GSMHvisitor

That's good to hear. I'm not from the U.S. so I don't know who or what gets covered in People magazine and how often. I also didn't exactly follow Justin's career let alone his private life before. I knew him from Revenge and I liked him there, but this is the first show where I really noticed him and got invested in his character. The reason I thought they might seek media attention (beside the big People story) is because I noticed both liked and retweeted so many articles that were written or mentioned their wedding. That made me give them a slight side-eye, but it's also not something I'm gonna overrate.

Agreed. I think all that stuff should be taken with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, what do we really know about those people? I googled the above mentioned quote about Matthew Morrison thinking monogamy is a tree (because I found it a hilarious thing to say for some reason) and what I found is that both Matthew Morrison and Chrishell herself denied she ever said that. With his looks and body Justin could very well be your typical Hollyweird womanizer, but maybe he's not just a shallow pretty guy. I don't know what happened in his previous marriage, maybe he cheated, maybe his wife did, maybe the marriage fell apart for other reasons. There's just no way to know, so I'm not gonna judge him. I do think both Justin and Chrishell bask in the media attention to the point where I find it a bit questionable, but it's their right to do that, so whatever.

They sure seem to enjoy being in the spotlight. But to each their own I guess. I wish them the best and hope they'll stay as happy as they are now.

Thanks. And I agree with OP that that sort of ending would make sense for This Is Us as well. I also wonder about kid Kevin's mean behaviour towards Randall. The scene in the tent between him and Jack implied so heavily that it's about more than just jealousy, because Randall sometimes gets extra attention. So maybe it's tied to the fact that Randall is extremely smart and that makes Kevin feel inferior? I have no idea, but I really do hope they do something with that, because the whole thing made me scratch my head. The addiction story is not the best, let alone the most original thing ever, but I am most invested in Kevin's character, so any story that gives us deeper insight into his character and doesn't revolve around a girlfriend is a win for me. Kevin certainly hasn't dealt with Jack's death enough, but I wonder, again, if there's more to it? Maybe the last time he saw his father, they had a bad fight or something? Maybe Kevin said horrible things to Jack and he feels bad, because their last encounter went badly and he can never take it back or apologize for it and he hates himself for it? And maybe that's all coming back to haunt him now? Either way, whatever it is, I'm actually excited to see more of this story. I think between Super!Randall (as annoying as he can be sometimes, he's clearly a writers' favourite) and Super!Jack, Kevin is a bit underappreciated, which is a pity IMO.

I've never watched that show, but you made me curious, what was the finale of Six Feet Under? And what made it so special?

I would like to see (or would have liked to see since we're past that point now I suppose) Alex showing hurt/resentment/disappointment/whatever about Jo's secret. Ultimately Jo's pain should be more important and the story should be about her, but Alex has a right to be hurt that his girlfriend of almost 4 years hid such a huge part of her life from him, especially because her secrets affected him too. But ever since the writers dropped the husband/different name bombshell they had Alex do one stupid thing after another (beating up DeLuca, telling Meredith about Jo being married, going after Jo's husband) so Alex's mistakes kind of ended up being way bigger than Jo's and they probably won't bother addressing Alex's feelings about this. Not to mention that he was pretty chill when he found out anyways. But that might have been, because he was facing imminent jail time. Also Jo was scared and needed reassurence, so it was probably the right reaction. In the meantime so much time has passed, I doubt the writers are still gonna do anything w/ that angle. And for all we know Alex actually did struggle w/ what Jo told him. It's not like the writers are ever interested in showing us what's going on in Alex's mind or what he feels. It's a real pity though. I really would have liked seeing that explored much more than him getting angry at Jo, because he jumped to the wrong conclusion she had slept with another man. As it stands Alex did everything wrong. He beat up an innocent man, he wrongfully lashed out at Jo and deeply hurt her feelings, he told Meredith Jo's deepest secret and he tracked down her husband even though it was one of the things Jo feared most. I wouldn't be surprised if they also make it that Alex is responsible for Stadler showing up at the hospital, because he got suspicious of his staring or whatever. But hey, Alex wanted to go to jail (partly) for the girl. And he did not beat up Stadler. The guy has learned his lesson. Isn't that awesome? Yay. /sarcasm/

