EXCLUSIVE: Jesse Williams is returning as director and guest star in the fifth episode of the medical drama’s upcoming 19th season, reprising his role as Dr. Jackson Avery. Airing Nov. 3 and titled “When I Get to the Border,” it will be the fourth episode of the show that Williams has directed.
Williams departed Grey’s as a series regular in spring 2021 after 12 seasons. In the May 6, 2021 Season 17 episode “Look Up Child” it was revealed Jackson was leaving Grey Sloan to move to Boston to take over the family foundation. He was followed there by his ex, April (Sarah Drew), who relocated with their daughter. Williams made a couple of more appearances in Season 17.
He, along with Drew, then returned to guest star in the Season 18 finale last May, in which they confirmed that Jackson and April have rekindled their relation by kissing in the elevator at Grey Sloan Memorial.
Drew will not be In Episode 1905, in which Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) catches up with Jackson (Williams) on a trip to Boston but Grey’s Anatomy executive producer/director Debbie Allen will reprise her recurring role as Jackson’s mother, Catherine.
In other “When I Get to the Border” developments, Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Addison (Kate Walsh) take a road trip to volunteer at a family planning center, but a patient’s ectopic pregnancy leads to complications. Elsewhere, the interns play detective about Lucas’ (Niko Terho) relationship with Amelia (Caterina Scorsone).
Williams also served as a director on ABC series Rebel, from Grey’s showrunner and executive producer Krista Vernoff. An activist and a tech entrepreneur, he also executive produced the 2021 Oscar-winning film Two Distant Strangers. Williams is returning to Broadway in the baseball-themed Take Me Out, for which he was nominated for a Tony. He recently starred alongside Owen Wilson in Paramount+’s Secret Headquarters and will next be seen in Netflix’s Your Place or Mine with Reese Witherspoon.