This Character's Exit Was So Bad, Grey's Anatomy Fans Would Rather Him Be Dead
As the award-winning medical drama Grey's Anatomy struggles with its 19th season, longtime fans have been hit with a feeling of nostalgia looking back and realizing how much the show has changed and evolved over the years it has been running.
One of the biggest differences is the cast, with many favorite characters having exited the show in the last few seasons.
Fans have let go of April Kepner as she follows her heart on a new journey, tearfully mourned the death of Andrew DeLuca after he was stabbed trying to stop a sex trafficker, and bid good luck to Arizona Robbins as she heads to New York to reconcile her relationship with Callie Torres.
Goodbyes are never easy for fans, but one character's exit has been harder than the rest for all the wrong reasons.
Alex Karev was one of the original Grey's Anatomy characters, having been a part of the series from the very beginning. Fans watched him grow from a somewhat arrogant jerk to a compassionate friend and dedicated doctor with a passion for working with children. When news came of his impending departure, fans were accepting that it was his time to go and hoped for the best exit possible for his character, but what they got felt like the opposite.
Leading up to his exit, Alex disappears. During his absence, it is believed that he is in Iowa helping his mother, but this turns out to be a lie. Rather abruptly, he breaks his silence by sending letters to Jo, Meredith, Bailey, and Richard to explain what is going on. It turns out Alex had reconnected with his ex-wife Izzie Stevens who had used their embryos to get pregnant and now was raising their five-year-old twins. Not only was everything revealed so quickly, but it just didn't make sense for his character.
So Alex had abandoned Jo, his wife, who suffered from abandonment issues her entire life and had finally found safety and security in him. He had also left all of his friends at Grey Sloan, many of whom he had spent years with and the best he could do was send them a letter after running off to his instant family.
Understandably fans are disappointed and angry. They feel like the writers have let them down and that Alex's character deserved so much more.
Some fans have gone as far as to say that a better ending would have been if Alex had died, because at least then all his character development would have meant something, instead, his latest actions have undone so much of his growth and what fans thought they knew about him.
To some, his final actions felt impulsive and selfish and everything happened too quickly for audiences to process. All fans can do is hope that whoever leaves the show next gets a better exit than Alex Karev.