★ ABC announced that Grey’s Anatomy has been picked up for season 14. Congrats to the Grey’s cast & crew! 🙌🎉 Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder were also renewed, which means the TGIT lineup will be back for the 2017/2018 TV season.

★ Here are two more interviews Justin gave to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety where he talks about the events of last week’s episode, Alex’s redemption and his relationship with Jo.

Karev is back! But don’t get too excited…

After many episodes of will-he-or-won’t-he go to jail, Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) returned to Grey Sloan Memorial.

Last week, Alex had accepted a plea deal that would have sent him to jail for a couple of years for beating up DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti), but turns out, DeLuca dropped the charges, meaning Alex is now a free man.

“I believe it’s because DeLuca has feelings for Jo, or possible feelings. It seems sort of heroic and a self-sacrificing thing to do,” Chambers tells Variety, explaining that DeLuca dropped the charges to impress Jo (Camilla Luddington). “Or maybe he doesn’t want to cause problems at work — that sort of has a ripple effect, if you affect the doctors around you.”

During the episode, Alex confronted DeLuca to thank him, but DeLuca wants nothing to do with him.

Now that he won’t be behind bars, Alex’s first move was to meet with Bailey (Chandra Wilson) to get his job back. And he was successful.

However, with Alex back in the hospital, another doctor was booted: Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo)!

Mer stood up to Bailey, expressing her feelings against Dr. Eliza Minnick (Marika Dominczyk) who’s been trying to oust Webber (James Pickens Jr.) out of his job, sending the hospital into a divide. Mer’s conversation with Bailey didn’t go over well, so the chief suspended her from work.

Here, Justin Chambers talks to Variety about Alex’s return to work, Meredith’s suspension, and whether or not a love triangle may arise between him, DeLuca, and Jo…

Alex apologizes to DeLuca, but he doesn’t want to talk to him. How will their relationship evolve from here?
I think it will be awkward, but I think the only way they can mend it is through their work and maybe Alex can help guide him as a young doctor and resident. I think he thinks they’re okay again, but I believe that DeLuca is still giving him the cold shoulder. You’ll see what happens.

Will DeLuca become a threat to Karev when it comes to Jo?
Yeah. Definitely. Who’s to say that she didn’t fall for DeLuca’s chivalry? Anything’s possible.

Might there be a love triangle?
There might be a love triangle. There might not be. You’ll have to stay tuned.

Taking DeLuca out of the question, where does Alex and Jo’s relationship go from here?
It definitely seems burnt, but the show is a lot about redemption and we all make mistakes. Her lying about her identity for the last five years is pretty hardcore. But Alex has messed up a lot in his life and he’s always had chances to correct himself and I think he can parlay that into their relationship. I still think there’s more for them.

Will we ever meet Jo’s husband?
I don’t know. That’s a good question. It’s a possibility. We haven’t explored that yet, but I think they’ll drop a little hint that maybe he might come around. I do know that Alex is pushing more to find out who this guy is. I don’t want to give it away, but there might be stuff coming in the future. I think the audience is interested in finding out who he is.

How would Alex behave himself with Jo’s abusive husband, especially given his history with violence?
He’d of course want to defend himself, but I don’t think Alex is in a position where he’d want to fight again — he’s gotten in a lot of trouble for this lately.

Alex got his job back, but will people at the hospital think differently of Alex after his fight and near-jail sentence?
It feels like everyone is being the same. But they definitely get a little snarky about what he’s done — working in the clinic was sort of a step down for him, and I think they like to remind him of that.

Meredith is suspended! That’s gotta be hard for Alex to come back to work without his partner in crime. How will that impact him?
He’s definitely going to be supportive for her, like she was for him. He was there a lot for her last season. They’re definitely like two peas in a pod — they’re like siblings. I think he agrees with her about Minnick and we’ll see what happens.

Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) is off the proverbial hook on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy.

Thursday’s episode revealed that Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) effectively dropped the charges against Alex by tanking what was sure to be a slam-dunk conviction following the duo’s brutal fight.

The move freed Alex from what likely would have been the rest of his life behind bars and will instead send him back to Grey Sloan Memorial, though it’s unclear if that will mean a romantic reunion with Jo (Camilla Luddington). While Jo remains married to her yet-to-be-introduced abusive husband, Alex seems to have turned over a new leaf, having thanked DeLuca for his forgiveness. (Although DeLuca is still pretty wound up about Alex never really apologizing in the time between Jo’s reveal and the brutal beating.)

While DeLuca’s motives are not completely clear — he reminded Alex that he’s a good guy — the character has been spending a lot of time with Jo and, in typical Shondaland fashion, a love triangle wouldn’t be a stretch.

“If anything, Alex is going to start questioning why DeLuca would let him off the hook,” Chambers tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Maybe he has feelings for Jo, or maybe he doesn’t want to cause any more problems at work because he’s a young doctor who has his whole future ahead of him at the hospital. It’s really interesting, we’ll see what happens in the future — if there’s a love triangle and where they go from here.”

While this marks Alex’s latest shot at redemption on the veteran Shonda Rhimes medical drama, Chambers hopes his character can rise to the occasion and maybe even learn from his former foe.

“Will Alex be able to work with DeLuca as a doctor and teach him? It sounds like, if anything, Alex is learning from DeLuca about redemption,” notes Chambers. “If anyone on this show knows something about being forgiven more than once, it’s Alex. So I think he’ll help apply that to his feelings for Jo because he’s hurt and angry about her lying about her past. But at the same time, he has a lot of empathy for her because he grew up in a broken home with abuse and he can realize why she was scared and doesn’t want to be in that situation and why she would change her identity.”

As for Alex and Jo’s romantic future, that remains a question mark. At the end of Thursday’s episode, Jo comes to visit Alex and the former couple share a tender hug before parting ways — without exchanging a single word.

“This is Alex’s shot at redemption. I hope there’s hope for them!” says Chambers. “That hug is poetic and very telling of where their relationship is right now. Or maybe it was a goodbye hug, I don’t know! (Laughing.) It was ambiguous in a way but at the same time, it was very poetic. What do you say when you’ve gone through so many things but your bodies and hearts still love each other, but you can’t intellectualize why you should stay together if it’s not a healthy relationship? I’d like to see them happy again; they both deserve it.”

As for what comes next, expect Alex to return to the hospital with a renewed focus on how good he has it at Grey Sloan.

“Working in the Denny Duquette Clinic was a lesson for him and I don’t think he wants to go back to that and he certainly doesn’t want to go to jail,” says Chambers. “So he’s going to stay out of trouble and really concentrate on being a good doctor and on his relationship with Jo — if they can come back from that. That’s the big question. Hopefully they will.”