Spoiler alert! This story contains spoilers for the Grey’s Anatomy Season 18 episode “Legacy.” Consider yourself warned!
Levi Schmitt is really going through it in the second half of Grey’s Anatomy’s eighteenth season. After killing podcaster Devon in the winter finale — by failing to call an attending for a vital portion of his surgery — viewers have yet to see Levi recover from the trauma. In “Legacy,” Richard Webber took a shot at trying to get Levi to return to work, to no avail, and at this point even Jake Borelli, the actor who plays Levi, is concerned about whether or not Levi has really quit Grey-Sloan.
In the immediate aftermath of Devon’s death, Levi suffered a scary breakdown, when he scrubbed his hands bloody and had to be physically restrained from hurting himself further. He showed up late to his morbidity and mortality conference, looking like he hadn’t slept, and only made it a few minutes before storming out and holing up in his mother’s basement. Even after Richard said he’d help him work through the grief, Levi told him he’d “bled out” and it was too late to save him. So is that it for Dr. Schmitt? Even Jake Borelli expressed concern, per E! News, about his character’s fate.
I'm going to speak from the heart here as an actor. Sometimes when you read a script that says you are not you working at the hospital or you're walking out of the hospital, you're like, 'What does this mean?' Because yes, there are some greats like Cristina Yang, who walks away and comes back. But then she walked away one time and didn't come back. At this point, I'm still worried that Levi doesn't work at the hospital.
Jake Borelli went way back into the Grey’s Anatomy canon to talk about fan favorite Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), who took a sabbatical from the hospital in Season 7 after several people were killed by a shooter in one of the series’ best episodes. She did return to perform surgery again, but Oh ultimately left the show in Season 10.
This plotline really seems to have Jake Borelli thinking about his mortality, at least as far as his character is concerned, but the fact that even he doesn’t know what’s going to happen to Levi gives me hope that we haven’t lost the character for good. Like they did with Richard Flood when Cormac Hayes was written off, I'd assume the actor would be informed of such a decision, right?
It’s not going to be easy for Levi, one way or another, especially if he continues to reject his friends’ and colleagues’ offers to help. Aside from turning Richard away in “Legacy,” Levi callously broke up with boyfriend Nico Kim in “Living in a House Divided,” which was sad, because I’d hoped to see Nico step up to help Levi through this. Jake Borelli explained his character’s state of mind as Levi struggles to find hope for his future.
I think for the first time in his time at Grey Sloan, this is a situation where he can't see a light at the tunnel. And so it's gonna be a tricky road, I think for Levi.
The fact that even Jake Borelli is concerned about Levi has me even more worried than before, so I’ll definitely be tuning in to see what happens next. Grey’s Anatomy returns at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, March 17, on ABC. Be sure to check out our 2022 TV schedule to see what shows are premiering soon.
