Grey’s Anatomy’s evil genius showrunner Shonda Rhimes has finally broken her silence on her decision to torture the most adorable lady doc couple on TV ever – Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw).
In case a car crash that nearly killed Callie and her baby that led to a musical episode weren’t enough over-the-top drama for Callie and Arizona, Rhimes put Arizona on a plane that crashed at the end of last season, leading to the perky peds doc losing her left leg. Now, Rhimes has blogged, according to The Hollywood Reporter, about just why she chose to have it all go down that way.
"It felt real to me that Arizona would lose her leg," Rhimes wrote late Thursday on her Shondaland blog. "That someone we love so much would go from being ambulatory to WORKING on being ambulatory, that we would begin to understand what it is like to be differently-abled from watching a person we love BECOME differently-abled."
During Thursday’s episode viewers were treated to a wonderfully chronologically jumbled show that revealed in flashback how Callie promised to save Arizona’s leg but was forced to make a rushed decision to save Arizona’s life.
On why she chose to torture Callie with so much heartache -- Callie has survived her ex-husband George’s death, a car crash that nearly killed her and her baby and most recently the death of her best friend and baby daddy Mark –Rhimes writes, "It must be terribly difficult to be Callie right now. To have your partner hate you. To have your sex life taken away. To have your BEST FRIEND taken away," Rhimes wrote. "Arizona has been taken from her and Callie is doing her best to survive that."
While things have not been roses for Callie and Arizona Rhimes promises that all will be well –as well as things ever are on Grey’s -- with TV’s primary female married couple -- that by Valentine’s Day the old, happy, playful and sexy couple would be back in swing:
"Callie and Arizona are going to have a fun romance-y, sexy love life again. And you are going to see it this season. That's important to me. I stated in the Writers Room that Arizona could not lose a leg unless we were going to see how a person missing a leg could be sexy and fun and romance-y. So get ready for it -- Arizona is gonna get her mojo back in a BIG WAY. And (spoiler alert!) it's gonna happen before Valentine's Day."
Following the latest indignity suffered by Callie and Arizona fans took Rhimes to task accusing her of singling them out for tragedy based on their sexual orientation – as if Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) hasn’t been put through the ringer throughout the years.
Rhimes had some very strong words:
"We don’t punish people for their sexual preferences. That is so 1985. We allow people, no matter what their sexual preference, to have complex storylines. I felt it important to develop a storyline that detailed what happens when an able-bodied person loses a limb and then how that person resumes their life. It's upsetting to me that 'disabled' is a word that never enters into a conversation about how we live our lives."
She went on to write:
"So, y'know, if you think she lost a leg because she is a lesbian, I say, 'GET A LIFE.' Or maybe 'LOSE A LEG.' And then see how you feel about a sexy adorable person who happens to have a residual stump," she noted. "Think about it. And then GET WITH THE PROGRAM. Please. Thank you."
Follow SheWired on Facebook.
Follow SheWired on Twitter.
