Gone are the good old days where fantastical character deaths on Grey’s Anatomy were a dime a dozen, where any episode could see the next great loss and be the next big heartbreaker. Season finales? Please. Random episode mid-season? Fair game. But we haven’t had a catastrophic death since the death I don’t talk about, otherwise known as the involuntary manslaughter (murder???) of Derek Shepherd, seasons ago. While no workplace, hospital or otherwise, could possibly have so much death in its midst, Shondaland is behind on its quota of character destruction.
The preview for this week’s episode, which looks like part one of the season finale, suggests that Owen will find April, unconscious, injured or worse, while searching for her outside. Since we have near definitive confirmation that Arizona will take her leave to move Sophia back to New York, I’m using my context clues to hypothesize that April is going to be the next to die. Although, how insane would it be if April makes a speedy recovery and Arizona mysteriously drops dead?
In recent weeks, we’ve seen April apologizing to her peers for her spell of abhorrent behavior, making peace with God and restoring her faith in her religion, and some viewers have commented that they think this indicates that April will attempt to take her own life. Now, I had originally thought that this was one of the possibilities for her exit from the show, but refused to include it in my list as I didn’t want to believe that that would happen. That was also before she came out of her downward spiral, and the April Kepner we’ve always known would never leave Harriet if she had the choice.
That leaves us with a freak accident, either physical or biological. If the preview was not misleading, Owen might find April at the bottom of a ravine or in the bushes, which could be the result of a medical condition, causing her to collapse while out on a walk—but that would not be nearly as dramatic as if someone had accidentally run her over, or perhaps kidnapped her and dumped her outside, making her life all the more dark.
Whatever the cause, chances are not looking good from where I’m standing. We saw April intubated, pale with dark under eyes on the operating table and, behind her, a monitor that may or may not be flatlining. Owen looks devastated, Meredith is crying, and Jackson is shaking as he bent over her on the operating table, every action a hallmark of a good death scene.
Every action indicates that death is coming. BUT. If April were going to die, why would they show so much of it in the preview? I’d say the likelihood of April making it out alive, perhaps emotionally drained and needing a break from medicine or physically disabled and unable to operate, is about 50/50 in comparison to the likelihood of her untimely death. How often is it that we have such solid evidence death is coming before the episode is airing? Lexi, Mark, Derek… I didn’t see any of it coming.
Plus, Ellen herself has said that neither Arizona nor April’s exits will be tragic. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see whether she’s trying to pull one over on us.
Check out the trailer below—what do you think is going to happen?