‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Breaks Down Midseason Finale Breakup (SPOILERS)
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched the “Grey’s Anatomy” Season 13 midseason finale, titled “You Haven’t Done Nothin’,” which aired Thursday, Nov. 17.
In typical “Grey’s Anatomy” fashion, a major disaster hit Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital on the Season 13 midseason finale. An apartment building collapsed in the middle of Seattle, flooding the hospital with dozens of critically injured patients and frazzled loved ones.
While the medical disaster consumed much of the episode with compelling and heart-wrenching storytelling, the bigger disasters were taking place in the doctor’s personal lives.
Richard Webber’s (James Pickens Jr.) job continued to be at risk, as Dr. Eliza Minnick (Marika Dominczyk) continued to creep in on his duties, overseeing the residents. And Bailey (Chandra Wilson) continued to be on her side. Webber and Bailey ended up getting in a fight about her trying to overthrow his power, and the rest of the doctors came to Webber’s defense.
“I think the big broad arc of the second half of the season is this hospital that has become divided in this view of Richard Webber and everything that he stands for,” star Kevin McKidd tells Variety of the finale aftermath.
Webber may not be the only one forced out of the hospital. Jo (Camilla Luddington) finally told Karev (Justin Chambers) the truth about being married to an abusive man. She decided to fess up because she was scared her secret marriage may come up when she testifies in court for Karev. In turn, he decided it may be best to take the plea deal to go to jail for two years and much to Meredith’s (Ellen Pompeo) dismay, the episode ends with Alex in the DA’s office, leaving viewers questioning, will he turn himself in?
However, the biggest cliffhanger of the episode is that Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) left Owen (McKidd). As Owen returned to their home after work, he found a note from his runaway wife.
Here, Kevin McKidd talks to Variety about the midseason finale. Plus, will Owen and Amelia get back together?
Amelia left Owen! Is this breakup for good, or is there a chance they will work things out and get back together?
It’s hard to know. We’re not that far away from shooting that episode. Amelia is still missing in action. Owen gives her space for a little while, as he should, but he runs out of patience and tries to track her down and wants to talk to her. He is deeply concerned, he really loves her, but he’s not an idiot — she was almost a runaway bride at his wedding and he had to convince her. There’s only so long anyone can do that, before they see the writing on the wall. When people want different things fundamentally in their lives, that’s a big problem. They’re definitely on the rocks and their future is definitely in question.
Amelia does not want children and Owen does. Even if she does come back, will they be able to overcome that?
I wish and pray for Owen that he will one day get that child, and be with someone that wants to have that child with him, and I hope that person is Amelia — but right now, I think that ball is in her court. Eventually Owen is going to have to say he can only do this so many times and he can’t do it anymore.
How will Amelia leaving impact Owen?
I think Owen will do what he always does in these big, horrible moments in his life — he buries himself into work, and usually not in a healthy way. He’ll probably work incredibly long shifts and just be all about medicine. I think a lot of people do that when there are problems in their life. They just stick their head in the sand and just work, work, work. I don’t think he’ll unravel in the sense of drinking too much or anything, but I think he’ll get tired and stressed. But the thing with Owen is that the thing that triggers his PTSD is lack of sleep and stress and getting buried in work, so this can become a situation where his PTSD gets flared up again. That’s my concern.
I couldn’t help but think of Cristina (Sandra Oh). She also didn’t want kids, so this is now the second time Owen is going through this heartbreak. Will he have flashbacks of Cristina?
I don’t know. Possibly. I know it will be very much in Owen’s mind because it’s such an echo of what happened with him and Cristina. I don’t know if we’ll have flashbacks, I don’t know what Shonda [Rhimes] is planning, but I’d love that.
The hospital is in a divide because of Bailey trying to push Webber aside. Will that be the major theme of back-half of the season?
For Richard’s position to be put into question is a seismic thing ot happen in our show because he’s always been our rock and the moral compass. To put his integrity or ethics in question like this is huge for the show and big for our doctors. It creates an existential anxiety for everyone that I think will play out very interesting and in very divided ways. I hope that by the end of the season there is a reunion. I think that will be the main thrust of the season.
What else can you tell me about the back-half of Season 13?
There’s going to be a couple more of these one-off episodes, which is exciting.
Speaking of one-off episodes, will we be seeing more of Owen’s sister (Bridget Regan)?
I really hope so because I really enjoyed working with her. I thought that the dynamic with her really played well and people seemed to respond well to it. I’m lobbying for her to make another appearance. It may not be in the future.
Now that we’ve seen Owen’s sister, how will that change his storylines going forward?
I think what we saw in that episode last week was who comes to surgeons to help them through, and we saw that person in his conscious has manifested in the shape of his sister. She’s smarter than him, funnier than him, more talented than him and he held her on a pedestal for many years, so it makes sense that she comes to him and helps him problem-solve. His conscious of her tells Owen maybe he need to let go of this resentment for Nathan (Martin Henderson), and then Owen took that step. We all know that the reducement of resentment and forgiveness are the two things that can fix relationship. I think as we move forward, we’ll start to see some thawing of Owen toward Nathan, and maybe the re-emergence of their friendship. They were best, best friends before. It’s really fun to see that dynamic.
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