By Jen Connors

So maybe I’m in the minority here, but I personally really enjoyed “Song Beneath the Song.” I thought the way the music factored in, especially Callie’s songs, was perfect for an out-of-body experience. Some of my predictions were pretty far off, but who could have predicted what happened during “Walkin’ On Sunshine?” SPOILER warning from here on out.

The episode opened up with Arizona waking up after getting knocked out by the airbag’s impact. Seeing that Callie is no longer in her seat, she naturally begins to freak out. On the hood of the car, Callie regains consciousness only to see herself looking back at her, singing part of “Cosy in the Rocket,” the show’s theme song for the first few seasons.

As they get to the hospital, “Chasing Cars” begins. Featuring Sara Ramirez, Kevin McKidd and Chandra Wilson (Callie, Owen Hunt and Miranda Bailey, respectively), the song is performed as what appears to be the entire hospital staff of Seattle Grace Mercy West assesses the damage done to Callie and the baby, who will be known as Mighty Oak, Mark’s nickname for it, from here on out. Callie was already freaking out, but seeing trauma surgeon Owen burst into song only make her hyperventilate more. Bailey, who began the show with five interns that all faced traumas (in order, Cristina lost a baby and a fallopian tube, Meredith almost drowned, Izzie got cancer, George got hit by a bus and Alex got shot), felt a deeper connection to the tragedy and did her best to comfort Callie during her verse, grabbing her hand when Callie reached out. The baby’s heartbeat was eventually found as Callie began crashing, leading everyone to rush her to an OR. The last thing seen in the scene is Arizona, blood still pouring steadily out a gash on her head, saying that the truck came out of nowhere, holding back tears.

While Callie’s on the table, Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) begins singing “Breathe (2AM).” To say my predictions were off would be half-correct, the song was being directed towards Mark but Avery had nothing to do with it. Lexie ran off in search of Mark, who was about to lose his child and best friend. She eventually finds him crying in the stairwell, which is one of the biggest places for conversations and tears in the hospital. “You don’t have to do this, I know you hate me,” Mark says between tears. Meanwhile, Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) goes to the gallery, where Arizona is watching. As the song ends, Lexie and Alex comfort them as well as they can, given the very uncertain circumstances.

Addison Montgomery sighting! After new OB Lucy Fields admitted that this case, with Mighty Oak only being twenty-three weeks along, was out of her depth, Addison was flown in from Los Angeles. I’ve missed seeing Kate Walsh on Grey’s. I love her on Private Practice, but it’s still not the same. It is revealed that Lucy failed to give Mighty Oak anything to mature its lungs quicker, so premature delivery is not an option. Cut to a meeting with all of the attendings and Owen’s back at it with “How We Operate.” This was one of the weirder song placements, minus the conversation between the three remaining residents from Bailey’s crop of interns, Owen lead the meeting in song. After the meeting, Bailey, Mark and Arizona discuss the options. Arizona and Mark begin fighting as Bailey begins singing “Wait.” I’m pretty sure the reason why the song was placed here is because of the line “wait, and he will be gone.” Cristina, looking at Callie’s scans, finds a way to save both Callie and the baby as Derek tells Meredith that Callie has suffered enough neurological damage to not come back as herself. Mark tells Arizona that she’s nothing with this baby.

Back to another scene in Callie’s head, where she and Arizona are back in the car, moments before the crash. Arizona is much more sympathetic to the fact that Callie is trying to help a friend in need and tells her that she can get her phone from the backseat. That’s when Callie realizes that Arizona’s going to propose marriage, which Arizona denies as she tells Callie to get her seatbelt back on, something millions of viewers were urging her to do as last week’s episode ended. Callie says she loves Arizona as she starts singing “Walkin’ On Sunshine.” This is where the episode started getting really weird, to me at least. It cut to Eli and Bailey singing and dancing near a call station, followed by Owen and Cristina getting undressed in their kitchen, Teddy checking on Henry and Alex and Lucy fooling around in his trailer. Lexie is shown with a sleeping Mark, stroking his hair, then it cut back to Meredith and Derek, who appear to be back in their newlywed-bliss stage. Callie opened her eyes but was unresponsive, leading Derek to say it was too soon to tell how intense the damage was. Cristina proposes her plan to Owen and Teddy using past cases, but Teddy objects. Arizona talks to Callie about how she doesn’t want to feel like nothing, even though she is legally viewed as nothing to her and the baby. During a Calzona duet of “Universe & U,” Callie moves her finger, then crashes as out-of-body Callie begins to bleed out.

Callie is next seen on the gurney getting transported to an OR, with out of body Callie next to injured Callie, singing “Grace,” last heard when Denny died in Season 2.  Mark and Arizona sit in separate rows in the gallery, having been banned from the OR while Callie’s in there. In their first non-confrontational conversation of the episode, Callie suggests praying. Mark tells her he hadn’t stopped praying since he heard about the crash. In the OR, Callie begins to bleed out, Teddy’s objection to Cristina’s surgery is overturned and the cast begins singing “How To Save A Life.” As Callie begins to crash again, out-of-body Callie begins singing between Mark and Arizona, who are both standing by the window. Addison delivers Mighty Oak, who wasn’t doing good. With an encouraging nod from Mark, pediatric attending Arizona saves Mighty Oak’s life, getting her heart to start beating as they stabilize Callie. Mark tells Arizona that she’s not nothing and they make peace. Meredith, who wasn’t really involved in the episode, confessed to Derek that during the previous day’s baby shower she was jealous because Callie got pregnant without trying. I don’t know what this means for Meredith, but I can see her dark and twisty side coming back over the next few episodes.

Upon hearing Arizona’s description of the baby, Callie begins singing “The Story,” triumphantly walking around the hospital and watching Mark with Mighty Oak. Teddy severs her teacher-student relationship with Cristina since Cristina refuses to listen. Callie walks back into her room and begins yelling at her body, shaking the bed and trying to wake herself up. She succeeds by grabbing her ankles, as real Callie watches out of body Callie disappear. The first thing she does is say yes to Arizona.
In terms of the music in context, the only things I thought were misplaced were “How We Operate” and “Walkin’ On Sunshine.” I get that “Walkin’” was all in Callie’s head, but that was a lot of foreplay going on for people who all had emotional connections to their potentially dying friend. I loved what they did with “The Story” and “Breathe,” and I don’t think “How To Save A Life” would have had as much of an emotional impact if it wasn’t for the entire cast singing. I thought it was better after a second viewing. I think that if they had tried this any other season, with any other scenario, it would not have worked half as well. I’m excited to see what’s in store for the rest of the season.