ABC/Adam TaylorApril (Sarah Drew) and Jackson (Jesse Williams) are about to face one of the hardest decisions of their life on tonight's heartbreaking episode of Grey's Anatomy.
At the very beginning of the episode, "All I Could Do Was Cry," the expecting parents finally find out what type of osteogenesis imperfecta—aka a potentially fatal bone disease— their baby has. Neither outcome is good, but one is certainly worse than the other.
"Get the tissues ready!" Drew tells E! News. "I don't want to give anything away, but regardless of what the diagnosis is, if it's type 2 or type 3, Jackson and April are looking ahead at a long, difficult road."
But both Jackson and April are hoping desperately that their baby has type 3, even though that still means a difficult life ahead.
"If it's type 3, their baby is in pain, having bones break, multiple surgeries for the rest of its life," Drew says. "If it's type 2, they have to prepare to say goodbye. Either way, it's going to be really rough. But if it's type 3, at least they'll get to love their baby. There are a lot of very happy people who have type 3 and who have gone on to lead wonderful lives. It's just hard. It's hard living through all those surgeries. But they would prefer type 3, for sure."
And the outcome of the test to find out what type the baby is will lead the religious April to have a crisis of faith (and allows Drew to give a tour de force performance in one of her best episodes yet).
"When it comes to her faith, the hardest thing for her is she feels like she is someone who has tried to live a very faithful life," Drew says, "and she's going to come against the big question of why do bad things happen to good people? That's a universal huge question, one that people who do believe in god and who don't believe in god face. It's impossible to answer if god is all powerful and good, why would he let horrible things happen? It's going to shake April. It's going to rattle her. She's going to really question what she's grown up believing, for sure."
Although Jackson has never seen eye-to-eye with his wife when it comes to religion, he's going to be there with her every step of the way.
"What Jackson is committed to is caring for his wife no matter what it takes," Drew says. "He feels a bit at a loss being able to help her navigate the faith stuff that she's struggling with. But in terms of just being a present partner and just loving her and supporting her and trying to make an informed decision together, he's going to do what he can to care for her in the best way he knows how."
Be sure to check back here after the episode airs for more scoop on what's coming next for Jackson and April after they find out the test results and make their decision!
Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.