Ellen Pompeo directed her first episode of Grey’s Anatomy recently. Her directorial debut is episode 13.18 titled “Be Still, My Soul” and will likely air on March 30.

For now, she posted on Instagram a behind-the-scenes video of her directing and in it we can see Justin in a couple of shots. Check it out:

Small reminder that there’s no Grey’s Anatomy tonight due to ABC airing the mini-series “When We Rise” this week.

To make up for it (a bit), here’s Justin in a 1999 commercial for Calvin Klein’s Contradiction for men.

EDIT: Added Ellen Pompeo’s tweet under the video.

★ This just made my day! Check out this new E! News video in which Justin and Ellen play this hilarious “Co-star Confidential” game and reveal how much they know about each other. 😂😂

P.S. – Grey’s Anatomy is on tonight and our favorite doctor is back. 😀 Tune in at 7pm on CTV or 8pm on ABC.

.@7JustinChambers & @EllenPompeo play "Co-Star Confidential" ??? pic.twitter.com/D9L3f52vAu

— JustinChambersOnline (@JChambersOnline) February 23, 2017

Ellen had this to say about the game and Justin:

Got every answer wrong except his wife's name!!! That's all that really matters ?????? love him @7JustinChambers https://t.co/6LER1ujIDy

— Ellen Pompeo (@EllenPompeo) February 24, 2017

 
★ Appropriate for a Throwback Thursday, here’s a photo of Justin from back when he was a model (looks like it’s from the early ’90s) posted by the owner of advertising agency, Acmesign. The caption is in Italian, so here’s a translation:

#FlashBack From the set of a photo shoot in Brighton (UK), along with a young model who later made a career in the world of TV. Do you recognize him? Yes, it’s Justin Chambers, Dr. Alex Karev on Grey’s Anatomy who started with us a few years ago.

★ E! News was recently on the set of Grey’s Anatomy and interviewed the cast. In this video, there’s behind-the-scenes footage on set and a bit of the Justin and Ellen Pompeo interviews.

#GreysAnatomy Confessions with @EllenPompeo & @7JustinChambers! ? pic.twitter.com/Oz9RI0ERfO

— JustinChambersOnline (@JChambersOnline) February 18, 2017

 
★ Christopher Lloyd (best known for playing Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy) congratulated Justin on winning the 2017 People’s Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic TV Actor last month. I only just came across this a few days ago and thought it was very nice of Mr. Lloyd, so here it is.😊

★ 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.”

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.”