Last night Grey’s Anatomy fans got the episode they had been waiting months for: the musical event episode, “Song Beneath The Song.”
The fresh episode, which delivered on the promise to call heavily on the major Tony award-winning talents of Sara Ramirez, brought music, major drama, and a whole lot of peril, particularly to our favorite couple at Seattle Grace. Lesbian doctor duo Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) faced their darkest day yet in the moving episode that brought song and tears to all of the surgeons, and, the return of a familiar face in the O.R.
(Note: As SheWired’s editors are down at The Dinah in Palm Springs, editor in chief Tracy Gilchrist was unable to devote herself to her usual full coverage of Grey’s. This gay-cap will be guest written by Lily Shavick.)
Here’s this week’s re-cap of the gay storyline…
The Song Beneath The Song: Ep. 7:18 SPOILERS
When we left Calzona, doe-eyed Arizona had just proposed wedded bliss to her very-pregnant-with-Sloan’s-baby girlfriend, Callie when tragedy struck in the form of a semi truck. In the opening of the new hour, Callie lays crumbled on the hood of the car as a shaken Arizona comes to and frantically shouts for help.
From the side, Callie surveys the traumatic scene from her out of body perspective and sings a few lines from 'Cosy In The Rocket'.
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Back at Seattle Grace, Meredith goes to pull baby-daddy Mark out of surgery with the bad news. She wait’s for him to finish (bragging and operating) before delivering the sad news. Mark rushes out to join the assembled staff waiting on Callie’s impending ambulance arrival. They don’t know how the baby is and Webber won’t allow Mark to put on a trauma gown because while he might not get what’s between Mark and Callie, he knows that she is Mark’s family. Mark agrees to just be in the room and Callie arrives on a stretcher, unconscious, accompanied by a sheet-white, panic-stricken Zona.
As the surgeons sweep her stretcher inside, still out-of-body Callie breaks into the first lines of “Chasing Cars,” the Snow Patrol hit. Owen (Kevin McKidd) joins in as they begin to work on Callie when Arizona shouts a question about the baby’s fetal heartbeat but Webber snaps for she and Mark to stay back and keep silent!
Bailey takes unconscious Callie’s hand as the other doctor’s work to save her and joins in the song.
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Hot doc Lucy demands everyone be quiet and by no small miracle, she hears the baby’s heartbeat. But a split second later, Callie is crashing again. They stabilize her and Owen reminds the doctors to take a moment and just breathe; they can’t afford to make any mistakes. Lexie (Chyle Leigh) sings “Breathe (2 AM)” as she searches for Sloan.
Meanwhile, Callie’s and the baby’s situation remains unstable. Dr. Lucy reports that Callie started and then stopped contractions. The doc’s have to stabilize Callie before they can operate again. Dr. Lucy also admits when pressed by Webber for her plans to protect the baby going forward, that she may be “out of her depth.” Is anyone else thinking we need a certain Private Practice Neonatal/OBGYN specialist to save the day?
Lexie finds Sloan and comforts the tear-soaked lady-killer, even though he tells her she doesn’t have to since she hates him. Lexie says she doesn’t. A teary Arizona remains in the surgery gallery and receives some comfort from Alex.
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Alex and Lucy meet the helicopter pad arrival and it’s Dr. Addison to the rescue! Protective of her friend, Addison banishes Lucy from helping for failing to stop the contractions or give the baby steroids. Addison promises Callie everything will be all right and the doctor’s will come up with plan to save her and the baby, but the doc’s all argue about the best course of action.
Owen breaks out into 'How We Operate,' in an attempt to calm the quarrels.
Later in the hall, Meredith tells Christina she can totally be Callie’s baby’s godmother now, but Alex gravely points out that their best chance at saving Callie could mean losing the baby.
Bailey discusses electing to C-section the baby with Mark and Arizona. Mark is insistent they should do whatever they can to save Callie, but Arizona reminds him that they have to consider how badly Callie wants the baby. The two argue as Bailey begins singing, “Wait.”
As the fight escalates, so does the song as Lexie joins in. Elsewhere in the hospital’s dramatic halls, Lexie tells her new seemingly understanding beau Jackson that she needs to stay at the hospital tonight and Derek confesses his fears that Callie’s head trauma is too severe and she may never come back from it fully.
