More of Justin’s interviews have been posted now that this week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy has aired. Below are interviews with TV Line and Entertainment Weekly in which Justin discusses what lies ahead for Alex and the meaning of the hug he shared with Jo at the end of the episode.

Ladies and gentleman, we officially have a new Grey’s Anatomy love triangle.

In this week’s episode, Alex pressed Andrew to reveal the real reason he dropped all the charges against him. And the doc eventually confessed that he did it not to relieve Alex of a two-year prison stint, but to spare Jo — the woman he very clearly is crushing on — any further suffering.

“It takes Alex a minute to sort figure things out, but, yeah, it looks like there might be a love triangle here,” attests Alex’s portrayer, Justin Chambers. “As I said before, look at her, she’s hot. Of course there [was] the possibility that he could find her attractive and maybe want to take her out on a date.”

Should Andrew decide to pursue a relationship with Jo — who, for the record, has not expressed reciprocal feelings for her secret admirer — it’s unclear if Alex would even put up much of a (figurative) fight. However, as Chambers notes, the episode-ending hug that Alex and Jo shared proves that “their souls are meant to be” connected.

“They didn’t verbalize anything, they just hugged and separated,” he adds of the extended embrace. “And I think that’s symbolic of where their relationship is right now. There’s just so much baggage.”

And more conflict looms on the horizon in the form of Jo’s MIA husband. For his part, Chambers will neither confirm nor deny the character’s possibly imminent arrival. “I can only tease that there’s a possibility,” he hedges. “It’ll be interesting to see how Alex will react [if and when he shows up]. Because he’s already in a lot of trouble.”

Alex Karev is officially a free man.

Thursday night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy finally revealed how and why Alex was able to avoid going to jail for assaulting DeLuca. Turns out, DeLuca had the charges against him dropped, allowing Karev to go free and, with Bailey’s blessing, reenter the world of Grey Sloan. That means he can get back to his work helping kids, but it also means he’s now regularly back around DeLuca and Jo, with whom he had wordless, poignant reunion near the end of the episode.

EW caught up with Dr. Karev himself — a.k.a. Grey’s star Justin Chambers — to unpack the fallout from “None of Your Business” and discuss where things go next for Alex and Jo.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Were you surprised DeLuca dropped the charges?
JUSTIN CHAMBERS: Yeah, completely — and I want to know why! Why’d he do it? But I have a feeling it’s because [Jo’s] such a beautiful young lady, you know, maybe he has feelings for her, maybe there’s a love triangle, I don’t know. But another piece can be, I think, that he doesn’t want troubles at work. He’s a young doctor who has a promising future ahead of him and they’ve all been through enough. Maybe he just wants to concentrate on work.

Do you think Alex realizes DeLuca has feelings for Jo?
Honestly, I don’t know. When I was playing it, it was just me trying to convince this person that I really did wrong, and I’m sorry. But yeah, I think it’s starting to hit him. And I think he figures that out too, a little bit, that he runs after him to say, “What are you doing, man?” after DeLuca drops the charges at the courthouse, and I think that you’ll see that scene when he’s in the hallway after he can’t catch up with him and I think it’s registering with him, like, “Wait, okay, there could be…”

Let’s talk about that moment when Alex goes to the hospital and Bailey gives him his job back but makes him promise he’ll be the “good” Karev and not the bad one. Is that a promise you think he can keep?
I think so. I think he altruistically is answering her. He’s definitely grown up a lot since the beginning of the series, but it’s just part of life — two steps forward, one step back. I think he means it, I think he’s really gonna shape up, and I mean, you know, crap, he could go back to jail! So, I think he’s learned his lesson there, and I think he’s really gonna concentrate on being a good doctor in peds and I think he really respects Bailey and he wants to live up to what he said.

There was that beautiful reunion moment for Alex and Jo at the end of this week’s episode. Where do things go for them from here?
I thought it was very poetic, how they didn’t say anything but they just hugged each other. You can see that they still have feelings and that they love each other very much. But where do we go from here — is there a love triangle, is her husband coming back or does Alex find him, does a meteorite hit the hospital? Anything is possible on this show, so you just have to stay tuned.