The show is going to introduce DeLuca's sister in the upcoming season. Sounds like she is a doctor too. http://www.etonline.com/tv/223201_grey_anatomy_andrew_deluca_sister_season_14/ Personally I'm not thrilled about yet another random sister character being introduced. Especially since I've been waiting for Amber Karev to finally make an entrance since season 6 and the show's been on twice as long by now. (And I don't even mean as a doctor, actually the last thing I would want her to be is a doctor). But since Alex either gets no storylines at all or only dumb ones, I guess we'll never get to see the rest of his family. I wouldn't be surprised if we met Zola's long lost twin sister before we get any more Karevs. Also, with Abigail Spencer, Kim Raver and Matthew Morrison confirmed as guest stars for multi-episode arcs, we now have 4 (new) side characters for s14. Any remaining hope s14 might actually be less choppy and feel more organic than the last one just went out the window.

I am a hardcore fan of the couple, but even for me it would be a hard sell. They both messed up royally IMO and to just gloss it over would take away the last bit of credibility they have left as a couple. There are only two ways I can accept a reconciliation by episode 7. First would be that they get at least one scene (preferably more of course) in every episode leading up to ep7. And those scenes must be them talking about them and everything that happened between them. The other way I could see for Alex and Jo is them getting together quickly and looking past everything they did to each other, because love is love and it's the only thing that matters yaddayadda. But then, bit by bit their issues come back to haunt them and they realize they have some things to figure out first before they can truly move on together. Kinda like Owen and Cristina brushed the abortion/baby issue to the side pretty fast in early s8 and then it exploded in the middle of the season. Only that it's a bad example, because the baby thing still drove Owen and Cristina apart in the end and I don't want that for Alex and Jo.

If that makes you a bad person, then I'm one too. When those guys showed up at the door, I was hoping they were bringing bad news. But when we didn't get to hear what exactly they were even saying, I knew it wasn't as simple as "Your sister is dead." Bummer though. I do not look forward to this lost sister story at all. I feel like I've seen/heard enough of it as it is. I don't believe Stephanie will actually die, but I do wonder how she could get out of this without any major/distorting burns? On a side note: The effects at the end with the burning rapist and everything were actually pretty cool. So that's one thing that I liked, I guess. I am extremely lukewarm on the whole Alex/husband stuff. I wish a storyline for Alex and Jo would actually include Jo and, you know, have actual talks between Alex and Jo. How would Alex even be able to find her husband? He started with zero information and for all we know he and Jo haven't talked in months. Hell, for all we know, they might as well be over each other anyways. Be that as it may, and plot holes aside, there's exactly one scenario that could make me look past the utter mess that is that storyline. I don't actually believe it, but maybe TPTB meant this episode as a way for Alex to move forward, to get some kind of closure. Now he's met the husband and in the end he realised there's no way a confrontation with him would not end badly for either him or Jo. And Jo already took care of things her way and it worked for her, so maybe Alex has reached the conclusion that he should let things be as they are? Jo is safe and at the end of the day that's the most important thing. They love each other (although there hasn't been any actual on-screen evidence of that in months), so maybe they can start over. But if they are indeed headed towards reconciliation in the finale, I need them to actually talk this time. Talk about how Jo feels, talk about her past, let her explain things, give us some real insight, show us how the husband has affected her, etc... But I know this would never happen on Grey's Anatomy, so I'm really not sure what to think right now.

I like those theories. The Alex/Jo one is so very plausible, especially with what we know about the penultimate episode. The wording would fit too. I thought they were gonna quickly reconcile them, but the word "hard" threw me of. Big or important would have done in that case. Alex being torn about what to do with the husband info makes more sense. I like the idea of Owen having a secret kid, and if it's only because I'm not interested in having Megan on the show. (Although I'm sure it will happen eventually.) But Owen has wanted a child since season seven, so give him one, I don't care. My feeling still says Megan though. Meredith telling Nathan she loves him does seem a bit early, but it would work with the short hug+swirl video that's been leaked.

