In Season 21, Grey's Anatomy must kill off its most problematic character

That's no secret Grey's Anatomy was one of the most popular shows of modern times. The series had humble beginnings when Shonda Rhimes was inspired to create a medical drama after a doctor mentioned how difficult it was to shave her legs in the hospital shower. The offhand comment stuck with Rhimes, and she focused on how difficult the world of medicine is and used that and her experiences as a candy salesman for a local hospital to create her first TV masterpiece.

Now, almost 20 years later, Grey's Anatomy knock out HE as the longest-running medical drama in primetime television history. In general, people love the show, but in recent years it's clear that some long-time fans are starting to lose interest. Grey's Anatomy first aired when I was about two years old, so I grew up with the series. However, the first time I tuned in, I still remember being a little late to the party and watching about a dozen seasons on Netflix during summer break in middle school. I've been through all the stressful episodes and heartbreaking character losses, and I'm still willing to go through the emotional turmoil every now and then to watch it again. As I find myself for the thousandth time scouring Reddit and TikTok for the occasional article inspiration, I can't ignore the overwhelming number of fans begging the Shondaland gods to pull the plug Grey's Anatomy. Many fans agree that the series lost its charm years ago, but we also understand that it is still a financial powerhouse and studios will delay it as long as possible. With that in mind, another option could alleviate some of the chaos, and Grays Owen Hunt could finally be written off 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 rolls into the chaotically named Seattle hospital in the back of an ambulance, riding with a patient after performing an emergency tracheostomy with a pen in the field. This move immediately failed with surgeons like Mark Sloan and Derek Shepherd as it was shoddy work. His rough demeanor was noticeable from the start. I can tell Dr. So don't blame Cristina Yang for taking an immediate interest in him, especially when he was clutching a leg wound without anesthesia. At the end of the episode, Chief of Surgery Richard Webber offered Major Hunt an assistant position as head of trauma surgery at Seattle Grace. Although he initially turned down the role because he was still on active duty in Iraq, he accepted the role a few episodes later.

In his first episode on staff at Seattle Grace, he conducted a mandatory skills lab exercise for the residents and interns to assess their on-site surgical skills. When he pulled back the curtain to reveal several live pigs sleeping belly-up on a row of operating tables, my alarm bells immediately went off. As Hunt stabs each of the pigs and calls on the residents to save their lives, Dr. Izzie Stevens immediately leaves and calls Owen a monster for his actions, which unfortunately isn't the end of the argument. Throughout the episode, Hunt bullies Izzie over her opinions of his methods, often denying her surgical training in favor of explaining to her the historical significance of animal testing in medicine. I'm definitely biased against Hunt's methods, as he subjected several innocent creatures to horrific physical trauma before killing them anyway. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of Owen Hunt's problematic killing spree.

Owen's PTSD journey was a missed opportunity

It's clear from his first appearance that Owen Hunt has a military background, as he wears a full camouflage uniform in the episode and of course mentions his tour in Iraq. Likewise, his return five episodes later suggests an early end to his time in the military, which is discussed a little later in the series. The first significant manifestation of PTSD in the year Grey's Anatomy happens a few episodes after Owen's introduction, when he experiences a flashback and chokes Cristina on autopilot while she sleeps in the bed next to him. Despite a few more episodes in Season 5, his post-traumatic stress disorder is forgotten after he begins seeing a psychologist. Trauma is not a new concept Grayssince the main character, Meredith Gray, goes through severe traumatic experiences at least once per season. But Owen Hunt was truly the first character to highlight the effects of trauma on the human mind and body. Unfortunately the way Grays Shown that his post-traumatic stress disorder doesn't do justice to his character or his illness. Although I have no direct experience with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder as someone who lives with the disorder, the topic could have been portrayed much better throughout the series, so Hunt's portrayal of trauma isn't particularly horrific.

What's terrible, however, is that it happens later Grey's AnatomyOwen Hunt treats everyone around him as if their trauma responses are invalid. Throughout the series, Owen doesn't take other people's feelings into account in general, but with his romantic partners, they become a much bigger problem.

The most problematic aspect of Owen Hunt is the despicability

Even before his introduction, Owen Hunt had a troubled dating history. Season 5 reveals that Owen was engaged to a teacher named Beth at some point during the war and that he ended their relationship in a two-line email. It is also later implied that he cheated on Beth, at least emotionally, with his long-time best friend during her deployment. As Hunt Dr. When Teddy Altman comes to Seattle Grace Mercy West, he presents her as a gift for Cristina. Although it seems innocent and introduces the best cardiothoracic team in the series, it doesn't take long for Teddy to admit that she's always had feelings for him. Despite Owen's relationship with Cristina, it's clear that he also has some unresolved feelings for Teddy. Nevertheless, after the Seattle shooting, Owen and Cristina married Grace Mercy West.

First, 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 is very independent and doesn't easily talk to people about things as she just solves her problems on her own. The most obvious thing about her is that she is career-oriented and puts her passions above everything else. She is also very open about not wanting children. But Owen Hunt seems to think he can change her by marrying her during a period of clearly poor mental health and treating her anti-child attitudes as a personal attack. When she becomes pregnant in Season 8, she exercises her bodily autonomy and decides to terminate the pregnancy. Although Owen holds her hand during the appointment, he later uses her abortion against her, even screaming, “You killed our baby,” loud enough for her colleagues to hear after seeing Cristina being sweet to Baby during it Zola Grey-Shepherd was her birthday party. It's simply unforgivable as he treats Cristina as a villain because she didn't adjust to the perfect wife role he wanted.

Cristina and Owen's argument about having children points to a much larger internal problem Grey's Anatomyin which various female characters are portrayed as villains because they don't want children. Even one of my favorites, Callie Torres and Arizona Robbins' Calzona, annoyed me when Callie was upset that her then-girlfriend Arizona didn't want children of her own. She uses Arizona's work with children against her, similar to how Owen sees Cristina as an aunt as a betrayal. The words “everyone wants a child” stay with me because I am a woman who doesn’t want children. Therefore, my opinion towards characters who pressure women to have children automatically leans towards the negative. However, Owen's relationship drama doesn't end with Cristina's abortion, as he actually cheats on her towards the end of their marriage.

After the Cristina chapter is concluded, Hunt marries Amelia Shepherd – a much more hasty move than his last marriage. They marry without really understanding each other, and unsurprisingly, Owen acts like the victim when he can't manipulate her into having his children. Both Cristina and Amelia have had previous traumatic pregnancies, with Cristina suffering an ectopic pregnancy that almost killed her, also having a fallopian tube and an ovary removed, and Amelia conceived a baby boy with her fiancé before his sudden death, although her son was sad without a brain was born and died in her arms. It's an unimaginable pain as Amelia's background is highlighted in the spin-off. Private practice. Even without this context, Amelia's mental health has never been stable and she struggles with her sobriety quite openly throughout the series. Owen is simply not a supportive partner, and their marriage ended fairly soon after they began fostering children together, but not before he had another extramarital affair with Teddy and got her pregnant. His wish to have children finally comes true and he later marries Teddy, but that opens up another mystery.

I haven't seen any glaring examples of new behaviors that are considered warning signs in the last few seasons Grey's Anatomybut Owen Hunt is still a very toxic person. Entire Reddit threads are dedicated to dragging the character through the mud, and if we're being honest, there's no way to fix him now. Much better characters have left the series, and while Kevin McKidd does a phenomenal job, it's time Grays does what it does best and writes off the character. Maybe the rest of the show can be brought back to life after this.