Grey's Anatomy Officially Sets Alex Karev Goodbye Episode

[Warning: The following contains spoilers from Thursday's Grey's Anatomy. Read at your own risk!]

Get ready folks, it is officially time to say goodbye to Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) on Grey's Anatomy. Showrunner Krista Vernoff teased fans a couple of weeks ago by saying they'd have to wait for the breadcrumbs to fall when it came to finding out where Alex had disappeared to and why, after Chambers left the show in the fall, but now fans will get a full episode to say goodbye to a character they've loved for over a decade and a half. Next Thursday's episode will be the official sendoff, as announced with an emotional trailer at the end of this week's episode.

While there's no new footage in the trailer, seen above, it confirms that we'll say goodbye to Alex. The answers are desperately needed after this week's cliffhanger that finally saw Jo (Camilla Luddington) crack under the stress of Alex's absence.

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After Link (Chris Carmack) made a surprise drop-in at Alex's loft to eat his Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) feelings with his BFF, Jo completely lost it. She thought he was Alex finally coming home, and when she found out it wasn't her husband, she started to hyperventilate. It turns out that Alex never went to Iowa to visit his mom, because Jo called her and found out.

Now Jo has no idea where he is, but she's confident that he's just left her, which is an ice-cold move on its own, but it's even worse when you remember that's what Izzie (Katherine Heigl) did to him in Season 6. We still haven't heard Alex's side of the story, and hopefully that's to come, but we can already tell this isn't going to do anything good for Jo's self-esteem and abandonment issues. Damnit, Alex.

Grey's Anatomy says goodbye to Alex Karev next Thursday, March 5 at 9/8c on ABC.