Jo Wilson Karev was missing from most of Grey's Anatomy Season 15's March 21 episode. But she takes center stage next week in Episode 19, "Silent All These Years," when she finally meets her birth mother. To preview the episode, ABC shared an intense promo -- plugging it it as "one hour of astounding television" -- ending with Jo (Camilla Luddington) in tears and this on-screen warning:
Due to sensitive subject matter, viewer discretion is advised.
In the March 28 episode, Michelle Forbes (Chicago Fire, True Blood) plays the woman Jo tracked down as her birth mother. As the promo shows, Jo goes to her door and tells the woman she thinks she might be Jo's mother. The woman is clearly shocked and says Jo can't be there. So Jo asks her to meet at a nearby diner to talk. In the promo, we see Jo ask about her birth father. That's when things get emotional, leading fans to think the sensitive subject matter surrounds how Jo was conceived.
Here's the promo:
It definitely looks like an intense, emotional episode. The promo and its "sensitive subject matter" warning got fans wondering if Jo was the product of rape, and/or incest.
It's possible the rest of the episode also plays into the sensitive subject matter, since a patient seems to spark Jo's look into her past:
"Silent All These Years" - When a trauma patient arrives at Grey Sloan, it forces Jo to confront her past. Meanwhile, Bailey and Ben have to talk to Tuck about dating on Grey's Anatomy.
Maybe all of that plays into the storyline, if it does address rape/consent. We'll see.
ABC teased some photos from the episode, including Jo with a patient...
And here's Jo confronting her mother...
As Grey's Anatomy fans know, Jo -- formerly Brooke Stadler -- has had an extremely tough life. She revealed that she was abandoned by her mother at a fire station when she was two weeks old. She said she bounced around foster homes until she was 16, then she started living out of a car. And then she married the abusive Paul Stadler.
Jo is now happily newly married to Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), and they've discussed having kids. She just checked her DNA to see if she'd be passing anything major down to her children. That led to the discovery of her birth mother, and the visit we'll see on Thursday, March 28. It doesn't sound like it's going to be the happiest story, but considering she was abandoned at a fire station as a baby, it would be surprising if the story wasn't tragic.
Grey's Anatomy Season 15 will have 25 episodes, continuing through midseason 2019. Episode 19, directed by Debbie Allen (Catherine Avery), airs Thursday, March 28 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
