Grey's Anatomy: 10 Exits For Alex Karev

High on the list of things that we Grey's Anatomy fans dislike about the abrupt departure of original cast member Justin Chambers is the fact that he's already gone. So TVLine has dreamed up 10 three-episode arcs that we'd have preferred the show use to usher Karev off the canvas.

4. If He Can Make It There...

No one knows better than Arizona what a passionate and inventive peds god Alex is. So his Seattle pals aren't surprised when she reaches out to him to join her at the Robbins-Herman Center in New York. Understandably, Jo is loath to let her husband move away. But she also recognizes what an opportunity has been laid at his feet. So rather than stay for her, she urges him to go — go for all of the babies that he could save.

3. Dad to the Bone

Alex has always wanted kids. And when Izzie returns to Seattle — hey, if we're gonna dream up scenarios, why not dream big? — he's as shocked as Jo and viewers to discover that he already has one. Turns out, Izzie defrosted one of their embryos and has been raising their daughter out of town. Knowing it isn't fair to keep Karev in the dark, Izzie at last decides to come clean, prompting him to relocate... and leave Jo with a helluva choice to make.

6. Past, Present, No Future

Alex feels like history is repeating itself when a Pac-North patient presents with symptoms that are eerily reminiscent of his mother's. He also recognizes in the eyes of the patient's little boy the same shattered expression that he often wore as a kid. So, as the bighearted doctor is wont to do, he gets personally involved. At first he does a great deal of good... until the schizophrenic goes off her meds and accidentally kills Alex as he's trying to keep her from harming her son.

1. And They All Lived Happily Ever After

When Alex returns from Iowa, he's stunned to discover that Jo has, in a way, started their family by taking in the abandoned baby that she met in the fall finale. She has another surprise for him, too: Her joke about being pregnant during their Halloween wedding... wasn't actually a joke. But wait, there's more: The job offer from Cristina that we dreamed up for Alex in scenario No. 9 is still in play — and it includes a golden opportunity for Jo. So off the Karevs go to Switzerland with the kind of happy ending that so few Grey's characters ever receive.

7. Exed Out

Following the demise of Jo's abusive husband, Paul, that was pretty much the last we heard of him... or was it? If his family smells a rat in the way that he died — and the coincidence that it was his estranged spouse, of all people, who got to give the order to pull the plug — one of them might come around seeking revenge. Alex, being the most protective of protectors, would readily put himself in the line of fire to keep Jo safe, even if doing so meant losing his own life.

8. Flameout

When Station 19's Ben finds himself in a burning building with a newborn that he can't safely extricate, Bailey takes matters into her own hands. Rather than leave the risky task to her husband's fellow firefighters or even to a member of Grey Sloan's team, she calls in Alex — with disastrous results. Ben makes it out, the baby makes it out, but Alex... Alas, poor Alex goes up in smoke.

5. The Mother Load

The last thing in the world that Alex wants is to leave Jo. They only just found their way back to each other after her stay in a mental institution. But when he learns that mom Helen is dying, he can't bring himself to return to Seattle. He has to be there for her one last time, to allow her to pass away in the environment in which she is the most comfortable. So he remains in Iowa, making an understanding Jo a newlywed unexpectedly living apart from her groom.

2. End of the Road

We don't yet know the details of the accident that sent a car crashing into the Emerald City Bar in Grey's winter finale. But we do know that Alex was in Iowa and could've been on his way home. Were he involved, and left lingering between life and death, he could see visions of those whose lives he's touched — from his parents to his loves to his person, Meredith — all reassuring him that it's OK, he can let go. The good he'd done in the world would live on.

10. Fatal Attraction

Once more, Alex's old flame Rebecca returns to Seattle eager to rekindle their ill-fated romance of years before. To prove just how tight a grip she now has on her mental health, she even pretends to accept that he's moved on with Jo. However, when the erstwhile Ava's continued instability is revealed — in a desperate attempt on Jo's life — Alex leaps into action and winds up dying a hero's death.

9. Doctor Without Borders

Although Alex only recently took over as chief at Pac-North, he can't turn a deaf ear when Meredith tries to persuade him to accept Cristina's offer to join her at the Klausman Institute in Switzerland. Of course, he could make strides at Pac-North, Mer would argue. But at Klausman, he could make history. Finally, with Jo's encouragement, he heads abroad, leaving behind his loving wife to decide whether to follow her own dreams in Seattle or overseas.