She Said Calliope Iphigenia Torres

Calzona Review 10x14   "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"

The title of this piece should be only one name. And that’s Calliope. It’s the most wonderful word right now in the Calzona Universe.

After the Calzona wedding, it is the first time Arizona said Calliope again, and that was because Calliope gave her a surprise gift ring, and she read the inscription on the ring.

A ring that signifies so much. Symbolizing a new start. 

The episode opens with Meredith's voice-over :

"Cancer is a biological bully. Always picking the fight. And it’ll sneak up on you. It’ll wait until the body feels safe, until it feels healthy and strong. That’s when cancer will move on in, and get bigger and bigger. The body never even sees it coming."

The Unpackers

The Calzona couple had just moved into Residence number 830, and we see Callie in their box-filled room, unpacking.  They were doing a box a day.

Arizona enters the room,

Arizona: Callie come on we gotta go

Callie: Well we said we’d each do a box a day. I'm doing mine so come do yours  

And our eyes dart to that precious silver necklace Callie was wearing, and we are ever so delighted that she wears it proudly. Funny that we always need that reassurance that they are okay and together, that is why it's always a thrill to see her wearing that necklace.  

  

Arizona: No no Sofia’s ready to go

Callie: It will just take a minute

Arizona: Callie...

Callie: Unpack this box!  

Callie had to raise her voice cause Arizona was too stubborn to unpack the damn box.

Arizona heaved a sigh of  exasperation. She could not understand what  was causing this urgency that Callie had in wanting her to unpack at that moment. Pronto.

Arizona: The whole world is not going to end if I don’t open this box  

She said this so sweetly, Arizona is just so cute. Tee hee.

The Sapphire Ring

Then she opened the box and no, she did not see house stuff inside the box waiting  to be 
unpacked. Alas,  the box contained white decor materials and perched on top  was a dainty little light blue  box.

She was  taken aback , and  paused, in stunned silence, causing Callie to prod her

Callie: Open it!

And Arizona seemed to have been surprised upon seeing a magnificent gleaming sapphire ring

Aside: Sapphire, the blue stone is  rare, somewhat costly and very popular to royal families. Sapphire symbolizes loyalty, truth , healing and faithfulness.

I just don’t understand that at this happy moment, the voice over of Meredith continues…

“because cancer is the master of surprises….”

Callie: I inscribed the band with the date we moved into this house. Our new start 

Calliope's smile said everything. She was beaming. She was thrilled for her own gift to Arizona

Just from this scene, I cannot help but observe that Callie has boundless love for her wife. You could see her happiness at seeing Arizona delighted at the ring, signifying that she had ceremoniously forgiven Arizona, and this symbolizes her openness and willingness for a brand new start.  

It’s so heartwarming to see that this gesture came from Callie.

Bygones were bygones, forgiveness had been accorded, time to carve new shared experiences of love. Nothing could be more touching.

Arizona: Calliope Iphigenia Torres  

Yes, our hearts were cheering and could not believe our ears, upon hearing “Calliope” straight from Arizona's mouth-- that ever beautiful word that sounds all the more beautiful when it comes from her

Callie: Put it on!

And Arizona did put it on. And  seemed like she was close to tears cause of joy. 

Her wife has a heart of gold.  Callie was that kind of woman. Very forgiving, and even supported Arizona’s  efforts for a fresh start, by way of this beautiful ring.

Pink Calzona bubble alert.  They are in this pink bubble. Would be nice to see them eternally in this pink bubble, but….(hahahaha) I can hear laughing in the distance…is that you Momma Shon? Okay.

As an aside, may I just mention: who would not notice the hand wearing the ring? Arizona’s hand, with neatly trimmed  nails. That was a cute cute hand.  

Oops, my hand and nail fetish  is showing.

Umm, enough raving about the  hand… back to the story…

That new rule

Next scene we see the doctors and hospital staff gather at the Grey Sloan steps for the announcement that the hospital is now set to enforce the famed non-fraternization rule. The exact objective of which, goes against, in my opinion, what made Greys Anatomy what it is…cough cough…

But let’s respect the new rule, and hope the doctors do too.

The new rule states that focus must be made on providing the best patient care possible, and nothing else; and all relationships with co workers will be discouraged, and relationships between superiors and subordinates is strictly prohibited.

Calzona are not affected cause they are married, so as  members of the board, they must support the approved rule.

The Cancer Patient

Then we see  Callie being ortho doctorly, attending to a patient who has had cancer twice. First she had brain cancer and recovered, and now has bone cancer.

Callie told the patient They were going to do a biopsy of the tumor (for a possible osteosarcoma) and then come up with  a treatment plan.

And they needed to do a contrast study to that stage in CT to give them a more detailed look, but Dr Torres and Dr Karev exchanged looks that it didn't look good..

When you got it, flaunt it

Next scene, we see Callie, and Karev discussing updates on their patient, and Arizona joins them and they  walk  together , with Arizona telling Callie how she had been showing off her beautiful new ring. 

She even  tries to get Karev’s attention but Karev wasn’t interested.

He was, after all, affected by the new rule and this Calzona couple was not. 

Arizona’s eagerness was transparent. She just couldn’t help but show it off. And made Callie happily proud too.

Arizona: Hey Karev, notice something different about me?

Alex: No

Arizona: Callie gave it to me. I unpacked a box today so this Morning, Callie..Hey, most people at least pretend to like this story so…

And they suddenly witness the Jolex staged fight.

They were unwilling witnesses to the effects of the non fraternization rule and that’s what made them feel somehow guilty of being in such a honeymoon state when people around them were not exactly having such a pleasant time with it.

The loveliest scene of the episode

Callie is fixing up in their room when Arizona enters

Arizona: Hi! I got so many compliments on my ring today..

And …they…kiss….by instinct….…

Callie: I feel bad though, for Alex and Wilson

Arizona: Oh yeah,

Arizona was slowly undressing Callie and my heart  kept skipping two beats...

Callie: That’s not fair, right? 

Callie: Do we get to be so happy and other people have to be so miserable?

Arizona: You sound like April. Just out in the cold

Arizona took off Callie's jacket and she did it clumsily and it looked so cute.  I was so thrilled cause I missed Arizona initiating a love moment

Callie: I feel terrible

Arizona: Awful!

And Callie smiles that naughty smile that leads to we- know-what and suddenly,

all I can see onscreen is Arizona’s hair disappearing diagonally downward from the screen . and everything is left to the imagination. As with all the Calzona love scenes. 



------------- this dotted line represents our imagination --------------


Yes, everything is left to the  imagination, or sometimes  continued in fanfics.

We were never demanding.  Of course they never showed us any really intimate  love scenes, as compared to the other couples on the show.

This is just stating opinion, and i am not sure what causes this opinion.

Who am I to complain? At least we see them have this loving moment. One we had all been waiting for. It’s everything to be cheerful about so Yay.

Even if we sometimes hope for more steaminess in  scenes like this, I must say, this  tender scene was beautifully executed. Just try to stare at their loving eyes throughout their dialogue, the acting  of both Jessica and Sara was beyond superb. They are masters at great eye acting!

They handle these kinds of scenes very well and it is evident that the many years that they have worked together, obviously helped a lot in making such scenes impressive and realistic. 

Explosive chemistry is synonymous with Calzona.

A rare disease

Next we see Callie with Webber and Bailey  who just comes in and informs them that the bone cancer patent had Li-Fraumeni syndrome, an  extremely rare genetic condition due to a mutation in the p53 gene that suppresses the ability to regulate cell growth. in layman's terms, the girl's system cannot fight off tumors.

As soon as  one cancer is cured, another one pops up. A rare disease that has so far affected only a few hundred families.

So they were going to have difficulty in treating the cancer , making the chemo more complicated, and radiation cannot be an option, so they had to delegate research  work on case studies related to the disease  to the interns.

