Little Pieces, Big Pieces

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Greys Anatomy 11x02 Episode Review  " Puzzle With A Missing Piece"

Veering off from the normal, we start this with a full episode review from our Guest Blogger Tanya from New South Wales Australia         Twitter: @itnoworky

What a puzzle piece Pierce is!

Straight out of the cannon we go with new regular Dr Maggie Pierce, head of Cardiology at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She’s strong, wilful, thoughtful and has amazing hair.Sounds like the typical Shondaland female character!


Episode 11.02 ‘Puzzle with a piece missing’ follows Dr Pierce around as she does a day in her new job – consulting here, saving lives there, meeting your half-sister at the elevator and avoiding her. You know, the usual stuff.

After saving the life of an aged and ill woman whose daughter won’t allow her to go peacefully, she heads down and picks up Dr Jo Wilson as her resident.Maggie and Jo seem to get along fine, although Pierce is annoyingly bad at remembering her name.

First stop is a consult for Bailey and her kidney stone patient, who, as it turns out, is scarily close to having a fatal heart event. Fortunately the puzzle is solved by Maggie.

Next up they visit pregnant Rita with major heart problems who is determined to have her baby. Everything looks OK but here comes Dr Arizona Robbins  - as soon as bub is born she is going to need some major heart surgery.


Cue dramatic music – you have a feeling that one of them is not going to make it.Maggie ‘brings the thunder’ to Jo and advises her, ‘if you don’t do this you should, you’re really pretty.’

They run into Bailey who agrees to use the newly shut (‘and I still have a set of keys’) genome lab to run some tests on her patient’s heart issue, as part of a puzzle Maggie’s is picking up from Yang.


On the way to the next stop, Jo mentions Alex’s probable appointment to the board. They make a quick stop to Rita who is in back pain before Maggie heads into surgery with Karev.


Where, whoops, Maggie puts her foot in it big time and Alex gets the sack by Dr Butthole while she quietly disappears out the door. Cracking ‘Watson’ again, she puts her off her service.

Her day does not improve when she discovers that Meredith has adopted an African baby. ‘It’s easier when she’s a rude bitchy person I don’t care to know’, she tells Richard, before he tells her that Grey is ‘more than you bargained for’.


Before he can say anything really revealing, she has to run off to Rita and her baby crisis, needing Dr Robbins.


Cue Calzona fight. It’s about the tussle between the fellowship and the baby. Callie manages a malevolent ‘I thought we were having a kid’ on the way out. Arizona is apologetic.

During the consult, they discover the tragic death of the couple’s first child.


Cue sexy Arizona on the phone, listening in. A lot has been made of Callie’s hair in this episode think Arizona has the hairporn title for this one. Not to mention Jo’s hair, in the same style as Callie’s but looking better.


OK, back to the drama where both Drs are in mother/baby surgery. Jo sees the magic of Maggie, however baby is flatlining. Arizona works out a fix that might save her.


Cue Jolex fight about Alex getting the sack. Cranky Alex is normal Alex.


Of course we need to have the light hearted medical story and sexy gym couple provide Dr Kepner a line and allow Pierce to bond with Dr Amelia Shepherd. ‘No one ever calls me the other Dr Shepherd!’


Maggie embarrasses herself again, meeting Dr Avery for the first time after calling the board a bunch of morons for shutting the genome lab.


Cue crazy parent gift alluded to at the beginning of the episode, inconveniently embarrassing Maggie in front of her cracking Meredith about saving the old lady’s life.


Another bonding opportunity occurs with Amelia as they discuss mind blowing sex that might cause a stroke. In the meantime, Maggie solves another puzzle, saving gym girl’s life.


She then gets the highlight of her day, telling the McNeils that they don’t have to worry, the kids are all dying because of a genetic reason – a puzzle just solved – not because their house was toxic. Owen is clearly impressed.


Then off she rushes to shoulder charge Grey out of the way so that she can allow an old lady to die peacefully instead of Grey saving her. Time of death 8.42.

She then escapes the ‘slow coding’ attack by defending herself admirably to Owen, much to Grey’s fiery eyed anger.


However, Meredith steps up in her inimitable way, not spearing Pierce in front of the daughter.Oh and here we go up to peds, where Maggie interrupts another Calzona conversation, but this time the temper is less and there is more give. Callie has softened and agrees that yes, Arizona should do the fellowship and it will be good for them all to have a happy Mumma. Yay! and cue Calzona hug, which they are very good at.

