SPOILER ALERT: Grey’s Anatomy regular departs the hospital in show's surprising 13th season finale
Viewers of Thursday's 13th season finale of Grey’s Anatomy likely got a surprise as one of the show's longtime cast members departed.
On Thursday's episode, the Grey Sloan Memorial building caught fire, leaving one of the doctors at a career crossroads that causes them to hang up their scrubs.
The character had a heroic last stand, saving a child's life amid fending off their own injury, before making a career-changing decision.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Heartfelt: Dr. Stephanie Edwards, played by Jerrika Hinton, left Grey's Anatomy Thursday amid an exciting new HBO role for the 35-year-old actress
Dr. Stephanie Edwards has left the building.
After making it through a fire at the medical institution, Edwards, played by actress Jerrika Hinton, told Dr. Richard Webber (played by James Pickens, Jr.): 'I spent my whole life in hospitals, my whole life. I need to travel and hike and breathe. I want to breathe it all in, away from the monitors and the blood and the sterile counts and away from saving other people’s lives; I want my own. This time, I live my own.'
The character departed the medical institution amid Hinton's role on an Alan Ball HBO series; before that, she'd been tied to a series called Toast, from Grey's creator Shonda Rhimes, but the project did not get off the ground.
Strong stint: Hinton wraps up a successful five years on the ABC series, as she joined the cast in 2012
Moving forward: The actress said she was 'eternally grateful' to creator Shonda Rhimes 'for understanding' her desire to move on to different projects
Hinton told The Hollywood Reporter that 'when Toast didn't go, [she] went away and had a spiritual summer in a lot of ways.'
The 35-year-old Dallas native said that she and Rhimes 'had a meeting at the beginning of season 13' in which they figured out a mutually beneficial exit plan for the character.
Emotional exit: Hinton's character, Dr. Stephanie Edwards, left the show after a change of heart in her life
On the move: Hinton has a number of projects set to be released, including the thriller Odious
Hinton said Rhimes 'was very supportive of [her] wishes,' and that she was 'eternally grateful to her for understanding.'
Rhimes told the publication in the statement that while she was 'sad to see Stephanie leave Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital,' she was 'excited to see what’s next for Jerrika' in her career.
'Actors evolve differently and when an actor like Jerrika comes to me and says she wants to try something new creatively, I like to honor that,' said Rhimes, who's also the creative mastermind behind Gray's spin-off Private Practice and the hit thriller, Scandal. 'Jerrika has shared so much of herself with Stephanie and I am incredibly proud of the journey we’ve taken together.'
Happy ending: Rhimes said she's 'incredibly proud of the journey' Hinton's taken on the series
Bright future: Hinton was snapped at a Grey's screening in Hollywood in March
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