It looks like Levi has left Grey’s Anatomy, but his actor is hoping he might return! What does Jake Borelli have to say?
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 7
Fans of Grey’s Anatomy already knew that Midori Francis would be leaving the series. The latest episode had Mika in a nasty car accident alongside her sister Chloe, with the hospital staff naturally upset trying to save one of their own. Especially overwrought was Jules, who blamed herself for swapping shifts with Mika, leaving her more tired out.
It was touch and go, but the good news was Mika pulled through after a couple of days in a coma. The bad news was she had to wake up to Bailey breaking it to her that Chloe had died of her injuries. This seems the obvious way to write off Francis with a grieving Mika unable to remain at the hospital.
However, another exit was a bit more surprising for a longer-lasting character. The last episode had Levi offered to be a full resident at the hospital. However, Levi instead decided to take a big offer from a place in San Antonio. He and Jo bonded a bit over it with Jo encouraging Levi to follow his dreams.
Levi was unsure of how his boyfriend James would feel about this. As much as Levi loved him, he wanted to follow his dreams and was sure James wouldn’t be willing to uproot his life. He was cheered up by Jo asking Levi to be the godfather of her children.
We got a great montage of Levi’s time on the series, showing how he’s grown from a bumbling intern to a fully accomplished doctor. Just as he was biking out of the hospital for the last time, he was met by James, who announced he’d just quit his own job to be with Levi.
So that appears to be the end of Levi, but his actor is hopeful of a return!
Could Levi return to Grey’s Anatomy?
Jake Borelli did a big interview with Deadline to talk about the episode, including how he was bothered by how they had to cram a lot of story into just a few episodes rather than a longer sendoff for Levi. That included leaving off a talk between Levi and his mom on his leaving for Texas.
Despite that, Borelli was happy with how the exit was handled, giving Levi a chance to achieve his dreams elsewhere.
"We finally see him in a relationship where their communication is good, where they truly do want to be with each other, even though they’re facing obstacles in terms of job and in terms of religion and in lots of different ways. So I think it’s perfectly paired to have him going after his dream career job while also going after his dream guy. I think it is really poetic, especially from where we started with Krista."
Borelli seems to have no beef with the Grey’s writers on how Levi was handled in his exit and spoke warmly of the character’s evolution across the show’s history. He was especially happy about the series handling Levi’s queer identity and not shying away from addressing his problems.
Naturally, the talk turned to whether the door was closed for Levi on the show and Borelli made fans happy by saying he was quite hopeful for Levi to return.
"I’m very hopeful that Levi will come back. I think the audience is interested to see what Levi is up to, I certainly am. He has so many connections to people still at the hospital, like you said, Jo, so I couldn’t imagine the birth of those babies without Levi bending the world to get there. We’ll see what [showrunner Meg Marinis]] does. I think we also have this wonderful opportunity to have him grow off camera, and then to have him come back at some point and really be this boss that we know he can be. We’ll see what’s in store for the future of the show."
Grey’s does have a long history of bringing back past characters, as shown by Kate Walsh returning as Addison Shepherd, among others. It would make sense for Levi to pop up in a future season, whether some doctors heading to Texas or he comes back to Seattle for a case. It’d be great to see a more confident Levi who’s blossomed as a doctor and maybe even married to James by that point.
So while Grey’s fans may be sad to see Levi Schmitt go, Borelli’s confidence he can return makes them hopeful Schmitt pops up in the future.
Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.