The sixteenth season finale of Grey’s Anatomy aired two months ago, and I cannot stop thinking about it. The end left many thoughts swirling about in my brain that I have not quite come to terms with yet. Despite all of the good that occurred this season, in many ways, this has been one of the more shocking seasons of the show’s sixteen-year run because of the continued threat each relationship will inevitably end at the Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital. However, that should not be surprising because this show loves to ruin good relationships, especially Owen’s relationships. Then again, a lot of people are not too keen on forgiving the character of Owen Hunt. I believe Hunt deserves some forgiveness, though. Hear me out.
Granted, they have had Owen ruin most of his relationships on his own. However, one of my continued qualms is the continued beat down of Dr. Owen Hunt. Every time they let him get happy and then slap the guy across the room. Although many people do not like his character and believe he’s not the best guy, I feel his role is one that continues to have more turn over than most. Not as bad as Meredith Grey herself, but he’s slowly inching his way toward the top three if he’s not already there. I am not saying that Owen Hunt is a perfect character, nor an ideal man, but I do not think he is as bad as everyone has made him out to be over the years.
Since Kevin McKidd took on the role of Owen Hunt back in September of 2008, most of us did not start off hating this character. After all, he won the heart of Cristina Yang, so he won our hearts too. Granted, Owen was not well-liked when he first came on the show because both Derek Shepherd and Mark Sloan thought he was too crude to operate inside of a hospital. The final straw for Izzie Stevens was the stabbing of pigs so the interns could save them and make them live. However, the fact of the matter is Owen helped tweak the hospital to truly handle the trauma that they handle in current episodes, whether they want to admit it or not.
And this is not the only good he has done on the show. Although he was chief at the time of the plane crash, and no one could have predicted the crash, Owen faced a lot of blame for the crash at the time. No one felt guilter for that than him. I’m not sure why people wanted to throw all that blame on him. During his time as chief, before and after the crash, he always tried to consider everyone’s needs for five years. Did he ever make a wrong decision? Yes, but Bailey fired three people this past season, and that wasn’t a popular decision with anyone despite the fact they all deserved to lose their jobs. Instead of giving Owen a break, they continue to dwell on his past indiscretions, and in the case of the plane crash, something he would have stopped if he could have ultimately.
Furthermore, as a friend and I discussed after the finale, Hunt has always tried to do right by everyone. He helped Arizona Robbins take down a doctor trying to make money off of cancer. Despite firing April Kepner, he realized that she was still needed at the hospital and brought her back. Fans will say what they want about April, but their bond was one of my favorites on the show, especially toward the end of her arc on the show entirely. In many ways, I feel like April was one of the only people that were almost always on Hunt’s side despite the fact at one point, he fired her.
Also, from the beginning, Owen understood Cristina Yang in ways that not even Meredith could understand. Let me take you guys back to when he sensed Yang having a panic attack and took her to a particular area of the hospital that he found comforting for his PTSD. Oddly enough, the force of the air pushing upward and the noise brought Cristina down from the moment that could have been much worse. This moment was also where the two first realized that they cared for each other. And despite the moment Owen thought things were over, Yang taught him that he could love and loved in return. In many ways, I also believe that Owen showed Cristina she could genuinely shoot for the stars and be loved in return.
With that said, we began to see a path for Owen that the showrunners kept throwing in his face at every turn. Owen Hunt wanted a baby and thought he was finally getting his family when Cristina became pregnant. Despite being upset, she did not want to be a mother; he respected her choice all the same. However, once his relationship ended with Cristina, and he eventually married Amelia, he suffered the same problem. The fandom as a collective was shocked that Amelia would not want a family, considering that was one of the things that she and Hunt agreed upon going into their relationship. During this time, he does end up committing adultery, her brain tumor told him to do so, and he determines that a divorce is the only option for them.
By the time the audience discovers Amelia has a brain tumor, Owen, much like us, realizes that we’ve all made a massive mistake in judging her character. Was his initial divorce proceedings right? No, but he did attempt to repair the error of his ways, and the two began to become a family with Leo and Betty. To the point when Betty’s parents finally reenter the picture, most of us were devastated for both of them. They took Owen’s dreams yet again and smashed them. It’s almost a new trope at this point for the show. Owen has something beautiful we must destroy it. Thankfully, fans know that Owen finally got to have a couple of nice things.
Although, this past season, I kept waiting for the ball to drop for him. As soon as Teddy Altman decided to be with Owen, I kept thinking this is wrong. The crazy part is I used to ship Teddy and Owen back in the day. I wanted them together so badly before he “fired” her once upon a time, and he ended up with Amelia. Once Teddy met Tom, I could not help but think she brings out the good that no one else sees in Tom, and I LOVED that about the pairing. However, on the day you are supposed to marry someone, it is probably not a good idea to keep your phone near you before having sex and accidentally dial their number. Owen knows the truth as he called off the wedding, but where does this leave him?
The showrunner said they made a move, so we would have to see someone accept a woman indiscretion become overlooked. However, should Teddy be forgiven? Maybe this is karma for Owen’s extracurricular activities in his previous marriages. I cannot say that these things were not thrown up in his face, though, nor was he wholly forgiven as everyone keeps throwing this up back in his face. The question remains Owen Hunt, the worst character on Grey’s Anatomy like other articles, has insisted in the past. I think not. I think he is just as flawed as everyone else on the show, and unfortunately, the show likes to remind us of that, unlike the others regularly.
Do you think Owen Hunt is a good character? Share your favorite Owen Hunt storyline with us below and let us know if you agree or disagree with my opinion.