Meanwhile, the quarrel reaches a head when Arizona reduces Mark’s role in her life with Callie to that of a sperm donor and Mark retaliates by screaming that he is the father her she is “nothing” to the baby.
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Still unconscious, Callie dreams about the moments leading up to the accident. Sitting across from Arizona in the car again, she realizes in her fantasy that Arizona is about to propose and questions if this is what love feels like for everyone. But she realizes that like the other couples at the hospital, she wants to make a go of out with her girl, because she loves her.
A joyfully in love Callie breaks out into “Running on Sunshine” and the aforementioned couples (Eli and Bailey, Owen and Cristina, Teddy and Henry, Alex and Lucy and Meredith and Derek and even Lexie and Mark) all join in over a montage of loving, flirty, sexy moments.
Back in the hospital room, Derek attempt to rouse Callie by lowering her sedatives and testing her neurological responses.
Unfortunately, all Callie can do yet is open her eyes and Derek has to deliver the disheartening news to Mark and Arizona.
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As Cristina suggests a bold course of surgery to Teddy and Owen and is shot down, Arizona struggles with the fact that Mark may be right, legally she has no claim to Callie or the baby. But she explains she feels like a wife and mother. In the most touching, tear-soaked performance of the highly emotionally charged episode, out-of-body Callie begins singing “Universe & U.”
Addison encourages Sloan to make up with Arizona, for the good of Callie whom they both love deeply, but stubborn Sloan says he’s out of things to say.
Just then, Callie crashes and the monitors beep like crazy. They rush Callie into surgery.
As the surgeons rush to operate on a fast-failing Callie, her out-of-body form begins to sing a beautiful cover of “Grace.” Arizona suggest she and Mark pray, because it’s what Callie would want right now, but Mark says he hasn’t stopped praying since yesterday when she arrived.
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When the initial plan for surgery starts to fail, Owen decides to continue with Christina’s unique course of action and the operating doctors, along with Mark and Zona watching from the gallery, sing the series’ signature song, “How To Save A Life.”
Complications crop up in the tail end of the procedure. Out-of-body Callie looks on from the gallery, singing, while Addison rushes to extract the baby.
Callie is finally stable but the baby doesn’t have a heartbeat, Mark and Arizona scrub in just in time and Mark nods for Arizona to get in there and save their baby.
And of course, the awesome Arizona totally does get the tiny baby’s heart beating.
Back in recovery, Derek admits to Mark and Arizona that Callie’s failure to respond means she might not be ready to wake up, or, the damage might be too severe for her to come back from. Alone again with unconscious Callie, Mark finally apologizes to Arizona and says they have a kid together and she is very much a mother of “IT” (which we now know to be a SHE).
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Meredith grapples with the incredibly unfair nature of the universe, admitting to Derek she was jealous that Callie could conceive a child without even trying but in the wake of the tragedy, she can’t see any rhyme or reason for things. Derek assures her that they’ll be parents yet.
Back with Callie, Arizona tells the still unconscious love of her life that their daughter is strong and fighting, with beautiful black hair, but she too can’t open her eyes yet. Arizona tells her, “I can tell. She’s looking for you.” Just then, out-of-body Callie breaks into the opening of “The Story” while Mark looks lovingly at their tiny baby girl.
In other parts of the hospital, Jackson questions whether he is second choice to Sloan but Lexie takes his hand and says she wants to go home with him. Teddy on the other hand, washes her hands of Christina announcing she can’t be a mentor anymore if Christina isn’t willing to learn.
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As the song soars, out-of-body Callie shakes the bed to rouse her unconscious body and suddenly she makes a sound, stirring Arizona sleeping by her side.
“Yes” Callie croaks, coming out of her coma.
“What? What did you say?!” Arizona asks breathlessly.
“Yes, I’ll marry you,” Callie replies clearly.
The episode fades out on Arizona’s joyful mix of laughter and tears.
So, beating all the odds and suspicious cynics in the blogosphere, Callie and baby survived and they are headed towards hopefully happy wedded bliss with the fair Arizona. This means we can look to Grey’s to explore the emotional and legal options for same-sex marriage in the episodes ahead.
Here’s hoping primetime’s best lesbian couple makes it to the altar by season’s end.
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