It’s no secret that Grey’s Anatomy has been one of the most beloved shows of the modern era. The series had humble beginnings, as Shonda Rhimes was inspired to create a medical drama after a female doctor mentioned how difficult it was to shave her legs in a hospital shower. The throwaway comment stuck with Rhimes, and she focused on how difficult the medical world is, using that and her experiences working as a candy striper for a local hospital to create her first TV masterpiece.
Now, almost 20 years later, Grey’s Anatomy beat out ER as the longest-running medical drama in primetime TV history. People generally love the show, but over the past few years, it’s clear that some longtime fans are starting to lose interest. Grey’s Anatomy first aired when I was around two years old, so I grew up with the show. I remember the first time I tuned in, though, I was a little late to the party, and I just binged around a dozen seasons on Netflix during a summer vacation in middle school. I went through all the stressful episodes and heartbreaking character losses, and I still willingly go through the emotional turmoil every once in a while for a rewatch. As I’m binging for the thousandth time, and scouring Reddit and TikTok for occasional article inspiration, I can’t ignore the overwhelming number of fans who beg the Shondaland gods to pull the plug on Grey’s Anatomy. Many fans agree that the show lost its charm years ago, but we also understand that it’s still a financial powerhouse and studios will keep dragging it out for as long as possible. With that said, another option could alleviate some of the mess, and Grey’s could finally write off Owen Hunt in Season 21.
Owen Hunt Entered Grey’s Anatomy With a Bang
Kevin McKidd’s Owen Hunt first appeared in Grey’s Anatomy during the Season 5 premiere. He pulls into the chaotically named Seattle hospital in the back of an ambulance, riding with a patient after performing an emergency tracheotomy in the field using a ballpoint pen. This move immediately went wrong with surgeons like Mark Sloan and Derek Shepherd, as it was sloppy work. His rugged demeanor stood out from the start. So, I don’t blame Dr. Cristina Yang for immediately taking an interest in him, especially when he gave himself staples on a leg wound without anesthetic. By the episode’s end, Chief of Surgery, Richard Webber, offered Major Hunt an attending position as the head of trauma surgery at Seattle Grace. Even though he initially turned it down since he was still an active-duty soldier in Iraq, he took on the role a few episodes later.
In his first episode as a Seattle Grace employee, he held a mandatory skills lab exercise for the residents and interns to assess their surgical skills on the spot. Once he pulled back the curtain to reveal several living pigs sleeping belly-up on a row of surgical tables, the alarm bells started ringing for me immediately. When Hunt stabs each of the pigs and demands the residents save their lives, Dr. Izzie Stevens immediately walks out, calling Owen a monster for his actions, which unfortunately isn’t the end of the exchange. Throughout the episode, Hunt bullies Izzie for her view on his methods, often withholding surgical education to lecture her on the historical significance of animal testing in medicine. I’m certainly biased against Hunt’s methods, as he put several innocent creatures through horrific physical trauma before killing them anyway. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of Owen Hunt’s problematic spree.
Owen’s PTSD Journey Was a Squandered Opportunity
It’s obvious from his first appearance that Owen Hunt comes from a military background, as he dons a full camo uniform in the episode, and, of course, he mentions his tour in Iraq. Similarly, his return five episodes later suggests an early end to his stint in the military, which gets explored a little later in the show. The first significant display of PTSD in Grey’s Anatomy happens a couple of episodes after Owen’s introduction, as he experiences a flashback and, acting on autopilot, chokes Cristina while she sleeps in the bed next to him. Despite a few more episodes during Season 5, his PTSD fades into obscurity after he begins seeing a mental health professional. Trauma isn’t a new concept in Grey’s, as the main character, Meredith Grey, goes through significant traumatic experiences at least once a season. But, Owen Hunt was really the first character to highlight the effects of trauma on the human mind and body. Unfortunately, the way Grey’s depicted his PTSD didn’t do the character or the illness any justice. While I don’t have direct experience with combat-related PTSD, as someone who lives with the disorder, the subject could’ve been depicted much better across the show, so Hunt’s trauma representation isn’t especially horrible.