@BaseOps thanks for the info. It doesn't fix much of the season, but it's reassuring to know we haven't seen the last of Jo. Do you know if she will also be in the next episode? Or is it just 13x23 (+ the finale I assume)?

I agree and I don't. I could cut them some slack for postponing the husband story (as in postponing the actual introduction of the husband). But aside from the fact that, just like others, I'm sick of cutting the writers slack for neglecting Jo's and Jolex's story over and over, there's one thing I just cannot excuse: Why did we never even get 1 proper talk between Alex and Jo about everything? It's been 11 episodes and months in show time, since Jo told Alex her deepest and most painful secret, but we never got a follow-up talk on it and that pisses me off. If they couldn't make their big plans work for Jo's storyline (and I'm not even sure anymore if there ever were big plans) due to Camilla's pregnancy, why not give this story at least some sort of semi-resolution in the meantime? Have Alex and Jo talk things through, show them interact and then decide whether they still want to try with each other or decide to call it quits, because things are too complicated. If they'd done the first, Alex and Jo could have been happy off-screen (like the supposedly were for most of s11 & s12 anyways). Or, if they'd decided to do the latter and break them up properly then there would have at least been an actual reason for why we never see them interact anymore. And they could have still brought in the husband by the end of the season to stir up new trouble for happy Alex&Jo, or in the other case, use him to bring them back together again. But instead they just dropped this storyline completely and we have absolutely no insight in how Jo and Alex feel about each other at this point. I get that writing a TV show is difficult and there are many factors to consider, but I'm sure they knew about Camilla's pregnancy early enough to be able to write in some sort of closure for Alex and Jo. But I guess writing any sort of closure into middle-of-season episodes is too much to ask on Grey's Anatomy.

And yet it seems like only Camilla's/Jo's storyline had to suffer a major blow from these BTS scheduling issues. Meredith's story with Riggs got interrupted, but it's not like she had nothing to do in the meantime, she had the Alex SL where she was a major part of (unlike Jo :/). Now her story with Riggs is picking up again. Ellen might have missed a few episodes, but it never felt like Meredith was actually missing or that her storyline had completely disappeared, because her thing with Riggs was a will-they-won't-they story all along. Same with Caterina/Amelia. Granted, her storyline with Owen is a mess, but that is, I suppose, more due to the writers wanting to save the resolution for the final few episodes, so they're stalling it. Stalling it in a really stupid way by making them have really stupid fights, but at least we see them interact, at least we see that there are still feelings for each other. Caterina might have missed a few episodes, because she had a baby, but it never felt like the Omelia story was actually dropped. Shonda confirmed that her scenes at Stephanie's appartment were pre-filmed months before they aired. So why didn't they try harder to make Camilla's schedule work? I get that it's difficult to juggle all the maternity leaves, but why is it always, always Jo's character who has to suffer from BTS issues? It's the third season where she basically has nothing to do. The difference is, this time they actually gave her a story to tell, one that's delicate and important on top of it, and still, they chose to prioritize other things. And then Camilla had her baby and here we are again... In showtime it must have been MONTHS since Jo told Alex about her secret husband and we have yet to see a proper reaction from Alex or a talk between them about everything. Seriously, who tells a story like that? Who thinks it's a good idea to drop this bomb and then not let the characters follow up on it? Like I said, it seems to me that it's always Jo's character who suffers most from BTS stuff. They manage to more or less make it work for all the other characters, but Jo's & Jolex's story gets postponed season after season. And I'm done looking for excuses. If the writers really wanted to make it work, if they really cared about Jo's story, they would have found a way to tell it. But I'm sure s14 will finally be Jo's and Alex's&Jo's season. Until the next BTS crisis ofc...

