‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Character Callie Torres Left in Season 12 — but Will She Return?

Whenever a core Grey’s Anatomy cast member leaves the show, it leaves us fans with a hole in our hearts — or in Callie Torres’ case, a hole in our bones. The strong-willed former head of orthopedic surgery we fell in love with in Season 2 performed her final surgery in Season 12. And now fans are left wondering: What happened to Callie Torres?

Before you get too concerned, Callie wasn’t hit by a bus, she didn’t get cancer, and she absolutely wasn’t in a plane crash. In other words, she didn’t die. As fans know, that’s the typical reason we usually say goodbye to Shonda Rhimes‘ characters. They die in some crushing, obscure way that leaves us in tears. But, just because she didn’t die doesn’t mean her exit was any less dramatic, in fact, we did cry in one of her final episodes.

Sara Ramirez chose to leave a couple seasons ago, so Shonda wrote her character out of the series. After her split with Arizona Robbins (played by Jessica Capshaw), she struck up a relationship with Penny Blake (or as Amelia liked to call her “the doctor who killed Derek”). The problem was that Penny received a job offer in New York and Callie decided that she was in love and wanted to follow her across the country. And, that’s not all because she also wanted to bring the daughter she shared with Arizona.

Of course, Arizona was completely against that idea and the two mothers ended up battling for custody of their daughter, Sofia. Even though Callie was the biological mother and Arizona was the adoptive mother, Arizona ended up winning custody. This resulted in a devastated Callie and eventually, Arizona decided to compromise and let Callie take Sofia to New York (at least for a while). After that, Callie left the show and fans lost a huge member of the cast.

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

“I’m deeply grateful to have spent the last 10 years with my family at Grey’s Anatomy and ABC, but for now I’m taking some welcome time off,” Sara said in a statement following her exit. “Shonda’s been so incredible to work for, and we will definitely continue our conversations! I send my love to Ellen, the rest of the cast and crew, and I look forward to always being a part of the Shondaland family!”

Does this mean there’s a chance she will reprise her role in the future? “I have zero idea. I have no idea. I’ve never been in the loop with any of that,” Jessica told Variety. “I think anything is possible, right?” We sure hope so!

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