Friday, February 12, 2016

Callie's New Girl






Calzona Review 12x05  “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”



“I think i need more liquor. I'm not ready” – was Arizona’s opening line as she and April, sitting by the window at the famous dinner party,  saw Callie and Penny arrive. 

This is exactly what I felt pre-show. I wanted all the liquor i could get my hands on.

 The episode did live up to its promotional hype and more!  We all knew Penny was coming to dinner, and  I was just clueless on how I could handle it--. Seeing Callie with a new girlfriend, and seeing Arizona there. Much as it hurt,  the episode just kept us glued to the screen. It was that special, that it did not really bother to give us  the usual voice over.

Callie and Penny debut


Callie was on call. Club soda with lime was all she asked for and asked for white wine for Penny.

Penny and Mer obviously recognized each other and Penny wanted to leave but Callie innocently asked her to stay. She wanted Penny to get to know her friends. She had no inkling whatsoever of Mer and Penny's familiarity with each other.

Callie was all bubbly and I sensed a little nervousness about introducing her new friend. Good thing all of them were nice and cordial

While Callie enjoyed introducing her new girlfriend  to everyone, Penny was trading  brief glances with Meredith. She wanted to leave but Callie said everyone would love her.


Penny: Callie can we go?
Callie: What is going on?
Penny: I’m sorry i just need to

Callie: Is it Arizona? Cause it seems like a big deal but it's not . I promise, she's great.
Penny: No it's not
Callie: Come on. Come on let's rip the band aid. I will introduce you
From Callie’s words I surmise she does have high regard for her ex-wife. And she wants Penny and Arizona to get along well.

In fairness to Penny, she wanted to leave and get rid of the already brewing awkwardness with Meredith but  didn’t get a chance.

Callie introduced her to April and then to Amelia who thought the legendary Penny is lovely.
Callie held her hand as she introduced her to Penny. More pleasantries with Mer was making Penny feel more awkward.

Penny meets Arizona

Callie even thought it was Arizona that made Penny feel uncomfortable so yep. The scene we wanted and felt queasy to see, ;


Callie: Is it Arizona? Cause it seems like a big deal but it's not . I promise, she's great.
Penny: No it's not
Callie: Come on
Come on let's rip the band aid. I will introduce you
From Callie’s words, she does have high regard for her ex-wife. And she wants Penny and Arizona to get along well.
The Arizona-Penny convo went this way:

Callie: Penny, this is Arizona Robbins.  Arizona, this is Penny

Arizona: Hi! We've heard so many things about you

Penny: Gosh I’ve  moved all over . I’m three naval bases in the States, Guam, Bahrain

Arizona: Whoa hold on we lived in Bahrain
Penny: Get out

While Callie was busy on the phone, Arizona became chatty with Penny and except for the tipsy element, they seemed to hit it off.

Penny: My mom's a petroleum seismologist. Every two years, new school, new language, new food. I was in college before i even tried mac n cheese

Arizona: My gosh, try telling a class your name is Arizona, "no honey, not where you’re from. Whats your name?"

Penny: Okay all right you had it worse
.


Arizona grabbed bestfriend April and told of her  drunken Penny thoughts. As Arizona chatted with April, we saw Arizona try to start to come to terms:

Arizona: I met her. Penny. I don’t hate her. I like her. I like Her a lot.
She’s genuinely great and Callie's so happy and im drinking and…
However, April had her own topic so all we had to do was listen in to gather Arizona's feelings about Penny.
When the argument of whether to order pizza or cook, Arizona butts in

Who are you trying to impress? Penny? Cause Penny will roll with it. She's a delight. She's smart, she's funny. We have a crazy amount in common.       
And then a drunk realization which is downright hilarious, “ Oh God, maybe I should date Penny”.

Alex: No
Amelia :Ill advised

Arizona: Callie... Callie picked a pretty a penny

Alex: How much have you had to drink
?

Keep an eye on her

Still holding hands, Callie had to go on call and told Mer

Callie had to go to the hospital to take care but told Penny to stay and have a good time. She kissed Penny goodbye. On the lips. And my heart was on the floor. Lifeless. never to be revived again.
Callie asked Mer a favor as she felt  bad to leave. With her words, it was obvious she really cared about Penny and that she wanted her to have a good time with her friends. Also, she put emphasis on how Arizona positively received her,

Callie: Will you keep an eye on her and make sure she has fun? Thank you.

I dont know what she was worried about. I mean Arizona loves her. They were like talk talk talk  talk
But Mer didnt want to have anything to do with her.
And there we saw Callie talking to Owen at the hospital gushing about her girlfriend.
Callie: Arizona loves her...Everybody loves her..you have to meet her...


Back at Mer's, Arizona was praising April for bringing order to chaos in the kitchen but April had to take the knife away from Arizona who was totally drunk

Arizona: Jackson is an idiot. You cook you’re pretty, youre...youre a Penny. Why dont i have a Penny? Callie has one. Jackson has one but he threw it away.

April: Will you please stop?


At the dinner table, as Callie had not come back yet, Penny was thinking of how she would get a ride home:

Arizona: Well she better come back soon otherwise I'll take you home myself.  Find a Penny, pick it up

Bailey: Dr Robbins you’re drunk. Dont think I've never seen that. I like drunk Dr Robbins

Aww Calliope. I used to call her that..

She was as drunk as could be. And i must say that was the easiest way to handle it. It would've been more difficult if she were sober. I was sober when i learned Penny called Callie Calliope and it hurts. At least Arizona isn’t.

Penny Is Here To Stay 


Further on, we learn from Bailey that Penny is set for an interview with her as a transferring resident

Then there was a painful silence when Meredith blurted out that Penny killed her husband.

It was all too much to take for everyone present, including drunk Arizona.

As everyone was letting it sink in and Arizona verbalized it as "youre coming  to work with us?"

Penny had handled everything gracefully. The dinner table full of Derek's colleagues and even his own sister had that expected animosity and handling a group of people like that required grace and poise and Penny had that.

Then Callie arrived with Owen  unknowing of the tension that had gone on inside the room

Oh whats going on?
Penny's coming to work with us.

And then Amelia let out the bombshell that Penny killed Derek

The confusion and bewilderment etched all over Callie's face was just too much. The tension in that dinner table was too thick it felt suffocating.


We could see the struggle within Callie.

She was there for her girlfriend of course. Telling Penny she didn’t have to engage Amelia's "interrogation".

But she was also torn with why Penny didn’t tell her about this earlier.

Amelia asking Penny about being one of the last people to see Derek prompted Callie to stop Amelia right there. "Amelia, thats enough"

Penny was being sort of harassed.

"Before you killed him, can you tell me what his last words were?"

Amelia was not intentionally bullying Penny. She was just voicing out her deep sentiments for she never saw her brother during his last moments. They never got to say goodbye and It's not apt to judge Amelia's actions either. This is a grieving sister in pain.

But Callie was already feeling the pressure on Penny and as her girlfriend, she felt for her and banged the table and asked Amelia to stop.

Maybe she felt it was unfair to corner Penny in this way in view of everyone. But she had her own stuff to settle with Penny.
Poor Penny. We know she did try to tell Callie but she just was not able to.


She did ask Penny when she confronted her why she didnt even tell about Derek when she was going to transfer as resident to GSMH. For sure, it would spark an uproar that was actually happening then.

Callie: I still dont understand. You were coming to work here. Why didn’t you tell me?

Penny: Callie it’s a big hospital. I didn’t know you knew him

Callie: He was my friend. Meredith, all of them

Arizona being the designated “light moment provider” did her job :
Arizona: Am i supposed to do anything? Cause she’s my ex but on the other hand she’s my ex so i guess that means no?

Callie was still the thoughtful  good friend amidst it all and went to check on Mer who was in her bedroom, but Mer answered she was okay and closed the door on Callie.

Callie looking for Penny, chanced upon Jackson and asked for much needed advice. She needed to let it out. And he gave a direct realistic answer.  Here was a new friendship born:

Callie: I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to shrug it off. How i feel about her. I dont even know if i want to
Jackson: Well even if you want to, I’m not so sure that you can.

Notes:

It was painful  to see Callie holding hands with Penny. And it killed me to see them kissing..

By the way they talked with each other, It feels like they have known each other long enough and it was obvious that they got along.  I felt familiarity and it seemed as if Callie has told Penny every detail about everyone.

So amidst Mer's dilemma on welcoming Penny, Amelia's worries on no one cooking for the houseful of hungry surgeons and Maggie's UTI troubles, surprise! Arizona and Penny hit it off as they did customary small talk at the party. They shared things in common.  Both of their families moved around a lot. And both lived in Bahrain!

Arizona and Penny chatting and laughing was both a funny and amusing thing to see. And Callie was i guess happy about that.

When Penny mentioned “Calliope” as she was talking, I could not take it.  They were "Team Penelope and Calliope." They rhyme. 

Calliope--we know how special it is when  Arizona calls her that. It seems only special people her call her by that name. And here was Penny…it goes without saying how special she is to Calliope. However what was supposed to be a painful blow to Arizona and to us, was cushioned by Arizona's amusing drunkenness:

The acting of all those people in that scene was just excellent. I was trying to play critic in that highly charged scene but everyone and i mean EVERYONE displayed IMPECCABLE acting. Especially Samantha Sloyan. She played the beleaguered Penny so well. Every expression was just on point.

No one would have wanted to be on that kind of hot seat! The hottest seat where all these attendings and residents of Grey Sloan Memorial seemed to be collectively analyzing her, even nearly judging her.

Amelia was irrepressible. Her unfinished business about her brother's death being unearthed once again and how…...at the expense of Penny.

It isn’t even an issue anymore if  Penny did kill Derek. She DID NOT.

We all saw how she tried to stand up to the more superior neuro attending but to no avail. If ever we could fault her with anything, it was that the resident assigned  happened to be her. No resident could've convinced those egotistical snotty doctors at Dillard.

Penny did want Derek to have a head CT but didn't stand a chance against that stubborn doctor, although as down to earth as she is, she did tell Meredith that she wasn't a good enough doctor.

Recounting all these, was just too heavy for the whole Grey Sloan dinner group. And it was too, for us watching. It was too painful having to recall what happened in that darned hospital. And with all the doctors present hearing all these for the first time, with bated breath and simply shocked, we just could not take away our eyes from the screen. Wanting to see everyone's reaction, most especially Callie's.

Not that my love for Calzona is lessened but Penny and the actress who plays her are pretty decent and beautiful.  And they did have chemistry to be honest.

Callie was simply hurt and torn. We could see her struggle within.  She was proud to bring her girlfriend to meet her friends. And now this? Her gf was being humiliated and was forced to answer loaded questions about something  even she regretted; but she was torn on why Penny didn’t tell her in advance. She knew Derek was from Grey Sloan. Maybe she could've told Callie about him?

I'm not judging Penny though. It was a delicate topic. It was a ‘damned if you do, damned if u don’t’ kind of topic.


And can we talk about how emotional Callie was? When the confrontation was so heated and Amelia's grilling was too much for Callie's limits, she  pounded on the dinner table. It was badass Callie suppressed, because she wasn’t angry. She was a mixture of confusion, pacifying the turmoil inside her and around her.

Penny is beautiful. She seems like a good person. She seems to be okay for Callie. But of course, this isn’t my ship and this goes against the “Calzona Forever” rulebook. This is a ruiner. So is it bad to say that i was sort of rooting for Mer. She was angry at Penny. So yeah i took sides. I did want her not to treat Penny well. That’s just bluntly the Calzona kind of fan I am. Just being honest but no harm intended. I do like Penny. But not her relationship with Callie.

At the end of this episode, Callie and Penny were not so fine with each other, but Callie was concerned. Confused but she did care. And with Jackson’s words to her in the end, we concluded it was complicated.  She was torn between love and her loyalty to her friends. Take noet that this is just the beginning of their relationship, and we already spot kinks. But yeah, they're solvable. 


Twitter:

@GAFan8



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