| My Review of 6.05 - "You Can't Pray Away The Gay!" |
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| Written by Admin |
| Saturday, 17 October 2009 17:41 |
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Grey's slipped a bit in the ratings on Thursday but still managed to win the 18-49 age range for the 4th week in a row. Read on for my full review of the episode. It's a lengthy one!
I had been eagerly awaiting this episode ever since they broke the news in the summer about Papa Torres' return. It turned out to be more than I ever expected. (by "episode", I am really only referring to the scenes with Callie/Arizona/Papa Torres - the rest of the ep was pretty weak). The fact that we had been deprived of quality Callie & Arizona interaction just magnified all that is good in this episode. Sara, Jessica, and Hector outshone the rest (and believe me, there was no shortage of melodramatic tearfests from the other characters). This was one of those storylines that after watching, you need to just sit back and give yourself time to digest and then savor it once again. For me, it dredged up a myriad of emotions, all swirling about, draining me emotionally that I could not focus at work the next day. I blame YOU - Sara Ramirez and Jessica Capshaw (and the writers, too)! As a whole, this storyline struck the perfect chord in capturing society's prevailing bias against homosexuality and succeeded in artfully countering the homophobic stance without it feeling like a corny After-school Special. If there is even one person who gained a new perspective after watching this ep, then the writers and actors have done their job. This can really affect change, however small and gradual. So I am grateful to them.
It was interesting to see the mature and meaningful Callie/AZ/Papa Torres segments juxtaposed with the SGH vs. MW residents scenes, if only to highlight how crappy everything else in the ep was. Oy… it was like a revolving door of one-on-one resident battles where anything goes - unprofessionalism, childishness, pettiness, trickery, maliciousness... It made my head hurt.
Moving on to the Callie/Arizona/Papa Torres scenes… they weren't long, but they were so powerful that I was reeling from them for some time…
"Daddy?" "Calliope.." "What…what are you doing here?" "I came to see you." "…Why?"
Sara's acting was incredible here. She conveyed that tentativeness and timidness at the authority of her dad so perfectly with her eyes and that small voice.
Oh, and what is arguably the best line of the night (it's a toss-up for me between that and the love confession): "You can't pray away the gay!" That has got to be one of the best quotes I've ever heard in my life! Oh, Calliope, if you weren't a surgeon, you could've been a poet… or a jingle writer...
If I were the bumper sticker type, I would totally get quote made into one, stick it on my car, and drive around certain parts of the country.
The scene in the storage room was sweet. Callie's rant about incense and exorcism was endearing (btw, using grand words like "abhorrent" becomes her), as was AZ trying to cut her off. And how in the world does AZ remain so levelheaded all the time? She's practically a saint! I must say that I was relieved to hear that AZ's never had any boyfriends and seems super gay from early on. That gives me some comfort that she likely won't suddenly develop a crush on Derek/Alex/McSteamy/Owen/the Chief. <rolls eyes> Then again, Callie was into men all her life, too… Argh, I have to quit overthinking!
I also have to comment on the the way Callie was looking at AZ while she was listening to her. She looks at AZ differently (i.e. lovingly) now even though she might not like what she's hearing.. She's looking into her eyes so deeply; it's just impossible to describe, so I'm going to contrast it with the look she gave AZ in last season's finale during the army speech.
Lastly, how amazing is JCap's ability to go from having a serious conversation to strutting off as if on a catwalk with her "'Cos I'm right! And I'm awesome!" in half a second and without it coming off as cheesy?
The meeting between Callie and her father and the priest was well done. I'm glad they countered the folks who employ the Bible as a weapon against homosexuality - an excellent public service announcement in disguise. Once again, Sara owned that scene.
I was really moved by the scene between Callie and Arizona in the lounge. I'm guessing that Callie paged AZ (and this time, it's AZ comforting her, not Mark - phew!). The look on AZ face was so pained as soon as she saw Callie's state. I melted when AZ give her that incredibly tender kiss on the side of her head and I nearly died when she pressed her head against Callie's, holding her close. You could actually see AZ crying as well; a tear fell from her face near the end. See, I don't need anything explicit between them on-screen (though naked pizza scenes are always a bonus); it's moments like these tha t leave you without a doubt that they are in a relationship and have a deep connection with each other.
Sara and Jessica have the ability to draw you into what they are doing on screen. They are so committed to the moment that I could feel Callie's heart breaking, and Arizona's heart breaking for Callie. And that made my heart break, too. It took me a while to recover from that one.
