Link and Jo have been a controversial Grey's Anatomy pairing from the start, though not because there's anything glaringly wrong with their relationship. The two are actually quite good together, which is largely due to their long-standing friendship. They met in high school and just happened to end up working together at Grey Sloan Memorial. In fact, many fans loved their close friendship from the beginning.
Thanks to last week's Season 21 finale, however, there are a lot of questions surrounding the future of Link and Jo as a couple and as parents. Not because they're in danger of a breakup, but rather, one of their lives may be in jeopardy -- if not already over, if you believe the fire that broke out at the end of the episode isn't a red herring.
Many fans have come to dislike Jo and Link together because of how their relationship was portrayed when Link first joined the series. Much like Alex Karev and Meredith Grey's close and purely platonic bond, Jo and Link were clearly meant to be nothing more than best friends ... at first. But after Link cycled through a few other cast members, Jo naturally became the friend-to-lover neither had ever expected.
Jo's surprise pregnancy sent their relationship to a deeper but slightly more complex place, though it ultimately solidified their love for each other and led to -- in my opinion -- one of the best marriage proposals on the show so far. (I like a nice, private, intimate and low-key proposal, but I might be a little biased.) They only got married quickly because the perfect venue happened to open up last-minute, although as far as we can tell, it worked out fine. I'd argue it's one of the best weddings we've seen on Grey's in a minute, though Meredith and Derek's Post-It Note wedding will never be beat.
The show desperately wants us to believe Link was the one in the operating room that went up in flames in the final moments of the finale, and you really couldn't put it past them to deliver on that assumption in September. Even the couples who do get happy endings on Grey's don't always live happily ever after ... or live forever at all (sorry). Jo and Link's love story up to this point has been a little bit too perfect. Suspiciously so. Whenever that happens, I can't help it: I start to question whether or not all these warm fuzzy feelings can last, and not just in the Teddy and Owen finally calling it quits kind of way. Jo is about to have twins and Link is over the moon. On Grey's Anatomy, that's the classic recipe for something absolutely terrible.
He could be seriously hurt or worse. Or he could have suffered minor injuries or none at all -- for all we know he could have been operating in a completely different room. It wouldn't be the first time we've been tricked on purpose. We all want nothing to change between Jo and Link, but at the same time, we also have to wrestle with the reality that this is a medical drama and not even our favorite characters stick around -- or stay together -- for seasons on end.
Would Jo deserve any form of tragedy thrust upon her at this point? Absolutely not. She's been through enough. One of her exes was awful and she had to decide whether or not to let him live or die, and the other left her with absolutely no logical reason or warning (and it wasn't her fault). But again ... every character gets put through the worst possible scenarios at some point on this show. Maybe it's her turn again. Or maybe, as usual, we're all just overreacting and everything will be totally fine. At this moment, it really is impossible to say which.