Jo Wilson

Josephine Alice Karev
Biographical Information
Status	Alive
Alias	Princess Hobo Jo Ponytail McGee Hairball Scrooge McDuck Lady Hulk Willis Milton Watson Whitton Dr. Badass Snow White Brooke Stadler Josephine Brooke Wilson Josephine Alice Wilson
Title(s)	M.D.
Familial Information
Marital	Alex Karev (husband) Paul Stadler † (ex-husband)
Biological parents	Vicki Ann Rudin Father †
Biological siblings	Alexandra Rudin (half-sister) Josh Rudin (half-brother)
Professional Information
Profession	Attending General Surgeon
Workplace	Current Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital Former Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital
Appearances
First	Going, Going, Gone
Count	161
Seasons	GA: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16
Portrayed by	Camilla Luddington Lily Donoghue (2003)

“	Violence isn't your birthright or your inheritance. It's something you survived because you are the opposite of that. You have an enormous will, an enormous heart, an enormous capacity for survival. You've taken all this darkness and used it to help other people who are walking through the same. You lined that hallway with women to help that woman who was hurting badly just hurt a little bit less. You've taken your darkest experiences that life gave you, and you turned it around and turned it into light. And if the woman who gave birth to you doesn't want to see that, then that's on her.	”
	— Meredith Grey to Jo

Jo Karev, formerly Brooke Stadler and Jo Wilson, is an attending general surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She is married to Alex Karev.

History

Early Life

At only five days old, Jo Wilson was left by her mother at a fire station. She was shuffled among numerous foster homes until age 16 when she began living independently out of her car. Her teacher, Ms. Schmidt, would let her into the school building early to use the school showers and to do laundry. Jo worked furiously to get through school, graduating as high school valedictorian and moving on to Princeton University, where she graduated cum laude. Wilson then attended Harvard Medical School, where she graduated at the top of her class. Wilson confessed to Alex Karev that Ms. Schmidt was the only person who supported her and thus the only one at her graduation.

Getting Married

During a conversation with Andrew DeLuca, Jo revealed that she is married. She said, "when I bought something wrong, he'd hit me in my face, or my stomach..." Being done with his abusive behavior, Jo fled to somewhere he'd never find her: Seattle. She claimed that if she tried to divorce him, he would find her. Jo kept her past confidential until after Alex proposed when she drunkenly confesses to Andrew that, that was the reason. She also admitted that 'Jo Wilson' isn't her real name. Her real name was 'Brooke Stadler'. 

Becoming an Intern

Jo started her internship at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital shortly after the plane crash. She quickly learned, along with the other interns, to fear Meredith Grey, dubbing her Medusa. Meredith was put in charge of choosing an intern for the intern appy and she chose Jo. In surgery, Jo froze as expected when she ripped the cecum after removing the appendix and Meredith had to finish the surgery.

When she was found crying by Owen after the surgery, he told her not to stand in the hallway and cry, to cry somewhere else where he didn't have to see her. He explained to her that the intern appy is designed for her to fail and it sets her as the example. She then asked why Meredith was so mean. She knew that Meredith had been in a plane crash and wondered if that was why. Owen replied that Meredith isn't mean; she's strong.

When she wanted to scrub in on a surgery, she flirted with Callie to try to make it happen. However, Callie pointed out that Jo looked terrified that Callie might take her up on that offer, meaning she probably isn't into ladies. Callie told her not to trade sex for scrubbing in because that's skanky, to save it for actually getting to cut. Then she sent her to go suck up to Alex instead. He said no and when he saw her watching from the gallery, he sent her away. Later, when he scolded her for charting when she hadn't scheduled a consult for him, she began to cry, freaking him out. He invited her to scrub in on a surgery with him.

After dealing with the case of Kimmy's son, Jo revealed to Alex what her childhood had been like.

When given an opportunity to do something none of the other interns had done yet, Jo jumped at the chance. However, when she froze in the OR, she went to Arizona Robbins and told her what had happened, saying she believed Alex set her up to fail. Alex later came to her and told her that he was trying to let her do something cool, but she freaked out. She said she was paranoid because her life has taught her that she can't trust anyone, but he informed her that she needs to get over it.

At Bailey's wedding, she had a drink, so when the doctors were called back to the hospital after a motorcycle crash, she was unable to go with them. Instead, she continued to drink with Alex. They got drunk and broke into a hotel room, where they raided a mini-bar.

When she heard about the plan to sell the hospital for parts, she admitted to Alex that she was sad and didn't want not to see him anymore, because she liked that he would talk to kids about pulling tiny little men out of their bellies.

Relationship with Jason

Jo and the other interns started referring to Jason as "Chest Peckwell." Alex took an immediate distaste to him, even going so far as to gang up with a patient and Dr. Webber to prank him, to which Jason responded with a snide comment about "nailing Jo in the bathroom."

When she told Alex Karev that she was planning to move in with Jason, he was initially very angry with her. However, after working with Jason on a case, he told Jason that he was just protective of Jo because he had been in a similar situation to Jo as a child, though he never had it quite as bad as she did. He was unaware that Jo had not told Jason any of this. When Jo found out that Jason knew, she became angry with Alex for telling him.

After a heated fight which involved Jason hitting Jo, she fled to Alex's house. He settled her into his bed. When Alex showed up at the hospital with Jason, who had been severely beaten, Meredith and Cristina assumed that Alex had done it, but it turned out that Jo herself had done it. When he grabbed her arm, she fought him off and he fell back and hit his head on the fireplace. She claimed he was fine when she left and still yelling.

During the superstorm, Jo helped to bag the babies in the NICU and then later to teach the parents how to bag their own babies. Arizona told Alex that Jo was great that day and if he's going to take credit for making his ladies crazy, he should take credit for helping make them great. Alex found Jo later and confessed his love. They shared a kiss.

Getting Together with Alex

Jo and Alex at the gala

After their first kiss, Alex and Jo went to an on-call room to make out. Alex wanted to wait to do it at his house, but Jo reminded him that there was a tree in his house and removed her scrub top. They continued kissing until Jo asked them if he had sex with Heather and Leah in that particular room. He confirmed, but Jo decided she could move past this and they continued kissing. He got paged, and she asked him to ignore the page. This made her think about dead people so they gave up. They went to the ER to help out treating the storm victims, which was impeded by the fact that they were all low on supplies and that the electric charts were still down. Meanwhile, she and the other interns also waited for news on Heather, who was being operated on. In a supply closet, Jo talked to Alex about her fear that Heather would die, only ending up to start kissing him again. However, it turned out Alex also had had sex with other interns in that closet, so Jo decided it wasn't going to happen there and left.