Looking over the show’s 13 seasons, put this arc into perspective — what’s it been like taking Alex through this storyline, and where does it rank for you among everything we’ve seen him through?
I think the big one, as far as where his arc will be going, I’d like to see him settle down and really have a happy relationship that’s really stable. Personally, we’ve seen him become a really strong doctor and now he’s in the position where he’s teaching people, whereas he was the one who was always asking and learning. Thirteen seasons, it’s a long haul, and how they were able to keep these characters interesting for that long, I’m so impressed with that. On a show like this, it helps [to be] working with a cast of 12, 13 people, such different characters, different stories, so I think that helps keep the audience wanting to tune in. But I don’t know where it goes from here, but it’s ups and downs, that’s what the show is and that’s how these arcs happen.

Meredith has been such a huge support system for Alex through all this. Where do things go for the two of them from here?
Let’s see what happens with this whole situation with Minnick. I don’t know if Alex is going to be there for [Mer] yet but he definitely has been in the past. They’re just like siblings — they’re very close, they care very much for each other, they’ll fight thick and thin for each other. I don’t know, but whatever happens to her, I’m sure that he’ll be there for her.

Is that a relationship that could ever turn romantic? I know some fans who are all for that, and others (myself included) who are totally against it.
Yeah, I think it’s kind of strange too, personally, but love is strange, you know? The people we fall in love with, and how you can be friends with someone a long time and all of a sudden [laughs] you’ve got three kids! So anything is possible. I just like thinking of them as siblings.

They’re each other’s people.
Yeah, exactly! That’s exactly it.

Ahead of tonight’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy, more interviews with Justin are being posted. Check out what he had to say to Variety and Entertainment Weekly about Alex’s fate and what to expect now that he is back.
 

Last week’s “Grey’s Anatomy” revealed the fate of Alex Karev (Justin Chambers).

After numerous episodes this season dealt with the aftermath of Karev beating up DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti), Alex had decided to accept a plea deal, which would put him behind bars. However, he had gone missing and no one knew what he was up to — until last week when suddenly, he surprised Meredith at home.

The episode last week cut with Karev’s surprise return home, begging the question, how did he get out of jail time? Tonight’s ep will reveal all of those details. But first, Variety chatted with Justin Chambers about what to expect now that Alex is back.

“I think having everything taken from him — I think he learned a lot there, but I think he appreciates being in peace and he’s very good at what he does and he thrives there,” Chambers explains of how the experience will change Alex.

As for Jo (Camilla Luddington), their relationship will require a lot of work to get back on track. “He was going to take a plea deal to protect his girl. They’re not together right now, but we’ll see where that goes,” Chambers says. “He’s still angry with her, but if anyone knows anything about second chances, it’s Alex. So he has that to think about. She messed up, but there must be a piece of him that still feels for her. Love just doesn’t die like that.”

Whatever happens, Chambers has a personal wish for his character: “I just hope Alex finds some happiness. Crap. He just never seems to catch a break. I’m thinking soon there might be some stability,” he teases.

However, in real life, Chambers is ecstatic to be experiencing 13 seasons of stability…

“It’s a blessing. It’s crazy. It’s so awesome,” the original cast member says of “Grey’s Anatomy’s” flourishing in its 13th season. “With a laugh, he adds, “Even ‘ER,’ I think their ratings dropped a lot in their 13th year.”

Well, we’ve had a whole week to think about it — just how did Alex Karev end up in Meredith’s bed and not a jail cell?

That’s what everyone was wondering at the end of last week’s Grey’s Anatomy, and Thursday’s episode will reveal just how Alex avoided going to jail. Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s an outcome Grey’s star Justin Chambers, who plays Dr. Karev, was happy about.

“I thought it was great – I’m happy he’s not in jail! That’s a different show, you know, if he’s in jail,” Chambers told EW of his reaction when learning Alex’s fate. “You’re gonna find out in this next episode how he got off, but I’m happy he’s going back to the hospital, and he’s gonna be back working in [pediatrics] where he belongs, and curing young people.”

However Karev lands that get-out-of-jail card, it clears the path for him to return to work at Grey Sloan, which means he’ll be interacting with both Jo and DeLuca. Asked if this paves the way for him and Jo to reconcile, Chambers replied, “I hope so, I really do. They’ve been through so much over the past, they both have a similar background, and they both have a lot that they connect about. But this was a big deal for him to find out she’s not who he thought she was, and how do you come back from that? And from what happened, this whole situation with him beating up DeLuca, the misunderstandings and why she lied, it’s gonna be interesting to see how they can fix this and we’ll find out over the next few episodes.”

