Joana

It's almost hilarious that Callie and her lawyer would choose a strategy that insults their own witnesses - Bailey who got divorced because her husband thought she worked too much and neglected her family, and Meredith who is also an adoptive mother, i.e. some woman who just happened to come around. I wonder if that's actually intentional and Callie is going to have an epiphany of a sort and realize her oblivion and selfishness could have hurt a whole lot of people, and thus would have to eat some major instead of acting like the eternally wronged and hard done by one.

It's an interesting prospect for sure. But somehow I don't think she was talking about Arizona there. In Callie's mind, Penny leaving without her means it's over. And she's probably right and is on some level aware of hew own neediness. Because, you just know that the second Penny got on that plane Callie would be all miserable and complaing about missing sex, they'd argue and fight and eventually she'd call it off because she again wanted to be the happy girl dancing in her underwear.

Which is what happened to most of them. With the exception of Owen and DeLuca, none of those testimonies went as planned. I was surprised to see Bailey testify for Callie, but I assume she only agreed because she was told she would be an expert witness and would only talk about their work without having to choose sides. Then she saw what Callie's lawyer was really up to and wasn't having any of it. Would you really pull a stunt like that on your boss?!

I think it was Meredith who told Arizona where Sofia was, I even remember her saying "She's her child, too". Which makes it even more strange she'd unconditionally side with Callie like that. She looked so incredibly smug talking about how it takes a village to raise a child. It was kinda sweet to watch it blow up in her face and her realizing what she had actually achieved.

The thing is, all this time the show seemed to imply that it was Arizona who sued for custody. I thought it was because she didn't have parenting rights and that it was her desperate attempt to be recognized as Sofia's mother. But as it turns out that she has legally adopted Sofia, it's more likely that Callie would be the one taking it to court, and we haven't been told so. The whole thing is quite confusing.

That's probably what it is and it makes perfect sense as long as Callie is actually moving to New York as a child can't be physically present at two places at the same time. But, if she choses to stay, there really is no reason why they wouldn't keep the status quo going and why Sofia couldn't also live with Callie. She hasn't been deemed an unfit mother. So, what happens if/when she decides she's not going to NY? They're back in court because she wants shared custody again? I don't see why it wouldn't be granted to her. Couldn't they save everyone's time and come out with a ruling that keeps things as they are, as it's in the best interest of the child, with a provision that the parent moving out the state would have to relinquish the physical custody? At least it makes sense to me.

I'm afraid it's going to be infidelity.

I don't know. I'm just confused about the purpose of this whole storyline. It would be idiotic if after this huge mess they suddenly decided they're in love with each other again. At this point, I don't see Callie following Penny and giving up on Sofia and I most definitely do not see Penny staying. I guess it can be a starting point for a Callie/Arizona reunion in the future, but the way they handled it, it has to be distant future. And they could have easily done it without Penny. So, what's the point?

I don't really know how the legal system works in cases like this, so it's more than possible I'm entirely off the mark here, but couldn't the ruling have been conditional and that Callie would relinquish the physical custody of Sofia if she moved to NY? Because, the whole thing seems pointless if she's staying. It hasn't been established that either is an unfit parent.

Amen to that! That's exactly what I've always argued. If the intended endgame all this time really was "And Penny goes away and we all pretend none of this ever happened", that would surely be the most pointless storyline ever and I can't really believe anyone would come up with that for no reason. That said, I'd be equally (if not more) annoyed if this somehow magically ends in Callie and Arizona getting back together. I thought things might be played out differently and that in the middle of the heated courtroom battle those two would realize they care about each other more than they thought they did and it paves the way for their reunion. Sure, it wouldn't be very realistic, but I could see where they're coming from. Now, with things getting as ugly and feelings being hurt this much, they have an awfully long way to go and an awful lot to do and issues to address before they even think about being together again. Barring some huge time jumps again (which is always a possibility on this show, sadly), I can't see it before, say, the end of the next season. And it could have easily been done without introducing Penny's character.

The promo seems to point at Nathan/Maggie and Meredith/Alex as the "shocking hook-up", so it's obviously neither. And what's with that scene of Jo running down the hallway? For a second I thought she was going to slap April.

I had just forgotten about it. Thanks for reminding me. :P It's the first time in ages I've really liked Bailey. She was true to herself. Was Callie really so clueless she thought Bailey would help her case like that? She's the last person on Earth you'd want on her side if you're going to thrash someone for working too much! Jeez. That said, questioning someone's working schedule is a legitimate strategy (just don't enlist Bailey to help you with that), character assassination isn't. The slut-shaming of Arizona was awful. It's not like she didn't have any material of her own to go after Callie big time - how about pointing out that Sofia was actually the result of a drunken one-night-stand, how would that sound? But I'm glad she didn't take that route, as it's already been said in this thread, it's the wrong move. If she's, in your view, so unfit as a mother, what does it say about you that you let her take of your child for years? Meredith saying that parents don't get to have nights off is certainly... some kind of auto-irony on writers' part? Unbelievable. I was saying I'd like to see more of the other doctors on the show, but then I forgot they'd obviously be portrayed as incompetent hacks. And the girl's injuries definitely looked too severe for a ktichen accident, but whatever. Stop trying to make Kyle and Stephanie happen. It won't happen.

