Warning! SPOILERS for Grey’s Anatomy season 18 episode 9 ahead.
Grey’s Anatomy season 18 episode 9 had Jo and Link finally hook up after episodes of building up the pairing, but Link (Chris Carmack) was wrong in saying that them being together would have been a bad idea, especially after everything they’ve been through. Since Link’s arrival to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in season 15, the friendship between him and Jo (Camilla Luddington) flourished, especially throughout season 17. Grey’s Anatomy season 18, though, proved something more between them would be perfect for the two characters.
Link spent most of Grey’s Anatomy season 18 pining over the lost relationship with Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), or at least over the fact that he wanted to marry her while Amelia completely opposed marriage as an institution. Throughout Grey’s Anatomy seasons 16 and 17, Link and Amelia’s relationship had become one of the few genuinely positive things to come from the show, as they were ive of each other despite having very different approaches to life in adversity. Amelia’s continued refusal to his marriage proposals and Link’s inability to understand her turned their relationship sour, while his friendship with Jo helped him weather the storm.
Jo’s past relationships had also taken a toll on her, not only as she had to change names and move across the country in order to escape her abusive first husband, but also as her more recent marriage to Alex (Justin Chambers) ended up devastating her, in such a way that many Grey’s Anatomy’s fans would’ve preferred Alex dead than off to Kansas with Izzie. With Jo finally coming to with her marriage to him ending, she finally became ready for a romantic relationship. Witnessing Amelia kiss Kai Bartley (E R Fightmaster) made Link realize his and Amelia’s relationship definitely ended, so the timing for him and Jo to be together couldn’t be better.
While Link might not be ready to start a romantic relationship with Jo straight away, Grey’s Anatomy season 18 episode 9 put the final nail in the coffin of his relationship with Amelia. Link repeatedly behaved poorly after Amelia rejected his marriage proposal in the Grey’s Anatomy season 17 finale, either hijacking their son Scout’s medical check-ups to talk about her refusal or continuously trying to get her back without even trying to understand Amelia’s reasoning. Learning that he performed Owen’s surgery without confronting her about her kiss with Kai was the final straw for Amelia, definitely closing the door on the relationship.
Contrary to Link, who might need time to realize that he and Jo are perfect together, Jo understood it right after Link confessed he had a crush on her in the past. At first, it might have left her dumbfounded, but then Jo quickly realized that not only they worked well together, which she knew already thanks to their wholesome friendship, but that she had a crush on him too, despite Link relentlessly trying to make things work with Amelia. While their shift to a romantic relationship may not go as swiftly as Jo might want, Grey’s Anatomy proved Jo and Link are perfect for each other and that their time to be together has come.