There were two categories for the folks on Grey’s Anatomy last night: Those who were happy and invigorated by life’s challenges and opportunities, and those who were deeply unhappy and scared, unable to forge ahead, at least not without major prodding.
And, for the most part, the compare-and-contrast technique worked quite well.
At the end of last week’s episode, Callie and Arizona had submitted their resignations to the Chief, were gleefully smooching and seemed deliriously happy together. Callie had decided that her love for Arizona was strong enough to prompt her to quit her job and follow her lover and her lover’s coveted grant all the way to Africa.
Until it wasn’t.
The look on Callie’s face as Arizona was giving away Callie’s belongings to Mark was the polar opposite of how her face looked when she happily exited Seattle Grace with Arizona in the previous episode. Callie wore her anger, betrayal and deep irritation quite openly — despite her passive aggressive and clearly forced smiles — allowing the world, and specifically Arizona, to see how much it pained her to be making this tremendous sacrifice. (Made me think of the whole having children argument where Arizona had refused Callie’s pleas to have the children Callie desperately wanted.)
And, though it was harsh and ill-timed, Arizona’s outburst in the airport was on target: “I am living the dream … You are ruining Africa for me.”
Callie, madly trying to keep the relationship alive, pledged to do better, to stop pouting, to look happier, even though she was clearly disappointed about having to go on this Africa odyssey. But Arizona, seeing no room for compromise and for them to both be happy, dumped Callie at the airport, saying, “You take care of yourself.” Then she was gone. Surprisingly, I didn’t find myself hating Arizona because of how she treated Callie. It just made sense in a very pragmatic way. They were too different, wanted vastly different things. Arizona craved Africa, Callie wanted Seattle and children scampering about underfoot .
Speaking of wanting different things, Cristina deciding to leave surgery, after proving that she could indeed still handle it, was not a surprise. Even hearing formerly hardcore Cristina say of surgery, “I don’t want it anymore” didn’t take me aback, not after she said she was afraid of everything these days, even walking across the lobby. No matter how hard Meredith, Owen and Teddy tried to help make her feel okay, she just wasn’t.
My fear about Cristina quitting surgery? That it’ll become an Izzie and the cupcakes situation, where Izzie, in the wake of Denny’s death, wallowed in cake batter, said she was done with this surgery stuff and pondered what to do with the money Denny had left her. However, within relatively short order, Izzie was back at the hospital, doing surgery. As long as Cristina’s story remains unique to Cristina and not some incarnation of Izzie 2.0, then I’ll be happy continuing to follow her story.
The revelation that Cristina blames Meredith and her sad eyes for making her operate on Derek while Cristina was being threatened with a gun — and that she resents Meredith’s supposed emotional health (Has she forgotten that Meredith nearly drowned and has seen a man blow up in front of her?) — that was a development I didn’t see coming, though perhaps I should have.
I’ll also admit that, while I’m no fan of the April character, watching her interact with Alex during trauma training in the driving rain, witnessing her steal an ambulance and spontaneously change the rules so her team could “win,” did make me smile. Maybe April could wind up being interesting after all.
As for Derek being stuck on pause, frozen by fear that Meredith might have Alzheimer’s, dovetailed by Bailey trying to push the pathologist to move quicker and pinpoint the cause of Mary’s death when none was to be found, clearly neither one of them is okay either, but they’re processing their angst differently, one with a swirl of constant motion, the other with petrified motionlessness. Can’t wait to see what’s next for them.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Nov 05, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
One part of Christina’s anger toward Meredith struck me as inconsistent in the story – a few episodes back, Christina would crawl in Mer’s bed if Owen wasn’t there. Why would she do so if she were angry/hated Mer?
I don’t think she was really angry at Meredith. It was a displaced anger, she’s angry at herself for not being able to cope when she was always able to cope before but she can’t deal with that so she gets angry at Mer. It’s like a young child who is frustrated and takes it out on mother, a safe person who won’t reject him no matter how badly he acts.
Shonda Rhimes said that Callie and Arizona was an OTP couple. But if that’s so, why are they writing Arizona to be such a self-centred and self-serving person? She didn’t pay attention to Callie’s feelings, especially when she was giving away Callie’s stuff, and when Callie tried to compromise, all she could say was Callie was spoiling her fun.
She’s also nasty professionally to anyone who does something she doesn’t like or who doesn’t act as if she’s the bestest thing in the world. When Cristina was in trouble dealing with her reaction to the shooting, all Arizona cared about was pushing Cris out of her own apartment so she could have it to Callie and herself. Meanwhile, she’s nice to Teddy because she can give Teddy advise and Teddy becomes her acolyte for it.
It’s either Arizona’s way or the doorway, no compromises. It wouldn’t be so bad if she acknowledged it and didn’t act like she was all sunshine and rainbows and so, so special.
AZ will probably come back apologetic when Jessica Capshaw’s maternity leave is up but all I can think is “Run, Callie, run.”