After Heather's death, the mourning interns, who got the night off, decided they would all wait together for Heather's mother to arrive, as none of them wanted to do it on their own. They started looking for kind Heather stories to tell Maura and decided to look for Derek to hear about her talent for neurosurgery, but Meredith told them the mother wouldn't care about that and told them the story that she told George's mother back when he had died. Jo then met Alex in a lounge and told him that she and the others apparently weren't a tight group. They joked a little about the future of their relationship and he gave her a bottle of liquor that would help her and the others to come up with stories. Jo went to her fellow interns in the dressing room, where they started drinking. They realized that they knew nothing about each other, despite all the time they spent together. They decided to play circle of trust, during which Jo revealed to have been a street kid. Not long after, Maura Brooks arrived, and they stole Meredith's story. They then sat with her until Derek arrived to tell her what happened to Heather. Early in the morning, Derek met with the interns in the ER waiting room and thanked them for having stayed with Maura. He told them to go home, but Shane decided to ride out with the firefighters to the mudslide instead. Jo, Stephanie and Leah declared him crazy, but suddenly Stephanie stood up too and gave a speech that made it clear to Leah and Jo that they should stick together. Jo and Leah then got up too, and followed Stephanie and Shane to the ambulance bay to ride out to the mudslide with the firefighters.

After Heather's death, the interns began all sleeping at Alex's house and studying. Jo was waiting for Alex to proposition her so they could have sex and Alex was waiting because he thought she was still grieving, so he said they could stay there as long as they wanted. Jo went to the others and said that they needed to leave. That night, Jo went to Alex's house to wait for him. He came home and she said she was not an unfeeling person, but she wanted to have sex. He picked her up and carried her upstairs.

Fundraising Gala and Alex's Dad

At the fundraising gala, Jo spoke to donors on Alex's behalf, but pressured him to talk to them himself. When Alex left to go back to the hospital, Jo was upset. She went back to the hospital and found him drawing blood from himself. She believed he was doing drugs, but he corrected that he believed his father was in the hospital, so he was drawing blood to check. When the results came in, Alex decided he didn't want to know just before Jo told him that it was his father.

When the time came for Alex's father to be discharged, Jo got him set up for 28 days in a rehab facility. He declined and left the hospital.

When Alex didn't come home for several nights, Jo was concerned that he was seeing someone else, but she figured out that it was about Alex's dad.

Jimmy later returned in withdrawal. Jo treated him over Alex's objections. After speaking to Jimmy and telling him that Jimmy leaving when he was a kid was better for all of them, Alex went to the wedding and told Jo that they were all they needed and that they'd be together forever. She agreed, but didn't realize that he meant it as a marriage proposal. When Jimmy's wife came to the hospital after Alex lied to her and said that Jimmy was dead, Alex introduced Jo as his fiancée, confusing her. She confronted him about it, saying she wasn't leaving him, but she wasn't ready for marriage.

Callie's Trial

When Callie was sued by Travis Reed for malpractice, which led to the amputation of both of his legs, Jo testified on her behalf as she had scrubbed in on the surgery.

Non-Fraternization Policy

Jo was upset to hear about the non-fraternization policy. She said that since they spend so much time at the hospital, they don't have time to meet anyone else. When she found out that one of the residents had filed the claim that led to the policy, she immediately assumed that Stephanie had filed it and was cold toward her. She later went to Stephanie when she found out that April and Jackson were still together. She said that Stephanie filing the claim was ruining her life, but Leah confessed that she filed the claim and explained why she did it.

Jo and Alex staged a fake fight and breakup so that people wouldn't think they were together. They started to sneak around the hospital, but after a rendezvous in a supply room, which Richard discovered, they were called into a meeting with the board. Alex came in and called them hypocrites before leaving.

After Alex was suspended for violating the policy, Meredith began to look into options for them. She got them a love contract and said if they signed it, HR said it was okay if they continued to date. Alex was worried about Jo leaving him if he asked her to sign the contract.

When Alex presented Jo with the contract, she told him she wouldn't sign it. Alex later assured her that the contract wasn't a commitment and that she wouldn't count on him, but said that he wanted to kiss her whenever he wants to kiss her and the contract would allow him to do that.

Richard's Teachings

When a case came in of two sisters, one of whom had developed three kinds of cancer in her lifetime, Richard told the residents to do research on Li-Fraumeni, as that's the condition the girl had. They did the research and developed a treatment plan, but Rory Williams had already died.

At Richard's birthday party, Owen asked him to be director of the residency program because he noticed how well he'd been mentoring the residents.

Derek warned that he wasn't teaching enough, took all the residents to work on a case with him that he had rescheduled several times. As the OR wasn't available until 1 AM, he then took them to the ER to work on the incoming patients, including having them work on a patient who was already dead so they could work with real brain tissue. When a man came in with scissors puncturing his forehead, they took him into an OR for a controlled extraction. Jo extracted the scissors after Leah was unable to pull hard enough. Then they went back to the case of Nova Jenkins. Each of the residents took a turn to step up to the microscope and ask a question so they could learn.

While Jo was on scut, she was working on several cases at once. She found that she couldn't handle working on so many cases at once, as it put patients at risk. After a day of that, Jo overheard Owen and Richard talk about one of the residents not being cut out for surgery. Jo believed it was her.

Working with Callie

When a patient with tetanus had a spasm that snapped his arm, Jo was concerned that she had broken the patient's bone. She worked on the case with Callie. While working on the case, she discovered that she has a knack for ortho.

Jo was used for testing the emotion-reading machine Callie and Derek had gotten for their trial. She didn't have a positive response to the expected stimuli, but when Callie mentioned an ortho injury that came into the ER, Jo lit up. Jo continued to work with Callie on ortho cases and loved it. She worked with Callie on an ortho case after hearing that one of the residents was about to be fired. In an attempt not to get fired, she continued to suck up to the attendings. Callie noticed this and said that she needed to have grit if she planned to continue working on ortho.

Being Confronted by Paul

Years later, Paul was able to find Jo in Seattle and he confronted her. While they talked, he explained to her that he and his fiancee, Jenny, wanted to get married but they couldn't since he and Jo were still married. They later signed the divorce papers.

While Paul was distracted by Arizona, Jo was able to find Jenny and warned her of Paul's abusive tendencies. Jenny said that they were happy and denied any abuse, but Jo gave Jenny her card with her cell number on it in case she needed help. While Jo was in the resident's lounge, Paul came to her and said that Jenny told her what Jo had said and gave Paul Jo's card. He told her that he decided to keep it for himself.

When Paul became the victim of a hit-and-run, Jenny assumed that it was Jo who did it and thanked her for it. Jo later went with Jenny to confront Paul and vowed to tell the police about how he abused her. This angered Paul and he and tried to attack her, but hit his head and caused second-impact syndrome, causing his brain to swell and leaving him brain dead. Since Jo was still legally his wife, she was tasked with making his end-of-life decisions, which she used to donate his organs.

Getting Married to Alex and Fellowship

The day after their wedding, Alex and Jo travelled to Los Angeles for their honeymoon. They settled on the beach and Jo brought up an article she had read about killer cancer cells. It felt new to her, while Boston already felt old. As he said he wouldn't mind their kids growing up in Boston, she had a thought and ran off. She went to a beach bar and started writing down ideas on napkins. He came to apologize for talking about kids, but she told him to shut up so she could focus as it was not about the kids thing. She returned to their vacation apartment to work on her idea. When Alex returned from a day of fun around town, she presented him with her idea: introducing suicide genes in cancer cell DNA to design cancer killer cells. She apologized for ruining their honeymoon, but he was just delighted that she agreed to marry him. He fed her some food and commented that their kids would be really smart.

Jo and Alex returned to Seattle early and they presented Meredith with Jo's idea. Meredith hated that she came to wave the future of medicine in her face before leaving for Boston, but Jo said she actually wanted Meredith to create a fellowship for her that would allow her to work on the mini livers and her own projects. Meredith loved the idea and took it to Bailey. Meanwhile, Jo cancelled Boston. However, Meredith came back with bad news: there was no money to fund the fellowship. Jo and Alex then went to Joe's for day drinking. Alex suggested she call Boston back, but she had come to realize she only applied there because she could, but it felt like going backwards. Empowered by the alcohol, Jo and Alex went back to Bailey's office and Jo pitched why she was the future of medicine. Bailey then decided to create the fellowship and fund it with her own money as she was in need of some joy. Afterwards, Jo returned to the bar and bragged to the interns about her new fellowship.

Now going by Dr. Jo Karev, Jo tries to get started on the fellowship.

Jo's first day in navy scrubs coincided with Alex's first day as interim Chief. They enjoyed the Chief parking space and headed in. Jo felt like people were staring at them. She gave Alex a gift to celebrate his promotion and went to work. Bailey had trouble letting go of her job while Jo wanted to get to work on the fellowship. Bailey had Jo operate with her and then headed out to take care of stuff. Jo went to complain to Meredith that she'd rather work with her, but Meredith advised her to just tell Bailey what she needed. Jo later found her in the Chief's office, thinking she was going over the research she had sent her, but Bailey actually discovered that Alex had spent the entire quarter's budget in a day. Jo then left them to talk.

While in bed together and making out, Jo asked Alex for a new INUMAC MRI. He felt like she was taking advantage and left for work. She later set the record straight in a hallway, stating she just wanted orgasms from him, which was overheard by Richard. He later found her to go home together and apologized for calling her a hooker. They then came across Atticus Lincoln, whom Jo enthusiastically greeted and who called her Brooke. Alex stood there confused while the two reconciled.

Jo took care of Alex's voting ballot. She and Link caught up on the years they missed of each other's lives. Jo explained to Richard that she and Link went all the way back to undergrad when they waited tables together, adding that they were like brother and sister, so nothing romantic ever happened. Jo then went to her lab and found that Bailey had written whiteboards full of different approaches to Jo's cancer killer cells idea. Since it was too much for one year, they needed to narrow it down. Both were then called in for a consult by Alex for Nina Sullivan, whom had a mysterious cause of abdominal pain. Jo and Bailey managed to figure it out. Later, Bailey confided in Jo that she had removed all stressors at work from her life, but she was still stressed. While Bailey was thinking that Ben was the cause of it all, Jo assured her that the two of them were good together. She then went by Alex's office. She heard he had worked with Link and he told her he was a great guy. They started to make out in his chair.

Jo assisted Alex at work to make him less grumpy all the time. She then got the idea to set up Link with Meredith, assuring Link that she was worth the effort to get her to open up. When a donor liver for their patient was redirected, Jo and Bailey came up with the idea to revive a liver from a deceased patient using a perfusion system. Alex ordered them to shut it down as to not risk their standing with UNOS. She met up with Link, who had been turned down by Meredith. Jo told him she did that to her, too, but she came around. Bailey then paged her, having decided to go behind Alex's back. They pulled off the transplant successfully. While Alex was angry at first, he admitted to getting turned on by Jo's genius and they made out in his office, closing the blinds when nurse Frankie saw them. That night, Jo invited Link to the loft so she could properly cut his hair after he had cut off a piece to comfort a cancer patient. Meredith came over, too, needing some company. As she took over from Jo, Jo and Alex agreed that Meredith and Link did look nice together.

Alex and Jo overslept on the day of the massive windstorm. By the time they got up, it was too dangerous to go outside, so they decided to stay in and have a second honeymoon. When the electricity died, she wound up finding Bubbe, a Bunsen burner she had used to cook meat on while she was living in her car. She also found their marriage certificate. Since neither had mailed it in, their marriage wasn't official. They later went through all their wedding presents that April had registered for and found they didn't need any of them, so they agreed to return them and buy a bigger TV with the money they'd get back. They made out and drank beer out of fancy glasses. They enjoyed the married life and agreed to mail in the certificate. As soon as the bridge re-opened, Alex felt pressured as Chief to go to the hospital. She agreed he should go and stayed behind herself.

Jo, Meredith, and Link ended up working on Natashe Deon's case together while Meredith and Link grew more and more frustrated with one another. Jo defended her trying to set them up by explaining to Meredith that Link was the greatest guy she ever met before Alex, like Meredith had been for Alex. She assured her that he was a great guy once you got to know him. During surgery, Meredith questioned how Link could be a doctor despite his laid-back attitude. Jo says his cancer inspired him to become a doctor, but Link shut her down as it was not her story to tell. Natasha had to be put in a medically-induced coma to let her heal while her fiancé sat by her side. Jo went to tell Alex she was glad they were alive and that they got married. Later, she came across Amelia and Tom arguing over a way to visualize Catherine's tumor and showed them to a brand-new type of microscope that would help them.

Jo finds that Meredith is in a love triangle with Link and Andrew.

With the holidays approaching, Jo invited Meredith to her and Alex's navy blue scrubs-only NYE party and suggested she bring Link as a plus one. Instead, Meredith invited Andrew. Jo was upset, but Meredith stated she could handle her own love life. Jo then mocked her for being in a love triangle. Over the course of the holidays, the doctors continued to work on Natasha, whose status kept declining to the point where death was imminent. Alex had an idea to give her her wedding under the stars. He and Jo gathered all the doctors and nurses in Natasha's room and they held up their phones with images of stars on the display while Meredith officiated the wedding.

Jo found out that Meredith had stood up Link on Valentine's Day and vented some anger, but Meredith had already apologized to him by then. When a display with all Chiefs of Surgery from the past and present was installed in the cafeteria, Jo made Alex pose with his picture and sent a picture of him to his mother to show her how far he had come. She assisted Maggie and Meredith whilst operating on Kimberly Thompson. Afterwards, she found that someone had switched Alex's and Bailey's pictures in the cafeteria, so Jo switched them back.

Jo watched Meredith's record-breaking surgery for longest surgery at the hospital for a while until she got paged to the ER when it was flooded with victims of a mass overdose at the park. She took care of a mother who claimed to have lost her playing son in the chaos at the park, but they later found out that she was a junkie herself who had taken her son with her to get a fix. Jo witnessed how Alex pressed the father to protect his son no matter what, even if it meant keeping him away from his mother, and she realized he himself had been through something similar with his father. She brought him hot chocolate in his office to comfort him and he told her about his experience of being left in a parking lot when he was 6.

Finding Her Birth Mother and Depression

When Jo was finishing up things at the hospital before leaving for Catherine's party at Jackson's place, she ran into Helen Karev at the hospital and found out that Alex supposedly had "another doctor" tell her to meet him at the party. Jo then offered her a ride and tried to call Alex, but he didn't answer. She found out Helen had travelled to Seattle through public transportation after getting inspired by the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Alex and Jo watch over Helen at the party.