Which brings us to the Arizona/Mr. Torres scene, the most poignant moment of the entire episode…
Where do I even begin? Let's just say that I had to watch it several more times before I would stop being choked up by it. It was brilliantly written and acted to perfection. In my mind, this 2 min and 20 sec scene accomplished several things:
1. Got the message across that being gay does not change who people are; it's just one facet of them. 2. Arizona did a good job of conveying to Mr. Torres how her upbringing made her the decent person that she is and that she is good for Callie. 3. We find out that their relationship as gotten to *that point*. 4. It made us fall even more in love with Jessica Capshaw.
Jessica's delivery was absolutely divine; it could not have been better. I could see the corresponding emotions flitting across her face and her tone of voice changing throughout her monologue: awkwardness from being rejected by Mr. Torres at the beginning when he turned his back, to opening up about her family and upbringing with pride, then looking vulnerable when talking about coming out to her father, to once again being proud that she is "a good man in a storm". I especially love the way her eyes implored him to understand after she said "good man in a storm". And the quiet proclamation of love for his daughter, the way she said it so earnestly and matter-of-factly, I believe her. I actually believe that Arizona's love for Callie is true and unwavering. My heart just soared.
I noticed that AZ started subtly tearing up in the middle and choked up when she got to the part about Callie. Sigh. It's love, people, it's love. (I can't believe I'm actually typing 'love' without actually making reference to a fanfic - am I dreaming? I didn't expect any profession of love to happen so early in the season.) Hope we get to see them say it to each other officially at some point.
After such heartfelt dialogue and seeing the deep connection they have, I don't see how Callie or Arizona can end up with other people. They have to be each other's endgame; to pair either or both of them up with other people in the end will just be contrived (you hear that, writers? Contrived!). I guess that's what Shonda meant when she said Calzona is like Mer/Der to her. But please, I don't need years of on-and-off drama.
Knowing that AZ loves Callie and that Callie thinks about their future (the marriage and kids thing was a pleasant surprise), the need to see physical contact has taken a bit of a backseat (I suspect I will eat my words when the next dry spell hits), as what they have really transcends physical contact. For now, confessions of love > physical contact.
Random thoughts:
My only regret is that we didn't get to see much of them in the process of falling in love. I mean, all of a sudden, bam, they are there already. Oh well…
Love that the writers are continuing to add depth to AZ's character. She could've been just perky and nothing else. Instead, she's like an onion, full of layers, in the words of Shrek (yes - I did just quote Shrek). She has this class about her that is so rare as far as TV characters (actually, in real life, too) go these days.
It's kind of funny that the hairstylists can't replicate JCap's hair for the different scenes that were shot over several days but were supposed to occur on the same day in the ep.
JCap is pretty truthful in her interviews about upcoming storylines. In one of her TCA Press Day interviews, she said that nothing much was going to happen for Callie & Arizona at least in the first 3 eps and that the relationship stuff would come later. Then in the Movieline interview, she said that by episode 7, they are in a deep romance. So it looks like we can take her word for it, even though she can't be anything but vague.
Part of me is scared and worried - are they building us up this season with all this "solidifying the Calzona relationship", only to set us up for a fall in the next? (bah, out of my head, evil thoughts, out!!)
I noticed that Mark hadn't appeared at all halfway through the episode - really, I'm fine with that.
The most badass line of the ep goes to Callie: "I can't do this anymore.. you'll, you know, see me in hell."
Are the Mercy West people going to stick around for a while? The writers' blog hinted that they might be staying for the rest of the season (I sure hope not!) They made them so unlikeable that it's a waste of screen time (esp. if they are taking away precious Calzona time)! I think I dislike that female resident (what's her name again? Reese?) who resembles an evil elf the most.
In the CTV promo for 6.06, there was a split second scene of Arizona in a ponytail and her purple stethoscope (yes! 2 things that I was hoping would make a comeback!)
So apparently, there will be 12 suspects in next week's ep and someone counted that including AZ and the 4 Mercy Westerns, would make 12. If AZ's being interrogated by the Chief, I do not want to see another crying incident - not after her gutsy speech to Mr. Torres. I will be extremely annoyed if she were to revert to the whole issue with authority.
Until next week!
Comments (20)
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Will be posting it online soon; I'm still trying to look for sites that could host it (prob fanfiction.net); I could send you a shout-out/email if you like; I have read quite a few of your reviews and I like the way you delve into the core of any material. I'd love for you to critique it...
After all, I am proud to share some of Arizona's lovely traits such as LSB (lesbian-since-birth) and fierce loyalty and commitment to her partner. 
AWESOME review (: