'Grey's Anatomy' star Sara Ramirez dissects shocking Calzona twist

Image Credit: Adam Taylor/ABC

Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Read at your own risk!

Calzona fans got quite the shock during Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

After Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) finally went to therapy, the duo were charged with trying out a trial separation, which they initially had a hard time sticking to. Once apart, Arizona realized the value of her marriage, while Callie decided to end things. Breathe. EW hit the set of the ABC medical drama to get the scoop on what’s next from Ramirez.

EW: Callie decides that she doesn’t want to be with Arizona. Are they done for good?
SARA RAMIREZ: What Callie decides is that she doesn’t want to try to fix it or fix them anymore. That’s what she decides. To be clear, that’s important, because it’s not about “I don’t want to be with you.” I think it’s about, “I don’t want to try and fix this anymore, and fix us anymore.” I think Callie reaches her breaking point. The exercise in being apart for all that time, she initially resisted, but ultimately it becomes an eye-opener for her, to see how much happier she is outside of the relationship, which is not something she expected, or wanted necessarily, but she finds a lot of freedom from all of the issues and difficulty that they just can’t seem to resolve or find a solution for. The conclusion that she comes to is they’re better apart, for now.

For now! Do you think there’s hope for them someday?
I have no idea. I have no idea, and I’m not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole, thank you very much. [Laughs] But it’s so not about what the actors think. I think that Callie basically wants more of that time to be herself again. I think that she starts to see glimpses of herself again that have been buried under this drama for so long. I think what she chooses is freedom. It’s less about “I don’t want to be with you,” because I think she still loves Arizona. I think the love is still there. But just because you love someone doesn’t mean that you’re supposed to be with them, or that any problem is fixable.

What is Callie like now without Arizona? Is this a whole new discovery of who she is?
She discovered a part of herself before Arizona came along with Erica Hahn. And then she fell in love with Arizona and more of who she is blossomed in that relationship because we were able to see that relationship on screen. When we got rid of Erica Hahn we couldn’t. Basically, it obviously served that purpose that we were able to see Callie in a grounded, loving relationship that had more to do with the attraction, and the mutual respect and the love for one another than anything else, than about gender, which I love. And then the drama of the car crash, the plane crash, the leg loss, the “I told you not to keep me alive, I’d rather be dead than be alive without a leg”—all of that created so much conflict and it changed them in a way. I think Callie lost herself, and put so much focus on Arizona, and fixing her, and fixing their relationship. That was very traumatizing.

How will they be dealing with the breakup?
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows when you break up. What Callie saw in her life and the opportunity she saw in working with other people and just exploring her life outside of her relationship—professionally so nobody freaks out. That’s the only area where she’s exploring herself outside of her relationship—she see glimpses of her old self and her new self. She’s enjoying herself more, she’s focused on her work more, and she’s more engaged in the hospital with other doctors. She’s doing more at the hospital, she’s laughing more. She got glimpses in episode five of what that is, what that means and what that could be. Initially we do not see sunshine and rainbows in Callie’s world. It’s very difficult. It’s quite miserable, actually, because break-ups are messy. Especially when you share a child, there are so many things you’re trying to figure out in terms of separating your lives. We’re going to continue to see the difficulties and challenges when you are in the process of breaking up and you share a child. You’re trying to figure out if we’re both going to be staying in the same house, what are we going to do with the house, how are we going to tell Sofia? There’s some really important priorities to deal with first, so we necessarily don’t really see an exploration of some new Callie, so I don’t really know what that is yet. What we’re seeing now is somebody who’s feeling horrible about choosing something that their partner didn’t want. Callie just really feeling guilty.

Will Callie take steps towards looking elsewhere romantically or is this more about finding herself?
Yeah, that’s what it’s more about. What the writers have explained is the writers are interested in seeing an unattached Callie. Who is she in the hospital, what is she like around her co-workers? Do friendships arise, do working relationships improve? Do they not improve? What are the effects of this newfound freedom? But nowhere in there is there any romance. That’s not where her focus is at.

Can they still work together in the hospital?
They don’t work together. We don’t see them working together for the first few episodes. She doesn’t want to make the break-up any harder. She sees how hard this is on Arizona. She sees how Arizona’s taken on so much with this fellowship, all these things she’s taken on amidst this break-up, so Callie puts her focus into trying to help again, which ultimately doesn’t work. It’s all just slowly progressing in that way. Callie is observing Arizona from a distance, but they’re not working together.

You’re still wearing Callie’s wedding ring.
They haven’t told anybody yet. I think Meredith is the only one that Callie’s been confiding in, in terms of what’s been going on before and then. Meredith and Callie are developing a relationship—a friendship! I don’t want to throw anybody off, they’ll get all excited like, “Oh my god!” Calzona splits up only for Meredith to start dating Callie. That’s hysterical. Anyway, they form a bond. Callie and Meredith form a bond over their individual relationship issues, and Meredith is somebody Callie confides in. I don’t remember if Callie actually literally says to her on-camera like, “We’re broken up.” But they’re still wearing their wedding rings, so nobody says anything about it.

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.