‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Teddy & Owen Are Officially (Finally) Over

[Warning: The following post contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Episode 3, “Between Two Lungs.”]

The saga of Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) and Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) has been going on for years, decades even, in the timeline of Grey’s Anatomy, but it looks like that divisive part of the show’s story is finally, officially over.

On Thursday’s (October 23) episode of the beloved medical drama, the premier heart and trauma surgeon took a time out from all-things-Grey Sloan to help Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington) run an errand to pick out a new car for her growing brood, ostensibly to help Jo negotiate for a better price, and she ended up realizing a lot about herself in the process. After hearing the salesman dutifully remind Jo of what she would be investing in by buying a quality car — that is, priceless memories with her family on road trips — Teddy was overcome with grief about what divorce (yes, she specifically used the “D” word) would mean for her own children with Owen. However, Jo, who’s been in that situation not once but twice before, opened Teddy’s eyes to the opportunity that comes with a fresh start and encouraged her to find one sliver of happiness at a time in the aftermath.

As it turned out, that meant reconnecting with Dr. Cass Beckman (Sophia Bush), whom she’d just so happened to run into on an elevator earlier that day. Cass is still in an open marriage and seemed delighted to join Teddy on an impromptu date in the new car she probably negotiated down to MSRP like she did with Jo’s. So, whether there’s a future between them remains to be seen, but for now, Teddy’s ready to move on, for real this time.

Teddy first broke things off with Owen in the Season 21 finale, after she realized that he had true romantic feelings for his childhood friend-turned-hook-up-turned-Teddy’s-groundbreak-cardiac-surgery patient Nora (Floriana Lima). However, even then, some fans might’ve suspected a boomerang to happen as a result of their back-and-forth relationship over the years. Given Teddy’s words of finality, though, that does not seem to be the case this time.

Elsewhere in the episode, Ben Warren (Jason George) started the day doing a literal happy dance about his newfound chief resident status but ended it sulking behind a pile of paperwork and commiserating with Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) about the fact that being a leader came with a ton of unspoken downsides. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), who’d told them both so, might have had reasons to celebrate not doing either of those jobs anymore — been there, done that on both accounts — but she also got bad news after finding additional, likely deadly, tumors on a patient that she was already treating for cancer.

Disney / ABC

On a brighter note, though, Miranda’s surgery did give Lucas Adams (Niko Terho) and Wes Bryant (Trevor Jackson) some time to sort things out, with the former coming to understand that the latter was not the villain in his story. Wes didn’t know of Simone Griffith’s (Alexis Floyd) attachment to Lucas, and they had broken up at the time anyway. Meanwhile, Simone and Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane) agreed to a no-sex pact just after Jules managed to pump Winston Ndugu’s (Anthony Hill) ego up enough to pull off a risky double lung transplant he wasn’t fully sure about.

The sunniest spot of the episode, of course, belonged to Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and the growth she made in her relationship. After seeing Nick (Scott Speedman) having a no-moms-allowed chat with her son Bailey and prodding Nick for intel about it all day, Meredith finally realized it was a good thing for all of them that the new man in her life could be a source of confidence for her almost-teen son, and she let them have their secrets. Finally, she released control. How extraordinary.

Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC