Aside from Meredith and Derek, the greatest couple to come out of Grey’s Anatomy is undoubtedly that of Alex and Izzie. It was a classic opposites attract dynamic that worked to perfection. While no couple in Grey’s Anatomy ever stands the test of time in-universe, for us these couples are immortalized to a certain degree. The show wants us to move on with the characters, but this isn’t possible because we have our own preferences and a majority will go with Alex and Izzie over any other relationship he had with some other woman.
Next year, it will be an entire decade since we’ve seen Alex and Izzie together, which just goes to show how iconic the pairing was. Alex might have Jo now as his special someone and second wife, but these two don’t have that everlasting impact that gives shows the immortal status. When Grey’s Anatomy will come to an end, people will still think of Alex with Izzie as their first thought – Sorry, Jo.
Within the six-year span, the two had been on and off with each other on the show, Alex and Izzie faced a number of self-inflicted problems that fractured their relationship. However, the two being together also changed the characters, leading to certain development. This is why we loved this pairing as the two brought out different sides in one another, and isn’t character development the reason why we watch Grey’s Anatomy in the first place?
Here are 25 Things That Don’t Make Sense About Izzie And Alex’s Relationship.
He still thinks of Her
Izzie may have left in Season 6, but Alex still thinks of her to this day. Jo is someone who Alex loves because Izzie hasn’t been present. Had she been in the picture, Alex wouldn’t have gone after Jo.
Across all seasons, Alex still mentions Izzie frequently. He measures every woman he’s been within comparison to Izzie. His mind wanders toward Izzie to the extent that he’s told Jo what Izzie looked like; not really a conversation one would have with their wife.
He thought she was his soulmate
Alex isn’t thinking of Izzie to this day for nothing, he still believes Izzie was the one truly for him. Alex doesn’t strike as the kind of guy who believes in the concept of soulmates, but he did just that.
In Season 12, when Alex and Meredith became absolute best friends, the two spoke of soulmates. Alex admitted to Meredith that his soulmate had been Izzie and he didn’t think anyone could ever top her. Despite Meredith assuring him Izzie wasn’t his soulmate, Alex brushed her opinion off.
She was the only intern who befriended him
Considering how Alex treated her (read on further below to know what he did) when they first got to know each other, Izzie had a big heart to overlook all that. George disliked Alex while Meredith and Cristina weren’t very fond of him; however, Izzie was the only original intern who made the effort to befriend Alex.
This involved helping him study and including him in the friend group. Without Izzie, Alex would never have become Meredith’s best friend. He owes this to her.
He tried to respect George because of her
Alex always claimed he saw George as a weak person and bullied him for it. In actuality, Alex was jealous of everyone liking George for his personality while shunning Alex for his. Because he was dating Izzie, Alex decided to go against his instincts of being rotten to George and attempted to respect him.
George being Izzie’s best friend meant Alex had to set aside his personal animosity for him and be a better person. Still doesn’t excuse why he treated George in a terrible way for no reason, though.
He was jealous of her and Denny’s friendship
Because of Alex’s unfriendly nature, the fandom wasn’t inclined to side with him when he had issues with Izzie spending a lot of time with Denny. His suspicions weren’t totally unfounded seeing that Izzie got together with Denny as soon as she broke up Alex.
Yet, Izzie would never have considered being unfaithful to him, and the dissolution of their relationship was Alex’s fault due to his jealousy. Alex isn’t good at handling his jealousy problems and acted out in a way that was the worst route possible.
He thought of her after getting hurt
In the Season 6 finale, a shooter entered the hospital and took out a number of the staff. Among the ones injured was Alex, who ended up falling victim to the guy causing all the problems. At the time, Alex was in a relationship with Lexie.
Lexie had wanted Alex to be invested in their relationship and got his answer why that wasn’t the case when Alex called out to Izzie in what he thought were his final moments. Even when near his end, Alex had Izzie in his mind.
He only dated Lexie to forget Izzie
Every time Lexie and Mark hit a hurdle in their relationship, both of them would engage in physical activities with other people; that was just their coping mechanism. Lexie started out this way with Alex in Season 6, but this turned out to be more.
From her end, she saw Alex as someone she could fall in love and not just be together for physical interactions. Alex, however, only dated her to forget Izzie. He never loved Lexie, and treated her as a placeholder for the void Izzie left in him.
She helped him realize Jane Doe’s problems
After showing a lot of storylines involving Alex and Izzie together from Season 1 to the first half of Season 3, the show deviated the two away from each other and gave them separate love interests.
Even during this time, Izzie didn’t leave Alex from a friendly capacity and offered support in his uneven situation with the unstable Jane Doe. Alex shunned Izzie numerous times, only for Izzie to come back and support him each time. She finally convinced Alex to place Jane Doe in medical care for her mental problems.
She was there for him
After Alex did admit Jane Doe into the psychiatric unit, thereby ending their relationship and his storyline with her, he became apathetic to Izzie’s sympathies. When Izzie offered her support, he initially brushed her off by saying “whatever”, but her magnetism was such that he then attempted to kiss her.
