Spoiler alert! This story discusses the Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 episode “Feel It Still,” which can be streamed with a Hulu subscription.
When Grey’s Anatomy said goodbye to Levi Schmitt over a year ago, fans hoped that wouldn’t be the last time we saw Jake Borelli. While the actor did return for Levi to attend his BFF Jo Wilson’s wedding, he may have flown under the radar with his latest appearance. Borelli made his directorial debut in the April 2 episode that aired on the 2026 TV schedule, and he opened up about the scene that was “shocking” to him and left him in tears.
Jake Borelli joins a handful of Grey’s Anatomy actors to take their talents behind the camera, including Chandra Wilson, Jesse Williams, Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver, and he opened up about how different it was to direct Camilla Luddington as opposed to being there as Jo’s best friend. Borelli told TV Insider:
Article continues belowGetting to direct her and Chris Carmack in a scene at their home where Levi wouldn’t be was shocking to me because it’s the moment where she finally works up the courage to get to tell him about her feelings around their children, and her postpartum, and all of that.
The scene was a heartbreaker, as Jo uses a close call with a current patient to ultimately admit to Link that she’s suffering from postpartum depression and feels guilty about associating their twins’ birth with her own near-death experience.
As close as Levi was to Jo, even he wouldn’t have been privy to this vulnerable conversation between Jo and her husband, and Jake Borelli said it was tough to get through. He continued:
I remember we got to this moment where I was like, ‘OK, Camilla, at this line, look at him,’ and it was like the hardest look possible because it was the moment she was bearing all this vulnerability. And she looks at him and starts crying, and then I’m over here in this private rehearsal, crying, too. And it was so emotional.
Honestly, the scene brought me to tears as well, because Link had such a sweet, supportive response, and it reminded me of why I really love Jo and Link’s relationship.
For Jake Borelli, though, it was more than just the emotion of Jo being able to admit something so hard. Watching the character go through that triggered the Levi in him, as he said:
One, because it was such a beautiful moment, but two, because I was also seeing Levi’s best friend in this moment of vulnerability and pain, and all of this Levi energy came back up in me that I hadn’t used in like a year and a half. And it was both crazy and inspiring to me to see that our characters still lived on, even after what was gone, if that makes sense.
Jo and Levi’s friendship always felt so authentic, and to know that Jake Borelli feels that connection even when Levi’s not actually around just validates why fans have always loved them so much.
Grey’s Anatomy is on hiatus for a couple of weeks, but be sure to tune in for the final two episodes of Season 22, starting at 10 p.m. ET Thursday, April 30, on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu.
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