Maité

About him not aknowledging Jo for her solo surgery, it's just because they don't care much about either of them or their relationship unless it's the current plot. I'm sure he was supportive offscreen. They live together after all.


While the speech to Maggie was a bit too long, I don't find it OOC since Alex was always that guy that was honest and talked to women like that even when he isn't single. He can point out a woman's good assetts without being "unfaithful". He was always very open about that.

begonia

I thought that too after watching 11X04, but later, on in 11X09 Alex told Bailey that he is an Attending Peds surgeon . If he would have been the Head of Peds, even temporarly, he would have mentioned it (also I think Herman said to Arizona something along the lines: you are the Head of Peds in an OR scence, after 11X04, but don't remember the specifics). So, it seems that Alex only had the extra work and responsability with an higher salary, but not the Head of Peds position. And now, that Arziona finished her fellowship, I wouldn't be too surprised if she would be the Head of 2 Departments.

While Alex boosting somebody's confidence is not OOC, I felt his speech to Maggie in the OR was exagerated. And, indeed, this is terrible frustrating considering he doesn't have his own SL.

I hope they keep Alex/Maggie friends, because Alex developing romantic feelings for someone else while he is in a relathionship would be even more OOC for Alex. I don't see Maggie starting anything either, even if we don't know her that much.

posterity

I think they mean to keep Alex/Maggie as friends. I think the scene just came off as romantic to the audience because he called her sexy, and he hasn't been sharing any storylines with Jo. I doubt we are meant to take anything from it.

But I wonder why Shonda said that directions change in regards to why Jolex seem to have been neglected this season. I wonder if it is because Camilla is busy or if she actually intends to change direction with them.

Carebear27

Who knows? I kind of doubt Shonda cares enough about Alex and Jo as a couple or as individual characters to change direction, honestly. I tend to think they are at the bottom of the totem pole and other things just took priority. It's happened with Alex many times before.

Spirit of the Radio

Shonda mentioned behind the scenes changes, so my guess is that other factors came into play, maybe other actors' schedules or Shonda falling in love with a character, etc. and they had to rework some things. Since Jo and Alex have been relatively stable and happy and had no other loose ends to tie up, they got put on the backburner. Every other couple were in the middle of something, had an actor with scheduling issues or were just starting out. Jolex didn't have any of that so it made the most sense to leave them be and concentrate on more pressing concerns. I get that, but it still sucks and it doesn't make up for the fact that neither Alex or Jo as individuals got anything that advanced them as characters.

As unhappy as I am with how this season has gone, I still don't consider Alex a horrible boyfriend or even a victim of character assassination. Because there are so many characters on the show, the writers have to use broad strokes rather than detail and nuance, and they write for plot not character. Alex acted ooc sometimes because he was used to advance things for other people, he was almost never written as "Alex Karev." On the few occasions where he was written specifically as a boyfriend (not as a sounding board), he was as sweet as he has always been. Unfortunately, nearly every single scene was written as "Alex the friend" not Alex the boyfriend, not Alex the truth teller, or even Alex the doctor. This happened even in scenes where Jo was present. The writers just don't have enough time in any given episode to consider every facet of a character when the main purpose is to move a scene along, especially if that character is not the lead in that particular storyline. I don't like it, but that's what you get when you allow 20 regulars on a one hour show.

None of this makes it better for me and I feel like this season really suffered because of it. First we lose Cristina, then Mer becomes nearly unrecognizable, and finally Alex gets watered down to one small part of his personality, rather than being shown in all of his complexity. It sucks and this has been one of my least favorite seasons yet.

ryanforever

True,they are just friends,end of story.

posterity

Well in seasons 9-10 the writing was undoubtedly worse than it is now. With too many characters and emphasis on new ones that people had not adapted to, the writing was rushed, lack logic and cohesion. Season 11 is in some respect better because with centric episodes, they reduce the amount of characters they focus on each episode.

The problem is some characters have received at least 3 centric episodes (i.e. Amelia), or some received centric episodes before anyone even cared about them (i.e. Maggie). Well if you do not care about these characters then this season will be dry. It is dry at times because the characters I like do not receive airtime. However, the writing is better for season 11. The season is not good if you compare it to seasons 1-8 but it is leagues better than seasons 9-10.

WalaBridget

The should bring Alex sister Ambers ?

Sav@

I agree with Spirit of the Radio, something happened and they changed their mind about the plot for the final part of the season, and since Jolex had nothing going on, they don't bother to start something for them because they needed to go elsewhere with other stories. Then I don't think this happened just for Jolex, I can be wrong, and maybe the story will continue in the next episodes, but wasn't the storyline about the transgender, aka Ben's sister, supposed to have an arc of episodes in the middle of the season? I'm asking, because I don't remember and I'm wondering about that now...