Knowing this would be the only way she could let him feel some respite, she relented and briefly reciprocated. Despite not being together, Izzie made Alex feel something they had been when they were together in Season 2 so he could get over Jane Doe.
He married her even though he knew she would probably leave
The best parts of Alex were on display when connected to Izzie. In Season 2, after Denny’s passing, he was the only one who did something about the situation and carried her out of there.
In Season 5, knowing that Izzie would probably pass away soon, Alex swallowed the probable grief he would receive and married Izzie in an impromptu wedding. He made sure Izzie had no clue of the upcoming nuptials and the event was planned to the final degree before Izzie was brought in to walk down the aisle.
She was his first love
This should go without saying seeing as how we’ve given you enough reasons to figure out Alex was so deeply into Izzie because she was his first love. Before he fell for her, Alex was a complete meanie who only saw women as objects that would bring him physical pleasure.
It was his love for Izzie that made Alex more than a shallow person looking for cheap interactions with women. Izzie being his first love also justifies why he has always been so hung up on her.
He always cared for her
We mentioned Alex’s response to jealousy over Izzie and Denny’s friendship wasn’t pretty, and here’s what the fallout from that was. Alex chose to find solace in another woman and was unfaithful to Izzie. Nurse Olivia, who was a pretty frequent bed hopper, was Alex’s partner in this situation.
After Izzie caught them, she promptly broke up with him. While normally Alex wouldn’t care what any girl thinks of him, in Izzie’s case he was distraught at how badly he had ruined things – it’s because he never stopped caring for her.
The Actors’ Age Gap
In TV and movies, actors are generally older than the characters they portray. This trope is known as ‘Dawson Casting’, owing to the actors’ ages. Grey’s Anatomy has also employed this trope by having mismatched ages for actors and their characters.
Alex’s actor was 35 when the show began while Izzie’s was 27. There is a large eight-year gap between the two and realistically they can’t be interns are the same time. In-universe, both characters were supposed to be 27-years-old when the show began.
He’s fantasized her current life
It was teased that we would get the opportunity to know what Izzie has been up to for the last eight years in Season 14. The show had been celebrating its 300th episode that year and speculation was that Izzie would appear.
In the end, she was mentioned by Alex but not shown. It was revealed that Alex had the chance to know where she was now but chose to concoct an imaginary scenario. According to him, she was now married and had kids in a well-rounded life.
She abandoned him under mountains of debt
When Alex married Izzie he probably thought it was a superb grand romantic gesture on his part. The trouble was he not only got her hand in marriage, but he also got all the debt she was under too. Cancer treatments aren’t cheap, but they can be divided between spouses – just make sure your spouse doesn’t run away soon after marriage.
Alex was stuck with Izzie’s cancer treatment bills and was severely under debt. She ran away and left all of her problems on to him. Not exactly Wife of the Year.
He was the one who ended the marriage
What everyone tends to forget about the end of Alex and Izzie’s marriage is that Izzie wasn’t the one who ended it. She was the one responsible for everything leading to their marriage dissolving, but the final nail in the coffin was put by Alex.
After Izzie seemingly came back to her senses, she returned to Seattle to get back together with Alex. This time around all was not forgotten by Alex, who told her he didn’t deserve to be treated the way she was treating him and broke the marriage up.
Katherine Heigl thinks Izzie would be jealous of Alex’s marriage now
Izzie had jealousy problems of her own and these were shown several times during her tenure. She was thoroughly jealous of the girls Alex dated, and was jealous of Callie for being married to George after she herself fell in love with him.
Katherine Heigl thinks Izzie would be jealous of Jo now should she hear about Alex marrying her. Perhaps the actress feels Izzie also saw Alex as her true soulmate and watching another woman take that spot might tip Izzie into jealousy.
Both of them fell in love with their patients
These two were more similar than you might think. Although Izzie isn’t a hound when it comes to the opposite gender, she did tend to fall in love an awful lot. She first fell in love with Alex, then Denny, and then George.
Meanwhile, Alex also emulated her situation with Denny by falling in love with his patient. Both Alex and Izzie were involved with patients who were never destined to be with them. They also both avoided being fired because it’s not like any doctor can date their patient.
He was out of line
In the era of all the #metoo stuff going around, and people freaking out about the most minute of things, there’s no way Alex would have gotten away with printing out pictures of Izzie’s modeling days and showing it to people.
He did just that in the first season in an attempt to embarrass her for hiding her past. This was completely out of line, but Alex had no care for it. It was only after Izzie fully embraced her modeling past that Alex was shut up.
Their wedding was not originally for them
Although Alex did a wonderful thing by marrying Izzie despite her days coming to an end, the wedding hadn’t been his to put together. Originally, the whole elaborate wedding was formed because it was the event for Meredith and Derek.
Izzie was swept off her feet after catching sight of the ceremony, but you could say she really ought to have thanked Meredith (which she did). The marriage between Alex and Izzie wouldn’t have been possible had Meredith and Derek not had their own post-it wedding.
