There have been a lot of love affairs on Grey’s Anatomy, but our favorite (next to Derek and Meredith, of course) is the relationship between Alex Karev and Jo Wilson. After the two — played by Justin Chambers and Camilla Luddington — unexpectedly hooked up in the Season 14 premiere of the show on Thursday, Sept. 28, we can’t help but want to take a look back at their complicated love story.
It all started when Jo was an intern and would flirt with Alex so he’d let her scrub in on surgeries. When he finally gave in, it ended up being a pediatric case. During it, though, Jo froze when Alex gave her a unique opportunity in the OR, which she later attributed to not trusting anyone after her difficult childhood. Soon after, at Miranda Bailey’s wedding to Ben Warren, they got drunk after raiding a hotel room mini bar and quickly became good friends.
Meanwhile, Jo’s romantic relationship with fellow intern Jason at the time was ultimately what led her into Alex’s arms. Jo and Jason moved in together, but after a physical fight between the two, Jo immediately went to Alex’s house for comfort. Soon after, Alex confessed his love to her and they shared their first kiss during the superstorm (so cute!). However, Jo was reluctant to sleep with him since he had been with all her friends, but she soon got over it and the two started dating.
They went through a temporary rough patch once Alex’s dad returned to the hospital, but they soon got over it and Alex really confessed his love to Jo again by telling her they’re the only family each other needs. He then referred to her as his fiancée, which led Jo to tell him that she was not ready for marriage. They then dealt with the non-fraternization policy at Grey Sloan Memorial and had a fake public fight so people would think they broke up.
After some time went by, Alex proposed to Jo in a formal way in their shared loft apartment after she tried breaking up with him, but she said no. Basically, things then got super weird between them and Alex walked in on a super drunk Jo with Andrew DeLuca (she had just got done telling him about her abusive husband that Alex didn’t know about). After he got the wrong idea, Alex beat DeLuca nearly to death. Things eventually calmed down, but Alex found Jo’s abusive husband in real life even though he chose not to do anything to harm him.
In the Season 14 premiere, we saw Jo opening up to whoever would listen about how she still loved Alex but she can’t be with him after all that’s happened. When he got her in a room alone, he told her that he saw her ex-husband, but didn’t hurt him. This made Jo want to kiss Alex, and the two began making out on the couch together.
Alex Karev left Grey’s Anatomy in season 16, and by then, he was married to Jo. Alex seemed to have found happiness with Jo after all the pain he had gone through in the past not only with his family (as he had a troubled childhood) but also in his relationship with Izzie. However, midway through Grey’s Anatomy season 16, Alex went to Iowa to visit his mother, and a couple of episodes later, it was revealed that Alex had reconnected with Izzie and learned that she took the embryos they had frozen during her cancer treatment and had twins through IVF, meaning these were Alex’s kids too. Alex went to meet his children and decided to move in with Izzie and the kids to make sure they wouldn’t grow up as he did: in a broken home, without a father. Alex overcame his fears while also putting an end to a potential cycle of abandonment and abuse, which fits with all the character development he went through.
Following Alex’s departure, and after a couple of obstacles in the adoption process, Jo became the mother of Luna, a baby whose mother died in childbirth, and started a new life with her.
