Grey's Anatomy Comes Face to Face with Jo's Abuser in Heartbreaking Midseason Premiere

Matthew Morrison plays Jo's perfectly punchable estranged husband in a heartracing episode of the ABC hit

By Lauren Piester Jan 19, 2018 2:46 AMTags
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What a jarring way to jump back into TGIT. 

It was just weird to be thrown right back into the middle of the insanity that was the Grey's Anatomy fall finale. Hackers had attacked the hospital, Maggie and Jackson had been attacked by blood in a helicopter, and Jo was facing her abusive estranged husband, Paul (Matthew Morrison). 

All that chaos took a while to get back into, but it was Jo's story that had our hearts racing more than anything else. Paul, who had arrived alongside his new fiancee, was happy to sign the divorce papers, allegedly happy to see Jo happy, just happy to see that she was "better." 

As various doctors fawned over him and his apparently legendary talents before learning who he actually was, Jo had a panic attack or two, and Karev sent interns to find her and never leave her side. 

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But it was Meredith who had the situation the most under control, sitting with Jo as the divorce papers were signed and helping to engineer a way to get Paul away from his fiancee. 

Unfortunately, Jo's talk with her about the bruises and the gaslighting backfired, and she told Paul exactly what Jo warned her about. Paul tried to blame everything Jo, calling her a pathological liar and waving the card with her cell phone number on it in her face because now he knows where to find her. 

Meredith called security and he was gone...but then he was back. Because someone hit him with their car, and now he's in the emergency room with Jo and Alex looking rather guilty. But honestly we had the urge to punch Paul in the face throughout the entire episode, so we can't say seeing him in that ER bed didn't feel a little bit good. 

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Elsewhere, Maggie and Jackson stood around in nothing but towels and quietly contemplated the possibility of a relationship. We used to think this could be fun, but the closer they got to it and the more they acknowledged that tension themselves, the weirder we felt about it. So we are now voting no on the Maggie/Jackson train. 

And Bailey solved the hacking problem by befriending a computer-savvy intern who admitted to a shady background when it came to hacking into things. Specifically, he once hacked into the DMV, and it was only after he secretly hacked the hackers and restored power to the hospital that he revealed he only hacked into the DMV to change his gender on his drivers' license from female to male. 

So the hospital is saved, Maggie's on a Tinder date with a guy who's not her step-brother, and Jo is currently safe from Paul, meaning everything is OK for the moment...but that has never meant anything for long on Grey's Anatomy.

If you or someone you know is facing domestic abuse, call the hotline which was also conveniently the title of tonight's episode: 1-800-799-7233. 

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.