Exclusive Interview
‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Kim Raver Teases Fallout of Teddy & Owen’s Open Marriage Trouble
[Warning: The following post contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 14, “Love in the Ice Age”]
Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) and Owen Hunt’s (Kevin McKidd) open marriage experiment is already off to a rough start. In the April 10 episode of Grey’s Anatomy, Teddy finds out that Owen slept with Nora (Floriana Lima), and to no one’s surprise, she does not take it well.
In the middle of her hookup with Cass (Sophia Bush) in last week’s episode, Teddy puts on the brakes because she realizes she only wants to be with Owen. Now that Teddy knows about Owen’s hookup, has Teddy and Owen’s marriage hit a new low? The last we see of the couple is Teddy crying in Owen’s arms.
Raver told Swooon that this latest development has “opened up Pandora’s box” for Teddy and Owen. These two are going to have to figure out how to “rectify the hurt feelings.” She added, “There’s a ripple effect. You can’t undo that. You can’t unring the bell, so to speak, right? Meg did this incredible job of adding an even more complicated layer. The last two episodes are so good and so complex, and there’s so much going on, and I think the fans are going to love it.”
The actress stressed that everything “gets more complicated” for the couple in the final episodes of Season 21. “All of us, myself included, ship Owen and Teddy, but I also really love Cass and Teddy, right?” Raved noted.
Speaking of Cass, could the Owen-Nora development send Teddy back into her arms? “I hope we see more of her,” Raver cryptically said.
When showrunner Meg Marinis first brought up the idea of Teddy and Owen exploring an open marriage, Raver was initially hesitant. “For me, one of the biggest things was I didn’t want it to just be a cheating story because I just felt like Teddy had gone down the infidelity road, and I wanted it to be that she had grown and had moved and expanded from that big mistake that she had done and that also their relationship had moved on,” she explained.
Despite Teddy and Owen’s problems through the years, Raver can’t imagine a world where they’re not a couple anymore. “I’ve always said endgame is Teddy and Owen, but I don’t know what the journey to that is. I really do trust Meg and our writers and Shonda [Rhimes],” she told Swooon.
The longtime Grey’s Anatomy couple has faced battles of all kinds, from war to infidelity, and Raver hopes they work through this latest obstacle.
“I think it would be nice for them both to kind of address their trauma,” she said. “Teddy has lost everyone in her life that she’s loved, like everyone, so think it’s important that they both kind of do their individual work on becoming healthy people, and then they could really thrive as a couple. Maybe that’s my hope for them.”
Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC
