SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the Season 22 finale of Grey’s Anatomy.
Teddy Altman’s (Kim Raver) tenure at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital has come to an end, for now at least.
Raver and longtime co-star Kevin McKidd, who has played Teddy’s love interest and trauma surgeon Owen Hunt for the last 18 seasons, both exited the medical drama in Thursday night’s Season 22 finale. Despite last week’s cliffhanger that put Owen’s life on the line, the characters are safe and sound and off to Paris with their kids for Teddy’s latest career opportunity.
The episode picks up where the penultimate left off, with Teddy frantically trying to get ahold of Owen and also keep the trauma bay afloat amid an influx of patients from the bridge collapse. She’s just listened to a voicemail that leads her to believe Owen is in danger, and after first responders find his car in the river without him inside, she really begins to panic. It’s a swift reminder of the deep connection between the two of them, even as they’ve been on the rocks lately, particularly after Teddy gets this job offer in Paris.
There is truly nothing like a life-altering event to force one to rethink their priorities, and that’s exactly what happens for both Owen and Teddy once they’re reunited in the operating room after the bridge collapse to save a patient Owen had been caring for in the field. After the surgery, Owen tells Teddy to take the job — and that he’s ready to pack up the kids and move with her.
“I love that it took Teddy all of the highs and the lows in the journey to come back to Owen,” Raver told Deadline.
In the interview below, Raver breaks down Teddy’s tumultuous yet fulfilling journey over the course of 14 seasons on Grey’s Anatomy.
DEADLINE: How you’re feeling about this episode airing, and kind of really closing this chapter, now that it’s approaching?
KIM RAVER: I’m so grateful for having been part of this incredible Shondaland family. This role has been such a big part of me, and this crew and the fans are just extraordinary. Meg’s [Marinis, the Grey’s Anatomy showrunner] done such a beautiful job of sprinkling in these flashback moments. But, you know, what’s so great is these characters have expanded into the fuller, deeper humans that they are now. I love that, in the chaos of it all that, Teddy still finds moments of mentoring Blue while stressing about what is happening to Owen. It’s just been, for me, this, this beautiful journey of a very multi-layered, complicated character, which has been a real gift.
DEADLINE: Owen and Teddy have gone on such a journey throughout the seasons on Grey’s Anatomy. What do you think it signifies, just to you, that this will be the end of their story, at least for now?
RAVER: I think, in our minds, that was always sort of the end game. I love that monologue where she says, ‘I choose myself.’ I think that that also was really important. One of the greatest of many things that Shonda does so beautifully is she allows the characters to be really messy and really complicated, and that is such a unique opportunity for an actor to be able to have a character that is so top of her game and so extraordinary at what she does and the pursuit of it and the journey of it, and that is as important as the mistakes that Teddy has made, and also as romantic and deep and complicated as the love that she’s had, and then also the pursuit of who she is. So I love that it took Teddy all of the highs and the lows in the journey to come back to Owen — the real push and pull and also the really messed up mistakes that Teddy has made that the fans have been upset with her, rightfully so. But I think that I’ve really enjoyed and leaned into the big swing mistakes, because I think that then we own also who she’s become and relate to Teddy, because she’s not perfect. And that, I think, is what the writers do so well, and what a gift it is to get to play someone like that.
DEADLINE: I feel like earlier this season, they maybe started to realize that they could find a way back to each other. Where was that moment for you, where you feel like these characters started to see that their story wasn’t finished together?
RAVER: I think there were so many of them. It’s not just like a flip turn. It was so sprinkled in there throughout all of it, because that, again, is the tricky moments. I mean, I think when they’re sitting on the bench and she has to sign the divorce papers, there’s a moment there of questioning it. I think the rural hospital. I think there’s a combo. I mean, there’s that flash of how well they work together, and then the idea of creating other lives separate from them as a unit. Also, a flash of like, ‘How do I want my life to look and has he been thinking about pursuing a whole other new chapter?’ I think that’s also so beautiful in relationships. How does one grow as an individual, and how does one grow as a couple? Is there room to do that side by side? I think the writers did such a beautiful job of that. So I think it was sort of sprinkled in there throughout.