Once they arrived, she started googling symptoms of a psychotic break, thinking the other doctor was in Helen's head, and made Jackson fetch Alex. While Jo and Alex discussed the possibility of Helen having a break, she disappeared amongst the other guests. They found her soon and tried to reach her doctor but were unable to get a hold of him due to the time difference. They decided to watch her for the night and find out more in the morning. Jo and the other guests evacuated when a supposed fire broke out. Outside, Jo stood by as Alex introduced his mother to Meredith, after which they took Helen home with them to the loft. They got her settled on the couch and watched her from the bed.

Jo and Alex took Helen to the hospital for a tour and Jo discovered she had knitted baby hats in an array of colors. Alex admitted he had told his mother that they wanted kids. Taken aback, Jo claimed she had a surgery and left. She then got herself on Jackson and Link's rotationplasty. During the surgery, Jo talked about having Helen over and how nice she was as a guest, except that she and Alex were now planning their babies. Jackson then asked her if she did not want kids like Alex. She said she did, but "some day" started to sound an awful lot like "today." Jackson talked about Harriet and Jo asked if all the cute stuff outweighs the terror, like always worrying about them and bad things happening to them. Jackson was offended so she apologized to him after surgery. He told her kids can be monsters, but at the same time, they give you the feeling that everything's right. He said kids can ruin you, but they can also give you a reason to live when life tries to ruin you. She then visited Alex's office and told him that she was terrified of passing on her genes because she didn't know anything about her biological family's medical history. While she had learned to live with it, she didn't want that for their kids, which is why she decided to have her genome screened.

When she got her test results back, she asked Maggie to open them with her. She turned out not to be the carrier of any major genetic diseases and the test also revealed the name of a probable first cousin of hers. Intern Casey overheard and offered to look her up and possibly her relatives. Later, she stood in the audience as Maggie gave an interview about finding her biological family in Seattle, which Jo took as a sign to find her own biological mother. Speaking from experience, Jackson warned her that it can also make for a negative experience. For him, it only created more pain. After saying goodbye Alex and Helen as they left for their trip back to Iowa, Jo looked up Casey and asked if he could find her birth mother. He said he could and asked if she wanted him to. She said yes, after which he revealed he couldn't help himself and had already found her. He showed her a picture and told her her name was Vicki Rudin and that she lived in Pittsburgh. After Alex returned, she booked a ticket to Pittsburgh to go meet her mother. Alex was worried over what would happen, but she told him that the worst that could happen was that her mother wouldn't want to see her, and then she'd just come home to him and at least she'd know.

Jo meets her mother.

In Pittsburgh, Jo went to Vicki's big house and introduced herself. She immediately discovered that Vicki had two kids. Thinking she was a saleswoman, Vicki tried to end the conversation, but Jo name dropped Emerson Hospital. Vicki started to give directions, but Jo clarified that that was where she was born before she was left at a fire station on 47th Street. She then told Vicki she was her mother. Vicki told Jo she couldn't be there, at which point Vicki's husband and dog came back from their walk. Vicki claimed Jo was a Mormon and her husband took the dog inside. Jo then asked Vicki for one conversation at a diner nearby. Vicki didn't answer and just closed the door. Jo went to the diner and waited for quite a while. Just when she gave up and got ready to leave, Vicki showed up.

Reluctantly, she sat down and told Jo she was late for work at the Mayor's office. Jo then brought up her big house and family. She told Vicki she didn't need money. She told Vicki she had always thought that her mother had a terrible life and had no choice but to leave Jo. Vicki told her that she wanted a better life for Jo than she could give her. Jo inquired about Vicki's kids and husband, who Vicki told her was not her father. Jo then threw in her face that she never found that better life Vicki had wanted for her. No one found her adoring parents and she lived in foster homes so bad that as soon as a man told her he loved her, she believed him so bad that she couldn't see he was abusing her. She sincerely hoped that whatever life Vicki had, it was worse than that. Distraught, Vicki got up to leave. Jo commented at least she was consistent. Vicki then told her she succeeded if she came here to punish her. Jo said she just wanted to know where she came from. Vicki sat back down and talked about her heritage and family medical history, but Jo got all that from the DNA test. She wanted information that that test couldn't provide her with. Vicki sarcastically dashed out some trivia about herself. Jo then asked about her father so she could find him, to which Vicki coldly replied that he died in a motorcycle accident 10 years. She had hoped for a more painful death after all the hurt he had caused her. Thinking Vicki was just bitter because her childhood sweetheart didn't pan out, Jo got up to leave. Vicki then clarified that the man hurt her. She begged Jo to sit down. Jo complied. Vicki shared that he was a TA when she was a freshman in undergrad. He chased after her for weeks for a date and serenaded her with flowers and proclamations. Finally, she said yes to the date. Then she said no on the date when he started to kiss and touch her, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. Nine months later, she had Jo and five days later, she didn't.

Vicki told Jo how she managed to hide her pregnancy. Years after the rape, Vicki found her way to therapy, which is the first time she ever talked about it. It was only then that she came to terms with the word rape, because she had consented to the date. Somehow, because she knew the man, she thought that what he took from her didn't matter, but she found a way to realize that it did and to move forward. Jo questioned why she never once tried to find her. Vicki said she was petrified every moment of the pregnancy. She had to see that man every day in class and she was terrified Jo would be a boy who would have his face and voice. Every movement of Jo as a fetus reminded her of where the baby came from. But books and movies and magazines talk about this instantaneous love you feel the minute your baby is born. She kept telling herself that as soon as she had the baby in her arms, it would happen to her, too. She gave the hospital a fake name and on the same day as giving birth, she went home with Jo because she had get out of there. She wanted it to be the two of them and stare at her and hold her until that love came. It did come. Her heart cracked wide open, but it was never just the two of them. Everything about Jo reminded her of him. That's why she had to give her up.

Jo talked about being abandoned caused her to leave people that loved her before they could leave her and that every moment of her life, she was waiting for her mother to find her and tell her she was sorry about that. Vicki said she did the best she could. Jo replied that would have been to find her a loving family instead of tossing her aside like garbage. Vicki said it's easy to look back and see what she could have been done better, but she was a different person back then. She wasn't in her right mind. Vicki shared details of her rape and said that was the night she lost her right mind. He stole that for her and for nine months, she pretended she was fine. The day Jo was born, she could feel again for the first time since the rape, but her mind took years to come back and part of it never did. Vicki admitted Jo deserved better, but she really didn't have better to give her. Jo shared how she was seven weeks pregnant when her ex-husband cracked her ribs and threw her across the living room floor. She decided in that moment he could never know about the pregnancy. She couldn't see a way out back then. She knew leaving him would mean he'd kill her and she couldn't raise a kid in that fear and danger, so she had an abortion. She had never told anyone. Jo tried to take Vicki's hand to comfort her, but Vicki pulled away. Jo then asked if she looked like her father. Vicki admitted she did, a few features aside. Vicki apologized and said she was still doing the best she could. She then walked out, leaving a distraught Jo behind. Alex found her in bed at night. She pretended to be asleep, but as he got ready for bed, she continued crying.