Maggie finds Jo insubordinately still on her service. Jo ‘brings the thunder’ and Maggie agrees to keep her on, although she has to write Jo’s name on her wrist. ‘I appreciate the effort’.Finally she chases down Meredith for the big reveal – ‘my mother is your mother, Ellis Grey’. Meredith is having none of it however. ‘You’re wrong or you’re lying.’


Cue Meredith storming off. Cue the rest of us and Maggie going – Oh, that’s not quite what I expected was going to happen...


So the story moves along – Calzona are going to do both fellowship and baby; the Board position remains open; a new brotp forms between Maggie and Amelia; and who the hell knows what’s going on with MerDer! Stand by for episode 11.03 next week!

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Calzona Review  11x02   

The  Maggie Centric episode was unpredictable. In reference to Callie and Arizona.

We saw  conflict  mid-episode..  Then at the end, there was peace.

Either you got confused …or saddened …or unconvinced…or happy. You choose.

It’s all a puzzle. Life is a puzzle…. As Maggie narrates the opening lines…

“…I think puzzles are why I went into medicine.  That’s what most of medicine is: Gather all available information, assess the problem, you focus your attention, and you solve the puzzle.

People, are a harder puzzle. There’s never one right answer. And you never have all of the information."

The Argument

Maggie and Arizona work together as Maggie’s patient Rita, who is 33 weeks pregnant and has a malformation of the tricuspid valve and has to stay confined until she gives birth.

The baby in her womb needs to have heart surgery as soon as she is born.

The baby could kill her.

When Maggie receives bad news about the patient’s condition, she rushes off to see Dr. Robbins at the Attending’s Lounge. And so on minute 18 of the episode, we finally see Callie and Arizona on screen but wait, what? They are arguing???

Callie: The fellowship committee wants an answer tonight?

Maggie interrupts, “Sorry Dr Robbins?”

Arizona: One minute.  I’m surprised that you’re surprised right this minute. It’s a natural extension of what I already do

Maggie is beautiful, but I was just hoping that as Callie and Arizona were speaking, I wished they showed their faces on screen instead of being hidden from view and we could only hear their argument while Maggie unintentionally overheard their conversation.

My heart was breaking but I had to listen to what they were saying

Callie:I’m surprised because it  came out of the blue

Arizona: No I thought about it for a while, I mean I need  something new

Callie: We’re having another kid, that’s not new?

Arizona: This is different, it has nothing to do with that

Callie: It does though. I have  research. With you at work and then the fellowship? Well how do we have time for a new baby? How? 

Callie was angry. Her voice was high pitched. It breaks my heart to see them argue.

Arizona: You know what, I haven’t said yes yet

Callie: You’re going to.

Arizona: I haven’t made up my mind

Callie: Oh see I thought you had, I thought we were having a kid

And Callie leaves Arizona with Maggie..

Arizona:  Im Sorry

Maggie: About what? I wasn’t listening

(Uhm, Excuse me, Maggie , why did you say that, you were listening)

Yep. Arizona sensed that too,

Arizona: You’re nice. And full of crap. How’s it going?

Maggie: Not good

Arizona with Maggie

Arizona and Maggie’s patient Rita  needs to have an aortic dissection, she has  an aortic tear in the inner wall of the aorta that causes blood to force the vessel apart. The baby needs to come out, they need to make an emergency C-Section and Dr Pierce is tasked to perform the dissection.

The mom was concerned about her unborn baby

Rita: Isn’t she too little? Can she handle the surgery?

Maggie: We don’t have a  choice. If I don’t operate, you will die

Rita: Just make sure the baby is…

The husband was freaking out.  In panic. “Rita, please! Pease stop talking about the baby. I told you not to do this. I knew something like this would happen!”

Maggie: Step outside, please

And Arizona leaves the room to make preparations for the surgery.

Then we see Maggie and Arizona feeling the jitters due to the crucial surgeries they were about to do.

While scrubbing in…

Arizona: How do you feel?

Maggie: I wish I was anywhere else

Arizona: Good luck

Maggie: You too

Dr. Robbins at the O.R.

Arizona: Get the baby’s airway cleared. Get her breathing and get her to the O.R

 She’s breathing, she’s ready to move

Maggie: Robbins, keep me posted

Arizona: I will

Then after her surgery, Maggie joins Arizona in the other O.R., in a panic situation

Maggie: She’s flatlined

Arizona: I can’t even see the field

Maggie: What happened?

Arizona: I’m losing her

So the baby fell worse and was at zero chance of survival so they decided to separate one good ventricle into two ventricles

This was a better approach and  has a pretty high mortality rate.

And they started bypass..

Peacetime

The surgeries were successful, then we see  Callie and Arizona talking, this time in a calmer tone..