The  Confession

So as the interns were seen trading notes on the research, it’s where we see, due to Jo giving Steph a piece of her mind, causing  Leah to blurt out that she was the one who filed a complaint to HR. We catch her saying this:

 Leah : It was an anonymous complaint which you filed, because youre afraid if people find out it was you who they'd treat you like crap instead of  understanding or even trying to understand that  it wasn’t some frivolous thing you did cause your little heart got broken. But a decision you made because you felt like  your medical education had been compromised. God I didn’t even know why I bothered. I should’ve just signed my name

I hope the picture is small enough.

So Leah's mini-speech said it all. It  was her. It was not Stephanie. She filed the complaint with human resources. I smell trouble.

Non-fraternization meeting

We are brought to the scene of the meeting of the board as Webber seemed to have reported what he saw in the on call room. In question were the actions of Jackson and April and Jo and Alex.

A visibly furious Karev faced the board and adamantly called on the hypocrisy of the rule and challenged the board to just punish him.

Callie and Arizona, being members of the board, seemed sympathetic but had to act as members of the board and uphold the rules.

Then came Jackson and April’s announcement  that they got married, earning congratulatory greetings from April’s BFF Arizona, and an impressed reaction from Cristina.

In effect, only Karev and Jo were in trouble.

She really did it

Then we catch Leah and Stephanie spying on  the ongoing board meeting  from a vantage point.

Stephanie: Filing that complaint really took balls. Balls I didn’t have (I honestly thought she had balls…) oops, it wasn’t Stephanie who had balls, grr, I should learn how to separate the characters from the actors who portray them!

Leah: Jo’s gonna be so pissed at me isn’t she?

Stephanie : oh yes, she is

This scene reconfirms the earlier scene, establishing that Leah was the person who filed the complaint and she had remorse, not towards  Arizona, but was worried about how it will affect Jo.

In a nutshell

Calzona are very happy. We see them take the next step in rebuilding. Adjusting to their new house. Forgiveness and moving on are symbolized by the ring.

It was such a joy to see Arizona showing off her ring, to Callie’s delight.

Even as Callie intimated that she felt terrible, and Arizona said she felt awful about how unfortunate their colleagues were because of the new rule,  they forgot about the awful feelings when they went on to have their own Calzona sweet fun. They were that happy.

They spoke too soon, though.

The specter of Leah’s complaint, still hangs over our heads, and judging from Callie’s angry words toward Arizona in the promo for 10x15, things in the horizon do not look  too good.

This happiness, we can enjoy for the moment, but we know we will have to be ready for what happens next.

The Calzonaful episode, as Mister David Greenspan dubbed it, will be a crucial one and we do have to brace ourselves for what happens to our heroines. 

Because we know for sure the pink bubble will burst, we just don’t know how this will redound to the following episodes stretching to the season finale.

Still missing Sofia in 10B. I hope we get to see her. And I hope to see more parts of the new Calzona house, other than the bedroom.

I wish the 80’s covers project stretches on in future episodes. . They provided such a good feel to 10x14.

The Leah Anatomy Project

Leah does not belong to the Calzona pairing but she was an aberration at one time and seems to be instrumental in a future problem for Calzona so we have to analyze her actions a little bit for the sake of nothing.

Many people in the fandom are expressing fury against Leah.  Varying opinions include the most violent means to annihilate  her, ways that must not be written here. 

On the other hand, some say we should not take it against her or she was treated unfairly by Arizona. Treated like a piece of garbage.

Side 1: Anti Leah

Leah went into the Arizona relationship knowing what she was getting into. What in the name of all that is lemony, was she thinking?

She is obviously sourgraping. A scorned woman, who tried to have a relationship with a married woman who was on a break from her wife, and provided some easy peasy  lemon squeezy fun.

Now that her easy peasy entanglement had to go back to her wife  to take a second chance to rebuild her family, she is seeking the usual scorned person's go-to:  revenge?

Sure, Arizona told her to get dressed and leave, but she was well-informed by Arizona that it was not serious.

She knew it was an easy peasy thing. No strings attached. Read: Sex buddy.

Now that it is over, she has to raise hell to as far as putting Arizona’s career and personality and relationship with Callie in jeopardy?

I’d say that was a selfish move. She tried to justify her actions by her mini speech, but really, she could have just talked with Arizona and made peace with her on a personal level. Well yes, this may not have been feasible, but I would like to think that only the vengeful kind of people will do this.

I wonder what she is trying to achieve by this.

So fine, we just go back to “hell hath no fury…” adage  but she should not have gotten into it in the first place if she was not prepared for the consequences.

Arizona never misled her. Yes, they had the ten plus times  experience, but it was all clear from the start. No commitments.

What did she expect? That she and Arizona would live happily ever after? Did she think she would be bigger than Callie in the eyes of Arizona? She knew Arizona was married and with child!!! Deluded much, Leah?

She should blame herself and not anyone else.

Side 2: Pro Leah

Maybe she felt so used, as a convenient sex thing. Arizona knew she was easy prey, being the Attachment Leah that she was, maybe there was a hint of leading Leah on. But in theory, Leah still allowed herself to be used. No one really to blame but her.

I cannot expound on the Pro Leah side because it all only comes back to :  it is her fault and no one else’s.

Of course, it is her prerogative to do what she wants to, and file whatever complaint, either 
1) because she was concerned about their medical education being compromised, 
or  2) maybe because she was acting according to her scorned emotions, 

but really,  if scorned emotions are the reason,the rejection and vengeful inclination seems to be all borne out of delusion, and a frustrated impossible dream.

She did not even stand a chance and she hoped too much.

In fairness to Leah, whether she intended it or not, her move would benefit all the residents, whose medical education had indeed been compromised because of relationships with their superiors. It was time for a change. 

So we are just left to see what happens.

What happens next?

I am confident though that this Leah issue will be but a twist to create problems for Callie and Arizona, that will lead  them to eventually realize how their relationship can be stronger.

Any way we want to see it, it did have to be resolved, and this Leah issue was never resolved, and there was a real necessity for it, especially that Leah is a work colleague. 

Maybe it is about time to face this issue head on.

But it should be Arizona who cleans up this mess, primarily because it is her mess, and hers alone.

This I hope, will serve as a breaking point for Arizona, and finally have our desired resolution for her character’s coming to terms with her personal problems.

If I remember right, in 10x13, she had a sudden attitude shift, from one day giving up on her relationship, then after three weeks, wanting  to buy a house, and hoping it will solve their problems.

It all had to have a breaking point somehow. We never saw Arizona heal. For all we know, their happiness at present is all just still an artificial fix. 

Callie has gone all in to revive and restore and resuscitate the relationship. She has been the poster child for forgiveness and understanding. She’s all for new beginnings. But we think the healing has not really transpired within Arizona.

Let’s hope that this Leah complaint problem, even as it bodes troubles,  will serve as an opportunity for Arizona Robbins to admit that things are still not well, identify her problem points and finally find healing within. 

All too necessary to make her whole again and be a functional and loving wife to Callie, and  mother to Sofia.

After all, she has to fall, in order to rise again. Stronger.

Meredith closes the episode  :

“You can try to hide from a bully. But hiding wont work for long. There’s really only one way to win. And if youre lucky enough to get out alive, take just a moment to celebrate. Before you put your guard back up. Ready to fight the next one.”

Since I am a Calzona-head through and through, I'd like to try to  relate the voice over message  to Calzona as follows:

Calzona had been plagued with a cancer, Arizona's internal problem which had a real complication,in the person of  Leah. 

And they , specifically Arizona, cannot hide from this problem forever. She has to face this issue head-on once and for all. 

They can still squeeze in enjoyment of their newly-found bliss, but they both have to make themselves strong enough, and strong as a team, to overcome this challenge, and the next ones to come.

So I’d rather remain strong, to be able to bear the coming thrills and drama facing Calzona.

It will never be smooth sailing in Shondaland so yeah, let them bring it.

Confident as ever that Calzona will always survive.

Let’s brace ourselves for  the epic  aftermath and hopefully final chapter of the easy peasy lemon squeezy saga.

Take care now.

Twitter: @GAFan8