It did look like a some kind of parody. To me it was worse than the infamous musical episode, at least you could write that one off as a gimmick of some sort, this was just inexplicably bad writing. Shonda clearly didn't give a crap about the show back then, otherwise I can't see how it ever got approved.

It may appear strange because we're now used to seeing the same 5 people treat everyone, but IMO it's refreshing to see new doctors and it's really something the show should do more often. Remember when Perfect Penny said that the hospital is so huge she thought she'd never run into someone who knew Derek? Well, where are those people? We really shouldn't be seeing Arizona on literally every case that involves a baby or a potential baby. Throughout all these years, has there been a single mention of an ortho surgeon other than Callie? And so on.

There will be a patient related storyline as we see Arizona leave the court due to an emergency. But yeah, it looks like it's mostly filler stuff and most of the action takes place in the courtroom.

At first I rolled my eyes at "the creative renaissaince", but then again, I am enjoying the show more this year. Last season hit a really, really rough patch where basically entire episodes were unwatchable - the episode before Dr Herman's surgery with Amelia's ridiculous speeches, the one with Owen guiding a kid over the telephone on how to perform a surgery on her mother, the one after Derek's death that unexplicably seemed to consist 80% of Bailey and Ben having the same argument over and over again etc. This season, for all its shortcomings and nonsense, hasn't been as dire. Honestly, the whole MerDer thing got really stale. They were obviously never going to let them be calm and happy, and to watch them bicker and argue and break up and make up over 10 years was just becoming too much. But then again, I was never really a fan of the couple.

I think it's the latter, but I doubt it's going to happen in this episode. Possibly in the next one or even in the finale. Kevin McKidd's interview basically confirmed Callie and Penny are toast. I'm guessing Penny's testimony was favourable to Arizona and she acknowledged her as Sofia's mother. Obviously her heart is not really in this move anymore. It would be hilarious if she dumped Callie at the airport as they're getting ready to leave. But as they seem to be doing the reenactment of the Africa story with reversed roles, it's more likely that Callie is the one decided to stay in the end.

Actually, when I first read about the church scene and the sisters supporting Amelia, I assumed it was about Owen's funeral. And I wouldn't at all be opposed to it, even though another major character death would be beyond ridiculous at this point. But apparently he's been spotted filming that episode so it can't be that.

God, I kept expecting Bree Van De Kamp to blow up the place when I first started watching DH. :D Honestly, all these suggestions don't make any less sense than, say, the Code Pink nonsense from a few episodes back. Alas, it will probably be something really mundane like her applying for a job somewhere else. As for the church scene, maybe it's a wedding of a patient they had miraculously (pleonasm, I know) saved and he/she invited them out of gratitude? I really don't see who could be getting married other than Owen and Amelia, and that's really far-fetched.

What makes people think that Owen and Amelia are getting married? God, I really hope not, it would be craziness. A possible Callie/Arizona reunion in the aftermath of a custody battle already sounds bad enough, a shotgun wedding after bloody years of a completely undefinied merry-go-round of a relationship would be much worse. If they do both I might as well throw in the towel as there's only so much BS I can take. Besides, I don't see how it could even theoretically work without a pretty major time jump. On second thought, maybe that is what happens. We skip a year ahead and Callie and Sofia are back from NY already. Which would be the most stupid way to resolve that storyline, so I actually half-expect it to go down like that.

Not wanting to pursue a relationship with someone who has an incurable illness is perfectly valid IMO. And if it's like that, it's better to call it off ASAP than to give the other person false hope. She certainly did not come out of it looking good the way she handled it but essentially it was such a non story. They barely know each other and are not committed in any way. If they been together for a long time, got married, he got sick and she decided it's not what she had signed up for and left him, that would be truly horrible. As for Meredith and Callie, I don't think they were ever that close and certainly not close enough for her to get involved in something as delicate as a custody battle, especially as there are solid reasons in her backstory that would suggest otherwise. I couldn't see her do that even for Alex - she had no problem voting against him when he competed against Bailey for a board set. But then again, I feel like they've completely given up on consistent and logical writing for Meredith and just have her do all this random stuff they make up as they go along.

I don't give April a pass for her treatment of Arizona. It's understandable she was upset, but I also remember how she acted like it was somehow Stephanie's fault that her baby was sick and harangued her about not telling her about its condition even though she didn't ask anything herself and left the check-up before it was finished and Stephanie wanted her to stay. I don't have time for people who are always unabashedly nasty to others in times of a personal crisis, no matter how great. We all have problems.

So it's occurred to me now, breaking up with Kyle via a note is the horrible thing Stephanie does? LOL.

He and Callie worked together on that project for veterans and they really bonded over it. At this point he's definitely closer with Callie and I fully expected him to side with her. That Meredith would agree to it without blinking an eye was a lot more surprising and quite unbelievable. I agree with the recap - I think she knew. And it was a payback in more ways than one.

It's great how Meredith seemed totally indifferent about Owen's and Amelia's relationship (and even sabotaged it a bit when she got in the middle of that mess when Riggs arrived) when it looked like might actually have a future, but now that it's been well and truly established that they're not right for each other and Amelia herself has acknowledged that, she's totally supportive and is pushing her to seize the moment and embrace happiness and blah. Go figure.