Brace yourselves, Alex Karev is a father — of twins! Alex has been MIA for multiple episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and the show finally explained what happened to him. He’s alive and well but he’s jugging fatherhood. Turns out, Izzie used those frozen embryos she created with Alex and had their twins. Alex left town and Jo, his current wife, to be with Izzie, his ex-wife, and their kids.
Alex explained everything in heartfelt letters to Meredith, Jo, and Bailey, the three most important women in his life for a very long time. He admits this is not the way that he wanted to do this, but he owes them all the truth. “I left and I’m with Izzie,” Alex writes. Meredith’s face is stunned, to say the least. Alex reconnected with Izzie when he reached out for the letters for Meredith’s trial. He had called Izzie and hoped she would answer. He admits that the trial gave him a good enough excuse to call her. Alex confesses he wanted to know how Izzie was doing, how she “landed.”
Alex learned that Izzie had secretly given birth to twins when she left Seattle. She wanted kids but the cancer had killed her eggs, so she used the frozen embryos. They’re 5 years old now. Izzie’s been living with the kids — Eli and Alexis — on a farm in Baldwin City, Kansas, and Alex has decided to stay in Kansas with her to be near his kids.
Alex is honest about everything. He admits that if it was just about Jo and Izzie, he’d choose Jo. “I love Jo deeply. Still,” Alex writes. But now his kids are involved and he wouldn’t change anything about how it’s all turned out for him. In his letter to Jo, he says this is “officially the worst thing I’ve ever done.” He admits to Jo that he can’t face her. To stick the knife in even more, Alex has already signed divorce papers. He’s left everything to Jo, including his shares of Grey Sloan.
This is a lot for Meredith, Jo, and Bailey to take in. This is all so unexpected. Jo’s been waiting for Alex to come back but now the reality is clear: he’s not going to. At the end of the episode, Jo decides to stop wallowing and get back to work. “You’re my hero,” Link says to her. “Mine, too.” Jo deserves sainthood for how she’s handled this shocking news. Zola comes to Meredith and wants to show Uncle Alex her finished project. Meredith sits Zola down and begins to explain where exactly Uncle Alex is.