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Grey's Anatomy: Jo's Downward Spiral Is Going to Ruin Her Life

It's already put her relationship with Alex on the rocks

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Megan Vick

Jo's (Camilla Luddington) downward spiral only went deeper this week on Grey's Anatomy, and it is now putting her marriage to Alex (Justin Chambers) in jeopardy. To make matters worse, it looks like the damage is far from done.

Jo is still reeling after finding out a few episodes ago that she was conceived from a rape, and her inability to talk to anyone about it is starting to burn her entire life to the ground. First, she has been a non-stop vodka consuming drunkard since she returned from Pittsburgh. And she crossed the line in Thursday's episode, titled "Head Over High Heels," when she showed up to work drunk. Jackson (Jesse Williams) was the first to discover it and let her off with a warning, seeing that something was clearly very wrong, but he warned that if she ever returned to the hospital drunk, it could be her last time there. Remember, Jo only has a job at Grey Sloan as a research fellow, so if she gets fired it's going to be extremely difficult to find someone to fund her research -- if she gets to take it with her at all.

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However, that's not where the spiral ended. Alex also called her out for drinking on the job, and when she still refused to talk to him, he threatened to fly to Pittsburgh himself to find out what the hell happened while she was there. Jo's response was to say that if he ever threatened her with that again, she'd leave him. He returned the barb by saying he'd report her to Bailey (Chandra Wilson) if she ever stepped into the hospital drunk again.

We've seen marriage stalemates on Grey's before and they very rarely ever work out well. In fact, Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) may have been the only couple to survive this kind of throwdown. While Alex understands dysfunctional relationships more than anyone, especially those with parents, there's no way for him to truly understand the pain and trauma that Jo is experiencing. At the same time, if Jo doesn't find someone she can confide in so she can start processing what her birth mother told her, her entire life is going to implode.

Alex has tried to give her space to work through this as she sees fit, but it's clear that Jo is only hurting herself and those around her at this point. If she's not going to open up on her own, what is it that Jo needs in order to get the help she requires? Coddling from friends hasn't softened her up and an intervention only sends her further into depression. If the question isn't answered soon, we can see Jo and Alex going the way of other iconic Grey's couples, like Cristina (Sandra Oh) and Owen (Kevin McKidd), Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw), and April (Sarah Drew) and Jackson. We want so much better for them.

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

Camilla Luddington, Grey's Anatomy​

Camilla Luddington, Grey's Anatomy

Eric McCandless, ABC