Jessica Capshaw’s character Arizona Robbins returns to Grey’s Anatomy in this week’s episode. Jessica gave a few interviews where she talks about Justin, the relationship between Arizona and Alex and how she’ll react to what he’s done. I’ve only posted the parts that mention Justin/Alex. The full interviews can be read at the sources linked below.

 
Entertainment Weekly

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Arizona comes back to hospital in the midst of a lot of drama. How does she feel about what happened between DeLuca and Alex?
JESSICA CAPSHAW: I think ultimately — and why it’s such a great story — is that everyone feels conflicted. That’s the best part: There’s nothing conflicting about someone being hurt, so everyone feels for DeLuca because there’s nothing to not feel for. But at the same time, for such a beloved character with such a complicated history and tone to him, for Alex to be the one who assaulted him is just so heartbreaking, because you know him, so you know it was a mistake. Of course that causes friction and creates the drama. That’s what Arizona feels at the beginning — her love of Karev, their friendship, their professional relationship and having helped him at the beginning, and then her compassion and how she feels for Andrew, it’s her roommate, and just caring that he was so badly hurt.

How do you think this changes her relationship with Alex?
Maybe this is art and life coming together, but Justin Chambers is such an incredible actor and such an incredible human being. The nuances that he layers into his acting and the way that he portrays things, I don’t know that Arizona necessarily interprets of him going back to his thuggish days. My understanding was always how upset she was for having done it and jeopardized his career. Ultimately she knows, on some level, the pain that he has and the mistakes that he’s made. You can’t kick a dog that’s already down, and he is down. It’s not like he’s gotten away with it.

As the trial nears, how will the Alex-DeLuca situation further divide the hospital?
It becomes wondering who’s on whose side, who has to pick, if someone has to pick, and if someone has to pick, who that someone is, and what they mean to both of those people.

Justin mentioned he’d like to see Arizona and Alex working in the clinic together. Is that going to happen?
Oh, he just wants to work with me more. [Laughs.] We all love working together. We wouldn’t want to miss out on being able to work together just because he’s not able to be on the peds floor. That’s actually really fun. I’m so grateful. I wasn’t necessarily sure what Arizona’s medical evolution was going to be, but it’s so cool now because I think it’s true, but I’m not completely positive, that she’s actually the most certified doctor of them all with more specialties and does more things than anybody. That’s exciting. She gets to be able to step in on the peds ward, she can step in on the OBGYN ward, the fetal medicine ward, so it’s fun. Maybe she’ll head over to the clinic.

 
The Hollywood Reporter

Arizona is Alex’s mentor. How will she respond to what he’s done?

It’s ripe for contradiction and conflict for her. There was empathy, camaraderie and compassion with her roommate, Andrew. At the same time, she has a deep relationship with Alex, as a mentor, friend and confidant. Ultimately, when she first comes back, she didn’t understand how bad it was for Andrew until she sees him. It’s hard to reconcile that and it’s a little scary when you know someone you know so well does something so primal and unacceptable. There’s got to be so many different things you feel at the same time. Arizona is very connected to the empathy she had for Andrew and him being new and not having his people in place yet. And getting the shit kicked out of him, it’s awful.

DeLuca is Arizona’s roommate. Will she get stuck in the middle at all between her two main people?

I don’t know how all this will end up playing out. By the end of Thursday’s episode, you see from Alex that perhaps having Arizona come back is the last in a long chain of friends who have come and said, “You really messed this up and you did a horrible thing and you need to work your way back from it.” At the end of this episode, he says he’ll do whatever he can and Arizona believes him. She will be there for him through that.

 
TV Line

TVLINE | The preview for this week’s episode confirms that Arizona is pissed at Alex for assaulting Andrew. Is there more going on there than her just looking out for her roommate?
It’s funny, when I read the scripts that I wasn’t in, I felt like I wanted to know what Arizona was doing [when the Alex-Andrew melee went down]. Outside of Callie, Arizona has been closest to Alex. So I was kind of wondering if Alex would [reach out] to her. We find out in the episode that she heard what happened [while in NY], but she has no idea just how bad it is [until] she returns to work. And, when she sees just how bad it is, it really fires her up. And it worries her. Because anyone who can do something like that needs some help. Needs some assistance. [Laughs]

TVLINE | Does she feel caught in the middle?
She gets to sort of ride the middle. There’s an understanding that she might be able to both be upset at Alex and sad for Andrew.

 
Check out this sneak peek of Arizona and Alex’s re-encounter from tomorrow night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy.