★ This is the Grey’s Anatomy season 15 premiere roundup and it’s going to be a big one…
To start things off, Camilla Luddington posted a BTS pic as an Instagram story of her and Justin during Jo and Alex’s (Jolex) honeymoon. The Grey’s set decorator, Nicole Cramer, posted a pic of the fridge in Jolex’s loft and there’s now a honeymoon pic on it. The pics have been added to the season 15 BTS album.
★ I have added screencaps from both hours of the season 15 premiere to the archive, and the album links are below.
★ Grey’s showrunner, Krista Vernoff, gave several interviews where she explained the events of the premiere and what’s ahead for the characters. I’ve only posted below the parts that refer to Justin and Alex Karev’s storyline. The full interviews can be read at the sources linked to below.
Speaking of interim chief, how will Alex be a different chief than the ones we’ve seen before? How will Alex being a leader shake things up?
It’s delightfully different. Justin Chambers just lights this story up. In many ways, he was the least likely candidate for the job — which is why we loved it so much when we landed on it in the room after days of discussing the various possibilities. It feels entirely different than the chiefs we’ve seen before — and Justin wears the suit well.
In a surprising twist, Alex is the interim chief of surgery. How does he compare to Bailey in that role?
Vernoff: Alex Karev is an unlikely chief of surgery and that was a joy. It’s a little bit of a fish-out-of-water story initially. Who would have thought that Alex [would score this position]? It’s really joyful to see how he steps into it and rises to [the occasion]. It’s funny, and Justin (Chambers) is just tremendous. Wait ’til you see him in a suit.So we’re gonna see Alex in a suit really taking this new role seriously?
Vernoff: It’s a temporary thing because Bailey’s gonna take her job back, but Bailey is trying to take care of her health and her stress levels and find the joy that she lost when Ben became a firefighter. It’s a complicated journey she’s taking, but she’ll be chief again at some point. In the meantime, Alex is up against everyone’s judgment and everyone’s doubt and his own self-doubt and it’s really great to see.
DEADLINE: This season the show picks up after the wedding, with Jo and Alex on their honeymoon after finally getting married. But as we’ve seen often in the show, marriage doesn’t necessarily lead to forever, with couples often breaking up at some point. Will Jo and Alex be the exception?
VERNOFF: Well, I can’t speak to the long run because who knows how long the show will go on. I feel like Jo and Alex had a really long journey to this moment where they’re newlyweds and they’re happily married and are more interested in leaning into you and me against the world than you and me against each other. I think they’ve earned it.
This next quote is from the Remote Controlled podcast at Variety. I transcribed the part where Krista talks about Alex/Justin that starts at about the 19:52 mark.
You saw in the premiere that Alex is the Interim Chief of Surgery, which I think nobody expected. No one saw that coming. And when we came to that in the writers’ room, we spent weeks talking about ‘Who’s it gonna be? Who’s it gonna be? Who’s it gonna be?’, and when we landed on Alex, we were like, ‘Oh my God, of course it’s Alex!’ And it just was untold. Like, that story was like, ‘Who is he is gonna be as chief?’ was so delightful to us. The first day that Roemehl, our new costume designer, put him in his chief duds, like in his suit, Justin was like, “I feel reborn.” It’s really an exciting, fun thing to watch.
I’ll also leave this mention of Justin here. It’s part of an interview with the Grey’s directors who were working last week (Sept. 25), which included Nicole Rubio who was directing episode 15.06.
While the multi-hyphenate was fairly secretive about her episode, Rubio could confirm she had spent her morning shooting with Justin Chambers and Camilla Luddington, who play newlyweds Alex Karev and Jo Wilson(-Karev?). “They are hysterical,” Rubio said with a laugh. “They were so cute together. They are happy to be here, happy to be married.”
★ This week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy is titled “Gut Feeling.” I had previously added some promotional photos to the archive, and here are now the promos and synopsis.
“Gut Feeling” – Meredith works on a patient who happens to specialize in matchmaking, and a seemingly drunk patient pushes Richard’s buttons and gives him a medical mystery to solve. Meanwhile, Maggie tries to reach Teddy after bearing the burden of her secret becomes overwhelming as she struggles with issues in her own personal life on “Grey’s Anatomy,” THURSDAY, OCT. 4 (8:00-9:01 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network, streaming and on demand.
Promo for #GreysAnatomy episode 15.03 titled "Gut Feeling" airing Oct. 4 pic.twitter.com/MZ13ZQzYIn
— JustinChambersOnline (@JChambersOnline) September 28, 2018
Justin Chambers (Dr. Alex Karev) and Camilla Luddington (Dr. Jo Wilson)
HONORABLE MENTION | Justin Chambers hit it out of the park in Thursday’s Grey’s Anatomy — and not just in that intense batting-cage scene, either. After Alex learned that his schizophrenic mom Helen had stopped cashing his checks because she was fine — better than fine, actually — his relief was tempered by disappointment: Helen didn’t want him around, lest he upset her routine. In a matter of seconds, Chambers deftly took Alex from disbelief to anger born of hurt. As he later unleashed that rage on a bunch of baseballs, explaining to Jo why Helen’s recovery now, when no one needed her anymore, was so infuriating, his portrayer gave the kind of real, raw performance that could only be described as a home run.
