Alex Karev then becomes Interim Chief of surgery for a six-month period while Bailey is on a "stress sabbatical".
63 Facts About Alex Karev
2.
Alex Karev's mother had a mental illness, and his father was often absent, as well as often becoming violent towards him and his mother.
3.
Alex Karev began wrestling in high school, and eventually physically confronted his father, after which, his father did not return.
4.
Alex Karev has a younger brother, Aaron, and a younger sister, Amber; they were all placed in foster care for 5 years.
5.
Alex Karev was present when Aaron had to be committed to a psychiatric ward.
6.
Alex Karev secured a position in the surgical residency program at Seattle Grace Hospital after graduating from the University of Iowa.
7.
Alex Karev became a wrestler so he could defend his mother, and attended university on a wrestling scholarship.
8.
Alex Karev asks Izzie out on a date, but he is thrown by the news that he has failed his medical board exams.
9.
Alex Karev goes on to sleep with Olivia again, and is caught by Izzie and they break up.
10.
Alex Karev helps Izzie recover from Denny's death and tries to rekindle their relationship but Izzie backs away, since she is still in the process of getting over her loss and they remain friends.
11.
Alex Karev spends a period of time working under neonatal surgeon Dr Addison Montgomery, and though he is later released to work for plastic surgeon Dr Mark Sloan, he finds his interest returning to Addison's specialty.
12.
Alex Karev convinces her to tell him her true identity, and she reveals herself to be Rebecca Pope.
13.
Alex Karev turns her down after realizing she's married, feeling that he is not good enough for her.
14.
Alex Karev has a brief relationship with intern Lexie Grey, but chooses to be with Rebecca, when she returns and tells him she is pregnant.
15.
Alex Karev is shocked by the news, but finds the strength to stay by her side.
16.
Izzie plans a wedding for Meredith and Derek, but when Derek finds Izzie has another inoperable tumor in her brain, they give the wedding to Izzie and Alex Karev, who marry in front of all their friends.
17.
Alex Karev tells him she no longer has cancer and Alex says he is happy for her but he deserved someone who would stay.
18.
Alex Karev seems to have recently found that his calling is actually Peds and not Plastics, as he had decided in the earlier seasons.
19.
Alex Karev is shot in the hospital by a deceased patient's husband, but survives with the help of Lexie and Mark.
20.
Alex Karev is further shown to be excellent with children, comforting with a young patient while growing her a new trachea.
21.
Alex Karev immediately gets on the wrong side of new Pediatric attending, Stark while Arizona is on leave.
22.
Alex Karev is thrilled when Arizona returns from Africa and hopes she will come to work for the hospital again.
23.
Alex Karev finds out about Meredith sabotaging her Alzheimer's clinical trial and rats her out, an attempt to get Chief Resident.
24.
Alex Karev extends his stay at Seattle Grace until a replacement for Robbins is found, but when he learns that the replacement will send the exchange program to UCLA, he decides not to leave.
25.
Alex Karev buys Meredith's old house from her, and Cristina becomes his roommate.
26.
Alex Karev admits his love for Jo, and the two kiss and become a couple.
27.
Alex Karev's estranged father, Jimmy, who he hasn't seen in 18 years, is admitted to the ER as a patient.
28.
Unknowing that Alex Karev is his son, Jimmy confides in Alex Karev that he had another family that he hasn't seen in years.
29.
Jimmy tells Alex Karev he knows that he is his son and Alex Karev yells at him.
30.
Alex Karev later discovers that he isn't happy working at the private practice and expresses a desire to return full-time to Grey Sloan.
31.
Alex is fired by Dr Lebackes, when Maggie Pierce accidentally reveals to him that Karev was thinking about leaving the job.
32.
Webber recommended Bailey to fill Yang's board seat after she left, so Bailey and Alex Karev fight over the chair.
33.
Alex Karev is hired back as an attending pediatric surgeon and takes over full-time as Arizona pursues a fellowship with Dr Herman.
34.
Alex Karev continues to date Jo and his friendship with Meredith grows stronger than ever, with him taking on the role of her new person.
35.
When Derek dies and Meredith runs away, Alex Karev is upset by her leaving without telling him where she went and calls her every day.
36.
When she goes into labor and gives birth to Ellis Shepherd, Alex Karev goes to see her since he is her emergency contact.
37.
Alex Karev asks to move back in with him in her old house.
38.
Alex Karev sells Meredith back the house and he and Jo rent a loft.
39.
Alex Karev then gets jealous of Alex wanting to have babies with Izzie.
40.
Later, Alex Karev realizes that he misses Jo and gets her back.
41.
Meredith then tells him Izzie wasn't his true love and Alex Karev told her Izzie was his Derek.
42.
Alex Karev assumes that Deluca was attempting to take advantage of Jo while she was inebriated and is filled with rage.
43.
Alex Karev beats Deluca to a pulp with his bare hands.
44.
Andrew is badly injured, Alex Karev realizes what he's done and quickly rushes Deluca to the hospital.
45.
Meredith quickly realizes that Alex Karev was in fact the one who beat Deluca.
46.
Alex Karev covers for him and the two continue to lie to everyone in the hospital about Alex's actions.
47.
Soon, Alex Karev learns that Andrew wasn't doing anything wrong and that he had beaten up a good guy.
48.
Meredith decides that even though she loves Alex Karev, she needs to turn him in.
49.
But, when the two rush to the police they find Alex Karev being arrested for aggravated assault, as he had turned himself in.
50.
Alex Karev is taken to jail and Meredith bails him out.
51.
Alex Karev's husband is abusive and so she ran away and changed her name to Jo Wilson so that he wouldn't find her.
52.
However, when Alex Karev tells Meredith this, she begs him not to and tells him that she can't lose him because she's already lost everyone else important in her life.
53.
Alex Karev assumes that he took the plea, and began calling and visiting various local jails to find him.
54.
When he meets him, Alex Karev decides against confronting him over Jo, avoiding exposing her current identity and location and potentially stopping himself from assaulting someone yet again.
55.
Alex Karev goes to Jo and tells her that he could never abuse her like her husband did because he dealt with the same trauma as a kid as his father was abusive.
56.
Alex Karev then tells her that he found her husband.
57.
Jo is taken aback by this, but when Alex Karev tells her that he didn't kill or injure him in any way, she is relieved and finally trusts him again.
58.
Midway through season 16, he disappeared to Iowa to see his mom, but it was revealed in the episode "Leave a Light On", Alex Karev reconnected with Izzie, in the weeks leading up to Meredith's trial seeking her medical license to be reinstated.
59.
Alex Karev gets to be complex in ways most characters don't because even though he's got a moral code, his moral code is totally twisted and dark.
60.
Justin Chambers commented on his character's inability to tell Stevens that he loves her in the beginning of their relationship, saying that Alex Karev has difficulty expressing himself.
61.
Alex Karev sleeps with any girl who will have him, insults everyone who doesn't, and generally enjoys being the hospital asshole.
62.
Yet, over the course of 10 seasons Alex Karev has evolved, slowly and realistically, into a genuinely good person whose faults don't miraculously disappear, but take a backseat to much better qualities.
63.
Alex Karev is keen in recognizing these traits in kids, as well.