Who could that third person be, and will they survive? Here’s everything we know about the Grey’s Anatomy Season 18 winter finale and whether Owen could die on Grey’s.
What happens on the Grey’s Anatomy Season 18 winter finale?
(WARNING: GREY’S ANATOMY SEASON 18 MIDSEASON WINTER FINALE SPOILERS AHEAD!) In the first act of the Dec. 16 episode, titled “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” the doctors of Grey Sloan prepare to celebrate the holidays, but the only thing that Dr. Megan Hunt (Abigail Spencer) wants for Christmas is a new heart for her son, Farouk (Bardia Seiri), who is in critical condition. Deeply despondent, Megan admits to his surgeon, Dr. Cormac Hayes (Richard Flood), that if Farouk dies, she plans to end her own life as well. She hasn’t told her brother, Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), or his new wife, Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver), but she felt like she needed to tell someone of her plans. Fortunately, not long after, the hospital gets word that a donor heart has become available for Farouk. Although Cormac is Farouk’s doctor, Teddy—one of the hospital’s top cardiothoracic surgeons—insists on accompanying him to pick up the heart, wanting to make sure nothing goes wrong in the retrieval procedure. Owen also tags along, even though as a trauma surgeon and Megan’s brother, his presence isn’t really needed, but no one challenges his presence. Unfortunately, although the heart retrieval procedure goes well, the trip back to the hospital does not, with the unnamed driver of the transport car suffering a massive stroke and abruptly losing consciousness just minutes from the hospital. The car goes off the road, and winds up on its side on the edge of a cliff, held in place by a tree. With the driver already dead, the three passengers insider the car initially consider trying to escape, but quickly realize that any movement may cause the car to shift and fall over the cliff. Collectively, they decide that their top priority needs to be getting the heart to Farouk in the hospital. After exchanging heartfelt “I love you’s,” with Owen, Teddy climbs out with the heart while Cormac and Owen distribute their weight to balance the car. As she flags down a car to take her to the hospital and send help, Owen convinces Cormac to climb out of the car, arguing that as a single parent, his life needs to be prioritized for the sake of his kids. In the moments before Cormac leaves, Owen confides that he gave an Army veteran with a fatal and painful health condition the drugs that would end his life, and that he’d promised the same to several other veterans in similar conditions. He tells Cormac where he’s stashed the drugs for those vets, and how to contact them, and asks him to promise to finish what he started. Before Cormac can respond, Owen pushes him to climb out of the car, and he manages to escape just seconds before the car slides over the cliff.
Is Owen going to die on Grey’s Anatomy?
Meanwhile, a promo for the Feb. 24 mid-season premiere, titled “No Time to Die,” shows that in a crossover with Station 19, firefighters will be mounting a daring rescue mission to save Owen from the wreckage. We hear in a voiceover that the car has dropped more than 100 feet, and we see that at least one civilian will be recovered with no pulse, and one—although we don’t know if it’s the same one—in a body bag. Putting an established character in a life-threatening position going into a long break, only to kill them right when the show returns, is not unheard of for Grey’s Anatomy. The end of Season 5 saw original cast member George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) headed into emergency surgery, only for the premiere of Season 6 to reveal that he died on the operating table. And the closing moments of Season 8 left a number of main characters stranded in the wreckage of a plane crash, with the first episode of Season 9 revealing that Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) would eventually die of his injuries. So Owen’s fate being dangled as a literal cliffhanger to get people to tune in for the crossover episode in February doesn’t necessarily mean he will survive. Additionally, Owen’s death could kick off some interesting storylines for numerous other characters. Obviously entrusting Cormac with the secret that he was assisting army veterans in committing suicide will present a major conflict for Cormac, whether Owen lives or dies. The promo for “No Time to Die” also shows Teddy confronting Cormac about “what happened in that car,” which could be referring to Owen’s fate, or to the secret they now share, which Teddy knows nothing about. And of course, even if Farouk pulls through his transplant surgery, the loss of her brother would be a devastating blow for an already deeply depressed Megan. Then again, the midseason premiere being titled “No Time to Die” may be an indication that against all odds, Owen will pull through. It would be a major bummer to focus a significant crossover episode on rescuing a longtime main character (Owen was first introduced all the way back in Season 5, making him the longest-running cast member aside from Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, and James Pickens Jr.), only to have those efforts end in failure. Plus, considering that Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 both made the choice to set their current seasons in a “fictional, post-pandemic world which represents our hopes for the future,” killing off a cast member who has been around for over 300 episodes in a freak accident doesn’t feel like it fits with that hopeful theme. It’s also worth factoring in that McKidd, who plays Owen, is also one of the most frequent directors on the series, helming 32 episodes to date, the most recent being earlier this season. Would Grey’s Anatomy kill off one of its most established characters if it also meant that McKidd wouldn’t be around on a regular basis to direct? Of course, the actor could always come in to work solely behind the camera even if his character was no longer around, but we have to assume that McKidd might pick up other acting projects that could conflict with his availability to direct. Of course, all this is speculation, since McKidd himself hasn’t commented on his character’s fate. The actor signed a new three-year contract in 2020, which would have kept him donning Owen’s scrubs through a possible Season 19. While that doesn’t mean the show can’t kill him off before his contract expires, it at least indicates that McKidd didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving as of July 2020. So whether Owen lives or dies seems like it will be determined solely by the story, rather than McKidd’s personal schedule.
When is Grey’s Anatomy coming back for its midseason premiere?
Either way, sending Owen off a cliff seems to give Grey’s Anatomy plenty of interesting places to go, story-wise, in the back half of Season 18. Whether those places will be celebratory or tragic, though, we’ll just have to wait until Grey’s Anatomy returns on Thursday, Feb. 24, to find out. Next, wondering what to watch while you’re waiting for more Grey’s Anatomy? Here’s the midseason TV lineup for 2022.
