Is Jesse Williams Scrubbing In For Grey’s Anatomy Season 22?

Grey's is dipping back into one of its most reliable wells: Jesse Williams is returning as Dr. Jackson Avery in Season 22. If you spotted him in the promo, you weren't imagining it. He's back at Grey Sloan in Episode 4, titled "Goodbye Horses."

When and where Jackson pops up

Williams shows up in Season 22, Episode 4, making this his fourth guest stint since he exited as a series regular. He left in Season 17, Episode 17 ("Someone Saved My Life Tonight") and has popped back in once each in Season 18, Season 19, and the Season 21 premiere. Now, we get another visit.

What "Goodbye Horses" is about

The episode splits its focus: the interns are dealing with what ABC is calling a "bizarre trauma," while Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) gets pulled into a prickly partnership on a complicated breast reconstruction case (per Entertainment Weekly).

The promo leans on the Meredith/Jackson dynamic: they cross paths and clash over her long-paused Alzheimer's research. The official logline stays coy about why Jackson is in town, but it doesn't take a medical license to guess potential threads: lingering history with Meredith, whatever is going on with his mother Dr. Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen), and his life in Boston with Dr. April Kepner (Sarah Drew) and their daughter.

Why Jesse Williams left in the first place

Back in June 2021, Season 17 wrote Jackson out by sending him to Boston to run his family's philanthropic empire and rekindle things with his ex, April. Quick note for anyone confused by the foundation name you&aposve heard over the years: it's now the Catherine Fox Foundation on the show (formerly the Harper Avery Foundation). The renaming happened in-universe; you&aposre not misremembering.

Creatively, Williams has said he and then-showrunner Krista Vernoff agreed Jackson had hit a natural endpoint. He wanted the character to pursue something bigger than hospital politics, and the show gave him that runway.

"He's been in bubble wrap his whole life," Jesse Williams told The Hollywood Reporter, explaining why it felt right for Jackson to change his environment and chase work he cared about beyond just surgery.

Since leaving full-time, Williams has branched out with stage work on Broadway and producing, while keeping the Grey Sloan door open for selective returns like this one.

Jackson Avery timeline at a glance

• Left as a series regular: Season 17, Episode 17 ("Someone Saved My Life Tonight") in June 2021
• Guest appearances: once in Season 18, once in Season 19, and in the Season 21 premiere
• Next up: Season 22, Episode 4 ("Goodbye Horses")

When to watch

New episodes of Grey's Anatomy Season 22 air Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.