In an interview with TV Line, Grey’s Anatomy creator and executive-producer Shonda Rhimes, gave some details as to what will be going on between Alex, Meredith and Jo when Grey’s returns on September 25th.
Grey’s Anatomy Scoop: Alex and Jo’s Latest Threat — Meredith?!
File this one under “Grey’s Anatomy‘s Triangles We Never Thought We’d See.”
Series creator Shonda Rhimes tells TVLine that, in Season 11, Meredith, of all people — yes, Meredith, that Meredith — is going to throw a monkey wrench into Alex and Jo’s still-nascent romance.
“Jo is going to be horrified to discover how much time Alex is going to be spending with Meredith,” she previews, “and how much time Meredith is going to be spending [at their] house.”
And, no doubt, Jo will ask the same question we have: Why is this happening? Why, when the drama returns on Sept. 25, will Alex and Mer be joined at the hip? The answer: Cristina.
“Alex feels responsible for her,” Rhimes explains. “He feels like Cristina didn’t just leave him a seat on the board and the shares, she left him Meredith as well.”
And, since Mer will not only be dealing with Cristina’s absence and trouble with Derek but also (eventually) the revelation that she has another half sister, she is going to need a (strictly platonic) shoulder to lean on and an ear to bend.
“The two people she talked to before — her husband and her best friend — are now not available to her,” notes Rhimes. “So she’s looking for someone to talk to. And Alex finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being the recipient of a lot of the stuff that Cristina would have been left listening to — sometimes in very funny ways.
“They’re the last men standing of those original interns,” Rhimes continues. “I wouldn’t say they’re becoming besties. [It’s more that] they’ve always had a very close relationship that didn’t ever need a lot of work because they always had a million other people there. Now, it’s sort of the two of them, and they do become closer.”
The matter of Derek and Meredith’s seemingly at-odds career paths will continue to intensify. “Derek is not wrong for wanting what he wants, and Meredith is not wrong for wanting what she wants,” explains series creator Shonda Rhimes. “It doesn’t make him a misogynist because he wants to follow his career. And it doesn’t make her wrong for wanting to stick to her guns and fight for what she wants to do. It puts them in a difficult position.” Between the marital woes, the “very interesting” complications triggered by the reveal of her surprise half-sister Maggie and the recent loss of her “person” Cristina, Mer will be on the prowl for a new shoulder to lean on. Enter Alex. “They’ve always had a very close relationship that didn’t need a lot of work because they had a million other people there,” she notes. “Now it’s just the two of them; they become closer out of necessity.” Callie and Arizona’s foray into surrogacy “brings up some issues,” while April and Jackson brace for their own new arrival later in the season — although how much later remains in flux, in light of Sarah Drew’s real-life pregnancy. “[Sarah] is more pregnant than April, so we have some math we’re trying to figure out,” shares Rhimes. “But we are not accelerating [April’s pregnancy]. We already have the first part of our season planned, and nobody’s giving birth in the first nine episodes.”
