Sarah Drew on her brief but pivotal return to Grey’s Anatomy - The A.V. Club

Fans of the relationship between Grey’s Anatomy characters Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) and April Kepner (Sarah Drew) were in for a treat with the ABC medical drama’s most recent season 17 episode.

Club asked Drew about her return being limited to Jackson’s storyline, she said that it was really important for her to make it special.

Drew said this outing felt similar to two of the previous Jackson and April-focused Grey’s episodes: season 12's “Unbreak My Heart” and season 13's Montana-set “Who Is He (And What Is He To You?), which fans have dubbed these “Japril: The Movie” and “Japril: The Sequel.” “Look Up Child” takes place in the contained, candlelit setting of April’s apartment as the former couple discuss Jackson’s plan for the foundation and how it would help April’s ongoing medical work with rural communities.

Drew found out Williams was leaving when the story was being pitched to her on the phone.

The relationship between us as humans and as Jackson and April is meaningful to both of us, so it felt like the perfect time to do a special episode, I was honored to do it,” she told journalists during the conference call.

“One of the biggest heartbreaks for me about leaving in season 14 was that they didn’t get to be endgame,” Drew said,”so who knows what happens when they make their way to Boston, but I think there’s a great deal of hope there.” She also shared that in reading the script, it almost felt like it was charting the course for a Japril spin-off.

But doing an episode like this one meant Drew didn’t get to reunite with the rest of her former co-workers.

Club asked her about this, she said “it would’ve been fun to walk those halls again, put on those scrubs and see everybody, but I did get to see everybody on set where we went for COVID testing, so I got to walk around and hang out, which was great.”.