I love that in the finale you see them again about to embark on this. They work so well together. Whether it’s the flashes of Iraq when they first come together or the rural hospital…how it’s sort of an effortless dance when they are saving a life. I think that is a very symbolic thing for them throughout their marriage. I think, also, what’s been so beautiful is the the idea of forgiveness, which I think they’ve really touched on throughout their years. It hasn’t just been like, oh, big mistake, and then sort of forgotten. We really dug into the flaws of being an individual and the mistakes made throughout it, but also the accountability. That was a very important thing for me that, basically, the Teddy character really had evolved and it was deeper and bigger and more complicated than the first time around. I’ve loved that they that they leaned into Teddy making mistakes and Owen making mistakes. I think that that’s what’s gotten fans upset, but also rallying behind them, because it’s hard to watch that, but I think we all relate to it, because we all are flawed and just trying to figure it out one day at a time.
DEADLINE: What do you think it means to her to be going off and achieving this next career milestone? And what does it mean to you that that’s kind of where you get to leave this character for now?
RAVER: I say bring the whole crew over to Paris. For Teddy, she’s really navigated her way through the system. I loved seeing her try to advocate for herself and not even sure about negotiating. Then I loved seeing women come to her side, Amelia and Miranda, to have those characters in support and [helping her learn] about how to negotiate for what you deserve and what you want. Also, her really going out there and creating this completely life changing, new surgery and becoming chief and coming into her power, while also navigating her life.
I think what’s interesting is maybe she needed to do that first in order to then put the relationship in a place. It’s almost like she needed to carve out space for herself. I think that’s really relatable for women, that they’re constantly taking care of everyone else around them and forgetting a time and space for themselves.
DEADLINE: Kevin also directed this episode. What it was like to have him be able to direct this final episode for you two and just have that added layer of you two working together on set?
RAVER: Oh, that was great. It was extraordinary. Kevin is such an incredible collaborator, and he has done so many of these episodes directing. It’s definitely a big, emotional journey going through this together. Our characters have gone through so much together, and then also, especially directing, you get so close with the company, because you’re spending so many hours working together. You are as an actor, too, but even more as a director. So it just was really important. I just know that Kevin always has my back. So to have him steering the ship on this one was really important.
DEADLINE: It’s funny. I was gonna ask you if you thought Teddy might ever visit from Paris. But now I think maybe you’re right — everybody needs to go to Paris and visit Teddy.
RAVER: Me too. That’s what I was saying. The doors are open. I mean, come on, that should definitely [happen]. We all talked about the whole hospital somehow going on location. Can you imagine? That would be great.
DEADLINE: Owen and Teddy are some of the last remaining cast members on Grey’s Anatomy who have been there for anywhere close to as long as they have. What has it been like as an actor to be able to weather just the current TV landscape on such a steady show, over the last few years, especially?
RAVER: It’s been an absolute gift to be able to have a company of just extremely talented actors and crew members and writers and producers, and to be in collaboration over such a long period of time. To me, Shondaland is sort of old school, like in a theater company. To be able to have that place to go into every day and to evolve your character, to be able to really work together on a daily basis over an arc of several years is such an extraordinary gift. I didn’t take it for granted once. I’ve been doing this such a long time that I was so and I am so grateful to have really been able to sink my teeth into a character and and have the writers also have her evolve so much over time. I mean, when I would have to do a monologue or whatever and talk about Teddy, it’s like I really have lived all those with Teddy. I’m reflecting back on Iraq. I remember us shooting in the desert and shooting those scenes on the soccer pitch and whatnot.
To me, it kind of harks back into the old theater days of really getting to create this incredible environment for people to come to work and play. We as a company have been through so much throughout so many years. Everyone from props to camera operators to crafty, they’ve become so much a part of my life. Every day when I would drive on the lot, I was really grateful to have this opportunity, because of how rare and extraordinary it is to be able to tell these stories, and especially to have this female character that is just so multi-layered and multi-faceted and constantly peeling back the onion of who she is.
DEADLINE: I’m going to miss seeing Teddy on the show every week. Thank you so much for taking some time to chat with me about this episode. I really appreciate it.
RAVER: Thank you so much. I mean, you all have been such huge supporters, and our fans are just extraordinary. When you see how important this show is to our fans…this show exists because of them and for them, and so getting to meet them has just been amazing.
