#jo and link are a bettet pair 🤷‍♀️

[flurry-of-beaus-pop-pop]

Listen, I'm about to say something controversial...

When Grey's Anatomy first aired Alex Karev's exit storyline, I was pissed. The decision to leave Jo to go back to Izzie, even with the addition of him having kids, was dumb and ruined all of the character progression he had made since Izzie's ultimate departure.

That being said, while I do believe that the decision set Karev's character development back to square one, I honestly feel like there was no other option.

While Alex and Jo definitely had their fair share of relationship issues up until the end, sometimes to the point where their relationship was rather toxic, it was very much something that was portrayed as a "ride or die" relationship.

Because of this, anything short of Alex leaving Jo, and doing so for a reason that you can't really object to (i.e. going to be with his kids and giving his kuds a family) wouldn't have worked.

If Alex had gone to take care of his mother, brother, or sister... some of the more popupar storylines people has wished they utilized, it wouldn't have been enough to break up Alex and Jo. Even if Alex attempted to leave Jo in this circumstance, it wouldn't have been belivable for Jo (the character still on the show), to move on/not fight for him, and that wasn't something that could have veen done with Justin leaving the show.

It reminds me a lot of Derek and Meredith's storyline... they had plenty of avenues for Derek's departure that didn't need to include his death... divorce, moving to Washington D.C. permanently, going somewhere else, etc., all of which could have worked in a period where Derek and Meredith did have relationship difficulties as well. But simply the idea of believing a world exists where Meredith and Derek wouldn't be together if they're both still alive is impossible. And so the only option was to make the exit permanent.

Like I said, I still think that it set Karev's character back quite a bit, but sometimes, when an actor/actress chooses to unexpectedly exit a show, you focus moreso on maintaining the integrity of the character on the show than of the one leaving