Brothers & Sisters

And then, almost as soon as they returned, they were gone.

Tonight is the fourth episode of Brothers & Sisters since the post-writer’s-strike return, and the last one we’re going to get until fall — that is, if an actor’s strike doesn’t screw things up further.

What I’m feeling going into tonight’s episode is hope: Hope for the future of Kevin and Scotty, of course, as they tie whatever knot the state of California allows them to; but also hope that the Rebecca situation is settled amicably, hope that the Walkers find some way to foil Holly’s corporate takeover, hope that the threatened secret of William’s is interesting and worthwhile and not something we’re going to get a do-over on next season like Rebecca’s parentage, and hope that this season finale ends on as positive a note as last season’s.

Alright, that’s a lot of hope. But it’s Mother’s Day. Not a day I want to be seething about stupid plot turnarounds and unecessary evils. Hope! There’s always hope. It springs eternal, don’t you know.

To get you into whatever mood you find appropriate for tonight, a few offerings from ABC:

+ The official press release description: “Prior Commitments - Kevin and Scotty make a commitment to be life partners, Saul finally deals with his identity in a public way, and the family discovers that William (guest starring Tom Skerritt) kept yet another painful secret from his family, on the season finale of “Brothers & Sisters,” SUNDAY, MAY 11 (10:02-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. Guest starring are Tom Skerritt as William Walker, Luke MacFarlane as Scotty Wandell, Michael Adler as Doug Manning, Michael O’Keefe as Wally Wandell, Jayne Brook as Bertha Wandell and Parvesh Cheena as Jordan. ‘Prior Commitments’ was written by Greg Berlanti, Monica Owusu-Breen and Alison Schapker and directed by Ken Olin.” In other press release news, it looks like no B&S next Sunday, then a rerun of “States of the Union” on May 25.

+ From the writers: A Writer’s Room video for last week, in which Supervising Producer Sheri Cooper and Story Editor Jason Wilborn describe “Moral Hazard” as the episode in which every storyline explodes, and express a hope that the fans’ feeling of Justin-Rebecca yuckiness will soon die down and we’ll all jump onboard; and a Bloggers & Sisters entry on “Prior Commitments” that promises “the episode does what any finale should do — wrap up one box and hint that there’s another waiting behind it.”

+ A promo on the B&S homepage in which the ABC Voice of Dramatic Inevitability intones, “Sunday: A season finale event with a cliffhanger ending to an incredible season” while we hear snippets of dialog like “Kevin’s getting married!” “She deceived us!” and “Mom, we have something to tell you!” To which I’ll just comment that this sounds less like a hint that there’s another box than it does bashing us over the head with it. But I’m hopeful! Hopeful, yes indeed!

+ A preview that includes a scene with Kevin and Scotty discussing the fact that Scotty’s parents will not be attending their whatever-they-decide-to-call-it ceremony; and a scene in which Sarah accuses Holly of lying about Rebecca’s paternity so that William would leave her money, with the proof being the presence of that extra “R” at the end of his password. Which gives me a bad feeling about the nature of William’s alleged new secret. Hope … fading … must … stay … hopeful.

Assuming you haven’t abandoned all hope for the series, share your thoughts here on tonight’s episode, and I’ll be back during the week with a review, recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, Prior Commitments, commentary

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and since we’ll be busy looking forward to the evening’s season finale, I’ll take the opportunity today to wish the best to Walker moms Nora, Sarah, and Julia; wannabe mom Kitty; and, I suppose, even Holly, in the spirit of the day and all.

Motherhood’s never easy, after all, especially if you’re mothering on a nighttime drama. Below, in honor of the Walker mothers and all mothers, five little motherly rants from Brothers & Sisters. What’s your favorite bit of Walker mom wisdom or invective? Share it in the comments.

“It’s the minimum basic requirement that a party store always have Hawaii. Children have recitals and their parents, their mothers can’t do it all and we rely on our party store to keep up their end of the bargain so that our husbands, our children don’t despise us when we come home empty handed.” — Sarah, An Act of Will

“What you don’t remember is when you had the chicken pox, Sarah had the chicken pox, and Tommy had the chicken pox, and Kevin had the chicken pox, and I had a very bad cold, your dad was out of town on business. Sweetheart, I’m saying this to you with as much love as I possibly can: Sometimes motherhood means sucking it up. Kitty, go suck it up.” — Nora, Compromises

“Stop it! I’m not moving away because I need to replace your father, or I’m afraid to be alone, or whatever else you can think of. I’m leaving to get away from all of you! You think I don’t notice all the eye rolling and sighing and little looks you give each other every time I open my mouth. You’re constantly complaining that I’m manipulative and I’m controlling and I invade your lifes. Well, take a good look in the mirror, my darling children. I try to change one thing in my life, and you all launch so many covert actions, you might as well be the CIA! Oh, God, it felt so good to make a decision for myself without taking everyone else’s feelings into account. No. I’m doing this for me. And frankly, it’s about damn time!” — Nora, Separation Anxiety

“Nora had a husband and a family and money. I scraped together everything for us. I took care of you every single day of your life. Do you know I wasn’t much older than you when I got pregnant? Can you imagine that? Being here by yourself and trying to support a child? But I did it. And if I had to give up some of my dreams, so be it. Because from then on, I put you first. And now you have the audacity to treat me like a second-class citizen?” — Holly, Moral Hazard

“I’m a good mother. I know that. I may not be able to drop them off at school every day, but I am their mother, every day. You can’t punish me for trying to parent and work. I want my kids to know the joy that I get from my work, but it’s nothing compared to the joy that I get from being their mother, every day. And they know that. Please.” — Sarah, Domestic Issues

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mother’s Day

Hey, Pantload!

Sorry to borrow Justin’s epithet from a couple of episodes ago, but frankly, you stink.

When you’re feeling all superior to Sarah because her affair ruined a company and yours didn’t, you might keep a couple of things in mind:

It is only by the grace of your wife that you are not in divorce court right now, with your share of Walker Landing on the chopping block, and

It is only by the low-self-esteem of Lena that you were not hit with a multi-million-dollar sexual harassment suit that could have sent your little company reeling.

If you haven’t found out already, you soon will that Sarah’s mistake was not in having an affair with a consultant, but in trusting somebody who was not trustworthy. You might want to mull that one over a bit as you install your father’s mistress as the CEO of your family business, you smug SOB.

I used to like you, Tommy. I used to be you. I sympathized with your resentment of the way your father leap-frogged Sarah over you into Ojai’s top spot, and I respected your decision to walk away and start something of your own.

Which is why coming back this way, gleefully maximizing the humiliation of your suffering sis, is not what I want to see from you at all.

It’s been a rocky year for you, Tommy, a character-changing year, and not in a good way. You’ve got one more episode to prove that you really are an upstanding family guy after all. Don’t let me down.

– Terri

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Tommy Walker, Balthazar Getty, commentary

Five questions about last Sunday’s episode — “Moral Hazard” — still rattling around in my brain:

1. When did Nora become Grand High Poobah of Ojai Foods? Last I recall, she was pretty much fired from a receptionist job. Yet here she was, ordering the company president around, and taking decisions out of Sarah’s hands. Certainly, being Chief Executive Mom gives one certain privileges; but also certain responsibilities, like, oh, say, caring about the people you’re related to? The way she was acting there with Sarah and Saul, I was kinda wishing she’d gone to Washington after all. And though she gained a few Brownie points for her apology to Sarah, she lost them when she all but forced the merger on her daughter. