The actor and director reveals the callback you may have missed in the season 22 finale.

Kevin McKidd details Owen and Teddy’s ‘beautiful’ ending on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ — after initially thinking he should die (exclusive)

The actor and director reveals the callback you may have missed in the season 22 finale.

By Sarah Hearon

May 8, 2026 8:00 a.m. ET

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Kim Raver and Kevin McKidd on 'Grey's Anatomy'. Credit:

Disney/Tina Thorpe

**This article contains spoilers for *Grey's Anatomy* season 22, episode 18.**

- Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver's final episode of *Grey's Anatomy* aired on Thursday.

- McKidd, who has appeared as Owen Hunt since season 5 in 2008, opens up to EW about filming and directing the season 22 finale: "There's a lot of thought and intention put into this, and I hope it played well."

- He adds that the "door is open" for a return.

Not all doctors scrub out of Grey Sloan Memorial equally, but Kevin McKidd has come around to Dr. Owen Hunt deserving a happy ending.

“In my mind, for all these years, I [did] wonder what the exit would be. And I always thought that Owen, having joined the show in quite a traumatic way, carrying all this trauma with him, that he should end his *Grey’s* tenure in a blaze of some kind of heroic death. That felt fitting for Owen,” McKidd tells ** in an exclusive interview. “But ultimately, I don't know. I think the decision was made for various reasons [and] to keep the door open.”

News broke in March that McKidd, who joined the long-running medical drama 18 years ago, and Kim Raver (Teddy Atlman) would not be returning for season 23. While there's a brief scare that Owen was severely injured in a bridge collapse during Thursday’s finale, the audience (and Teddy) later learn he was actually MIA because he was helping on the scene.

“There've been a lot of people dying on the show recently,” McKidd continues. “I'm not sure the show or the fans really have a stomach for that anymore, or at least not right now. Seeing a happy ending — a happy new chapter for Teddy — is a beautiful message to send out there. There's a lot of darkness in the world at the moment.”

McKidd directed the season 22 finale, which ended with Teddy and Owen — who got divorced earlier this season — reigniting their endless on-again, off-again relationship by deciding to move to Paris together for Teddy’s new job opportunity as a research incubator.

“I made a joke to [showrunner] Meg [Marinis]. I was like, ‘I'm not sure that Owen's really a Paris guy. Maybe the Highlands of Scotland or Copenhagen.’ She said, ‘Yeah, you're right.’ He might end up going, ‘You know what? This is not for me. I'm coming back,’” McKidd tells EW.

Kevin McKidd on 'Grey's Anatomy'.

Disney/Anne Marie Fox

“What I love about [the decision] though is Teddy's been on her own journey this last little while, but for a long time, Teddy would always be in the wake of Owen's decisions and having to react to him and following and chasing him. It was time for Owen to step up and go, ‘I'm going to follow you. I'm going to let you take the lead in this,’” he says. “And as they recommit to each other and realize from this finale episode is that they really can't live without each other.”

The moment when Teddy and Owen declared their love for each other was actually the last scene that the actors filmed.

"It took a while for us to figure out where to set that scene. ... I've always had these really intense moments in a scrub room, so it felt like a good callback to those moments in their history," McKidd tells EW. "It was funny, we both were getting quite emotional during that scene — and it's a very emotional scene. But I remember at one point I said, 'Kim, we have to remember that even though we are both sad and have all these sad feelings … for Teddy and Owen, they're really happy! Let's not forget that it's a heartfelt scene, but it's not a sad scene for the characters. It might be sad for us as the actors because you don't get to work together every day. We've loved for all these years, but we have to be true to the characters.'"

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He adds, "And we laughed about that. They were both getting a little too carried away with being emotional about the sadness of it all when Teddy and Owen are actually really happy about this."

Fans met Owen, head of Trauma at Grey Sloan, in the season 5 premiere when McKidd joined the show as a love interest for Sandra Oh’s Cristina Yang. “Obviously, the mathematics of all that shifted when Sandra decided for her own very personal reasons that she'd done her stint on the show and she was leaving,” McKidd recalls.

Teddy, who met Owen while they were serving in Iraq years before their time in Seattle, was introduced in season 6. While Raver initially left *Grey’s* after season 8, she returned in season 14 before becoming a full-time cast member again in season 15.

“Teddy and Owen predate Cristina by quite a few years,” McKidd points out to EW. “So I understand the debate about [who is The One for Owen], but I'm not going to be swayed [into making an official choice]. I'm not going to be drawn into that fight.”

Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver on 'Grey's Anatomy'.

Disney/Anne Marie Fox

During his nearly two decades in Shondaland, McKidd has spent a lot of time behind the camera, too. Thursday’s episode marks his 49th time directing the ABC show, with Season 7’s “Don’t Deceive Me (Please Don’t Go)” and Season 19’s “Pick Yourself Up” among his favorites that he’s helmed. Owen and Teddy’s exits also have a special place in his heart as he tells EW that he had a discussion with Marinis about the characters’ final scenes specifically.

"I had the idea of Teddy's packing up her office and Owen's packing up the ER — the feeling that they both say goodbye to their own spaces in the hospital and then meet at the outside of the hospital," he says. "She really liked that. I wanted to create this moment of seeing them tidying up and replenishing things. We all want to leave [our place of work] a little bit better than we found it. … Then that moment at the very end, outside the hospital, Teddy leans against Owen's chest, and they look up at the hospital before they leave."

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What fans may not realize is that the final shot of the pair is a callback to when Owen and Teddy reunited in Germany in season 14.

"Owen goes back to first see Teddy when he's single again and they consummate their relationship and have that blazing fight,” McKidd recalls. “The scene where they're sitting in the window, watching the snow come down in the bay window was an idea I had back then — this image of Teddy leaning on Owen's chest. There's a lot of thought and intention put into this, and I hope it played well."

A sweet montage of both Owen and Teddy’s greatest hits is also included int he episode. "It was really hard to pick out all of those pieces because there's so many great moments," McKidd notes.

*Grey’s Anatomy* will return for season 23 in the fall.

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