Owen Hunt

Owen Hunt
Grey's Anatomy character
The Season 7 Gallery Picture of Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
First appearance	"Dream a Little Dream of Me, Part 1" 5x01, September 25, 2008 (as recurring cast) "Beat Your Heart Out" 5x14, February 5, 2009 (as main cast)
Created by	Shonda Rhimes
Portrayed by	Kevin McKidd
Information
Occupation	Attending trauma surgeon
Title	Chief of Surgery Chief of Trauma Surgery M.D. F.A.C.S.
Spouse(s)	Cristina Yang
Significant other(s)	Beth Whitman (ex-fiancé)
Children	Unborn Child (aborted; with Cristina Yang)

Owen Hunt is a fictional character on the ABC television series Grey's Anatomy, portrayed by Kevin McKidd. He was introduced in season five as a US Army trauma surgeon who served in war-torn Iraq, and consequently joins Seattle Grace to teach medicine as a surgical attending, sometimes with unorthodox methods. He is married to Cristina Yang. He is the current Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital, replacing Richard Webber.

Storylines

Before his regular appearances on the show, Owen Hunt is a US Army surgeon, specializing in trauma surgery. The character makes a dramatic first appearance when he performs a tracheotomy on a man with a pen, winning the admiration of Dr. Yang. Having suffered a wound himself, his extreme nature is further emphasized when he staples his own injury without any anesthesia. He later shares a passionate kiss with Yang.

The character of Hunt becomes a source of turbulence and controversy. He becomes the new Chief of Trauma surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital, and manages to irk both Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Sloan who view his treatment of some of the patients as crude. He is also rebuffed by Dr. Stevens when he stabs a set of pigs and then orders the residents and interns to save their lives, in order to teach them medicine on "live tissue."

Hunt reveals details of his painful past to Dr. Yang, telling her about the death of his entire unit during his last tour in Iraq. These events seem to impact a lot of Hunt's behavior, such as his disgust for residents arguing over surgeries and talking about patients with little human decency and respect. He later kisses Yang again, somewhat desperately, after telling her that he doesn't need her.

They eventually begin a relationship, which is complicated by his Posttraumatic stress disorder and briefly by the presence of his ex-fiancee. Hunt injures Cristina twice in his sleep as a result of his PTSD, first at the hospital and later at her apartment. On the latter occasion, she wakes up when he is strangling her. She initially tries to reassure him and continue the relationship, but she is ultimately forced to break up with Hunt when she is unable to fall asleep in his arms.

Soon after the breakup he begins therapy with the hospital psychiatrist Dr. Wyatt. He learns from her that the ceiling fan in Cristina's bedroom is what caused him to strangle her (the ceiling fan was reminiscent of a helicopter blade and triggered flashbacks of his service in Iraq). Dr. Wyatt also helps him to work out at a method for him to communicate with Cristina using three word sentences; after becoming annoyed with this Cristina confronts him and he tells her that the sentences are just a way for him to express his feelings for her without actually saying the words "I love you".

Some time later a soldier visits the hospital for treatment, and his presence influences Owen to contemplate returning to the US Army. When he shares this with Cristina, she disagrees with his decision telling him he does not have her support. Soon after this she tells him that she doesn't want him to die, and so with her he finally visits his mother. He hasn't yet visited his mother since his discharge, out of fear that she will discover that he is a different man. This proves a significant step in his PTSD recovery: afterward, he tells Cristina that he slept for the first time without nightmares and that he can be a better man for her. They later end their breakup with a passionate kiss and pursue their relationship.

In season 6, because of the merger between Seattle Grace and Mercy West, Cristina has been losing surgery to the Mercy West doctors and asks Owen to offer her a few surgeries, but Owen does not play favourites. When they are operating on a female teenager, Cristina does an unauthorized procedure - Owen gets upset, but Cristina apologizes.

Owen brings in Teddy Altman, his best friend and colleague from when he was in the army, for Cristina, so that she can have a cardiothoracics mentor. At first, Cristina dislikes her new superior, but after seeing how naturally talented she was, she begins to enjoy studying under her. Teddy agrees to come to Seattle Grace so that she can have a relationship with Owen, but finds out that he is already in a relationship with Cristina. Owen also actually had feelings for Teddy while he was in the army, but tells her that he is currently in love with Cristina. When Teddy threatens to leave, Cristina offers Owen to her so that she won't. Owen finds out about Cristina giving him up to Teddy and tells her that "they matter". Then, they make up with a passionate kiss.

Later, in surgery, Teddy pages Cristina for help, but Owen asks Cristina to ignore her pager. Teddy scolds Cristina for not answering her pager. Owen tells her that he's trying to understand her, and Cristina explains to Owen about Burke. Owen ignores Teddy, and Teddy tells him that she misses her best friend; Owen feels the same way too. After that, Teddy tells Owen that she takes back what she said about having feelings for Owen in front of Cristina.

We learn a lot more about Owen's life and relationship with Teddy when he was in Iraq during war in the episode, "Suicide is Painless". His PTSD flares up again and subsequently he goes back to therapy.

He continues to have feelings for Teddy, despite his relationship with Cristina. Meredith notices his attention to Teddy and worries that he is not being honest with Cristina about his feelings for his friend. To solve his dilemma, Owen encourages Derek Shepherd, who at that time is Chief of Surgery, to hire another head of cardio so that Teddy would be forced to leave Seattle - therefore removing herself from his daily life. Despite his attempt, Teddy remains at Seattle Grace-Mercy West. Thanks to Meredith, Cristina learns that Owen tried to have Teddy let go and subsequently realizes that he has very deep feelings for her. This rattles their relationship, until Cristina asks Owen if he loves Teddy or if he loves her. When he is unable to answer, she tells him that they are done.

