Grey's Anatomy: 17 of Callie Torres' Best Moments

Grey’s Anatomy fans first met Dr. Callie Torres on February 26, 2006, when the season 2 episode “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” hit airwaves. Played by Sara Ramirez, the orthopedic surgeon was introduced for her medical expertise, but quickly became a favorite thanks to her candor, fun personality, and memorable one-liners. In the 10 years since, Callie has evolved, taking on new responsibilities as a wife, mother, surgeon, and friend. See some of her best moments from the last decade of Grey’s, ahead.

Callie managed to live in the hospital for an extended period of time without anyone noticing, as revealed in the season 3 episode, “I Am a Tree.” When her secret finally did get out, it was in grand Callie fashion: Chief Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) strolled by the basement room where Callie was shacked up, just as she was gyrating in sunglasses and underwear to Bitter:Sweet’s “The Mating Game.”

Season 3 took a Shonda Rhimes-worthy twist in the “Wishin’ and Hopin'” episode. Callie and George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) return to the hospital after a quick trip to Las Vegas and announce to their friends and coworkers that they eloped in Sin City, making Dr. Torres, officially, Callie O’Malley.

With the introduction of Dr. Erica Hahn at the end of season 2, Callie’s sexuality comes into question. Sparks fly between the two doctors, and, with a little help from Mark Sloane, Callie begins to explore the idea that she may be attracted to women.

Grey’s had one of its most poignant, touching moments in the show’s fifth season. During the sixth episode, “Life During Wartime,” Callie and Erica finally have amazing sex, but it means something entirely different to Dr. Hahn. “This is like needing glasses,” Erica tells Callie as she begins to cry. “When I was a kid, I would get these headaches, and I went to the doctor and they said that I needed glasses. I didn’t understand that — it didn’t make sense to me because I could see fine. And then I get the glasses, and I put them on, and I’m in the car on the way home and suddenly I yell, because the big green blobs that I’d been staring at my whole life, they weren’t big green blobs, they were leaves… on trees. I could see the leaves. And I didn’t even know I was missing the leaves — I didn’t even know that leaves existed! And then, leaves! You are glasses.”

Callie realizes that she doesn’t reciprocate Erica’s strong feelings and faces her own personal turmoil over the relationship. She excuses herself from the room and sleeps with Mark to test her feelings, learning that she enjoys sex with both men and women.

In a hospital where secrets abound and are always revealed, one slipped through: In the Season 6 episode “The Time Warp,” a flashback shows that years prior, Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and Callie slept together. Working together on a patient with polio, they choose to celebrate the success of the surgery by spending time in bed together.

It took a tragedy for Arizona and Callie to put aside their issues and recognize their true feelings for one another. After squabbling over their differing views on parenthood, they are in the hospital when a shooter, Gary Clark, goes on a rampage. They make it out unscathed and end the whole ordeal in each other’s arms, committing to the relationship once more.

The musical episode of Season 7 was undoubtedly a polarizing one, but it gained points for the abundance of Callie-Arizona moments. The singing begins in “Song Beneath the Song” after Arizona and a pregnant Callie get into a car accident. Carrying Mark’s baby, she flies through the windshield of Arizona’s car and is in danger of losing the child. The team stands by the couple, Sloane, and the soon-to-be-born baby, Sofia, singing all the while.

The delivery was dramatic and scary, but thanks to some excellent medical care by short-lived OB/GYN Lucy Fields and some next-level worrying from the three-person team of parents, Sofia grew to be happy and healthy, earning the name Sofia Robbin Sloan Torres. She was finally able to leave the hospital a few months after the accident.

After making it through trauma, relationship turmoil, and the birth of their first child, Callie and Arizona finally tie the knot at the end of the seventh season. Accompanied by a healthy dose of family drama, emotional breakdowns, and abandoned plans, the two women successfully make it down the aisle and exchange vows with Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) presiding over the ceremony.

The alternate universe that could have been was explored in the eighth season of Grey’s Anatomy. In an appropriately titled “If/Then” episode, Callie is shown (un)happily married to Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), and toting three children around the hospital as a part of her harried life. Reporting to Dr. Ellis Grey (Kate Burton), she is a cardio surgeon and often butts heads with Arizona over procedures.

While the moment is soon overshadowed by the tragedy of the plane crash, Callie pulls a particularly sweet Valentine’s Day surprise for Arizona in the eighth season of Grey’s. The responsibilities of child care and their jobs almost got in the way, but Callie successfully won the day when she brought Arizona out to McDreamy’s trailer in the woods, which was done up in lights, candles, and romantic decorations.

The two women were in for the ultimate challenge following the plane crash. Arizona has lost her leg in the accident and puts the blame on Callie for both the amputation and the aftermath. As she tries and repeatedly fails to process her anger, Callie is left to cope with her own trauma alone.

Callie and Arizona’s tumultuous relationship took a turn for the worse in the ninth season. Following the plane crash and her miscarriage, Arizona develops a relationship with Lauren Boswell (Hilarie Burton), a surgeon who is in the hospital for a consultation. Watching an interaction between Arizona and Lauren and noticing Arizona’s wedding ring pinned to Lauren’s scrub top, Callie realizes what happened between the two and must face her wife’s infidelity.

While their split is a months-long process, it began for real in Season 11. After trying to get things back on track in therapy, they take a break from one another and reconvene after 30 days. Arizona tells Callie she loves her and that she needs her, but Callie shares a different sentiment. She explains to Arizona that she is freer on her own and she can’t keep trying to fix it.

Callie teamed up with Derek in the 10th season to work on technology that would allow amputees to walk again. Months later, at the end of the 11th season, she finally sees success, just as she is losing Derek. The two doctors pooled their considerable experience and intelligence to work on robotic limbs, and Callie is able to use such innovation on a patient in desperate need. She is unable to celebrate the win with Derek, however, as his fatal car crash is shown in the next episode.

After the painful split, Callie found romantic hope once more with the arrival of Penny Blake (Samantha Sloyan) in the show’s 12th season. She quickly falls for the doctor, who is preparing to transfer to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, but is in for a surprise when she learns that Penny has already met Meredith. Dr. Grey reveals that Penny was working on Dr. Shepherd’s case and is partly to blame for his death.

After Penny wins a grant that will bring her to New York, Callie makes the impulsive decision to tag along with her daughter Sofia, leading Arizona to fight her in court in order to keep her child in Seattle. All of their emotional baggage was used as ammunition, and in the midst of the draining exercise, Callie smiled at her lawyer in such a way that made many fans side with her ex-wife. In the end, Callie was forced to watch as Arizona won custody of their child.