We’re now three episodes into Bailey’s reign over our misfit interns and it boggles my mind that people are still questioning her teaching methods. In “Baby Can I Hold You,†the person giving her the most grief is none other than defender of the tiny humans, roller girl herself, Dr. Arizona Robbins. Arizona was shipped off to New York to reunite with ex-wife Callie Torres off-screen at the end of season 14. (Cutting Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew, who plays April Kepner, at the end of that season remains one of the most illogical casting decisions in this show’s 20-year history, I said what I said!) It’s nice to see her again, but we don’t get much of an update. Sure, we learn she’s crushing it as a fetal surgeon and still consulting with Dr. Herman, but how’s it going with Callie? What’s Sofia up to? Does Arizona even know that the moody intern giving her attitude is Derek’s nephew? She survived a plane crash with that man! It’s not that I need a full nostalgia trip anytime an old character stops by, but Grey’s has such a secret weapon in its 20-year history and it goes pretty underutilized here. Although, we do dip our toes a little bit into Grey’s lore as Arizona tries to suss out what’s up with Bailey these days.
Bailey’s enlisted the help of world-renowned fetal surgeon Dr. Arizona Robbins with a patient from her clinic, 26-year-old Vida Madera. Vida, who has low vision, is 30 weeks pregnant and they’ve discovered the fetus has a Galen malformation on its brain. This means that an artery is directly connected to a vein and can cause dangerously high blood flow. Babies born with this malformation typically die or suffer brain and heart defects. Arizona wants to lead a team in performing brain surgery on the fetus while in utero. It’s never been done before. They would be making history here. And that’s scary as hell.
Not surprisingly, Vida is terrified of allowing this surgery, but you know who else is hesitant? Bailey. It confuses Arizona to feel so much anxiety coming from Bailey’s direction, and confuses her even more when she learns Bailey won’t let interns in the O.R. Bailey is an innovator, she reminds her! Bailey put deactivated HIV in a child to save his life (without parental permission)! Bailey is a rock-star teacher, she says! Reminding her that she metaphorically birthed the renowned surgeons Cristina Yang and Meredith Grey (don’t tell Alex Karev that Arizona didn’t name check him). Why isn’t Bailey embracing the magic of this groundbreaking surgery? Why doesn’t she want the interns to witness it? Let them be motivated by the magic of surgery!
Arizona talking about embracing magic as an adult woman very much tracks for her character, but she loses me when in one breath she can call out Bailey’s award-winning teaching skills and also question what she’s doing with the interns at the moment. Like, back off, lady! Maybe Bailey knows what’s up. Also, I thought we covered this entire “Bailey has been through so much, she’s more cautious than she used to be, is that bad?†thing already. As Ben so wisely told her, maybe everything she’s been through has made her a better teacher. Can someone tell Arizona we already did all of this?
Bailey takes Arizona’s words to heart and decides to let the interns observe in the O.R. The surgery is dicey for a moment, but the Arizona/Amelia tag team pulls it off. And even Bailey has to admit that it is kind of magical. Not that any of her interns would know it: Two of them leave to go see other patients during the surgery and the three remaining are barely paying attention. Like I said, maybe Bailey is on to something with her whole “the interns need to earn the right to be in the O.R.†thing. Sure, in a heart-to-heart with Arizona post-surgery, Bailey admits that watching Ben return to work that day after an injury kept him from running head first into danger has her a little spooked, but again, I don’t think Bailey wanting the interns to get a solid foundation under their belts is a bad thing. Arizona making a triumphant return to Grey Sloan only to be so dead wrong about the situation she’s walking into! What a way to make a comeback! And let’s be real here: Arizona may have been the lead on that surgery, but Amelia did all the hard work! And you guys know I would not willingly give Amelia compliments if I didn’t feel it necessary.
When Bailey finds her interns bickering with each other once again — Mika’s bragging about finishing her procedure log first, Simone and Lucas’s repressed sexual tension is in its anger phase — she must feel vindicated in her call for caution here. And, like any great teacher, she adapts when she realizes her students need a different lesson. She declares a new rule to the Bailey Method: None of them will enter an O.R. again until all five of them have completed the procedure log. What that magical baby brain surgery really did for Bailey was remind her that great surgeons are great teammates; they listen to one another, they anticipate each other’s needs. These interns are not a team, but if Bailey has anything to do with it, they’ll figure out how to become one. In summary: Leave Bailey alone, she knows what she’s doing with this specific batch of ding dongs.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be so hard on those five. As Arizona reminds Bailey, interns are baby surgeons, they are going to make mistakes. And as Dr. Beltran reminds Amelia, they were all interns once. This idea plays out in a lovely little story line between Amelia and Lucas. Our Sad Boy Surgeon has sought refuge at his Aunt Amelia’s place while he and Simone pretend to not be in love with each other and he continues to piss off every one of his peers. He is a terrible roommate. He drinks all of Amelia’s coffee. He leaves his shit everywhere. He even … took her car to work without asking. I have declared myself a real Lucas defender, but that last thing honestly gives me pause about whether this man should be cutting human beings open.
Anyway, with the interns having to meet with hospital lawyers over their laundry list of recent screw-ups, everyone is on Lucas’s case. When he learns that Simone told the lawyers that she wouldn’t have cut Sam Sutton open if not for Lucas? Gutting! When he is reminded that his aunt is a genius surgeon operating on fetus brains and his already subpar skill set has to live up to that? Demoralizing! Lucas really has a lot to brood about these days and brooding is his baseline, so you can imagine how sad he is at the moment. Can’t you just picture him sitting on his bed with a hoodie over his head playing some weepy James Blunt song on his guitar? He doesn’t have a bed right now and I don’t know if he knows how to play guitar, but you get what I’m saying.
When Dr. Beltran reminds Amelia that they all know how hard it can be to be an intern, it jolts something loose. When Lucas Charlie Brown walks his way back into her apartment, she offers him a little TLC. If anyone knows how hard being an intern is, what it’s like to alienate all of your friends and colleagues, and how it feels to live under a family member’s long and storied surgical shadow, it’s Amelia. Especially that second thing. It’s why she tells her nephew to buck up, he’s going to be just fine, and offers him a bowl of popcorn. If only we knew what Amelia puts on her TV at night to relax. It’s got to be either House Hunters or one of the Saw movies.
The O.R. Board
• After his interview with the lawyers, Kwan can’t get Maxine out of his head. He balks when he needs to inflate Dorian’s — the fisherman GSW victim who has finally woken up — lung and Schmitt has to assist. It’s weird to see Kwan lose his confidence, but, as Schmitt says, the lesson is probably ultimately a good one.
• The little subplot with Jules and her terrible “wellness influencer†brother Doug is fun and it was nice to see her get to stand up for herself in regards to her family taking her seriously. She’s really endearing herself to me!
• I enjoyed seeing Teddy be there for Webber as he gets overwhelmed in the O.R. after being out of action for three weeks, but this man has been questioning whether it’s time for him to retire since season one. You’re either in or you’re out, dude!
• The groundbreaking surgery on Vida and her fetus is based on a real thing! The first in utero neurosurgery to repair a Galen malformation took place in 2023 in Boston! Sorry but, science is very cool.