Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 Episode 4 Review: Baby Can I Hold You

Jessica Capshaw effortlessly steps back into her role as Arizona Robbins on Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 Episode 4, “Baby Can I Hold You.”

She’s everything we remember of her, from the moment she presents her plan for surgery to the other doctors and the way she deals with her patient to how she stops Bailey in her tracks to remind her of her priorities. 

Arizona is there for an experimental surgery. She’s been working on a clinical trial, and Bailey, still running the women’s clinic, has encountered a patient who needs exactly what that trial has to offer. 

She’s going to perform brain surgery on a baby while it is still in the womb. 

What’s great about the type of surgery chosen for this storyline is that it manages to involve several other attendings. Amelia, of course, is involved, and so is Jo. Arizona works with everyone in a way that feels natural — it’s almost as though she never left. Her character also stands out a little more now.

That positivity and the way she talks about the magic of everything they’re working to do is something we haven’t had from the cast in a while — at least not in the way Arizona does it.

In fact, this entire episode makes a great case for bringing that character back to the show permanently. I’m just throwing that out there. 

The timing of Arizona’s return is important for the interns as well. Once again, they get to learn from a legend — and an iconic former Grey’s character. Last season, it was Addison, and now it happens again with her. We’ve set up a nice precedent here, that’s for sure. 

Arizona takes every opportunity she can to teach the interns, even setting up practice surgery in the event that the mother changes her mind and decides to go through with it after initially backing out. 

She’s also willing to listen in a way that feels unique to her character. When Lucas complains about them wasting their time, questioning why they aren’t trying to convince the mother to change her mind instead, Arizona becomes inspired. 

There’s a fine line here that presents an ethical question that we see a lot on Grey’s Anatomy — how far should doctors go to try to convince their patients to undergo a procedure? As Amelia notes, it’s not their job to convince them, and doing so is problematic.

But thanks to the 3D printer technology they have access to, Arizona realizes there’s a way to walk the mom through the surgery and perhaps make her feel more comfortable about it. 

That works, and then Arizona learns that the interns aren’t allowed in the OR.

Since Bailey took over for Nick with the interns, she’s struggled to figure out how she’s changed as a teacher. Her talks with Arizona seem to help her get to a place where she’s more confident with her methods and more forgiving where she needs to be.

I can’t think of a single other Grey’s Anatomy character, past or present, who could have gotten through to Bailey at this moment the way Arizona did. The joy and the magic Arizona sees in medicine is precisely what Bailey needed to be around again.

Unfortunately, the interns need that too, but they’re missing that point altogether.

The most tragic scene from this season of Grey’s Anatomy so far isn’t a patient’s death or a mistake in an OR. It’s when Bailey turns around to see the interns’ reactions after the fetal brain surgery is successful — and they’re not even paying attention.

As much as Grey’s Anatomy has been a reboot of itself, and as similar as its been to the early seasons, this group of interns has one key difference from the originals. They’re not nearly as excited about the magic of medicine.

Meredith and Izzie, in particular, would have marveled over this surgery in those days. And not even Alex would have been looking at his phone instead of watching legends perform such a spectacular procedure. 

But these interns are disenchanted, jaded, and distracted. 

They’re also more focused on competing with one another than working together, and that’s the part Bailey is setting out to rectify.

Forcing them to work together to complete the procedure logs, making it so that no one can return to the OR until they’re all finished, should change their dynamic entirely. It’s also the exact type of lesson Bailey would have given to her interns 20 seasons ago. 

The interns are all going through their own stuff separately as well. They’re questioned by the hospital attorneys about everything that happened in the Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 finale, which further pits them against one another.

Simone and Lucas drift further apart, and there’s additional resentment now that Lucas has moved out of the house — and moved in with Amelia. Lucas, meanwhile, struggles with being in Amelia’s shadow, which winds up providing a nice nod to Derek as well.

Kwan has perhaps experienced the most change between last season and this season; his confidence is now shattered. He’s a little more like Levi used to be, and Levi gets the chance to offer his own teachable moments because of it. 

We meet Jules’ brother on this episode as well, in an odd interaction that provides some additional levity. He calls himself Dr. Milan, though he isn’t a doctor — he’s an influencer. It sets up a problematic visit for a patient and puts Jules in a difficult situation.

She tries getting Yasuda’s help first, with what turns out to be an abscess that she’s unable to fix on her own.

They wind up having to call for Owen, who is more patient than they expect but who also gets a little enjoyment out of how gross it is when the abscess bursts. 

Full disclosure — I looked away as soon as they started pushing on it, but the sound effects and their reactions told me everything I needed to know. 

All of these details also explain why the interns are distracted and disenchanted in the first place, and Bailey’s new rule of forcing them to work together should certainly be fun to watch in future episodes.

Having Arizona back, even for just one episode, is certainly a highlight in what is another solid episode of the season overall. However, I have one complaint about that return.

Here, we have a character who left the series at the end of Grey’s Anatomy Season 14. She returns in Season 20, and the only thing we learn about her life since she left is that she’s been working on this clinical trial.

That’s not to say the episode should have spent full scenes with Arizona talking about her personal life, but one or two lines to offer some context could have gone a long way.

That’s what was done with Addison, and it worked well there. Addison’s return was largely focused on her as a doctor, but she still mentioned her personal life briefly enough to offer context and let the audience fill in the gaps of her absence just a little. 

Specifically, that there’s no mention of Callie one way or another feels like a missed opportunity. And, considering that Arizona was working with Jo on this case, there was also an opportunity here for some mention of Alex Karev. After all, the last time we saw Arizona was in the episode where Jo and Alex got married. 

There is a hint, at least, that Arizona could return again. We know this was her only episode for Season 20, but when Arizona, Jo, and Amelia talk with their patient after the surgery, she explains how they’ll be following up with her for two years. That leaves an opening, it would seem. And Grey’s Anatomy has been renewed for Season 21, so anything could happen. 

What did you think of this episode of Grey’s Anatomy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.

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