Grey’s Anatomy season 14: Matthew Morrison returning as Jo’s ex
In an interview with Argonaut News (thanks to Justin Chambers Online for the heads-up), Morrison teased that he has a “big role” coming up — and with that, it’s fair to speculate that this is more than just another pop-in appearance. The last gig for Morrison as Paul was fascinating and terrifying, to say the least. We met Jo’s abusive husband through the lens of Alex Karev, who purposefully went to a medical conference in order to see him in the flesh. He envisioned a wide array of different ways in which to confront him, but never actually did so beyond a brief interaction over a cab at the end of the hour. He weighed the advantages of getting vengeance on him over what he did to Jo along with some of the consequences, which could’ve included him finding her and hurting her once more. Shonda Rhimes and the writers remain brilliant at exploring these moral dilemmas.
As great of a performer as Morrison is in between his work on Glee, The Good Wife, and the stage, there were no guarantees that we’d see him again given the fact that Paul didn’t learn anything about Alex. What reason is there to bring him back? You have to figure out some other way in which to incorporate him — maybe Jo slips up somewhere and he figures out where she is on his own. It’s hard to imagine Karev being the reason since he had the perfect opportunity to reveal himself and didn’t. There’s also no way for Paul to put any pieces together there, but he’s shrewd — he may be intentionally going to so many conventions around the country to find her.
No matter Alex’s decision with Paul in the moment, you do have to imagine that there will be a few major problems between him and Jo when she ends up realizing that he went and saw her husband without her knowledge — and that Paul, in turn, saw him. Even if Alex had good intentions, that doesn’t mean that this is anything other than a betrayal. This is a meaty role, and we understand the motivation to bring him back based on that and that alone. Obviously, it’s also great material for both Chambers and Camilla Luddington.
Could Alex and Jo get together on the other side of this?
It’s possible, given that we do see the show still charting towards this. We do understand the people out there who do still ‘ship him with Meredith, but there hasn’t been much movement in that direction as of late.
What do you think about this return?
Sound off now in the comments below!
If you do want to see some other Grey’s Anatomy news/discussion, we recommend checking out the link here. After all, that gives you a good debate about the future of one Meredith Grey. (Photo: ABC.)