And then she’s home and in a group hug with her kids and it’s all such a sigh of relief, isn’t it? DeLuca has been done so dirty!Īfter that anticlimactic reveal with Meredith, she gets Jackson to sneak her out of the hospital and drive her home without having to go through the fanfare of the clap-out. It’s lovely! And also quite deserved since Andrew DeLuca did almost get beaten to death trying to help Jo, but like, come on, show, that should’ve been a conversation between Carina and Meredith, you know, the woman Andrew loved until the very end. I mean, thankfully the episode sneaks in that moment between Jo and Carina - Jo is officially in pink scrubs and a resident on Carina’s service - in which Jo, knowing that Carina is headed to Italy to help out at a hospital there and spread her brother’s ashes, tells her how wonderful DeLuca was and that she’s “incredibly grateful” to have known him. When they finally do, she looks upset for maybe five seconds and then informs them that DeLuca is okay because he’s with his mother now, remembering their good-bye on the beach. Most of her exit story is about her wanting to avoid the “surprise” clap-out the hospital is planning for her and Bailey and Webber tiptoeing around telling Mer that DeLuca is dead. Soon, that godforsaken beach will be a distant memory! She’s looking good, her tests are all great, and the doctors have no reason to keep her at the hospital any longer. Speaking of, Meredith went home this week. It was all nice! Maybe we’ve just been worn down by the absolute dreariness of this season of Grey’s Anatomy, but it really was refreshing to find a whole bunch of story lines infused with hope and happiness.
The Meredith/Jackson friendship was one that was always hinted at but never quite fully developed, but this scene - complete with tears! - was a nice little moment. His good-bye with Meredith acknowledges both the bond they had over knowing what it’s like to have a last name with so much baggage and pressure and legacy, and the fact that they were the final two left from their residency year, and now it’ll be just Meredith. He thanks Jo for being a friend and for the hot sex.
He thanks Bailey and Webber for being examples of the kind of human, parent, and doctor he wanted to be when his own father failed so miserably. There’s nothing too revelatory in Jackson’s good-byes to the doctors most important to him, but they were all nice little homages to these relationships, and as an audience member from the beginning, all the clips from Grey’s-gone-by never fail to get me a little misty-eyed. Jackson Avery spends the episode saying good-bye to his friends and then finally peacing out from that glorious death trap that is Grey Sloan Memorial, at peace with his decision and eager to get started on the next thing. And while “ Look Up Child” offered us a nice emotional close to the character of Jackson Avery, “Tradition” is the real deal: Dr. Oh, Japril shippers, have you come back down from that high you’ve been riding since learning two weeks ago that our, let’s call it improbable, dream of a reunion between Jackson and April as a romantic couple came true? Although nothing would be more of a balm to my weary soul than a hot Japril hookup after all this time, I’m glad Grey’s Anatomy didn’t push it too far and go there too fast - they’re both single, in Boston together, and have never quite fit with another person the way they do each other, so, we know.