How Jessica Capshaw Returns To Season 20

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

Paging Dr. Arizona Robbins!

Jessica Capshaw made her return to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital on Thursday night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Naturally, the case involved fetal medicine, which she’s still been pursuing and advancing since she moved to New York with her daughter Sofia to be closer to her ex Callie.

In this episode, Arizona is called back to Seattle to perform groundbreaking surgery on a fetus with a brain abnormality that would likely result in the baby’s death upon birth.

She teams up with Grey Sloan’s chief neurosurgeon Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) to essentially perform a miracle and, in the process, inject some faith back into the rest of the staff at the hospital after a series of trying cases. And, of course, she challenges a bit of authority along the way, reminding Bailey (Chandra Wilson) why she’s always been such a fantastic teacher in the first place.

Capshaw referred to the story as a “call back” to her introduction to Grey’s during Season 5 and, while it’s just a one-episode arc for now, she tells Deadline she’s still open for more — which is good news since the series was just renewed for Season 21.

Read her interview below.

DEADLINE: How did this come across your radar and why did you decide now was the right time to return?

JESSICA CAPSHAW: It was really Meg Marinus. She’s such an incredible human being. She’s such a wonderful storyteller. She’s literally woven into the actual fabric of everything that Shonda started to create with Grey’s. She was there from the very beginning. She knows it inside and out. She’s just a hero for having been someone who has the resilience and grit to start in a place as someone who is a writers room assistant and then to ascend to running the whole thing is just kind of bananas. She wrote so many of the things, when I was there, that were just really important Arizona moments. So I knew that she really obviously understood, and she was one of the people that I really, really was so sad to say ‘see you later’ too. When she took the job, I was so excited for her from afar. Then when she reached out, she’s irresistible. Who would ever say no to her? It also just seemed like the right time. The way that she explained it and storyline wise, obviously, they had a shorter season this year. She was hoping there’d be a moment where some light and some joy and maybe even a little reminder that there’s so much magic in healing and them being doctors — and a reminder for Bailey, she’s a teacher. So all of that kind of came together…and it was just the right next step.

DEADLINE: Toward the end of the episode, Richard says something about how no matter how long he is away from the OR, it always comes back to him. Did you feel that way stepping onto those sets?

CAPSHAW: Funnily enough, it all just seemed right. When I came back… it was like every time I turned a corner and saw someone that I hadn’t seen in a while, the just like the joy and squeals and the screams and the laughter and the just the fun that came about was just exactly where we left off. So yes, absolutely. Stepping back into that character and putting on my scrubs was like I’ve done 1,000 times before.

DEADLINE: This is, of course, Arizona’s first time meeting this new interns. She’s obviously worked with previous iterations of Grey Sloan interns, but what was it like to step back into that mentorship role for them?

CAPSHAW: I have heard this was not a unique experience, but I am one of those if that you can point to who…I genuinely always feel new myself. I’m like, ‘What do you mean, they’re younger than me? What are you talking about? They’re younger? No way.’ Then they kind of do look at you like they’re younger. And then you kind of have a giggle. All of the interns are so dynamic, and they’re so great in their roles and eager and generous and kind on set to work with, but then on top of it, their community that they’ve created and the relationship that they have with each other — playing cards in between takes by the chairs or one of them’s like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna order out for food, anyone else want anything?’ — just a very generous and very cohesive spirit. It was so lovely. I really enjoyed spending time with them. I sort of felt like one of them because I was experiencing what they were, which was like, ‘Where are the teachers? What’s going on?’ At the same time, my character was like, ‘Where did your teacher go? You need some.’

DEADLINE: We didn’t hear too much about Arizona’s life back in New York. Did you talk to Meg about anything that’s been going on with her since we last saw her?

CAPSHAW: So I mean, let’s be real. Our personal lives that play out on the show is, I mean, it’s probably 50/50. Right? If not 60/40. You care more about what they’re doing outside the hospital than you do inside. That being said, it felt to me and I heard in a very pointed way, that the part that Meg really wanted to bring Arizona back to the show for this episode, really [for[ the lightness and the joy after for the people who love the show and take great solace in the show. They kind of got gypped this year. They’re only getting 10 episodes instead of 24. So, I think she just wanted to give it that jolt of joy and magical medicine. It seems like these episodes go by so quickly. I mean, they’re an hour long and everything else, but it goes by really quickly. I don’t know that you would have been able to really get to anything of importance in her personal life. If she’d stayed for more episodes, my guess is that you would be hearing more, but I think for this particular episode, it really was about her as a doctor.

DEADLINE: How open are you to coming back for more?

CAPSHAW: I truly feel like you take everything one day at a time and obviously it’s a world that I feel like, on a lot of levels, I grew up in. I’m so grateful to the show for so many things. I’m so grateful to all the people that watch it and everything else. This was an amazing experience to go back and play Arizona, and I feel like it’s always a part of my life even when I’m not there. So I think that this character always exists and there’s always possibilities. It depends on a bunch of different factors.

DEADLINE: We might not have heard about Sofia in this episode, but I do think that Arizona’s growth as a mom shines through in this episode. I can’t imagine Arizona before having a child handling this situation with the same level of empathy.

CAPSHAW: The poignancy of Vida’s character, having to trust so much and have faith in something that she couldn’t see when she lived a life of partial sight…Arizona was speaking about something she knows. There are so many times in her life as a mother with Sofia, literally from her birth, trying to have faith in medicine in general to save her daughter’s life. She was so worried about not being a legitimate parent which was a very unique circumstance, but then obviously, feeling like a legitimate parent and growing in that way, and then through the divorce, having to live through something so hard and uniquely challenging to fight to keep custody of a child. But then, knowing that the right thing for the child was to give up the custody to then change her life. I mean, yes, there’s a million different times in Arizona’s life that were about having faith in something she could not see. So yes, I think that when she says that to [Vida], she certainly isn’t selling her something that she hasn’t bought herself.

DEADLINE: I just have to say, it was so great to have Arizona back, even for one episode. She did bring that joy you were talking about.

CAPSHAW: Which, by the way, definitely felt a little bit like a call back to when the character first was introduced. That season was a little dark, when things had gotten a little more serious. People were already having near death experiences. I came in and was on wheels and challenging and having little snippets with Bailey and brushing up against everyone and pissing everybody off while wearing a big ol’ smile.