Callie: I’m saying I think you’re right.. maybe this is something that I could give up so that we could have..

Maggie interrupts and congratulates Arizona on the success of her surgery,  “Nice work”

Arizona: You too

Maggie: You should go see her

Callie: So…

Arizona: I’m gonna pass on the fellowship

Callie: No you’re not. you can’t. Look I was wrong this morning. This isn’t a sacrifice that you should have to make. We can figure this out . If it makes you happy, that will benefit our kid…kids!..more than anything..

Arizona: So you think I should do it?

Callie: I think you have to

Arizona: Oh

And they hug. A sweet sweet hug. 

Arizona: Thank you

And that smile on Callie’s face, showing how happy she was that Arizona was happy. Arizona was happy and that made Callie happy.

“Most puzzles come down to one last piece of info whether it’s the answer to a medical mystery  or the  question of who you are, where you fit.. it all comes down to that last piece. That’s why the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle is so satisfying to place,  unless of course the piece doesn’t quite fit, that can make you wish you never opened the puzzle in the first place.”

As with Callie and Arizona, theirs has been a puzzle of a relationship which they have successfully pieced together. They are reaching the point of completion, carefully placing the last pieces of the puzzle. Each step is a challenge but they will get there. 

Notes

Waiting for Calzona to appear after 18 minutes into the episode , only to see them arguing,  was admittedly disheartening.

I sort of expected them to discuss this issue calmly, but yeah, this is Grey’s Anatomy, there should be drama.  But anyway, seeing them in a heated discussion like this wasn’t encouraging at all.

Of course, after last week’s episode, we knew that Arizona’s decision to take on the fellowship would create a problem because of their surrogacy plans, but as I mentioned  in  last week's review, they will reach an amicable agreement on this and will give way to each other.

Callie was open about her sentiments. She wasn’t shy to voice out her surprise and her disappointment at this new educational venture that Arizona was to pursue.

As Arizona felt it was a new thing in her life, Callie countered that having a baby was new too.

So there was an evident clash of decisions and reactions.

From the last episode, Callie, who had initial hesitation on whether to go on with the surrogacy plans, had changed her mind and decided to push through with it,  but  Arizona (who thought Callie did  not want to proceed with surrogacy) had already considered self-advancement by  taking on this fellowship.

So the differences in timing of their decisions created trouble. But none of their decisions were wrong. The timing and the expectations were what created the issue.

The positive side to this however, is that they were willing to voice out their emotions. They let it out. They were communicating, which was a very good thing. Having been known for being a couple who lacked communication, they take off from the progress made from S10 and continue on with expressing how each of them felt.

It is always better that they do talk, rather than keep their emotions to themselves and just have it blow up into a major issue later on, where damage might  be irreparable.

So in between commercial breaks, I was slowly letting it sink in that my babies were not okay.

Good thing Arizona and Maggie worked together on a medical case and Dr Arizona Robbins’ brilliant surgical skills was put in the limelight.  

There was a part of the surgical procedure that led Arizona to say “I’m losing her” she said it so clearly, with menacing background music to boot, that it was impossible for me not to read more into it.

The paranoia I had acquired from this show was too much, that everything that went on with Maggie’s day, (for indeed it was a Maggie-centric episode) I was already relating  to Calzona—the scenes, all the dialogue pertaining to their patients. I was all too sure the episode was a foreshadowing of Calzona’s entire story, gasp, yes I went overboard.

This is what happens when Callie and Arizona only get three minutes total screentime.

So I had to tuck it all in. My paranoia game was too strong.

On hindsight, I figured that “Im losing her” was not a foreshadowing. I weighed all things and concluded, It just was not related to them. So there’s that.

After Arizona’s successful surgery, seeing her and Callie discuss in a more calm tone and seemingly making peace, and reaching an agreement, I couldn’t stress further that I knew this would happen. As I predicted in  last episode’s review.

It was touching how Arizona decided to forego the fellowship. She willingly offered to pass on it. But of course, our ever loving and understanding Callie had already planned out her own sacrifice too. She summed it in a way that it would sound win-win.

She first apologized for being wrong that morning, and thought of a sound compromise:

“We can figure this out . If it makes you happy, that will benefit our kid…kids!..more than anything..”

Arizona was so happy at Callie’s willingness to forego surrogacy plans, and make her happy.

That’s Callie. She wants Arizona happy. Always. She is a generous heart, just as Arizona was also willing to sacrifice her own dreams of career advancement.

Seeing them want to sacrifice for each other’s happiness, was very heartwarming to see.