That's exactly my biggest problem too. It was just a storyline for storyline's sake and not done, because the writers actually cared about further exploring/developing any of these characters. It felt like the writers were thinking "Oh, we haven't given Alex any real storyline in years. We need to do something with him." And then they went and made him do this horrible, horribly brutal thing and they didn't even bother to go deeper into his character to at least explain where it all came from or what it meant for him, how he felt about it. And there have been zero consequences. He just walked up to Bailey, asked for his job back and she made him promise never to do something like that again, and that's that. NOTHING came out of it. But Shonda Rhimes has to "reinvent that show every once in a while or otherwise she'd get bored" (She said something like that in an interview at the beginning of s13 IIRC). Yeah that's what really matters, never the characters, only cheap OMG moments. [insert eye rolling emoji here]

Couldn't agree more! Both Justin and Camilla did a great job with that hug. Jo's feelings were so palpable, from being happy to see him, taking that one embrace, cherish it, cherish him, and then realising, that maybe, this is it, because there's too much baggage between the two of them. Alex's feelings were less palpable, but that also made sense to me, because after all the craziness, he maybe doesn't even know what to think or feel right now. But it was clear that he still very much loves Jo. I hope we see them work out all their issues step by step so, so much, but this being Grey's, I can never count on it. And there's A LOT to sort out between those two. Me too. Therapy or anger management would have been so interesting to see for Alex, it could have really given us more insight into his character. Not to mention it could have made for some hilarious scenes, because Alex in therapy? He would hate it haha. If that's indeed how the trial story got wrapped up, it's pretty anticlimactic. Alex promised Bailey to do better and just like that everything is back to before for him. And tbh, I didn't feel like this story was truly used to explore Alex's character more. So it all fell a bit flat to me. Although I am glad Alex/Justin got lots of screentime and a storyline that was about him. I did like Alex acknowledging Jo's resilience (also because I hate it when the show paints her as such a damsel, who can't stand up for herself), so this is an aspect that didn't occur to me at first, but it's true of course. Alex does and did always have a very protective streak. Maybe I forgot about it a little bit, because it was solely focussed on Meredith in the last two seasons, haha. That's what I thought too. Ever since that fight between her and Jo, I've been on the fence about Stephanie. Given Jo's own huge secret I think there is absolutely no excuse why she wouldn't believe her friend, when she told her about a traumatic childhood experience. But I also couldn't stand how Stephanie reacted after Jo apologised. She kind of acted like she's above Jo, because she didn't let her trauma affect who she has become and how she got to where she is now. But then the cickle cell thing came up in both stories Stephanie got after that fight. Firstly it influenced how she dealt with her boyfriend who was also a patient. And secondly it was used for her centric episode, where we saw flashbacks to her kid self. Whether she likes to admit it or not, the cickle cell thing is very present in her life and it was something formative for her, just like Jo's past, so I didn't like how condescending Stephanie was to Jo about it. That being said, I do like Stephanie this season and I am a little sad to see her leave.

I agree, it would have been overkill and that's why they had Alex react all... zen and understanding. Alex said horrible things to Jo at the beginning of the season and I think by playing it like that they took away Alex's chance to be (rightfully) angry at Jo. If he'd exploded at her again or even just been overly sad and disappointed and backed away from Jo again, we'd be exactly where we were in the last 8 episodes. But I agree the reveal was kind of anti-climactic because they played it like the secret wasn't such a big deal. Which is one of the main reasons why I wish they'd taken a different approach to this storyline from the start, but... whatever. It is what it is. At least Alex and Jo got two good scenes and are on good terms again. I do hope this is not the end of their relationship and I didn't get the impression from their scenes, but with these writers you just never know. I wouldn't be surprised if the next time we see Alex and Jo interact again will be 8 episodes later lol. Also agree that it was careless and stupid of Alex to blab Jo's secret to Meredith. But I'm clinging to the two Jolex scenes we got, which were good and try not to think too much about the rest.

Yeah, I think that was around the time it really got bad. I'm still bitter over the fact the only storyline coming out of the hospital shooting was Cristina's PTSD, although Derek and Alex got shot.

