Cristina and Owen have many devoted fans, none of which were looking forward to seeing them say goodbye to each other in the Season 10 Finale. Their story; particularly the last two years has seen Cristina and Owen have many ups and downs. Did the creator of Grey's Anatomy; Shonda Rhimes succeed in closing their story in a way the fans would have been happy with?
Given that Sandra Oh has called time on her role as Cristina Yang on Grey's Anatomy it is not likely that we will see Cristina and Owen resolve their issues and get a happy ending. Let's go over the background of their marriage during the last two seasons.
During Season 8 Cristina and Owen struggled with the reality of Cristina not wanting children. Having become accidentally pregnant in the Season 7 Finale; Cristina decided a termination was her only option. Her first mistake was to make the decision without really discussing it with Owen. When Meredith begged Owen not to punish his wife for not wanting a baby; he sought her out to talk, which ended with Owen agreeing to accompany Cristina to the clinic to have the termination. He then spent the next four months stewing about the baby that would never be. He did not talk about these feelings to Cristina.
Not long after Teddy's husband, Henry died (Teddy was Cristina's mentor and Cristina was the surgeon on Henry's case) Cristina elected to help Teddy steal a surgery from a fellow surgeon; as Teddy felt this surgeon was not qualified enough to perform the surgery. Owen has already ordered them to both go home and get some sleep, as they had been on duty for too long. He finds out that they went behind his back and is furious and this is what leads to Owen yelling at Cristina in Meredith’s kitchen, that Cristina had killed their baby. The entire hospital now knew their business, as Meredith had everyone over to celebrate Zola’s first birthday.
The surprising part about this exchange was that Cristina thought that she and Owen should put the abortion in the past and forget about it. Owen screaming at her was over the line. And Cristina can't really expect Owen to forget it, she should at least acknowledge his pain. Not long after this they went to couples counseling and things did not go well; this was the day that Owen got drunk and cheated; and later told Cristina who now believes that Owen cheated to even the score. In the closing episodes of Season 8, Cristina had decided she was leaving as she had been offered many fellowships at some of the best hospitals. She felt that the marriage was done.
In an interview just before Season 9 premiered in the US with Access Hollywood, Kevin McKidd said that he is expecting Christina and Owen to reunite in Season 9. However; he also says that he has no idea what’s in store for the couple. McKidd was quoted as saying that:“I think they’re gonna be OK. Nobody’s telling me, but I do think they’re the most complicated, in a way, of the couples, and the most tortured of the couples a lot of the time. On paper, they should not work as a couple, and that’s what I love about how they have written Christina and Owen — that they really get inside the heads of these two characters and sort of go, ‘Why are these people even together?’ And when they are, there’s a chemistry there that seems to work. And they struggle on and I do think they’re going to be happy and good for each other.” Sounds optimistic, but will their story be believable? And most die hard Grey's fans are worried about this. It would seem as though one of them needs to give up what they want in order to have a happy marriage.
It does seem like their problems are deal-breakers. If your partner wants kids and you don't, then getting married is really not a good idea. The problem with Cristina and Owen is way past the whole 'who did what to whom' scenario. They really need to figure out if there is a compromise to be made. It hardly seems like anything will be resolved with Cristina in Minnesota doing her fellowship, and Owen staying in Seattle. Cristina chose to leave despite the plane crash and Meredith begging her to stay. When Cristina left Owen also begged her to stay, however he needs to decide if he can live a life without kids, and Cristina needs to really think carefully about whether she may want a baby some day. Personally from what I've seen of her character, it's unlikely she will want to stop her career and have kids and if you listen to the many fans, not many of them want to see Cristina bend for Owen and give him children.
My interpretation of events at the end of Season 8 and what we saw in Season 9, is that Cristina and Owen will realize that they need to be each other persons' first and foremost and this happened in Season 9, and it was wonderful to see. During those counselling sessions in Season 8, Owen said to Cristina that she should be his person, and Cristina said the same thing. That was the clue that Shonda gave us about how they will reunite. She also said it could take all season on her Twitter page. So fans took this as more rough times for the Cristina and Owen fans. Another clue was when Cristina told Meredith that Owen was her person, and Derek told Meredith that she needs make decisions with him and not Cristina.
As for the cheating, well Cristina knew nothing about that until a while after the counseling session; in fact it happened that same day. Owen’s bad judgement in sleeping with another woman was hard to comprehend given their circumstances. The marriage is falling to pieces and he goes and does that! However this does happen in many marriages where couples are miles apart yet still live together and sleep together. They are not intimate, this is obvious, they are barely communicating, and are both miserable and lost. However; whether Owens’ actions can be forgiven is a different story. It would seem as though Cristina wants to forgive him; however when she realizes that he may have done it to even the score, she does seem to change her attitude. It was the cheating that really threw the Cristina and Owen shippers for a loop and it seemed like drama for the sake of drama. Cheating seemed to be out of character for Owen. And didn't they have enough drama already.