Spirit of the Radio

Yes, they made a really big deal about the transgender storyline in the media and then it ended up as only one episode. If you look back at some of the things said at the beginning of the season vs. what actually happened, you can see that something changed. It could have just been Shonda changing her mind, but given all of the stuff coming out about PD, it seems possible that Derek's storyline changed and/or Patrick's availability was much less than originally planned, especially for next season. They seem to be running behind filming schedule, which is odd given that they took their hiatus only after 8 episodes (but filming and production didn't stop during that time.)

Please note, I am NOT "blaming Patrick" for changing stories or lack of Alex or anything else. Things happen, and if Shonda wanted Alex to get a juicy storyline she could have, but it seems clear that something is going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.

I liked seasons 9-10 but, of course, they were good seasons for Alex. I find that the centric episodes stop everything else in its tracks and so there are lots of things that get fully explored for 1-2 episodes and then are completely forgotten. It seems really choppy and uncohesive to me. There is no overall theme, except maybe for Meredith, but she has become so unlikeable to me this season that I kind of don't care.

begonia

Not sure what/if BTS happenings(other actors schedules, etc..) changed a possible Jolex SL, but it is weird that they barely have scenes together. And maybe the writers didn't made it on purpose, but Jo was very inconsistently written this season, and this didn't do her character any favor also.

Alex mentioned his sister in the OR with Meredith in 11x04 - I wish we would see her. I wish we would also see his mom - how Alex took care of her and his siblings, what happened with Aaron, his brother - how is he now? There are so many thinks I would like to see about Alex, but with the Dereck's drama now (I don't think Dereck will die), there will be no time for those this season; I'll keep my hopes for the next season . Seems Alex will continue to be Mer's support system for the rest of the season, maybe have something Jolex related.

Regarding the last episode, Alex was concerned about Arizona the whole day, he confessed to her he was feeling bad and she thanked him for ...telling her who cut off her leg. After Herman's SL, with her: "you are missing the point, Robbins. The point is that I'm alive", I would have thought that Arizona could at least say "Thank you for saving my life and being such a good friend ". But, no... Shouldn't this have been the point of Herman's SL for Arizona (except for the career development)?

xsweetgirlx91

Ugh don't even mention the writing for Jo to me, either she's being written inconsistenly or she doesn't have anything to do this season and it's just horrible.

What personally annoys me the most about this season is that Alex is being used throughout all the episodes solely to be someone's support system or to benefit others. It's started in 11x01 and it's still the same old. Either it's Meredith or it's Bailey or Callie or Arizona and now even Maggie. I'm all for him being a good friend, it's one of the things I like most about him, but honestly give this guy an own life, too! After losing the board seat and starting working as an attending (I don't think he's Head of Peds sadly) there hasn't been anything remarkable in his life. I get it that Shonda wanted Bailey to get the seat and Alex was her medium for that. I don't like that he got screwed over but I could have accepted it. But why couldn't she leave him Private Practice at least? Or idk make him quit instead of getting fired? Or don't reveal that all of his friends voted against him when it didn't change anything storyline-wise anyway? Really, what was the point of all of this?

I don't know about you but I think for most characters we still got a little insight as to how their lives progressed this season but Alex got absolutely nothing. I think the next big thing for him would be to either break up with Jo or settle down (and I think after 11 seasons nobody can blame me as an Alex fan for wanting for him to settle down already) but the writers won't even give him that. It took the writers 3 years after Izzie to finally give him a serious relationship again and now they're neglecting it like they have never done with any couple before.

Seasons 9 and 10 may have had worse writing (even though the inconsistencies in s11 make me cringe harder than ever before) but as an Alex fan I could enjoy them so much better. S10 was probably my favorite season for Alex characterwise because we saw his personality in all its facets.















I love this gifset because it shows so many aspects of his character and all these things happened last season. This season he's been just degraded to being a good friend and IMO that's not good for his character because it makes his usually very colourful character very monotonous. But that's just my opinion. Other people might like him so much better when he's only supporting others.

About Amber and his mom: If Jo and him get married and have a little ceremony or something I would love for him to take her to Iowa or make them come to their wedding because remember how upset Aaron was when he didn't even tell his family about his first marriage? I think as broken as their family is, his mom and sister would want to know if he got married again and I think that would be the perfect opportunity. I've been dying to meet Amber, too. But I can't really see them bringing her to Seattle anytime soon when it took them 6 years to bring in Aaron and 10 years for Jimmy.

Maité

I know this wasn't appropiate for me to think about last episode, but I did notice it was the first episode ever without Alex in it.

begonia

Yes, first Grey's episode without Alex. I missed him, but right now, I'm just glad that Alex is alive and well.
Grey's had enough deaths already and I hope that when the time comes for Alex to be write out, whenever will be at the end of the series or before, to just find another idea than kill him.

LG Stargirl

Hmmm, I don't think this is the first episode without Alex. Last year a huge buzzfeed article about Grey's trivia came out and - after a lot of discussion on twitter and the author of the article even correcting it after input - it was determined Ellen and Patrick were the only two actors who hadn't missed an episode. Obviously this was before Patrick missed epis this season so now it's down to just Ellen appearing in all of them.

I'm not sure which epis Justin missed, but clearly there haven't been many.