When we first meet Kepner she is shown to be shy and insecure in herself and her abilities as a surgeon. The first episode she appears in (s6 ep5 “Invasion”) another character, Lexie, steals her journal and discovers notes written by Kepner reassuring herself stating she's “the future of medicine.” She arrived at Seattle Grace Mercy West during the merger between the Seattle Grace and Mercy West hospitals with three other surgical residents who joined the supporting cast of Grey’s Anatomy. She is one of only two of the residents to be promoted to series regular which remained her role for 7 years. As she forms new relationships at the hospital and develops her surgical skills she becomes much more confident in herself and feels less of a need to hide aspects of herself to earn the approval of her peers she reveals to her friends that she is a devout christian. April is shown to be extremely organized and compassionate to her patients, often going above and beyond what is expected of her, which eventually leads to her being appointed as chief resident at the end of s7. She eventually goes on to specialize in trauma surgery at the recommendation of her mentor Owen Hunt as he sees that she is calm under pressure and able to make quick decisions, both good qualities for trauma surgeons to have.



random facts:

  • was born in ohio on a corn farm
  • has been fired and rehired on two separate occasions
  • was a virgin until 29 due to saving herself for marraige (she was not married when she lost her virginity though...)
  • before specializing in trauma she was interested in neurosurgery
  • Sarah Drew, who playes Kepner, was on Private Practice (a spinoff of grey's) first.

fav kepner centric episodes

  • i saw what i saw s6 ep6
  • moment of truth s8 ep21
  • get up, stand up s10 ep12
  • change of heart s10 ep21
  • risk s11 ep8
  • all i could do was cry s11 ep11
  • im not waiting anymore s12 ep15
  • who is he,
    and what is he to you? s13 ep16
  • personal jesus s14 ep10
  • one day like this s14 ep17
  • cold as ice s14 ep23






#5: Samuel

trigger warning: child loss.

I really liked this plotline even though it was really a really sad one. The episode where this plotline came to a head was really profound in ways I didn't expect it to be. The specific scenes that come to mind are one towards the beginning of the episode where April is asking Jackson if they can reschedule the induction termination because she wants to wait to see if god would deliver her a miracle but while trying to justify her thought process to jackson she realizes he won’t be able to understand how she’s thinking because he doesn't believe in god. Later in the episode she intervenes in a situation between what appears to be two residents but she quickly realizes one of them doesn't work in the hospital and is actually a woman who lost her fiance the night before. April takes her to a side room and has a moment with her where the woman talks about her grief and how her hopes for her life were gone and she doesn’t know what to do with herself now. April hugs the woman and tells her that she’s understandably hurting and grieving but that she’s strong enough to get through this. It was such a nice moment, April reassuring herself while reassuring a stranger, and reminding her that miracles don't always look how you expect them to, they can just be little moments that give you some peace of mind.


#4: "cold as ice"

trigger warning: near death experience

Another sad plotline lol, I just really like the emotional episodes. What can I say? I always eat up near death experiences in this show and this one was really emotional for me because I watched it really soon after it came out so I couldn't just check the wiki to see if she had died. This entire episode had me on the edge of my seat and when one of the cast is hurt its bananas because there’s just a cascade of people finding out the news:(. When Alex asks Meredith if she’s seen April because he’s supposed to taste wedding cake with her and Meredith just starts crying…. Holy shit. Even with Ellen Pompeo’s acting. And when Jackson finally finds out!!! Ugh!!!! When Arizona finds out!!!!!! Ughghg this episode had me crying the whole time. It’s one of my favs from the newer seasons. No deeper analysis on this one, just vibes. also she survived (praying emojis)


#3: grieving Samuel

trigger warning: grief

A part of me feels like the writers wanted to paint April in a bad light (at least a little) with this plot but I was team April throughout this plotline. She basically decided she can't bear to be in seattle and goes with owen to join the army as a doctor and leaves jackson to grieve by himself, which does suck and I know he probably wanted his wife there to grieve with but would he have given her the space she needed to grieve? I’m not so sure… so in my opinion April was allowed to be selfish. Also this was the beginning of the end for japril so can I get a hell yes.


#2: "i saw what i saw"

trigger warning: death

This was one of the first episodes of Grey's I saw that really stuck with me. It's one of my most rewatched. The progression of the story with the mystery of what actually happened to the patient was so entertaining. The mistake Kepner made was so small and seemingly unimportant that it didn't even make it onto my radar. I also really love chaos in shows and this specific plot had so much of it. The gist of this episode is the episode starts with board members and Webber trying to figure out who was to blame for the death of a patient (and Blindness by Metric) and through flashbacks told by the residents and attendings working the er we piece together the timeline of the night which ends with Reed realizing that April forgot to check the patient’s airway. This was a very big oopsies fuckup moment for April and did make me think less of April for a while but there have been a few moments where April talks about how she still thinks of the patient's family and learned from her mistake so thumbs up. Queen of owning her mistakes.


#1: leaving Matthew at the altar

Leaving Matthew at the altar- While i'm not a fan of japril i knew it was inevitable and I didn't really like Matthew, probably because I knew April and Jackson were still in love with each other so I knew this was saving me from a japril cheating scandal. Also it was a hoot and a holler to see someone get jilted. Like truly. I knew it was coming and I was still shocked lol. This one mostly got the top spot because 1. It's iconic and 2. It's funny.


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