Summer hiatus can be a stressful time for fans of any TV shows that like to end seasons on life-or-death cliffhangers, and Grey's Anatomy has a well-deserved reputation for doing just that. Season 21 back in spring of the 2025 TV schedule ended on an explosion that could result in multiple characters' deaths, including Chris Carmack's Link.
Fans will likely have to wait until the Season 22 premiere in the fall for answers, but the actor spoke with CinemaBlend alongside co-star Sophia Bush about their new movie, The Stranger in My Home, which is available on Digital now. While he didn't address Link's fate specifically, I'm taking hope from some of his comments.
What Chris Carmack Told Us
I spoke with Chris Carmack and Sophia Bush for The Stranger in My Home, and it was an interesting experience with two actors who are largely best known for their television work, with Grey's Anatomy and Nashville for Carmack and One Tree Hill and Chicago P.D. for Bush.
The Stranger in My Home, in contrast, is a film that turns perfect lives upside down with the reveal that two teen daughters were swapped at birth and spent their whole lives with other families. This movie isn't just a family drama, however, but becomes an increasingly unnerving thriller for Ali (Sophia Bush with a callback to her One Tree Hill days) and daughter Katie (Amiah Miller) when Tom (Carmack) turns up with bombshell reveals, unclear motives, and just a little bit too much charm.
When I spoke with the leads, I had to ask: how does it compare for two well-known TV stars to go all-out for a 95-minute movie? Sophia Bush, who appeared on Grey's Anatomy herself as a guest star, responded first, saying:
I mean, it's apples and oranges really, but Chris, you said something earlier that I thought was so great. When you've spent years developing a character, it's such a privilege to work in that long-running TV space, but then you get to go do a movie, and it's like an oxygen mask. It's such a breath of fresh air. It's a whole new world, and it is a bit like a ride you get to go on. And I don't know. I loved that we both have that network background, and then we got to come in and play in this space together. It was cool.
I won't spoil the events of the movie here, but I will say that Sophia Bush and Chris Carmack enjoying a "breath of fresh air" while filming The Stranger in My Home doesn't quite match what their characters go through! The trailer alone previews a very complicated dynamic for Ali and Tom. The two actors were clearly on the same page, however, as Carmack shared his own take:
And I will borrow from Sophia's explanation that being on a TV show is like going to college with all your friends. And it's a place that you love, and it's a place that you know, and you can't wait to go back. But making a movie like this is like summer camp, and it is a lot of fun.
When their comments are applied to The Stranger in My Home, they prove that the actors had a great time working on the movie When those comments are applied to their TV work, however... well, maybe I'm grasping at straws, but they give me hope that Link is coming back alive and well to Grey's Anatomy.
Will Link Survive Grey's Anatomy's Season 22 Premiere?
The Season 21 finale wasn't the first time that Grey's Anatomy's hospital has been rocked by an explosion, but the cliffhanger did set up the first possible real main character death since DeLuca back in Season 17. If you didn't watch the episode when it aired in ABC on May and haven't checked it out with a Hulu subscription in the weeks since, read on for the key points of what you missed when it comes to Chris Carmack as Link.
The episode delivered a hostage situation – also not a first for Grey's Anatomy's seemingly cursed hospital – before the explosion, with Jenna (Piper Perabo) getting creative by bringing a highly flammable acetylene tank into the OR to force Amelia's (Caterina Scorsone) hand on a surgery.
Then, after a brief pause in the action in which it seemed that the tank was empty all along, there was bad news: acetylene has been leaking the whole time. Then came the explosion that gave fans every reason to rewind and count who's safe and who's not for the fall!
Meredith was confirmed to survive even before Ellen Pompeo was announced for Season 22, and Ben (played by Station 19 transplant Jason George) is safe since he was fortunately far from the explosion, although the same can't be said for his wife, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson). Jo (Camilla Luddington) was safely at home as well. Some characters were MIA while others may have been in danger zones without being directly in the pink mist zone. The exception, based on how the episode was edited? Link.
But main characters have been surviving the seemingly unsurvivable on Grey's Anatomy going back to the very earliest years, and Chris Carmack actually took a humorous approach to his character's possible impending doom following the finale. I can't help but take heart from Carmack describing his TV show as "a place that you love," a "place that you know," and "you can't wait to go back" to.
I'm going to take that as a sign that he can't wait to go back to Grey's Anatomy because he definitely will be back on Grey's Anatomy for Season 22. Plus, Link was set up as the most obvious character to be killed off, and Grey's doesn't always go for the obvious choices when it comes to major twists. We can't even rule out cast member Harry Shum Jr.'s pitch that the whole ordeal was a hallucination and nobody dies.
For now, fans of Chris Carmack can always check out The Stranger in My Home, available on Digital now, while waiting for Grey's Anatomy Season 22 to arrive in the fall on ABC.
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