She started to avoid Alex by going to work while he was in the shower. He found her at work and told her she could tell him what had happened, but she used a grant application for her fellowship as an excuse to go find Bailey, who would resume her Chief duties the next day. She ran into a confused and wounded Abby Redding in the lobby and Jo took her to the ER. Jo and Dahlia got ready to stitch up her face lac, which she claimed was caused by a cabinet door. However, as soon as Andrew showed up with a message from Bailey, Abby tightly grabbed Jo's hand upon seeing him. Jo caught that there was something going and had Andrew tell Bailey that she would be a while. After noticing that Abby was experiencing abdominal pain, too, Jo had Dahlia close the curtains and sent her away. Abby then revealed bruises all over her body and Jo promised her she was not going anywhere.

Dahlia and Jo took her private exam room and Teddy joined them. They asked if they could call someone, but Abby didn't want to bother her husband on his business trip. Teddy got consent to check for internal injuries with an ultrasound. Jo held her hand throughout the procedure. Teddy diagnosed a tear in her diaphragm, which would require surgery. Abby consented as she really wanted it to be over. Teddy asked Jo to speak privately, but Abby refused to let her go. Suspicious of a possible sexual assault, Teddy had Dahlia book an OR and inform the nurses to hold off on antibiotic prep as to not erase any evidence. The doctors offered to get her a counselor, but Abby didn't want any more doctors. Abby continued to make up excuses for her bruises. Jo then bluntly said she thought her husband was abusing her, possibly sexually assault. Abby firmly defended her husband and asked to be taken to the OR. Jo stressed that that would mean washing away all the evidence. Abby denied she had anything to report. Jo informed her they could gather the evidence and seal it away until she was ready to report the assault. Abby said women are never believed. She admitted she was raped after getting drunk at a bar after a fight with her husband with laundry, but the short skirt and tequila would make it all her fault while her rapist's drink would be his excuse. Abby broke down and said the kit wouldn't prove that she wasn't flirting or that she wasn't making this up to cover up her cheating on her husband. Jo, still holding Abby's hand, then shared how her husband abused her for years. She, too, was convinced no one would believe her. She never had the chance to hold him responsible so she couldn't imagine what Abby was feeling at the moment, but one day, she might feel different and want justice. Jo just wanted her to have everything she would need to get it. Abby said her husband could never find out and then consented to the evidence kit. Jo continued to hold her hand as Abby consented to every step of the kit. As soon as it was over, Abby started shaking and sobbing and Jo comforted her.

Jo walks Abby along the wall of women.

With Abby's condition worsening, they had to take her to the OR, but Abby started panicking. She couldn't bring herself to leave the room. She said every man had her rapist's face. It's all she could see. She begged the doctors not to make her see his face. Jo promised her she wouldn't have to. She came up with a plan and asked female staff to line the hallway from the room all the way to the elevator up to the OR floor. She held Abby's hand as they wheeled her all the way along the wall of women to the operating table. Jo promised Abby she would stay by her side. She held Abby's hand while Teddy fixed the tear. Teddy shared that she had seen many rape victims who had no clue how to talk about it. What Jo did today was not protocol, but she thought that it should be.

In post-op, they informed her the surgery had gone well and that they would keep the kit here until Abby decided to report it, if ever. While that decision was hers to make, the doctors urged her to talk to someone. Abby talked about she kept going through the night to see what she could have done differently to avoid it. Teddy firmly said it was not her fault. She did nothing to deserve this. Teddy left Abby with Jo. Abby said her husband would look at her and see a broken person. She thought that would be all he'd ever see if she were to tell him. Jo told her this did not define her. Whether she would tell people or not, she was a survivor. Jo shared that men in expensive shoes still make her nauseous because that's how Paul made her kidney bleed. For years, she thought she got what she deserved, that was responsible, that she could have avoided it if she had done some things differently. Abby told her that was not her fault and then realized the same was true for her. She then asked Jo for a phone to call her husband and asked for Jo to stay with her. Jo promised she'd stay as long as Abby needed her to.

Later, Jo stood in the doorway as Abby gave her statement to the police with her husband by her side. Alex caught up with her and asked to go out to dinner to celebrate his no longer being Chief. She told him she had had a rough day and didn't feel like celebrating. She wanted to go home and crawl into bed. Alex wanted to join her, but she told him to go celebrate with Meredith. Alex tried to get her to open up about her birth mother, stating he wouldn't judge given his family history, but Jo insisted she didn't want to or could talk about it. She said she needed to go home alone and sleep and walked off without him.

The whole Pittsburgh experience triggered her abandonment issues and it made Jo clinically depressed. She kept Alex to leave her alone if he loved her and she claimed that she was sick so she could stay home from work and lie in bed all day. Worried about her, Alex sent over Link. He came by with chicken soup and forced her to let him in. While he grabbed bowls and spoons, she just climbed back into bed, disinterested in anything he had to say. He then started doing laundry for her. She told him to go, but he recalled a time a girlfriend dumped him and he drank for three days and he was so miserable, but she wouldn't leave him then despite his objections and she did his laundry for him, too. Jo then fetched a bottle of vodka from the freezer.

They got drunk together and she told him that that girlfriend had done him a favor by dumping him. She said she had done many people that favor, too. She talked about dating this guy named Logan while working at another restaurant. They dated for a while and the first time he told her he loved her, it made her feel the opposite of what it should. She felt like he was wrong for loving her, that she could not be loved, so she left, moved to another part of town and got a new job like none of it ever happened. She did the same thing to a guy in high school. And then she met Paul. She said her mother was and is a runner, too. She claimed she loved Jo, but she couldn't stand to be in the same room as her. She briefly tried to talk about her father, but she teared up and instead got another bottle of vodka. When Alex came home, he found her laughing hysterically at a cartoon. While he thought she was doing better, Link told him she was in a rough shape unlike anything he'd ever seen before. He was convinced she needed help, but he didn't know how to help her.

Alex convinced Jo to come back to work but her colleagues couldn't behave normal around her. Jackson found her buried in a mountain of work in her lab as a result of Bailey's being Chief again and her absence. To take her mind off it, he invited her to help him out on his spray-on skin project. She accepted, but continuously called the work boring and shut down every attempt Jackson made at asking about her birth mother, only telling him that he had been right to advice her not to do it. He pointed out she must have needed it to try since she did it. Looking back, she didn't understand why as she had everything to be happy and she just threw it all aside for nothing, and now it felt impossible to get that happiness back. She was convinced talking to Alex would only hurt more. Jackson revealed Meredith had asked him to check in on her. Jo says her coming to work was a sign of her doing her best. He knew that she came to work drunk and had vodka stored in her water bottle. He was glad she at least had the decency to do research instead of see patients today. He invited her to talk, but she declined. He told her she would not be met with compassion if she came to work drunk ever again. Alex found out about her being drunk at work and threatened to go to Pittsburgh himself to find out what happened. She told him she would leave him if he ever brought that up again and again told him that she would talk to him when she was ready to. They made a deal that he would tell Bailey if she came to work drunk again, so she promised not to do that anymore.