What is horrible, though, is that later in Grey’s Anatomy, Owen Hunt treats everyone around him as if their trauma responses aren’t valid. Throughout the series, Owen doesn’t consider other people’s feelings in general, but it becomes a much bigger issue with his romantic partners.
Owen Hunt’s Most Problematic Aspect is Despicable
Even before his introduction, Owen Hunt already had a problematic dating history. Season 5 reveals that sometime during the war, Owen was engaged to a schoolteacher named Beth and that he ended their relationship in a two-line email. It’s also later implied that he was at least emotionally cheating on Beth with his longtime best friend while they were deployed. When Hunt brings Dr. Teddy Altman to Seattle Grace Mercy West, he introduces her as a present for Cristina. While it seems innocent and introduces the best cardiothoracic team in the show, it doesn’t take long for Teddy to admit that she always had feelings for him. Despite Owen’s relationship with Cristina, it’s clear he holds some unresolved feelings for Teddy, as well. Still, after the Seattle Grace Mercy West shooting, Owen and Cristina married.
Cristina and Owen’s fights about having children point to a much larger problem within Grey’s Anatomy , where various female characters are framed as villains for not wanting kids.
Firstly, I think anyone even remotely familiar with Cristina’s personality knows that marriage isn’t a natural idea for her, but she agrees to it to make her partner happy. She’s very independent and doesn’t easily talk about things with people, as she just deals with her problems alone. The most obvious thing about her is that she’s career-driven, and puts her passions above all else. She’s also very open about not wanting children. But, Owen Hunt seems to think he can change her, marrying her during an obviously low mental health period and treating her anti-children stance as a personal attack. When she gets pregnant in Season 8, she exercises her bodily autonomy and opts to terminate the pregnancy. Although Owen holds her hand during the appointment, he later uses her abortion against her, going as far as to scream, “You killed our baby,” loud enough for their colleagues to hear after seeing Cristina being sweet to baby Zola Grey-Shepherd during her birthday party. It’s simply unforgivable, as he treats Cristina as a villain for not adapting to the perfect wife role he wanted.
Cristina and Owen’s fights about having children point to a much larger problem within Grey’s Anatomy, where various female characters are framed as villains for not wanting kids. Even one of my favorite ships, Callie Torres and Arizona Robbins’ Calzona, irked me when Callie got upset over her then-girlfriend Arizona not wanting children of her own. She uses Arizona’s job with kids against her, much like how Owen views Cristina being an aunt as a betrayal. The words, “everyone wants a kid,” stick with me, as I am a woman who doesn’t want kids. As such, my opinion towards characters who pressure women into having children is automatically skewed toward the negative. Still, Owen’s relationship drama doesn’t stop with Cristina’s abortion, as he actually cheats on her toward their marriage’s end.
After the Cristina chapter closes, Hunt marries Amelia Shepherd in a much hastier move than his last marriage. They get hitched without fully understanding each other, and unsurprisingly, Owen acts like the victim when he can’t manipulate her into having his children. Both Cristina and Amelia had traumatic pregnancies before, with Cristina suffering an ectopic pregnancy that nearly killed her, taking a fallopian tube and ovary too, and Amelia conceiving a baby boy with her fiancé before his sudden death, though unfortunately, her son was born without a brain and died in her arms. It’s an unimaginable pain, with Amelia’s background highlighted in the spinoff, Private Practice. Even without that context, Amelia’s mental health has never been stable, and she struggles with her sobriety fairly openly throughout the show. Owen is simply not a supportive partner, and their marriage ended pretty soon after they began fostering children together, but not before he had another extra-marital affair with Teddy and got her pregnant. He finally gets his wish of having children, and later marries Teddy, but that opens another can of worms.
Much better characters have left the show, and although Kevin McKidd does a phenomenal job, it’s time Grey’s does what it does best and writes off the character.
I haven’t seen any glaring examples of new red-flag behaviors in the last few seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, but Owen Hunt is still a very toxic individual. Entire Reddit threads are dedicated to dragging the character through the mud, and if we’re being honest, there’s no way to redeem him now. Much better characters have left the show, and although Kevin McKidd does a phenomenal job, it’s time Grey’s does what it does best and writes off the character. Maybe the rest of the show can be brought back to life afterward.