To say that Grey’s Anatomy favorites Jackson (Jesse Williams) and April (Sarah Drew) have come a long way since arriving at Seattle Grace Grey Sloane from Mercy West all those years (and TV seasons) ago is a bit of an understatement.
Individually, April and Jackson arrived as surgical residents and have worked tirelessly to become key administrators at the hospital (with the latter now the board chairman). And while their professional careers have taken off, their personal lives have become more stagnant after the arrival of their daughter, Harriet.
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During Thursday’s episode “Who Is He (and What Is He To You)?” Jackson and April will travel to Montana for a case and, in typical Shondaland fashion, wind up tending to their personal lives and the nature of their relationship.
“All we do is test each other,” Williams told The Hollywood Reporter of the episode. “But this forces them into a space together.”
Indeed, while April chose to move into Jackson’s house as the on-again, off-again couple adjusted to parenthood and her recovery from a traumatic childbirth, the road trip is forged from a similar place.
“Jackson didn’t plan to have her on this trip with him; he could have chosen her and he didn’t,” Williams says. “We’re thrown together in a very tight space both literally and figuratively, so that forces us to figure out what the hell they are to each other. What do they want from each other? What do they not want from each other? What exhausts one about the other?”
As for what to expect, Williams remained tight-lipped about the arrival of his biological father in the episode but said that by the end of the hour, Jackson is “grateful” to have April there with him — though he downplayed if that was for personal or professional reasons.
“She knows him better than anybody; that’s just a fact,” he says. “They can run from that and fight against that, but it’s just true. They do have a tremendous love for each other and reliance on each other, and that’s something that I think really comes out in this episode. It’s a bit of a pressure cooker.”
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC. Stay tuned to THR‘s The Live Feed for more coverage after the episode airs.
This is so cool! Check out @GreysABC insta story!!! #JaprilTheSequel @iJesseWilliams #greysanatomy #promises pic.twitter.com/n3NPcRyKmw
— Sarah Drew (@sarahdrew) March 14, 2017
