Jackson Avery and April Kepner have certainly been through the wringer on Grey’s Anatomy. They started their relationship in the most romantic of ways, running off to get married after April realized she couldn’t marry her boring paramedic fiancé. But then they suffered some serious losses, including the disintegration of their marriage and the death of their son. I’m hoping that Season 13 brings out better things for the couple, because what could else could possibly happen. But before we look forward, we have to look back — what happened to Jackson and April on Season 12 of Grey’s Anatomy ?
In Season 11, April and Jackson’s son, Samuel, died shortly after birth due to a severe birth defect. Soon after, April, burdened with the loss of her son, opted to do a Doctors-Without-Borders-esque medical program in Jordan, helping refugee communities. In the Season 12 premiere, April returns from Jordan and wants to patch things up with her basically estranged husband, but Jackson is so not having it. I can understand where he’s coming from — instead of dealing with her grief, April threw herself into work moved halfway across the world. She could have maybe, I don’t know, talked to Jackson, and that’s the point he makes. Jackson doesn’t feel the same way about April anymore, and he wants a divorce.
April, who is very religious (this has caused issues in the past for the couple), decides that divorce is not an option and that they’ll work through their issues. What April doesn’t realize, though, is that you can’t work through a relationship when only one side wants to do the lifting. Though Jackson and April try to fix things, they ultimately decide to part — but not before having a one-night stand, which results in April getting pregnant again.
Here’s where the big problem of Season 12 starts — April opts not to tell Jackson, as the two have already started the divorce papers and she feels he has no claim to the child. Big mistake. Jackson finds out he has a baby on the way, and worst of all, Jackson’s mother, Catherin Avery, finds out about the baby and wants to drag April through the court system to deny her custody. Things really have gone from bad to worse, no?
Jackson and April, freshly divorced, eventually come to a little ceasefire, opting to co-parent their child even though they are not together as a couple. It’s the right and adult thing to do. They ended the season on friendly terms, but it was the moment in which April went into labor that things could have shifted for them. Due to bad weather, Ben and April were stuck at Meredith’s house, and April went into labor. There’s always good timing on Grey’s Anatomy, huh? Ben had to deliver April and Jackson’s baby via C-section without any anesthesia. My skin crawled when I watched that moment.
While all of this was happening, Jackson was on the phone with Ben, and the terror on his face showed to me that he really does still care about April. He was so panicked through all of her screaming that I think that these two definitely have a chance. Jesse Williams, who plays Jackson, echoed that statement, telling TV Line, “I think, as long as they’re alive, they’re going to have hope, because they care deeply about each other. I would be hard-pressed to ever say the slate is wiped completely clean” for them emotionally.”
Shonda Rhimes should give at least one of her couples a happy ending, no? April and Jackson deserve a break, and maybe it’s their new baby that will bring them back together — right where they started.
Images: Eric McCandless/ABC; Giphy (3)
