As ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy is approaching its fall finale, so are the tenures of cast members Jake Borelli, who has played Levi Schmitt since 2017, and Midori Francis, in her third season as Mika Yasuda. Their exits could not be more contrasting, with Levi leaving Seattle to pursue his dream career in pediatrics while Mika got into a horrible car accident with her sister. Here is how Grey’s Anatomy wrote off Levi in “If You Leave” and geared Mika’s story for conclusion, expected in the next episode.
And just like that, merely hours after Levi chose a peds research position in Texas over Bailey’s Webber general surgeon attending offer, he was headed to his final day at Grey Sloan. His Chaplain boyfriend James was supportive in his initial reaction but seemed taken aback when Levi later floated the idea of James moving to Texas with him as the two had been grappling with the daunting prospects of a long-distance relationship.
Levi spent most of his last day with his friend (and one-time one-night stand) Jo, first in the NICU and then in the hospital lobby. As the two teamed up to save one more baby together, they also had time to say a proper goodbye, something Levi couldn’t do with anyone else in his final episode.
“I’m not dying, we are going to talk all the time,” Levi tried to reassure Jo who, overcome with emotion, told him, “You walk through life with this giant open heart. I want you in my kids’ lives.”
She asked Levi to be the unborn twins’ godfather and he, with the caveat that he was unsure how that would work as he is Jewish, accepted.
Initially stood up by James, Levi was ready to leave Grey Sloan one last time when James caught up with him and told him that he had just resigned and was moving to Texas with him, completing Levi’s happy ending.
As Grey’s Anatimy does for most of its longtime cast members, Levi’s farewell was accompanied by a montage of some of his most memorable moments on the show, including the infamous grasses drop into a surgery patient’s abdomen. (You can watch the video to Searows’ “Only Time” below.)
“You’ve come a long way,” Jo remarked.
Meanwhile, Mika and her sister Chloe spent the episode fighting for their lives with the Grey Sloan doctors fighting to save them. Mika’s state was so dire, Bailey, Owen, Teddy and Ndugu had to take time out from the OR to figure out a strategy to stabilize her. They ultimately succeeded, with Bailey delivering the breakthrough. After hours of uncertainty over her fate post-op, Mika finally woke up in the final seconds of the episode only to find out that her sister didn’t make it, the news leaving her devastated.
The impact of Mika’s accident and its aftermath on the other interns is already felt, with all of them worried sick and feeling helpless. Jules, who has been in a budding relationship with Mika, is also wracked by guilt as she was the reason Mika stayed for the night shift and went on to scrub in for surgery, rendering her so tired by the morning, she dozed off behind the wheel while taking Chloe home from the hospital. Lucas soon joined her on the guilt squad, tearing himself apart over not being able to keep his word to Mika when she asked him to take care of her sister as the two were being wheeled into the hospital.
As Levi and James are on their way to Texas, leaving the door open to return for the birth of Jo and Link’s babies, Mika is left picking up the pieces in the next episode, her last — at least for now.