his commitment to her.

What’s stirring up complaints most of all is that it seems things are going “back to normal” in next week’s episode with yet another promise of a paternity test results reveal. Sure, there might be periodic mentions of Karev — he was Jo’s husband after all, and it wouldn’t make sense for her to simply never mention the fact that he left her with only a letter as a farewell.

But it’s clearer now more than ever how much Chambers’ abrupt exit must have shaken things up behind the scenes of Grey’s Anatomy — creatively at the very least. We may never know what the ultimate plan for Alex’s storyline would have been, but this episode was obviously only the beginning of the scramble to make things line up as best they could.

Regardless of how you felt about the direction the show took in Alex’s story in, it’s hard not to give props to the creative team for doing their best with what they had. They had no new footage of Alex and had to piece together what they could with flashbacks. It worked. Not seamlessly, if you’re looking at the big 16-year picture, but it did the job.

Where do we go from here? Back to a focus on the Amelia-Owen-Teddy-Tom love quadrangle, plus however Jo is going to emerge from all this. Many signs point to her and Link ending up together in some capacity … or maybe, just this once, two people can be allowed to support each other as friends without romantic feelings having to get in the way.

Also … is Zola going to be okay? We’ll just have to tune in next week to see how her science project turned out.

Next. Grey’s Anatomy season 16 episode 15 review: Webber’s secret, Jo’s discovery. dark

Did you love Alex’s “finale” or hate it? Tell us which side you’re on and whether or not you think he’ll continue to be part of Grey’s Anatomy offscreen in future episodes.

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