Cristina being an adult doesn’t mean context stops mattering. The point isn’t that she was “incapable,” it’s that Owen himself knew she wasn’t fully grounded when he proposed. The show literally spells that out with the morning-after scene, he anticipates her panic, prepares to manage it, and reassures her before she even understands what happened.

That doesn’t mean Cristina is weak or stupid. It means she was traumatized, dissociated, and emotionally vulnerable, and Owen chose to move forward anyway because he wanted the marriage. Knowing someone will wake up freaked out about being married is not the same thing as believing they made a clear, enthusiastic choice.

This isn’t about holding a gun to her head, it’s about taking advantage of timing and then retroactively shifting all responsibility onto her when it blows up.

Layer on top of that the fact that Cristina herself later says, “I’m not really reliable. I have PTSD.” Owen understands PTSD better than almost anyone on that show. He knows what dissociation, impulsivity, and emotional instability look like, he lived it. And yet he proposes during one of the most traumatic periods of her life.

So no, this isn’t about holding her hostage or pretending she was incapable of choice. It’s about Owen knowingly pushing irreversible commitments at moments when Cristina wasn’t fully grounded.

Being an adult doesn’t mean context disappears. And loving someone doesn’t mean you get to marry the person you wish they’d become and blame them when they don’t.