Grey’s Anatomy is heading into its May 7 season finale with two of its long-running characters on the way out, and this week’s penultimate episode left one of them hanging over a bridge collapse. said last month that Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver would be exiting the series in the finale, and the latest hour ended with a cliffhanger that put Owen Hunt’s fate in doubt.
McKidd has played Owen since season five. Raver joined as Teddy Altman in season six, took five years off from the drama, then returned to a role that turned into one of the show’s most complicated relationships. Owen and Teddy are coparents with two children, they got married in season 18, finalized their divorce at the beginning of this season and have still been sleeping together in recent episodes.
The weight of their exit comes from how long both actors have been part of the medical soap. Grey’s Anatomy is now in its 22nd season, and the show has used that run to build a history that stretches far beyond one finale. Teddy is also the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and she has a new job offer in Paris, which gives her a separate path out of the hospital even as Owen’s story is left unresolved.
The bridge scene sharpened that uncertainty. In an episode that mentioned a bridge collapse and an incoming rush of patients to Grey’s hospital, Teddy listened to a voicemail from Owen while he was cut off on the bridge and it sounded as if the structure was giving way. The finale now has to answer whether he survives that moment, or whether Grey’s Anatomy is preparing to send both characters out together after years of an on-and-off relationship that has been central to the series.
McKidd’s departure also closes another long chapter behind the camera. He has directed nearly 50 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, adding a second role to the one he has held on screen for 16 years. In a statement last month, he said the show had been a huge chapter of his life creatively and personally, thanked the series for everything it had given him, and said he was looking ahead to new work and new stories. He also called Owen and the directing opportunity deeply formative and singled out Shonda Rhimes for creating the character and encouraging him as he moved into directing.
Raver’s remarks pointed to a similar sense of closure. She said playing Teddy Altman would always hold a dear and special place in her heart, and noted that she had stepped into the role 16 years ago thanks to the vision of Rhimes and Betsy Beers. What remains unclear is whether the finale will send Teddy to Paris, confirm Owen’s fate on the bridge, or fold both exits into one ending that matches the long, tangled history the two characters have carried for more than a decade.