Sarah Drew and Jesse Williams are returning to “Grey’s Anatomy” for the Season 18 finale on Thursday, and Japril fans are holding out hope for any details on where their relationship stands.
We last saw Jackson Avery and April Kepner in Season 17, when Williams departed as a series regular. Drew (who departed at the end of Season 14) returned for Williams’ final episode, where April agreed to move to Boston with Jackson — giving us a glimmer of hope that this might mean reconciliation was on the horizon for the two of them.
Jackson and April’s relationship hasn’t been smooth, by any means. They first expressed their feelings for each other toward the end of Season 8, and since then they’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster that included an elopement, several near-death experiences, the loss of a child and the birth of another child. But, what else would we expect from “Grey’s Anatomy”?
Time will tell why the beloved couple is coming back to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and whether we’ll get any details on a possible rekindling of their romance. But, in honor of Japril’s return, we’ve compiled a list of some of their best moments throughout the series.
Jackson defends April during medical boards (Season 8, Episode 21)
While Jackson and April’s friendship was platonic at first, Season 8 is when things start to take a turn. The residents travel to San Francisco to take their medical boards, and things start to go awry after Meredith comes down with a stomach bug and Alex flies back to Seattle for a patient. Jackson and April are spending time together at the hotel bar, when Jackson ends up pulling April out of a bar fight with a man who insults her for getting a job he applied for.
They admit their feelings for each other (Season 8, Episode 21)
This episode ends up being a big one for Japril. Still pumped up on adrenaline from the bar brawl, April kisses Jackson outside her hotel room. April is extremely religious, and she’s confided in Jackson previously about her desire to wait until marriage. However, after admitting her feelings for him, she loses her virginity to Jackson the night before their board exams.
Their first pregnancy scare (Season 9, Episode 7)
April and Jackson do eventually end up getting pregnant twice (and their first baby, Samuel, sadly dies at birth). But before all that, when their relationship was still quite new, April tells Jackson that she thinks she might be pregnant. This leads to a very sweet scene in a hospital conference room, where Jackson tells April he’s ready to go all in — get married and start their family. They fantasize about the idea, but April ultimately has reservations about the plan, prompting Jackson to realize they may be on different pages about their relationship.
April tells Jackson she loves him (Season 9, Episode 24)
Season 9 really is a whirlwind for Jackson and April, because by Episode 24 she’s engaged to Matthew, an EMT who she meets while working in the trauma center at Seattle Grace. But, we all know there’s some lingering feelings between her and Jackson, which are proven when she witnesses a bus explode outside the hospital while she believes Jackson is still inside trying to save a child. She screams for him until he emerges from the smoke with the child in his arms and, later, tells him that she’s in love with him.
April and Jackson get married (Season 10, Episode 12 and 13)
Despite Jackson and April’s very clear spark, hers and Matthew’s wedding day finally comes in Season 10. However, their relationship is effectively blown to pieces over the course of these two episodes that Japril fans can never forget. In Episode 12, Jackson stands before the altar and objects to April’s marriage, finally confessing his love for her. She runs away with him, and in the next episode they elope in Lake Tahoe.
The birth of their son, Samuel (Season 11, Episode 11)
This definitely isn’t a happy moment for Jackson and April, but it is a powerful one — and one that’s very important to the context of their current relationship. Their blissful marriage is interrupted quite quickly by a pregnancy that turns into grief when they find out that their son, Samuel, has type II osteogenesis imperfecta and will not live past birth. April delivers him at 24 weeks and they hold him until he dies a short time later. The grief ends up tearing their marriage apart, and they eventually divorce.
Their daughter, Harriet, is born (Season 12, Episode 24)
The birth of Jackson and April’s daughter is a much-needed moment of joy for the two of them, after a painful two seasons. Of course, nothing can ever go smoothly on “Grey’s Anatomy.” In the Season 12 finale, April goes into labor during a storm and Miranda Bailey’s husband Ben Warren must perform a C-Section without the proper tools or anesthesia. Although Jackson and April are already divorced at this point, their reunion in the hospital after Harriet is born is incredibly heartwarming.
When they go to Montana (Season 13, Episode 16)
In Season 13, April and Jackson travel to Montana together to perform surgery on a young patient. While they’re there, Jackson decides to see his father — who abandoned him and his mother when he was younger. The interactions bring up a lot of pain for Jackson, and he finds solace in April. It’s a great episode for Japril fans who had been holding out hope the pair might rekindle their romance (even if they only do so briefly).
April’s car accident (Season 14, Episode 23)
Another gut wrenching moment in Japril history (and just “Grey’s Anatomy” in general) is when April and Matthew are involved in a car accident, which not only exposes their budding relationship re-do to the rest of the hospital staff, but also nearly kills them both. As April is laying in a hospital bed, Jackson — who has been adamantly non-religious throughout the series — literally begs God for his ex-wife to make it through. The scene ends with Jackson in tears, as April squeezes his hand and finally opens her eyes. Yeah, we still cry just thinking about it.
April moves to Boston for Jackson (Season 17, Episode 14)
Drew officially left the series after Season 14, when April quit her job to provide medical care for the homeless communities in Seattle with Matthew. However, she makes a return in Season 17 to help send off Williams for his final episode. Jackson goes to April’s house to let her know he’s decided to move to Boston to run his family’s foundation. He learns that April and Matthew have separated and, by the end of the visit, April agrees to move to Boston with him so that Harriet can stay near both her parents. It’s the last we’ve seen of either character — which gives us all hope for the future of Japril.
The two-hour Season 18 finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” airs May 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
