The Grey’s Anatomy season 22 finale had plenty of drama as Owen (Kevin McKidd) was on a bridge that collapsed. His wife, Teddy (Kim Raver), fretted over his fate, with Owen managing to swim to shore and showing up at the hospital caring for some injured patients.
In the end, Owen and Teddy got a rare happy ending, with the pair leaving Seattle behind to move to Paris so Teddy could pursue the dream job presented to her in the penultimate episode of the season. While the pair got a happy ending that left the door open for them to return in the future, it seems there were other options discussed.
In a talk with Entertainment Weekly, McKidd (who directed the episode) revealed that his original idea was for Owen to die saving others, which he saw fitting for the character.
“In my mind, for all these years, I [did] wonder what the exit would be. And I always thought that Owen, having joined the show in quite a traumatic way, carrying all this trauma with him, that he should end his Grey’s tenure in a blaze of some kind of heroic death. That felt fitting for Owen. But ultimately, I don't know. I think the decision was made for various reasons [and] to keep the door open.”
It sounds like it was showrunner Meg Marinis who made the final decision to let Owen live. He and Teddy reconciled, and Owen agreed that they’d relocate their family for Teddy’s new job in Paris. It seems Marinis decided another tragic character death would have been too much for the audience.
“There've been a lot of people dying on the show recently. I'm not sure the show or the fans really have a stomach for that anymore, or at least not right now. Seeing a happy ending — a happy new chapter for Teddy — is a beautiful message to send out there. There's a lot of darkness in the world at the moment.”
It does seem a better fate for Owen and Teddy to leave and live happily ever after, and that came out in the final scene.
McKidd talked to EW on some of the best bits from the finale and how he made them work. That included the final scene he and Raver filmed together after so long on the show, one that the show's creative team struggled to pen at first.
"It took a while for us to figure out where to set that scene. ... I've always had these really intense moments in a scrub room, so it felt like a good callback to those moments in their history. It was funny, we both were getting quite emotional during that scene — and it's a very emotional scene. But I remember at one point I said, 'Kim, we have to remember that even though we are both sad and have all these sad feelings … for Teddy and Owen, they're really happy! Let's not forget that it's a heartfelt scene, but it's not a sad scene for the characters. It might be sad for us as the actors because you don't get to work together every day. We've loved for all these years, but we have to be true to the characters.'"
In the end, the show found an ending that leaves the door open for either McKidd or Raver to return in the future. Grey’s is always terrific at bringing back past characters, and it's nice that Owen and Teddy could return in the future. It’s also true that after a season of so much drama and a show that is known for heartbreaking deaths, Grey’s needed some light to balance it out. We got that with a fine sendoff for two long-running characters and the hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Grey’s Anatomy season 22 is streaming on Hulu.
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