This Detail About Jo and Link is a Problem on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

Finally, Jo and Link are together on Grey’s Anatomy. Unfortunately, the events that follow their declaration of love for one another make it harder to be happy for them.

It’s a detail that’s presented, but that is glossed over far too quickly. It’s also done in a way that feels out of character for both of their characters. Realistically, both Jo and Link would carry more guilt over what happened with Sam Sutton.

For starters, Sam Sutton is ultimately the reason that Jo and Link reveal that they’re in love with each other in the first place.

Link’s jealousy as he watched Sam and Jo’s flirtation is what led to their fight outside the hospital. And that fight is what led to Link telling Jo he was in love with her — and Jo reciprocating.

It’s a perfect, swoon-worthy, cinematic moment as they kiss in the rain. Meanwhile, however, Sam is dying, and Teddy is passed out on the floor of the OR.

The hospital was already short on attendings because of the Catherine Fox Award Ceremony. So, when the interns paged for help after Teddy’s collapse, there weren’t many who could come running to begin with. 

But two of them, and two who were specifically Sam’s doctors, were preoccupied with a badly timed romantic moment.

That isn’t why Sam died, of course. As Link pointed out on the Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 premiere, the complication Sam had couldn’t have been repaired by anyone in time to save him. Not even Teddy.

Still, knowing that Sam was bleeding out while they were making out should affect both Jo and Link more than it does.

Sam’s mother accused both of them of seeing Sam as “just another patient,” and we know that’s not true either. That’s a scene that also deserved more attention, but at the very least, it should have had a stronger effect on both characters.

Quite frankly, it’s a missed opportunity for some interesting character development.

But it gets worse. Mika Yasuda called Jo out in the hallway for not being there when the interns needed her. And everything she said was right.

Jo and Link should have been available sooner, and while they might not have been able to save Sam in time, had they been there to take over, it would have saved the interns from having their jobs on the line. 

Yasuda: Where were you? I genuinely want to know. I need to know. His blood is still on my shoes and my hands. My hands kept Dr. Altman’s heart beating last night. And I don’t even know if she’s alive right now because Ndugu kicked me out of the I.R. suite. I can’t focus. I can’t think. And I also might be fired from the only place that would hire me as a surgeon. We are interns. You were supposed to be there when we called, but we called, and we paged, and we hoped that someone would come through those doors. And no one did until it was too late.

Jo seems to take this to heart at first, and she asks Link later if he feels guilty about what happened. He says he feels sad, but not guilty.

His response, however, focuses only on the fact that they couldn’t have saved Sam regardless. It doesn’t consider the consequences for the interns and it doesn’t consider the significance of this particular patient. 

Discounting both of those things is wildly out of character for Link. Jo, meanwhile, shifts focus to guilt over finally being happy when others can’t, which spins the whole thing in a completely different direction.

That’s a different feeling of guilt entirely, and it misses the point of Yasuda’s speech and what Jo and Link should actually feel responsible for.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 Episode 2 continues to gloss over this, moving the story forward too quickly and focusing only on the romance and history between Jo and Link.

That’s not to say those aren’t good moments, especially for audience members who had been eagerly waiting for these two to finally get together. They are, and they’re fun to watch.

It’s satisfying to see Jo and Link in a real relationship at this point. However, it’s a disservice to the characters not to have them deal with the emotional ramifications of what they were doing when Sam was dying and the interns were left to their own devices.

Rushing past all of that to focus on the romance is a missed opportunity, and it makes it less exciting to see them together as a couple. Hopefully, it’s at least something that will be explored further in future episodes.

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Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.

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