Exactly that! You boiled it down more accurately, but those are the questions I really need to be explored when it comes to Alex.

That's absolutely true (especially the bolded part) and it's such a shame. I can never complain too much when actual story- and screentime is given to Alex, but while I liked his story in this episode, I too wish they'd take it into a different direction. Like you've mentioned we have yet to see Alex truly feeling remorse and apologising to DeLuca. And of course Jo's POV should be much, much more prominent. As for Alex, I would (or would have?) really like to see him being assigned to some sort of counseling or anger management program, which would maybe finally give us some more insight into his character? I know he is the one who ended up getting the bulk of this storyline, but I'm still missing some real insight on how he feels about what he did and how he feels about himself. And while we're at it, we could finally explore why he's never talking to or talking about his family. Or how it was for him to take care of a sick mother and practically raise his siblings. Or how his upbringing ties in with what he did to DeLuca. I think there would be a ton of potential there, but of course none of this will ever be addressed properly, if at all. Ha, this times ten! Watching Grey's Anatomy this is the single most irritating thing to me personally. I don't know if it has always been this way and I just didn't notice it in the earlier seasons. But in the later half of the series there's definitely a lack of exploration of character and emotion. I feel like everything is always done so superficially. They come up with those huge dramatic plotpoints, like April losing her baby, Meredith losing Derek, Alex punching DeLuca but in the end they never really explore the character's emotions properly and the stories fall flat. We really didn't see much of April's and Jackson's grief in s11, instead they came up with this stupid army story to trash their marriage. Then they tried to patch it up with a centric episode, but it was too little too late for me. As for Meredith after Derek, to me they completely failed to show her actual grief. We saw plenty of her anger and of course that's part (and often a huge part) of the grieving process too, but they overdid it with Meredith and that's why I had a hard time empathising with her. I'm holding out some residual hope that Alex's story wasn't simply done for "cheap thrills" and actually shows some real insight and progress with his character, but I'm not counting on it. If nothing else, I hope the show stops treating DeLuca and Jo as pariahs, when they're the actual victims and also give them (especially Jo) some much needed perspective.

Brought over from the spoiler thread as to not cram that thread with a Jo discussion. About the bolded part, do you guys think Jo's violent past will come up again or that it's dropped completely? I sincerely hope not, otherwise I'm not sure I can support Jolex in the long run. I get that Jo is hurt and angry at Alex right now and it's absolutely justified, but if she holds what happened between him and DeLuca against him for long, I'm gonna have a problem with them as a couple. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be horrified by what Alex did, but given that the writers decided he was trying to protect her and given that she’s done similar things to protect herself in the past I hope she does understand where he was coming from and it’s just burried under all the hurt and anger right now. Some people say those two situations can't be compared, but actually I think they can to a certain extent? Jo saw red in a situation where she felt threatened and Alex saw red in a situation where he felt Jo was threatened. I'm not here for the writers turning Jo into a helpless victim in every aspect of her life. IMO that's not who she was introduced as and I also don't think a person like that paired up with Alex would make for a healthy couple. I'm glad she stood her ground in the last episode. But people are already comparing Alex to the husband in some ways and it makes me extremely queasy. Eg: the way Jo exploded when Alex said the words "I'm sorry", because that's what abusive partners do to get on the victim's good side again, after hurting them. But really, sometimes "I'm sorry" just means I'm sorry and I really don't like the implication that it reminded Jo of her husband. And it's not like Alex inflicted his company on Jo. It looks like he stayed away from her and when he met her he tried to apologise. That's perfectly normal and understandable IMO. It's also completely understandable that "I'm sorry" wasn't gonna cut it in the given situation. The last thing I would have wanted would have been for Jo to forgive Alex immediately, but I don't think it had anything to do with Alex reminding her of her husband in any way. Or at least I hope it didn't. I don't know where the writers are going with this, but if they try to point out that aspects of Alex and Jo's relationship are/were abusive, then I can no longer support this ship and I'd hate that. I hope they do tie Jo's own violent past into this somehow. Wasn't it always implied that both Alex and Jo have anger issues? Because it's not like Jo only lashes out when she feels threatened. It happened with the mother of a teenage patient in 9x08 too, so I'd really hate it if they paint Jo as a weak and fragile little thing in this story. Speaking of anger issues, I'm not even sure how the Jo they introduced in s9 can be the same woman who endured an abusive marriage, because I never pictured Jo to put up with something like that. Given her past it does make sense generally speaking, but for her as a character specifically I just could't see it. Either way, I still hope that aspect of Jo's story isn't glossed over. And more than anything else I hope the writers know what they are doing. But sadly I doubt it. Could it be that they forgot about Jo's anger issues and the Peckwell thing altogether? After all they magically cured it by having her discover Ortho in s10 *rollseyes*.

