Grey's Anatomy: Alex Makes a Life-Changing Decision

(Spoilers for the Season 13 premiere of Grey's Anatomy follow. Read at your own risk!)

Have we seen the last of Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) at Grey Sloan Memorial? It sure looks that way after Grey's Anatomy's Season 13 premiere, in which Alex turns himself in after beating up DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) and is escorted out of the hospital in handcuffs, facing aggravated assault charges.

And his career isn't the only one that's (probably) over. Alex's pummeling of DeLuca has left the intern with a severe eye injury that will likely lead to long-term vision problems -- meaning he'll no longer be able to work as a surgeon. Ouch.

Of course, Alex's surrender could hardly be described as noble. With Meredith's (Ellen Pompeo) help, he initially tells everyone his badly bruised hand is the result of slipping in the rain. It's only when he realizes that DeLuca is 100 percent, without a doubt, going to hold a grudge (duh?) against him that Alex realizes this is a no-win situation. Not that it mattered in the end, anyway -- by the time he turned himself in, Meredith had also seen the light and ratted him out to Bailey (Chandra Wilson).

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So the big question is, where does Alex go from here? According to his jailhouse conversation with Meredith, he's facing 15 to 20 years in prison, and will likely lose both his job at Grey Sloan and his medical license. And all because of a misunderstanding.

Which brings us to Alex's horrible conversation with Jo (Camilla Luddington). Inexplicably, Alex still believes that DeLuca was trying to force himself on a drunk Jo. And then, when she tries to explain what actually happens, he leaps to the conclusion that she brought him back to their apartment because she wanted to sleep with him. Um, what?

This is one of my biggest Grey's gripes. How many times have we seen DRAMA result from the following scenario: Character A grossly misinterprets something that Character B says or does; Character A confronts Character B with the (mis)information; Character B is too flustered and/or polite to interrupt Character A to correct their error; Character A walks away even more upset (and generally more wrong) about the situation than they were initially. So many problems on Grey's Anatomy could be solved if the characters just communicated like normal human beings. But I guess they're not normal human beings; they're characters on a TV show. (A TV show that often leaves you screaming at the screen in disbelief/frustration, but a TV show nonetheless.)

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Anyway, that's exactly what happens with Alex and Jo, with Alex eventually going full assh--- and telling Jo she's incapable of committing to people because of the way she was raised "or not raised." (Yep, he went there.) After their conversation, Jo wants to just quit the program and leave Seattle, but Webber (James Pickens Jr.) won't let her. She also asks DeLuca not to repeat the whole I'm-actually-married-to-someone-else-and-this-isn't-my-real-name thing. Fortunately for her, DeLuca has more pressing things to be concerned about, at least for the time being.

The theme of miscommunication also swirls around the slowly-congealing love triangle encompassing Maggie (Kelly McCreary), Meredith and Riggs (Martin Henderson). Maggie's going pedal to the metal in her pursuit of Riggs, even as he's oblivious, and Meredith pretty much just smiles and nods, twiddling her thumbs. Eventually, in order to spare Maggie's feelings, Meredith rejects Riggs, lying to him and saying she doesn't feel the same connection she does -- but still doesn't come clean about their hookup to Maggie, who literally two minutes earlier had given her a big lecture about sisterly loyalty and trust. "Don't lie to me again," Maggie says. Too late!

Elsewhere, we learn that April (Sarah Drew) and Jackson (Jesse Williams) named their baby girl Harriet, after Harriet Tubman and/or Harriet the Spy. Also, Catherine Avery (Debbie Allen) is THE WORST, pouting because they didn't name the baby Catherine, assuming that her last name's going to be Avery, and finally refusing to let April hold her own child out of spite. This is going to be an interesting family dynamic going forward, for sure.

What did you think, Grey's fans? Will Alex get his job back? How long will Jo's secret stay hidden? And how long before we see a full-on fight between Catherine and April?

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.