Alex put her on LEGO duty with Gus to avoid her having to deal with real cases. While she was building with Gus, a nurse came to fetch Jo to answer a call from the Head of Trauma at a hospital in Winnipeg. The doctor told her they had an Rh-Null patient and found Gus in a database. Excited, Jo told the doctor that she would find Alex and call her right back. She ran into Lori on her way to find him and shared that they found a donor. She also told Alex, who called her a good luck charm and gave her instructions to prepare Gus for the OR. Jo then called the doctor back and found out that the doctor was calling to see if Gus could donate for her patient, not the other way around. Upon returning to Gus's room, she overheard Lori making a call to her husband to share the news. Jo broke down and ran off. Ben found her sobbing in the hallway and tried to comfort her, but she ran off. She found Teddy and told her what happened and begged her to call in a favor from the military to correct the mistake. Teddy told her it wasn't a matter of jumping the line; there was no line to jump. Teddy tried to calm her down but found that Jo kept spiraling, so she asked Jo if she was doing okay. She offered to come talk to Lori with her, but Jo declined. Jo delivered the bad news. Lori lashed out because she had to call all these people back with bad news. Jo then broke down and Alex and Bailey found her sobbing in Lori's arms. Alex took her away and left her with Ben, who comforted Jo while Alex vented his despair over Jo's state of being in Bailey's office.

Alex switched places with Meredith in hopes that Meredith could get through to Jo. Meredith was determined to stay at the loft until Jo talked to her and ignored Jo's attempts to push her away. Meredith talked to her about understanding of pain, which came from deep experience, in an attempt to make Jo see that she would be able understand her pain. Jo told her that unless her father raped her mother and she looked just like him, she couldn't understand this. Jo then finally opened up and shared this experience of watching a girl who hurt herself in the playground be comforted by her mother. Ever since she was a kid, she imagined that her mother would hold her like that mother held her daughter if she ever found her, but now she knew that would never happen. She said she never should have existed in the first place and that everything that Paul had put her through was just her birthright.

Meredith listed things that Jo helped her out with at work, how her love changed Alex, and how she prevented Paul from further abusing his fiancée. That was proof that violence was not her inheritance but something she had overcome. She told Jo she had an enormous heart and capacity for survival. She had survived something dark and used that experience to help other people, and if her mother couldn't see that, then that was on her. Meredith told her about her drowning and how she gave up, but the people who loved her pulled her through. That's why she was there with her. She asked Jo if she wanted to stop or if she just needed a few more days. Jo replied the latter. Meredith then told her they were going to talk to Bailey and Alex to get her a proper leave of absence so she could get the help that she needed.

Jo asks Meredith to go tell Alex while she waits for Bailey.

They arrived at the hospital and found that Bailey and Catherine were in a meeting. Jo asked Alex to go talk to Alex as she couldn't bring herself to do that, while she would wait for Bailey to finish her meeting. Meredith ordered Andrew to stay by Jo's side, but Bailey called him into the conference room.

Meredith's insurance fraud was discovered and Andrew had taken the fall for her. With him arrested and several attendings out, Bailey asked Jo if she could work. Jo said she could and went to the ER. She and Link waited for ambulances to bring in victims of the car pile-up that was caused by the fog. Link used the fog as a metaphor to tell Jo that despite her current state, the sun would shine again. They laughed at how bad that was. Bailey soon joined them and she agreed to talk with Jo later. The first ambulance brought in Owen and Frances Pinfield, Gus's agoraphobic blood donor from London. Jo and Levi took her to get her blood drawn and Frances talked about how there was something freeing about being forced to walk through your worst fears. Jo then took the blood to Gus in the hyperbaric medicine lab. After the transfusion, she stayed behind to tell Alex, whom Meredith had informed about the cause of Jo's depression, that she was not fine despite her knowing how to rise when she had to. He promised her they would figure it out. He took her to the in-patient psychiatry department, where Dr. Olivia Fowler got her checked in after she said goodbye to Alex.

During her checking in, Jo was rid off all things that might be a danger to her and she brought to her room, where she lied down and cried. After a week, she and Alex decided to have her committed into a psychiatric facility. Alex dropped her off and she told him she didn't want to be another name on his list of crazy people. She reminded him they weren't married and offered him an out. He didn't respond, so she just walked away and checked herself in. After a few weeks, she and Alex met with her doctor present. Jo told him that during her depressive episode, she felt fear, shame, and pain. She was ashamed that she had lost the ability to receive the love that he was giving. She had pushed him away and she was afraid she would never be able to regain his trust. Jo thought he had had enough crazy for a lifetime and said he deserved someone stronger than her. Her doctor pointed out that her decision to come to the facility made her stronger than most, in spite of what society made her believe. At the end of her treatment, she was surprised when Alex showed up to pick her up. He got on one knee and admitted he had thought about leaving her because he was scared, but he had come to realize that he was stronger with her by his side, in sickness and health. She reminded him she wasn't magically fixed, but he didn't care and asked her to marry him again. She happily accepted and they shared a kiss.

On her first day back to work, Jo prepared herself to be looked at like she was a fragile bird. Alex wanted to smooth things over and offered her a job at Pac-North, allowing her to run her own fellowship, but Jo's therapist had told her that she needed to return to her life without making too many changes, so she went back to Grey Sloan. Bailey was surprised to see her and, upon hearing Alex's offer, made her the exact same one. Jo took the day to think about them and ran into Link, who told her that Amelia was pregnant with his child. While she listened to his concerns about raising a child, Alex called her to check in on her and offered to make her an attending general surgeon after hearing about Bailey's counteroffer. She returned to Link and assured him he would be a great dad if he wanted to be one. Afterwards, she found Bailey and requested to be made attending general surgeon at Grey Sloan, stating she knew her worth and would be an asset to any hospital, which Bailey could decide could be her hospital. Bailey and Jo talked in her office and Bailey conceded. Jo came home and told Alex that she had leveraged his offer to make Bailey hire her at Grey Sloan. Alex recognized that Grey Sloan was better for her career and advised her to demand a parking space, to which Jo replied that Bailey had given her his parking space.

Bailey made a concession by allowing Jo to perform an ALPPS procedure in her first week as an attending to express her trust in Jo's capabilities. However, the patient didn't want to let anybody but Meredith operate on her despite Jo having been trained by Meredith. Jo then got Bailey to consent to having Meredith supervise her every move through video chat, during which Meredith convinced the patient that Jo was great, which got her to consent. The surgery went well despite a small touch-and-go moment with an unexpected bleeding, which Jo handled. After she finished, Bailey and the entire staff applauded for her. While Meredith was in the middle of congratulating Jo, Bailey hung up on her.

After Meredith's article was published as a slash-and-burn exposé on Grey Sloan, Jo was concerned for the hospital. She went to Bailey to request to be allowed to schedule more ALPPS procedures for her but Bailey was too busy handling the fall-out of the article to hear her. However, when Bailey commented she felt hot, Jo suggested the stress may have gotten to her heart, which worried Bailey. Later, Meredith pulled Jo into a staircase to find out how the hospital was coping with the negative press. Jo admitted it had the residents panicking while the other staff was divided between supporting her and loathing her. Jo stated she was worried about Bailey's health and wished Meredith good luck when she heard Meredith wanted to clear the air between them. Afterwards, she ran into Jackson and told him it must be freeing for Meredith to do what she felt was right without worrying about the optics, which inspired Jackson to do the right thing with Clervie Martin.