This week’s episode, titled “None of Your Business,” also finds Bailey continuing to deal with the fallout from the attendings’ resistance to working with Dr. Minnick and Edwards still in the middle of Owen and Amelia’s personal drama. Plus, Maggie (Kelly McCreary) gets a surprise visit at the hospital from her mother, played by guest star LaTanya Richardson Jackson.

“Kelly does some great work — [she and LaTanya] together are just awesome to watch,” Chambers said. “It’s a really good episode, I’m proud of it. Everyone across the board — I’m really excited to work with these actors and watch what they do.”

Here’s a video of the Grey’s Anatomy cast and crew having fun in the makeup trailer on set in honor of hairstylist, Sha Page. 😂

BABY HAIR, NO HAIR, HAIR ?? @hairtheshaway ?????

A video posted by sam hellmann (@hellmannsam) on Feb 8, 2017 at 12:59pm PST

In a new interview with TV Line, Justin talks about the resolution of Alex’s trial/plea deal story, and Alex’s relationships with Jo and Meredith.

Alex Karev is a free man, but how exactly did the hot-tempered doc dodge that multi-year stint in the pokey? This Thursday’s Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 8/7c) wastes no time answering that burning question, according to portrayer Justin Chambers.

“It happens really quickly — within the first 10 minutes,” he tells TVLine, before confirming that the reveal comes courtesy of a flashback that may or may not involve his victim (i.e. Andrew). And even though he may not be headed to prison, Alex is not walking away from the experience unscathed. “He feels really bad about” pummeling Andrew, Chambers says. “He apologizes. We’ll see if he’s receptive to it.”

What the episode won’t provide, per Chambers, is a resolution to how Alex’s newfound freedom will impact his fractured relationship with Jo. “We’re steering clear of each other,” he shares. “But I think he has a lot of empathy for her, coming from an abusive relationship [with her MIA husband]. We all know that Alex grew up in a home like that. That opens his eyes to the possibility of forgiving her for not telling him the truth about who she is for so many years. She’s not the person he thought she was.”

And just because Alex and Jo are on the outs, don’t look for him to start kicking the tires of a possible romance with BFF Meredith. Although Chambers says “anything is possible,” he prefers to think of them “as siblings that care very much for each other.

“But that happens in life, where people who are friends become lovers,” he continues. “Personally, I don’t see that [happening] right now. I think it would be kind of strange.”

Last April, Ellen Pompeo similarly told TVLine that Alex and Meredith make better siblings than sweethearts. “I think they’re too close… too much like brother and sister,” she said at the time. “I have super-close friends who I’m not romantically attracted to at all. So I think just because you’re so in love with someone in one way doesn’t mean it’s a romantic love. But they certainly do understand each other a lot.”

The Paley Center for Media has released the list of talent participating in its 34th Annual PaleyFest Los Angeles and Justin is confirmed for the Grey’s Anatomy event! 😀🙌

Each PaleyFest event features a screening, followed by the stars onstage, capped off with an audience Q & A.

The Grey’s event will be on March 19th (2:00 pm) at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, CA. This is who will be on the panel:

Ellen Pompeo, Justin Chambers, Chandra Wilson, James Pickens, Jr., Kevin McKidd, Jessica Capshaw, Jesse Williams, Sarah Drew, Caterina Scorsone, Camilla Luddington, Jerrika Hinton, Kelly McCreary, Jason George, Martin Henderson, Giacomo Gianniotti, Debbie Allen

Pretty cool that the entire cast will be there along with Grey’s executive producer/director Debbie Allen.👍 Tickets can be purchased at the following link: Ticketmaster

Here’s a cute photo of Justin (back in navy blue scrubs 😉) on the set of Grey’s Anatomy with guest actor Hudson West, who’ll be playing a patient in an upcoming episode (likely episode 13.18).

★ Alex Karev is back! In the most recent episode, Justin appeared briefly at the very end, so there are only a few screencaps.
I also redid the screencaps from the season 13 premiere because some of the previous ones had ABC promotional ads on them. (Link: Screencaps > 13.01 – Undo)

Screencaps > 13.11 – Jukebox Hero

 
★ The next episode of Grey’s is entitled “None of Your Business.” Check out the synopsis and the promo below.

“None of Your Business” – Maggie gets a surprise visit from her mother at the hospital. Bailey has to make a difficult decision when one of the attendings refuses to work with Eliza, and Stephanie gets caught up in Owen and Amelia’s personal drama, on “Grey’s Anatomy,” THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9 (8:00-9:01 p.m. EST), on the ABC Television Network.