During the season six finale shooting crisis, Owen goes back into the hospital to find Cristina. After seeing her held at gunpoint by Gary Clark in the OR, he enters the room in an effort to defuse the situation. After telling Clark that Cristina is the woman he loves and that if Clark touches her he will kill him, Owen is shot through the shoulder attempting to make a move on Clark. Meredith and April take him to the OR across the hall for treatment, where Meredith miscarries during the procedure. Owen is later seen sitting up and conscious in Cristina's OR as she completes her lifesaving surgery on Derek Shepherd.

Owen and Cristina are married in the season 7 premiere. He also wins a grant given by the hospital and uses it for trauma training.

Owen and Cristina seem content in their marriage, but a problem surfaces. Cristina learns that, despite her avowal to never have children, Owen wants a family someday. This sparks an argument, as she believes she was upfront about her decision not to have children. Owen first tries to convince her that it is likely she will change her mind once some years have passed and she is finished with her residency. When Cristina questions the likelihood of her ever "coming around," as Owen puts it, Owen becomes agitated and states that since they are married, Cristina has to at least pretend to care about what he thinks and wants.

At the end of season 7, Cristina finds out that she is 6 weeks pregnant and is set on not having a child. Owen tries to convince her that it will all be okay and that he will take care of the baby. Cristina finally confronts Owen by asking him how much he loves her and telling him that she made an appointment to terminate the pregnancy. Owen is upset that he didn't get a say in the decision and tells her that she denied him a marriage and to get out.

In Season 8, Owen was reluctant but supportive toward Cristina's abortion and sat by her side when it happened. In the fallout of Meredith's actions on the Alzheimer's trial, Owen is promoted to Chief after Webber steps down for taking the blame. Teddy's husband, Henry, was admitted and required surgery. Since Teddy couldn't operate on him, she demanded Cristina to do it, although Cristina would not know who her patient was. After Henry died on the table, Owen told her who he was and she cried violently. Later, while Teddy was in surgery, he was forced by Teddy to get an exhausted Cristina to assist. She refused at first because she was appalled that Teddy doesn't know about Henry's death yet, but later relented. After the surgery, after Cristina went on and told Teddy the truth about Henry's surgery, much to Owen's dismay.

For the next few episodes, Teddy kept avoiding Owen, who she blamed for Henry's death. Later, Owen found out that Teddy and Cristina stole a surgery from McQueen and Alex Karev, but was forced to leave when they were halfway through the surgery. Owen was extremely upset about Cristina's actions as shown at Zola's birthday party/Webber's 10,000th surgery celebration. When Cristina tried to apologize, Owen didn't accept it and flatly told her that he will be taking Cristina off Teddy's services, much to her objection. The Owen-Cristina argument escalates to a boiling point when it becomes clear that Owen was furious about Cristina's abortion. Cristina, figuring out what his anger was about, tearfully begs him to move on and forget about it, but Owen acidly yells "You killed our baby! You don't ever forget that!", leaving Cristina horrified and everyone else who heard the fight shocked.

Development

Characterization

Shonda Rhimes, the show's creator, says that Hunt is "an old-fashioned tortured hero" and likens him to Heathcliff. Mark Wilding, one of the show's writers, says that Hunt is a character who is "fighting his own set of demons" and that it is understandable that he may lack some compassion (in regards to injuring, then operating on pigs in the season five episode Life During Wartime) as after seeing "19 of your friends die in one day, it tends to make other things in your life not seem quite as important or dramatic." In reference to the tragic demise of Hunt's entire unit, another of the show's writers, Bill Harper, comments that; "If anyone ever wanted to detach, if anyone wanted to flee from being human, it’s Owen." Another of the show's writers, Joan Rater, describes Hunt as "Complicated. And tortured." Additionally, Kevin McKidd describes Hunt as "very instinctive, and follows his gut, and he's very impulsive, and very immediate. He immediately assesses a situation. And he's very honest, sometimes painfully honest, with himself and with others. He wants to make himself better. He wants to improve himself as a person. He's a decent guy, a sort of a guy I'd like to go out and have a beer with."

Relationships

The character of Owen Hunt had an almost instant attraction to Cristina Yang since his first appearance in Seattle Grace, illustrated by the passionate kiss they share soon after they meet. Matt Roush of TVGuide says of this first meeting; "the instant sparks between him [Hunt] and Yang were electrifying." In a later episode, Hunt and Yang share another kiss. Stacy McKee, one the show's writers, describes this kiss as "a little desperate –- at least at first" and is underlain by Owen's desire not to "lose his ability to connect with other people." She also states that Hunt is "wounded. He does have war wounds," but that Yang knows "wounds can be healed." Kevin McKidd says that his character and the character of Cristina Yang are "soulmates."

Reception

Originally only signed onto the show until December 2008, Kevin McKidd was upgraded to regular status after appearing in five episodes. Shonda Rhimes said, "I am excited to have Kevin McKidd joining us for the season, he’s been a delight to collaborate with and brings incredible passion, talent and creativity to his work." Weeks after Hunt's first appearance on the show, Matt Roush of TVGuide comments that "Hunt/McKidd is the most encouraging thing to happen to Grey's Anatomy in quite a while." Robert Rorke of the New York Post states that McKidd was brought in as Hunt to "boost the sagging fortunes" of the show's ratings. Kelley L. Carter of USA Today, describes Hunt as "hardcore" and "the antithesis of the other males on the show."

External links

• Grey's Anatomy at ABC.com