Oh boy. Here we are, butting up against the
season finale and emotions are running high. And that’s just in the fandom.
Meredith is in labour and about to ‘enjoy’ the arrival of mini McDreamy, Alex
is in love with another crazy, April’s appeared in a Glee video, Richard’s
finally joined the ranks of the “too many cooks in the kitchen” cliché, a
shishkebab owned the OR and there’s an epic storm brewing.
Oh and Arizona made full use of the on call
room...without Callie. I forgot that little gem.
Episode 923, Readiness is all, just about
made us ready for what promises to be another thrilling season finale. I don’t
think I’ve been this excited to see the end of the season climax since season 6.
We will be faced with yet another disaster but this time where emotional catastrophe will be
omnipresent.
The biggest drama, with explosive
implications took place in the on call room between two blondes in the storm.
Shonda has set her stall for season 10 (renewed yesterday) by throwing a spear
through the heart of Callie & Arizona fans everywhere. It seems, though we
don’t have the full story yet, that Arizona has strayed from the marital bed into the arms of another woman. And as the storm raged through Grey Sloan
Memorial (note: why is Seattle Pres immune from the storm?) a hurricane raged
on twitter...“this is character assassination”, “Arizona’s just being vain”,
“selfish”, “betrayal to the LGBT community”, “you can never come back from
cheating, I’m done with this show”... or my personal favourite “good man in a
storm, until it’s a real storm”.
What I found striking about most of the
twitter-verse I read - though I confess to switching off twitter after 30
minutes of headache – and what I found most worrying is that all these
emotional reactions illustrate that most people appear to have completely missed the
point of this storyline for Arizona.
This is NOT about cheating. Cheating in
Grey’s land is a much-used device to push a story forward. Sometimes it has
been used supremely well (Addison/Derek) and at other times it’s been awkward
and clumsy (George Izzie). Owen’s cheating lies somewhere in the middle, though
for me his was a retrospective story arc that the writers added in at the last
minute. The use of previously unseen flashback footage has never sat well with
me. Cheating itself is a devastating form of emotional betrayal, which in this
case will throw up all sorts of debris before the tornado funnel hits and then
we will get resolution (happy or not). That’s not an excuse for the writers to over-use
it again this time with Arizona and Callie, but whether we like it or not, lazy
storytelling or not, it is a tried and tested weapon in the Grey’s armoury. As
viewers we have to see beyond the superficial of Arizona cheating, as we do
cheating in real life, and realize that this story is about so much more, and
we haven’t even reached the season finale yet.
923 was largely about ‘control’, or more
specifically ‘losing control’. It
vibrated through most of the storylines but none more so than Arizona’s and
this subplot is the most honest for this character since her preferring
chickens over children. “Readiness is all” made sense of what the writers have
been doing with Arizona over several seasons and for that I am relieved,
grateful and very excited, though I realize I maybe in the minority J
Paradoxically while Lauren utters the words
“Arizona, you are allowed to lose a little bit of control” and others around
the hospital are actually losing it, Arizona emphatically takes it back. Flicking
the lock on the door was an enormous symbolic gesture of taking control. She
made a decision for herself, something she has been denied, not just through
the entirety of season 9 but since she made the decision to go to Africa
without Callie. She has made none of the decisions that concerned her this season;
the last one being, ironically, Callie flicking the lock to the x-ray room and
taking control of Arizona’s residual limb. It was Callie who mentally spent all
of Arizona’s money before discussing it with her; it was Callie who made the
decision to cut off the leg and whilst the logical rational part of Arizona
(which is normally her guiding light), knows the leg had to come off, the fact
that she was unable to make that decision had a huge impact. And I’ve not even
ventured into S8 or S7 territory. Now before I get a storm of protest I am not
defending or justifying her actions, nor putting blame on Callie. I merely try
to explain.
For someone as much as a control-freak as
Arizona (reminder 812) this abdication has been personally and silently devastating.
As if that wasn’t bad enough her sense of self, so attached to this, her pride
in herself, in her work, has been quietly eroding and only now she has some
clarity there; clarity in the shape of Dr. Lauren Boswell.
Lauren, incase you missed it, is actually
Arizona looking in the mirror, they are each other, the same, articulating both
what is going on with Arizona and what she needs. The mirroring starts the
moment they swap coffee cups, all the way to “You really get me”...“I really
do”. In addition Lauren is playing a major role in building Arizona backup.
JCap, one of the best in “OR eye acting” did a great job blossoming with pride
when Dr. Boswell was in awe of them taking over the hospital. As Jackson (more
later) articulates perfectly...when was the last time she would have felt like
that?
Dr Boswell is a well-placed plot device brought
in specifically to do this. The intentional similarity between the two
characters is fresh, unique and illuminating. It also means that their liaison won’t go further
than a brief affair. Keeping two manifestly similar characters together would
be difficult to sustain. Though I do think Jessica Capshaw and Hilarie Burton
have great chemistry together, so I will be happy to be wrong and for them to
bring Burton back in S10. Again, I suspect I’m in the minority.
