Arizona Robbins’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Return Skipped Over One Big Detail

The Grey’s Anatomy fandom has no shortage of controversial figures, and Arizona Robbins will always rank pretty high on that list. For some, Jessica Capshaw’s star pediatric/fetal surgeon will always be an unassailable fan favorite; for many, many others, she’s a selfish mess. Still, Arizona’s return to Grey’s on Thursday night was full of fascinating possibilities regardless of which camp you might fall into. Would she give us any updates on where she and her estranged wife, Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez), now stand? Would she recruit another promising young doctor into the pediatric ranks, like she did with Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) many, many years ago? And what kind of surgical magic would she perform?

Predictably, it turns out that Robbins came back to Grey Sloan Memorial to save a “tiny human.” Vida Madera—a 26-year-old patient with a history of vision loss whom Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) met through the clinic—is 30 weeks pregnant. Her baby has a rare blood vessel abnormality in its brain, and Robbins plans to operate while the fetus is still in utero—a stunning feat which, by the way, has never been done before.

Bailey does not seem thrilled when she finds out that her patient will be the first in a clinical trial, but as Robbins points out, someone always has to go first!

We last saw Dr. Robbins in 2018, during the Season 14 finale, aka April Kepner’s (Sarah Drew) wedding. It was there that Arizona revealed she was moving to the East Coast to try and patch things up with Callie, who had moved there with their daughter, Sofia. Given all the (sometimes very nasty) drama that had previously gone down between them, fans have understandably wondered for years what the hell ever happened between these two after that.

Alas, Thursday’s episode, the season’s fourth, gave us no answers—which is, frankly, a bewildering choice.

We knew going in that Callie would not be returning to Grey’s in the same episode as Arizona; showrunner Meg Marinis told TVLine as much last month, when she emphasized that this episode’s plot is “really connected to Arizona and her specialty.” Still, during that same interview, she acknowledged that fans are naturally dying to know what’s gone down between the couple.

“Of course!” she said. “That was such an iconic relationship. It’s still, to this day. When people approach me, one of the things that resonates with them about the show is that relationship. It’s amazing that people still talk about it. Clearly, we did something right.”

And yet, here we are, with no answers!

Callie and Arizona’s relationship was the turning point that soured a lot of fans on Arizona. For those who need a refresher, there was the whole “being furious with Callie for saving her life by amputating her leg post-plane crash” thing, and then the “cheating on Callie after constantly questioning her commitment to the relationship” thing, and also, if we’re being honest, she Arizona was always pretty biphobic—a flaw that fans have frequently pointed out over the years.

Nevertheless, Calzona is one of Grey’s most recognizable ships, and it feels very strange that Arizona’s episode did not address where they stand, even in passing. Maybe we’ll hear more further down the line?

Anyway, the good news is that Arizona mostly seems to have come back to help Miranda get her juice back as an intern supervisor.

At first, Vida refuses to have the risky, history-making surgery, but Arizona convinces her by walking her through the procedure the same way her mentor Dr. Nicole Herman (Geena Davis) did. She 3D prints a model of the fetus’s head before showing Vida an MRI of her baby’s brain, pointing out exactly how the surgery will work. Obviously, Grey’s did not fly Arizona all the way out here to not do surgery, so Vida decides to take the chance.

At first, Miranda wants to keep her unruly interns out of the operating room as part of their ongoing punishment for killing a patient. (They each have to finish logging a certain number of basic procedures before they’re allowed back in—a task they’ve almost finished but not quite.) Arizona seems baffled by this idea and convinces Miranda to let them in, at least just this once. Too bad all of these newbies are too busy checking their phones and fretting over their basic procedures to pay attention as medical magic happens before their eyes.

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Teases the Miranda Bailey Season We Deserve

The operation is a success, but more important is the message Arizona presses into Miranda. She reminds her who she is—the person who once administered an inactive HIV virus to a child to save his life. Miranda’s the doctor who mentored brilliant minds like Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) and Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo). Wherefore the sudden conservative streak?

“Your going back to basics won’t stop them from making mistakes,” Arizona tells Miranda after they’ve made surgical history. “They’re interns. Tiny surgeons!”

And with that, Miranda marches back to her interns, who are still squabbling over who’s finished their basic procedure logs first, with a new directive: If they want to become world-class surgeons who can pull off medical marvels like the one they just barely watched, they’ll have to learn to work together. Now, none of them can operate until they’ve all finished their basic procedure logs.

Only time will tell if this new order helps these messy babies get their act together. Then again, if Meredith, Cristina, and team M.A.G.I.C. are any indication, sometimes the world’s most chaotic interns can become the best doctors.

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