The long wait for Grey’s Anatomy fans to find out the status of April and Jackson’s marriage is finally over.
Grey’s Anatomy 12×11, “Unbreak My Heart,” brought fans back through April and Jackson’s story by way of a series of flashbacks to fill in the gaps of stories we haven’t seen. The beginning of the episode opened up to Jackson running to church to see a bride that wasn’t April, but is actually one of his longtime patients Tatiana. It’s not clear at first what this means for April and Jackson but quickly sent me into a panic that it was foreshadowing doom for the couple.
The show then goes into a lot shorter flashbacks that shows April and Jackson getting ready to sign divorce papers, April yelling at Jackson for being served the papers, arguments about therapy, and a familiar scene of April waiting for Jackson to say he doesn’t love her anymore but instead he’s shown saying that he wants her and not the divorce. While all of these are definitely important moments, they happened so quickly it was a bit confusing at first.
Another flashback shows April and Jackson enjoying some Chinese takeout at home, and it’s the first time we see them laughing and having fun for the first time in a while. It doesn’t last long before Jackson brings up divorce, and April says she still wants to work on things. We finally get to see the pair having a frank conversation about what caused their relationship to fail, their differences in how they dealt with Samuel’s death. It’s interesting to see how Jackson says he isn’t taking the divorce casually, but then says it’s normal in his family for couples to get divorced. So which is it?
For the first time Jackson’s pain dealing with the anniversary of Samuel’s death is shown. Tatiana is there for him when April is away in Jordan. He ends up trashing Samuel’s nursery and having to go to the hospital for stitches where Catherine isn’t happy to hear April hasn’t called. Despite Jackson making excuses for her, it’s clear that her absence during this time is killing him. This is probably the first time that I actually start to feel bad for Jackson, and his desire for the divorce starts to make sense.
Of course, just as I’m starting to feel bad for Jackson, they show another flashback of April just after she lost Samuel and couldn’t even go into work. Jackson made the mistake of saying they could try for another baby, but April still just wants Samuel. He tears up, and seems like he doesn’t know how to help her.
Flashbacks to their elopement show problems from the start of their marriage, and April wondering if they should have thought things out more. Despite this, it’s sweet to see what happened between Jackson stopping April’s wedding to Matthew to their own quickie wedding. Before the actual wedding they seemed to be able to navigate through their disagreements, but perhaps that was only because they were still living on the adrenaline of running away together?
Mercy West flashbacks show that April and Jackson weren’t friends right off of the bat, and in fact Jackson thought April was kind of weird. Despite not always liking her, he was always there for her.
In the end, April agrees to sign the papers because it’s what Jackson wants. Despite knowing how April and Jackson got to the end, it doesn’t make it easier on the fans or them! Jackson is there for Tatiana on her wedding day to another man, which proves that he’s still a good guy. Meanwhile, April reveals to Arizona that she’s pregnant again, and she knew before signing the papers.
Was it smart of April to keep the pregnancy from Jackson? I’m not really sure. On the one hand it shows that she isn’t trying to force their marriage to work. On the other hand, Jackson might resent her for not telling him as soon as she knew. I’m not convinced this is the actual end of Japril. There might be hope for them yet.