This is not character assassination. This
is the Arizona truth. We cannot possibly say that Arizona never cheated before
her life with Callie or wouldn’t cheat. I’ve seen no evidence to support that
either way. By flicking the lock to the on call room door Arizona was finally
making a decision for herself about
her own life. Yes, it was a breathtakingly bad decision, but it was a
decision and that is her ‘victory’, taking back control; a victory that I’m
sure will be short lived, and will haunt her, but nevertheless a milestone moment. And let’s face it
making breathtakingly bad decisions is completely IN character – airport
break-up anyone?
There is more going on with Arizona, we are promised something tough in the season finale, and so 923 is only the start of it. We also have yet to see Callie’s side to this story, which can only be another rich vein to this much needed Arizona storyline.
To those who say there is no way back from
cheating, then I remind them that in Grey’s Anatomy more often than not, there
IS a way back. This devastating subplot promises immense fresh story telling.
Bring it on!
An interesting side story for Lauren was
the building up of Jackson too. I have spent many reviews showing my
unhappiness at how this character has been poorly written, bland and boring.
Perhaps there is still a bit of that but the moment when Jackson and Arizona are
talking about Lauren and Mark completed the journey that started when Jackson
over-ruled Arizona on a surgery (incidentally another illustration of loss of
control for her). This was a lovely moment between them and I couldn’t help but finally warm
to Avery. (Now don’t get all excited, he’s still
lower down in my favourites list, just a bit higher than he was before.)
This warmth was especially poignant when
coupled with Matt’s rather entertaining proposal to April. Oh Jackson – are you
and April the new Mark and Lexie? On off on off, never to be together?
April’s entire day was beyond her control,
in the ER and as a result of the deliciously virginal Matt serenading and
proposing to her to a 1980’s Proclaimers song. There’s no
doubt this was pure April magic and delightful to watch. Meredith was another
victim of no OR control and her heavily pregnant indignation was at its height
right up until the moment her waters broke just as the storm comes in with full
force. Any previous attempt to stage-manage this birth and try to avoid
pooping on the table is now rather redundant.
In the middle of all of this both Meredith
and Cristina have to deal with Alex who is perceived to have lost
control, as Jo actually did. Unfortunately, for me anyway, Jo’s actions merely
compounded my disinterest in this story arc. Perhaps she was justified, perhaps
not but something needs to change with this character for me to care – probably
her leaving? Unlike Mousey who gets more and more likeable every episode, Jo’s
redeeming qualities are severely lacking. And speaking of Mousey – how cute is
the new neuro couple? Stay weird. Amen.
Continuing along the theme of losing
control Owen saw his chance at fostering disappear at the same time as facing
the prospect of the grandmother switching the dad off. Does that mean no more
Ethan Hunt? And just as I was warming to the idea of mama Cristina...I jest.
Ain’t never gonna happen. Bailey faced the uncertainty that comes with stepping
back into the OR but her return, with minimal presence, was rather a damp squib
that deserved more. I hope that season finale is good to Bailey.
Overall I found this episode to be
challenging, teasing and immensely exciting. There was so much OR action that I
was reminded how great it is when the cast are all busy doing surgeries. This
is what I love. The darkness has returned figuratively and literally as the
cinematography and stage direction was dark and filmnoir-esque, building a
tangible sense of anticipation. The writing, whilst loaded with heavy content
to prepare for 924, allowed for some wonderful sound bites, none more so than
the brilliant Sandra Oh delivering Cristina’s own lack of control...
“Oh, oh no, oh no, no Mousey, Mousey no,
no, don’t touch...Mousey NO!”
Or the poetic irony of Meredith being
kicked out of the OR...
“You know how I could’ve avoided this...if
I’d been safely in that exploding OR, where I should’ve been"
or her keen observation of Matt
“like a
male Kepner, what are the odds?”
This episode is a season marker, where
story has been shaped so vigorously. So to finish, I go back to where I
started; control and cheating. If you believe in foreshadowing on this show
then I remind you of Callie’s speech way back in 902, and pose the questions –
will this play out? Did Callie even see that Arizona may have been a shell even
before the crash?
“She’s not though. She’s not my wife... I
don’t know who she is. Did this happen with Cristina? It’s like, you’re looking
at her but there’s nothing inside. I feel like she’s just this shell, all the
Arizona’s been scooped out and she’s just this shell now and I want her back.
And I don’t think I’ll ever get her back if we cut off that leg, so, I’m going
to save it, I’ve made a plan to save it, and you’re going to get on board and
then we’ll work out a plan to get Cristina back but you need to help me now.
Or perhaps you agree that, on Grey’s at
least, cheating is not the end but sometimes the beginning. After all, it
brought us Addison (and Mark) who cheated on one of our show’s heroes and not only did she recover, she got her own show and her own happy ending
with Dr Jake Riley. Mark did not get Addison but he did get Lexie. And Derek.... well he got Meredith.
Written by Brouhaha
Written by Brouhaha
