The end is the beginning of end

Grey’s Anatomy fifth episode, painfully titled ‘I Bet It Stung’, was literally and figuratively buzzing and stinging. The doctors at Grey- Sloan Memorial Hospital had their hands full with awkward, emotional and complicated medical cases- a guy with a thing for bees (ouch), a young girl, serving as a ‘tool box’ for her older sick sister (double ouch) and a patient up for simultaneous heart/ liver transplant surgery (triple ouch). The doctors’ personal lives turned out to be no different than the medical cases- awkwardness in on- call rooms, hospital halls and ORs, reeling emotions and deepening complications with estranged fathers and between friends and spouses.

The beginning of the episode took us behind the walls of the dream house, where three adults were juggling the early morning coffee, three kids and their breakfast. And they were too good at it. So good, to the point where in all this hustle and bustle Meredith and Callie had their own moment of awkwardness- out of the blue quick peck on the lips. Meredith’s face was priceless.

Unfortunately, Callie Torres didn’t seem that good at dealing and communicating with her wife. The woman just couldn’t keep her anger at bay and be a little bit civilized when it comes to Arizona. Dr. Torres may be hard- working like a bee, but she kept biting like a dog with sarcasm and rubbing in her wife’s face the infidelity by calling her “a cheating wife”.

Before that little clash between Callie and Arizona over the mortgage bill, Dr. Robbins was nicely chatting with Kepner when another awkward moment happened- with a smile on her face and visibly in good spirits, Murphy walked by with a cup of coffee and handed in to Arizona. This was a blaring ‘code blue’ for Arizona and put her into an alert mode and a state of panic “Oh, I think actually I did something really, really bad”. Apparently, the good old bubbly erased some moments of Dr. Robbins’ memory at the night of the gala since she vaguely remembered Leah’s presence in her apartment.

However, the awkwardness didn’t stop with the coffee. It kept going on when Leah showed up in the OR full of doctors. Dr. Robbins got all tensed up and Murphy kept confusing further already confused Arizona. She claimed that Arizona invited her to participate during the surgery in the night of the gala. To release the quickly building up pressure, Dr. Robbins politely redirected Leah towards the exit of the OR and told her to care of the patients on the Peds floor.

Meanwhile, Callie, Owen and Kepner were working on the most gut wrenching case in the entire Grey’s history to date- a patient with plastic anaemia and a daredevil attitude whose younger sister happened to be her safety net, a tool box for spare body parts. During the surgery Owen pointed out to Callie her inability to say ‘No’ which caused Callie to voice a rather disturbing consideration that involved kicking Arizona out of the apartment. Of course, April tried to stand up for her newly- found friend and provide legitimate reasons that maybe Callie should reconsider this newly- formed thought in her head.

Grey’s Anatomy wouldn’t be Grey’s Anatomy without the resemblance between the doctors’ lives their patients. So, Callie Torres recognised herself in this young girl, who served as a donor to her sister- constantly giving and taking care of others. After an emotional talk with her, Callie convinced the girl that she could have the life she had always wanted and that it was high time to say ‘No’. This turned out to be the moment, where Callie Torres decided to put her thoughts into actions. She didn’t let any kind of doubts catch up with her and she didn’t back down like this young girl, who in the end decided to donate her kidney.

Callie’s determination led her at Joe’s where she threw another verbal punch in Arizona’s gut and once again she pointed out the fact that her wife was merely a cheater and she didn’t need her help anymore. As for Arizona, she seemed to have lost her ability to speak, she just took and swallowed Callie’s harsh and cold words. She was muted and silently agreed with Callie’s decision.

So, Callie Torres ended the rebounding with the McDreamies, moved back into her apartment for a hopeful new beginning and taking her “me” back. If only this was that easy, but it remains to be seen. Because dancing in your underwear can’t bring one really back to themselves. It’s just a stolen moment, a band- aid that temporary covers a very big and deep wound- unfortunately, this is what Callie and Arizona’s reality is, a bleeding wound. But sometimes one has to make a step or two backwards before starting to move forward, to rediscover themselves and figure out what they really want and need.

After Callie left the bar, Leah was kindly enough to fill in the blanks for Arizona and for us, as well so that every piece from gala night puzzle to fall into its place. Concerned Leah had found Dr. Robbins passed out in the hall next to her apartment door, they had shared grilled cheese sandwiches over one of Derek’s taped surgeries or at least this was the version of the story Leah offered. However, Murphy was more interested in the part where Arizona called her pretty. Apparently, this made Arizona feel very uncomfortable since she was merely polite to this young doctor.

Probably every Calzona fan was left steaming mad, royally pissed, incredibly sad and frustrated after the bar scene- either angry at Callie or Arizona, or both of them and most likely very angry at Leah. Can we blame Callie Torres for the way she behaves? Can we blame Arizona? The situation between them is very complicated (a child is involved, too) and once again the writers sent the message to us that Callie and Arizona’s journey would be indeed long and maybe at times without even a ray of hope to hold on to. A journey that would include just Callie and a journey that would include just Arizona, before hopefully this turns into a new Calzona journey.

As for Leah Murphy, she might be just another tool from Shonda and Co. Box. She would either serve as an eye opener or another nail in the coffin. Leah Murphy’s character and her intentions are as mysterious to us as once Dr. Robbins’ were. The young intern may or may not have just an innocent crush on Arizona, her feelings may or may not be reciprocated, she may only use Arizona to get through the programme, Arizona and Leah may forge a friendship. Plenty of options. Whatever it will be, there is no way for us, the suffering viewers to know in advance. We should take it one episode at a time, one bitter pill at a time. The bad news is we don’t know how many of those bitter pills are left in the bottle and for how long we have to take them. The good news is the bitter pills that have been given to us will finish at some point.

Meanwhile in the hospital:
• Mama Avery once again was sassy surgeon and didn’t go without grilling poor Edwards;
• Webber kept making progress towards his recovery, but rather slowly one;
• Jo got herself emotionally involved with Alex’ father and tried to convince Alex to talk to the guy; Alex shut her down completely;
• The twisted sisters entered yet again the muddy waters of their friendship (how amazing was that scene) and that led further to a fight between Meredith and Derek later; Juggling work and motherhood turned out to be challenging for Dr. Grey;