Relationships

Romantic

Paul Stadler

Jo was married to Paul, but he was abusive. One incident left her with an almost ruptured kidney. Another time, he cracked her ribs and threw her across the living room floor. Unbeknownst to Paul, Jo was 7 weeks pregnant at the time, but had an abortion soon after, because she knew he would kill her if she ran away, but she also knew she could not raise a child under Paul's fear and violence. Later, she ran from him for good, and she knew that if she filed a divorce, he would find her and possibly harm her, so she changed her identity and started a new life in another city, still technically married to him.

Years later, Paul found Jo in Seattle and confronted her. He said to her that they needed to get divorced so that he and his fiancée can get married. They signed divorce papers.

When Paul became the victim of a hit-and-run, he suffered a concussion, but this was made worse when he injured his head on a bed frame and his brain began to swell, leaving him brain dead. Jo, who was still legally his wife as the divorce papers hadn't gone through yet, decided to donate his organs, stating that some good should come out of his death since his life brought evil.

Jason Myers

Jo had a crush on Jason when she started working at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. Jo and the other interns gave Jason the nickname of Chest Peckwell. Eventually, Jo and Jason began a romantic relationship. However, Jason and Alex constantly butted heads over allegations that Alex had feelings for Jo. Alex would inform Jason of Jo's troubled past, causing an argument.  During that argument, Jason physically harmed Jo, causing her to move out and end the relationship.  It was later revealed that Jo nearly killed Jason when she fought back, even to the extent of a brain bleed. He demanded to see the police but was convinced otherwise after being threatened by Alex.

Alex Karev

Shortly after first meeting her and telling her that he likes "chicks with boy names," Jo assured Alex that as he had already slept with all of her friends, she wasn't interested in him. Alex frequently referred to Jo Wilson as "princess" due to her so-called 'prissy' manners and attitude. She revealed to Alex her past life difficulties and the two became close friends after bonding at Bailey's wedding. They got along very well and they often drank together. However, they hit a snag when Jo began dating Jason Myers. After a huge fight between Jo and Jason, Jo revealed to Alex that Jason had hit her during the argument. Alex admitted to Cristina that he loved Jo, but that he was scared to tell her because of past failed relationships. During the superstorm, Alex finally admitted to Jo that he loved her and the couple shared a kiss. Since then, they have been dating. They hit a bit of a rocky patch when Alex's dad came into the hospital from a car crash related to drugs. Alex asked Jo to do a paternity test and he said he didn't want to know at the same time she said: "he's your father." Alex then proceeded to stalk his father at bars where he was performing. When Alex didn't come home for 3 nights in a row, Jo got worried. He then told her what was happening and they worked it out. Alex really knew he loved Jo then.

When Alex's father returned to the hospital going through withdrawal, Jo tried to handle him but found herself in over her head. Alex told her it wasn't her fault and that he'd been this way his whole life. At April's wedding, Alex told Jo that they would be together forever and were the only family each other needs. He said that if they do have kids, they will be great parents and will not need anyone else then share a passionate kiss. When Alex called Jo his fiancée, she told him that she didn't realize his speech at the wedding was a proposal and that she was not walking out on him, but she wasn't ready for marriage. She comforted Alex when his dad died.

When Leah issued a complaint to HR, the non-fraternization rule was put in place, forbidding unmarried couples of different authority levels to continue seeing each other. Alex and Jo faked a fight in front of the hospital, allowing them to believe they broke up while secretly staying together. Meredith gave Alex a love contract for them both to sign so they could continue working and seeing each other without getting into trouble. When Jo refused to sign it, Alex assured her that it wasn't a scary document to anything. She can't count on him because anything could happen at any minute. The contract just made it so that he could kiss her when he wants to. She signed and they shared a kiss. When Alex was offered a new job at a pediatric private practice, he sought Jo's advice and she was very supportive of him. She told him that working two jobs made him like a double agent which is very sexy. Alex took the job and Jo was very proud of him, telling him he'll do great.

Later Alex proposed to Jo. She did not give him an answer and said she had to think about it. When he asked for a real answer, she said no. She was at Joe's Bar with Stephanie later that day and she got drunk. Stephanie then left her in the hands of Andrew DeLuca. He then took Jo home. She told Andrew how she rejected Alex’s proposal, and that she didn’t want to. She confessed to him that she was married to a man who almost beat her to death. She then took off her shirt and pants in front of Andrew and she accidentally pulled him into the bed. Alex then walked in the apartment, and to him it looked like Andrew was trying to rape a drunk Jo, so Alex almost beat Andrew to death. Alex turned himself in after Andrew was brought to the hospital and went to jail, only to be bailed out by Meredith. Jo was frightened by this side of Alex and they broke up.

While Alex was working in the clinic, Jo was subpoenaed to testify at Alex’s trial, she told him she was married. She said that it could all come out in court and that’s why she couldn’t marry him. She wanted him to know if she just disappeared after the trial, it wasn’t because of him, it was because she didn’t want her husband to find her. Alex took this information and went to the DA to take the plea bargain he was offered. Andrew then heard about this and went to the DA to drop the charges.

Later, Alex went to find Jo’s husband, Paul Stadler, and confront him. He saw him but didn’t confront him because he knew it would make things worse. Alex then found out that Jo wouldn’t take him back because she was afraid he would hurt her. After Alex found this out, he went to Jo and confessed that he went to confront Paul, but he didn’t do anything. He assured her that he’s done stupid things, but he would never hurt her. Ever. Jo then kissed him and they got back together.

When Jo and Alex had a patient with a failed "HoCoPro", Pete, Jo waited for Alex after work with a sign that had "Homecoming?" written on it. Alex asked if Jo was aking him to a dance, but then Jo said that she wanted Alex to come home.

Jo saw how good Alex was with his patients, especially Kimmie and Charlie, so that night, when Alex came home, Jo had filled their apartment with candles. She started talking about how she and Alex together just made sense. Alex, realizing what was happening, went to find the engagement ring. When he coundn't find the ring, Jo showed him that she was wearing it. Jo knelt down in front of Alex and said, "You are my home, and you are my heart. Alex Karev, will you marry me?" Alex then kissed her and said, "That's a hell yes".

After Kimmie left the hospital, Alex was sitting in her patient room when Jo walked in and told him that she wanted to have kids with him, and that she also wanted to take his name when they got married because she'd never had the last name of anyone who loved her.

While stressing out about planning their wedding, April came to help them out. She told them she would plan their wedding, but when Alex was going through his bank account, he noticed something and didn't tell Jo for the rest of the day. That day, Nurse Olivia came back to the hospital with her son who has swallowed a whistle. Olivia then spent the day making fun of Alex for his past behavior, especially the time he gave her syphilis. When Olivia found out that Alex and Jo were engaged, she wished Jo "the best of luck with that". After Olivia and Alex talked, he was leaving and she said "She's too good for you" and to that Alex replied "You don't think I know that". But that night when Jo came home, she was worried about what Alex saw on his bank account and assured him that she didn't care if he was having money problems, but he told her there was too much money in the account and that his mother, Helen Karev, hadn't been cashing the checks he'd been sending her. Alex and Jo then went to Iowa only to find that Alex's mom was doing great and back at work. When his mom said that his presence was upsetting her, Jo took him to the batting cage to calm down. Alex then went back to the library and introduced Jo to his mom.

