Why April Fans Will NOT Be Happy About Next Week's 'Grey's Anatomy' Episode

The end for one of our favorite characters on Grey's Anatomy is near, and there's still so much we don't know about her departure. On previews for the penultimate episode of Season 14 of Grey's Anatomy, April is on a gurney and everyone is crying! What does it all mean? Does April die on Grey's Anatomy? Is this one of those things that Shonda Rhimes does to throw us off? With only two episodes left of the season, things better start getting finalized — stat.

Fans were shocked when it was announced that Sarah Drew (April) and Jessica Capshaw (Arizona) were leaving Grey's Anatomy. The reason? Showrunner Krista Vernoff explained that the characters had just run their respective courses. “As writers, our job is to follow the stories where they want to go and sometimes that means saying goodbye to characters we love," she said in a statement to Deadline. "It has been a joy and a privilege to work with these phenomenally talented actresses.” That may be true, but we're still not ready to say goodbye to these characters, ones that we've become so close to over the past decade. So far, it looks like Arizona will be moving to New York City to be closer to her daughter, but April's fate looks dicey.

She's on a stretcher! And Owen is screaming her name! And everyone is crying! And Jackson is inconsolable! It may look like Grey's Anatomy is going to axe April, but it just wouldn't be fair to her or her character's arc through the season — and the whole series. April came to Seattle Grace a farmer's daughter. She was green, to say the least. Through a decade on the show, April has both accomplished and overcome so much. She's fallen in love. She had her heart broken. She lost a child. She got married. She had another child. She lost her faith, and then she found it again. April is back on top, and it's just not fair that she would die at this stage in the game.

And can we talk about her relationship with Jackson? He may be dating Maggie now (which is gross, because they're basically stepsiblings, and also, #JaprilForever), but Jackson and April have a child together and an unbreakable bond. They've certainly had their ups and downs, and now, following his putting aside money for their daughter, Harriet, they're finally in a great place again. They had a nice moment together! Sorry, Maggie — April and Jackson are endgame, and if April survives her fall or accident or whatever it is that has her so hurt, maybe he'll see that they belong together and leave Seattle behind. It's about a 50/50 shot, because someone at Grey Sloan has to suffer a heartbreak at the end of every season. I'm hoping it's Maggie. (Sorry.)

And if it comes to pass that April does die, Drew seems like she's ready for bigger and better things. In a 2018 interview published on the Shondaland website, Drew discussed how she had made her directorial debut on the Grey's Anatomy web series and how, following her acting work, she was eager to do more behind the camera. "Acting helps me to talk to the actors and to give them direction, and to give them a sense of where to go emotionally in the scenes and what the relationships are," she said. "But also... I would really put myself in the shoes of each of the actors, and I know how to do that having been an actor for 15 years, so the blocking that I came up with felt really authentic and intuitive to what would make sense for that character."

April's fate is still up to the Grey's Anatomy showrunning gods, but whether she passes away or simply rides into the sunset, it's nice to know that Drew is ready for her next challenge. As difficult as it is, it's time to say goodbye to April Kepner.