And since Callie has been usually the one who has shown a lot of forgiveness and understanding in the past season, I was really surprised that the first offer of giving way came from Arizona.

Tugs at the heart, really. For in this episode, not only do we see Arizona as having moved past her self-pity,  self-destructive phase and  gone on to seek self-improvement, she was now self-sacrificing too.

After her past mistakes of infidelity, and how she treated Leah during Season 10,  Arizona had been  easy prey for all kinds of character bashing. But it was  refreshing to see  her now, all too willing to make a sacrifice for Callie’s happiness. She knew how Callie wanted to have another baby.  

But of course, we know our Callie too well. Ever- giving, ever-loving, she had to have the last word when it comes to generosity and sacrifice. After all, this would make Arizona happy and thought of it as beneficial to their kid…or kids.

Worthy to note, however, was how she corrected herself when she said it would benefit their “kid…kids”” It seemed that subconsciously, she had given up her hope of having another baby in the near future.

That verbal mistake had to have relevance….somehow.

And that cut right through my heart. She was that loving toward Arizona. That in her mind, maybe she felt there was a miniscule chance of this baby dream of ever coming true soon, due to Arizona’s plan to embark on a fellowship.

Still, she did it. And Arizona was so surprised and happy and yes, they HUGGED. As I said, this episode was unpredictable and that hug was so comforting more for us than to Callie and Arizona.

That hug just said so much.

That hug expressed so much emotion between two people who love each other so much that they were BOTH  willing to  sacrifice their personal  desires to give way to each other’s dreams.

Please see that the key word here is BOTH. And they are in all caps so it is impossible to miss.

In troubled Season 9 and 10, we usually  saw Callie as the one with the big heart and gave all her love to Arizona, forgave her, gave enough understanding , and  patience as Arizona was affected by the plane crash aftermath, the miscarriage aftermath..and fallen into infidelity.

Seasons 9 and 10  were the seasons  where Callie, in all her badass glory, was mostly focused on as  a woman with exceptional love and a big heart for her wife.

But now, after all the tragedy that they had been through, Arizona in this ep showed that she can make sacrifices too for Callie, because as proven in how they conquered the storms of past seasons,  she had shown remorse and had expressed genuine love for Callie. She needs Callie and Sofia and nothing else. Remember? She doesn’t  even need two legs.

Both of them want happiness for the other and this display of mutual self-sacrifice is the highlight of this episode for Calzona and this made us so happy even with the short screen time allotment for them

Quality not quantity Calzona can simply make your heart  sing.

Possible drawbacks to this would be that it is Callie again who gave way, which , in human terms, may just have some future repercussion. Callie had already  forgiven Arizona a lot after the cheating,  and was patient with her when there were psychological adjustment concerns with the leg.

When after the miscarriage, Arizona did not feel ready to carry a  baby in her womb anymore, it was Callie who really wanted to have a baby but unfortunately, she discovered she was not capable of doing so anymore.

So many frustrations have already been experienced by  Callie and she had been strong for it. In this new development, she was again willing to give way. I am just afraid all this giving way and self-sacrifice may just come to a head.

Not because she is doing it half-heartedly. No. I am just gauging the human side to this all. Callie is human. Even if she wants to be the perfect person who always gives  and understands, maybe, just maybe, she may reach saturation point that may lead her to question things.

Since it is early in the season, I will not be surprised if a major conflict  erupts in that much-awaited episode.  Just to reiterate,  we are inhabitants of  Shondaland and we have to expect good drama.

Or maybe the next few episodes will build on a situation which may lead to a major issue on that episode.

We are looking forward to more family time, Sofia time,  kisses, hugs, sweet times for Calzona this season, but I’m thinking we do have to get ready for the storm before the calm.

Problems and challenges that will be necessary for them to discover and understand more about each other, and ergo  make their love and union  stronger as ever.  

But really, I am just guessing and it is useless to speculate on what will happen in the next few episodes. And it is not advisable to want to fast forward to Episode 5. 

It will even be more exciting to see what happens before that important episode and see how the story builds.

Never forget that Shonda said Callie and Arizona are MFEO. So after the whining, it's wise not to lose hope.

Best to just enjoy each ep and see where they bring our favorite characters. 

I just hope for a different twist to their story. Something different. Something not repetitive. Something very interesting that will keep us glued to their story and even make us intrigued or excited.

We would never like boring.

So bring on the drama. Bring on the issues and the conflict. Or better yet, bring on the happy times.

My ship will sail through it all. My ship is strong.

#TeamCalzona #NoPickingSides #TeamLove

Twitter:

@GAFan8

Many thanks to @Grey_Calzona for the photos and photo edits