At their wedding, Jo and Alex ignored the superstitions and went to a private place together to have pre-wedding sex and found themselves in a shed. They then got locked in the shed and couldn't get out until Meredith and Andrew found them. At this point, Jo and Alex were late to their own wedding and they had to move locations because the wedding planner had an allergic reaction and there was blood all over everything. They all got on a ferry boat, and Maggie suggested Jo and Alex get married on the ferry, with Meredith officiating.

Friendships

Atticus Lincoln

Link and Jo have known each other since they were undergrads. They waited tables at Jimmy's Crab Shack together. They describe themselves as being like brother and sister. When a girlfriend of his broke up with him, he was distraught and Jo came by his place to spend time with him even though he wanted to be alone. She insisted on staying and did his laundry for him. Her company helped him through that rough patch and he returned the favor when she returned from meeting her mother.

Stephanie Edwards

Jo and Stephanie had a strong friendship that developed throughout their residency, and were there for each other through their hardest times. Jo helped Stephanie get through Jackson leaving her for April, and Stephanie helped Jo when Alex and Jo broke up. Jo was devastated when Stephanie quit her job after the hospital fire. She attempted to fill the hole Stephanie left with Ben Warren.

Meredith Grey

When Meredith was publishing her abdominal wall transplant, she wanted to put Jo's name on the paper, but she also needed a picture, and Jo couldn't give a picture because then Paul would find her, so she asked Meredith to take her name off of the article. From that point on, Meredith was very protective of Jo and was even nice to her when Alex asked. Then when Paul surprised Jo at the hospital, Meredith was there to comfort her and to keep her safe from Paul. She comforted her by saying "You're Jo Wilson. I know exactly who you are." Meredith kept Alex from Paul, so Alex didn't kill him, and Meredith sat with Jo while she was signing the divorce papers. She also protected her when Paul came back and was threatening Jo for talking to Jenny, Meredith "called security" even though the phones weren't working. After that, when Meredith was dealing with the mini spleens in Judy Kemp, Jo wished that a mini-spleen situation would happen for a useful organ, which gave Meredith the idea for her contest entry: mini livers. Since Jo helped find an important piece, she put Jo as her partner for the contest, and they created their mini livers together. After Jo's return to the hospital, Meredith has taken on a sisterly role to Jo, helping her out whenever she needs help.

Career

Dr. Wilson graduated cum laude from Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. She obtained a spot at the most wanted residency-match, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital's surgical program.

Dr. Wilson was named by Meredith Grey as the most promising intern and was thus awarded the first surgery of the rotation, which is in fact given to interns they think will fail. As expected, she did fail to complete the surgery and while crying about it, Dr. Owen Hunt informed her that it was an exercise meant to be a learning experience. The surgery is "designed" for the chosen intern to fail to set an example for the other interns.

When Richard Webber asked Meredith to choose one of the residents to assist with the surgery on him, Jo Wilson was selected.

After assisting Dr. Torres in a surgery, Jo was caught in the backlash as Callie was sued for malpractice.

When a patient in the E.R. broke his arm due to a tetanic contraction, Jo scrubbed in with Callie on his fracture repair. She discovered a love of ortho and has since been scrubbing in with Callie often.

During Jo's fifth-year of residency, she has been chosen as Chief Resident. Since Callie's departure, she has been showing an interest in general surgery and has been scrubbing in with Meredith often. Her interest in general surgery has also led her to closely work with Meredith in the Grey Sloan Surgical Innovation Contest.

Towards the end of her fifth-year, MassGen offered Jo a minimally-invasive surgery fellowship. Meredith was also ready to offer her a general surgery attending position at Grey Sloan. Ultimately, she declined MassGen's offer and decided to stay in Seattle to become a Surgical Innovation Fellow. 

After her time at the psychiatric hospital, Jo returned to Grey Sloan and became an attending general surgeon.

Notes and Trivia

• Jo dressed up as Tinkerbell for Halloween.
• Jo frequently used Heather's deodorant without telling her.
• She is allergic to wool.
• As a teenager, Jo lived in her car.
• Jo is very good at math.
• Her screensaver is a picture of the Harper Avery Award.
• She hates cats and beaches.
• Jo sends out her laundry.
• She has some anger problems.
• Jo has been in jail before, and fears that if she loses her job as a doctor she will end up there again.
• She won $1000 from Alex after betting on Shane to win when he was playing ping pong with Derek Shepherd for his rehab. She used the money to buy him a couch.
• When Jo gets nervous, she gets hives and can't eat or she will throw up.
• Jo kept a gun under the bed where she and Alex slept.
• She stole 5 cars when she was younger.
• Although a majority of her residency has been rotating in pediatric surgery, Jo has shown a keen interest in orthopedic surgery. This interest faded when Callie left and Jo has been interested in general surgery under Meredith Grey's mentorship since.
• She can cry on cue.
• She's good at writing dirty text messages.
• Jo once helped her old boyfriend rob a grocery store.
• She once lived in Connecticut.
• She is the second or third character to change her name after getting married, following Addison Forbes Montgomery and possibly Callie Torres. Callie was often referred to as Callie O'Malley, but it was never confirmed if she officially changed her name.

Gallery

A more complete gallery with pictures of Jo Wilson can be found here.

Notable Episodes

These episodes are Jo-centric or are otherwise very informative about her life.

• Love Turns You Upside Down
• Readiness is All
• Family Affair
• 1-800-799-7233
• Personal Jesus
• Old Scars, Future Hearts
• All of Me
• Silent All These Years

Memorable Quotes

Jo: You have a nice smile.

Callie: Thanks.

Jo: And, uh... just beautiful... eyes. You know, if you want to drab ... grab a drink later or ... Okay. I know this Mexican place...

Callie: Okay, okay, okay, you're flirting with me, which is really sweet or would be really sweet if you were into ladies, but I'm guessing that you're not a lady lover, 'cause you also look terrified that I might say yes. You're poking a bear, a very horny bear. And what would you do if the bear said yes? And there you'd be, trading sexual favors for ... I don't know what it is you want from me, so ... you're gonna have to tell me.

Jo: I was wondering if it would be possible to scrub in on your next surgery.

Callie: Okay, A, never trade sex for scrubbing in because that's just skanky. Save it for actually getting to cut. And B, you're giving coffee to the wrong person.

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Alex: Why aren't you in the tunnels? Interns always hang out in the tunnels. This place smells like fish. Look, I don't know what your deal is, but you can't go around assaulting patients.

Jo: She's abandoning her baby.

Alex: Then let the cops handle it. It's not your job, princess.

Jo: Stop calling me princess! My mother left me at a fire station when I was two weeks old. I got bumped around foster homes 'til I was 16, when I took matters into my own hands and started living out of a car. I parked it behind the gym of my high school so I could sneak in and use the showers before class. My home-ec teacher, Ms. Schmidt, she let me do my laundry there for free. And, yeah, I got into good schools because I worked my ass off. And when I walked across that stage at graduation, I didn't have a cheering section filled with my richy-rich family. I had one person, Ms. Schmidt. That's it. She's the one who gave me this watch when I got the job. Her son works for the company.

Appearances

Template:Jo Karev Appearances