Their problems were made worse and it’s a mystery why Shonda sent Owen’s character down this path. Some fans who once liked Owen, do not like him anymore; and now to work at redeeming Owen in the eyes of the fans, seems like just more work than the writers ever should have had to take on. Many women hate cheaters, and have had their partners cheat on them, so most women in this boat would not forgive this type of behavior from their man. Until the cheating happened Cristina had no reason to distrust Owen. Now the trust in the marriage is gone too. Shonda may well have a message she is trying to send viewers via the cheating story, but I'm damned if I know what that is. Season 10 is over and Cristina is gone; and I still don't understand the point of having Owen cheat.
In Season 9 Shonda did manage to redeem Owen, at least in my opinion. He would not and could not stop blaming himself for putting his wife and the others on that plane and we see him deal with this and at the root of it all he was probably feeling awful about losing the love of his life. Cristina and Owen end up getting a divorce as Owen feels as though Cristina is done with the marriage, however he also realizes that if he and Cristina are divorced, then there will be no conflict of interest concerning the law suit.
On the day they are to sign the papers, she tells Owen that she wanted to try again, they go ahead and make the divorce official to remove their conflict of interest and Owen also believes that signing the papers means that they will not hurt each other anymore. They then seal this promise with a kiss and some hot sex. What I loved about this was Cristina's realization that Owen is indeed her person and so is Meredith, but in a different way. This was the break through I was hoping to see from Cristina. The friendship she has with Meredith is special, however it cannot take the place of her husband or marriage or in any way dictate what goes on in her marriage. I saw Meredith and Cristina really come to terms with this in Season 9 and it's about time.
The only way for Cristina and Owen to make it, is for one of them to give in regarding children. Owen would need to sacrifice being a father or Cristina would need to give in and have a child. I don't see it happening as you cannot fight what you truly believe and want. At the close of Season 9, Owen finds himself taking care of a ten year old boy whose family are both badly injured and unconscious. Cristina sees how much Owen cares for this child and realizes that he needs to be a father. She decides to end things in the Season 9 Finale. Season 10 returned, and within the second episode, Owen and Cristina are in bed together. They elect to both start dating, which helps them both keep away from each other and work on what they individually want out of life. Owen meets Emma, a surgeon from another Seattle hospital and she seems to be just what Owen needs.
A few months into their relationship they are talking moving in together. Cristina turns up at Owens trailer to congratulate him on moving in with Emma, and give him a bottle of wine she stole from Derek. Of course they end up in bed and they are very aware of what happened, so there is no reading into things, at least on Cristina's part. Emma shows up a the hospital to talk to Owen about what kind of house they are looking for and to have the conversation about kids, when Owen hears that she intends to quit work to devote herself to her kids, something changes and he decides that Emma is not the person for him. The weeks and months roll on and Cristina and Owen are able to behave as friends without jumping into bed every time. When Cristina is nominated for a Harper Avery, things change again. Due to politics, Cristina loses the award and it is during the days when her loss has sunk in that she realizes that things have to change.
The night after the ceremony, she returns to Seattle and gets back to work. Meredith talks her into going to Switzerland to give a talk about her research. What she doesn't know is the trip to Zurich to give her lecture will dictate what she does next with her career. To her surprise and shock, Dr Preston Burke appears and asks questions regarding her work, he then invites her to see what he is working on. When Cristina finally confesses to Burke what it is she wants to do, he tells her to come and work in Zurich. He is leaving and could not think of a better person to run the hospital he is at. The people who own the hospital have tonnes of money that they put towards research for complicated medical experiments, surgeries and treatments. It's the chance of a lifetime. Meredith meet Cristina at the airport and as soon as she look into Cristina's eyes, she knows and says "You're leaving."
So for Owen and Cristina the dream of being together is over for them and over for their fans, unless Cristina comes back one day or Shonda gives Sandra Oh her own show in Zurich. In the Season 10 Finale, Cristina has been putting off leaving for weeks, feeling as though she is not finished. She gets drunk with Meredith the night before, and wakes up late, in the morning with Owen. Perfect ways for her to say goodbye to the love of her life, and her soul-mate and person, Meredith.
She arrives at the hospital later on and schedules a heart transplant surgery for one of her patients who has been waiting on a heart. It is the same family she was treating with the three kids who all had bad hearts. The new attending starts trying to boss Cristina around, telling her she cannot do the surgery, but Cristina is having none of it. In the end Meredith talks her into letting the new attending do the surgery and get to the airport before she misses the plane and puts it off for another day. She agrees and Meredith gets her into a taxi. I won't say anymore, so as not to totally spoil it for anyone who has not seen it, but when the taxi pulls away, it is not the last time we see Cristina.
As for her and Owen, their goodbye is simple, bittersweet and sad. I guess if there was a happy ending to their story, it is that they are great friends, who love and care for each other dearly. Hopefully for Owen, with Cristina gone, he can find the woman he needs in his life. When the news broke last year that Sandra Oh was bowing out and shortly after Kevin McKidd confirmed he would like to stay, fans knew that Cristina and Owen were not destined to re-unite. As far as endings go, I felt that Shonda Rhimes did a beautiful job of wrapping up Cristina and Owen's relationship and Cristina's many years working at what began as Seattle Grace and is now Grey Sloan Memorial.
Were you in tears when Cristina left? Were you hoping that she would suddenly change her mind or Owen would quit as Chief and go with her? I would love to know what you were thinking during Cristina's final episode. Hit the comments with your thoughts or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.
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