I don't care about it in terms of what other fans think about him, but after the spoilers and the latest sneak peek I'm not so thrilled where they're taking Alex's character. I don't mind him doing morally questionable stuff and I'm sure he will own up to his crap eventually. And I also like self-loathing Alex, because it's heartbreaking and I don't mind him somewhat reverting back to the jerk he can/could be, because the Perfect Friend Alex got boring really fast. But what I don't like is that it looks like he has to start from scratch in about every aspect of his life. He is alone, with no SO to build a life with. People will hate him for having done something so horrible, while every other character will continue to surf the moral high wave and move on with their lives and get married and have babies and silly relationship drama. And who knows what consequences all this will have for him professionally. I'm not even some one who longs for Alex to get married and have all the babies, but I can't deny it does piss me off that the writers continue to shit on him (I'm sorry are those terms allowed in this board? I hope I'm not violating any rules, I just can't think of a better term), while every other character is granted some happiness between their silly drama. What apparently was supposed to be Alex's happy time in s11 & 12 fell completely short to me, amongst other things because they didn't bother to expand his romantic relationship with Jo at all. I don't even know how many episodes there were in the last two seasons where the two of them didn't even interact. Too many, that's for sure. And I still think the whole story and the way Alex lost control there is completely OTT. So I can only hope there's some deeper meaning behind it and it wasn't just done for drama and cheap thrills. But I'm not counting on it. On a different note, where IS Jo? Do we think she really caught a black eye in that fight between Alex and Andrew?

Exactly! It's not like she ever had the house alone for herself and Alex. First Cristina lived there with them. Then Meredith started intruding and now Arizona moved in. That in addition to the fact that Alex has been so oblivious practically the whole season makes it more than understandable that Jo is frustrated with the current situation. I wish Alex was more considerate of her. Sure he can hang out with his friends, but after the talk with Jo last week, where she voiced some of her insecurities, I can't believe that he's back to not noticing when his girlfriend is feeling leftout. From all we've see this season it must feel for Jo like Alex puts his friends before her. And for somebody who probably never had anybody who put her first, that must be especially crappy. That being said, I like that Alex took Arizona in. It was the right thing to do and it somehow makes me happy that he went to him. But Jo has every right to be upset. I hope she gives him a piece of her mind in the next episode.

I don't think this was ever about Jo fearing that she'd be homeless again, if her relationship with Alex ended. I'm not even sure if her rambling meant that she really does live with Alex completely. Would seem weird to me that she moved all her stuff to his house without them ever properly talking about moving in together. Besides she's a doctor, of course she could afford a place of her own again, if her and Alex broke up. After all she lived has lived completely on her own before. I think her emotional outburst was more a metaphor about her fear of losing Alex. I suppose she's never been in love with a man before, the way she's in love with Alex. She's all in and that scars her. She has built her life around him and that patient's story reminded her how quickly good things can be taken from you. She's probably not afraid to end up with no house and no bed. She's afraid to lose this particular house and this particular bed (and this particular man), because it represents the place where she felt completely safe and at home for the very first time in her life. On a completely different note: April's mother really wasn't that bad. I also found it pretty mean how April reacted to her being enthusiastic about becoming a grandmother.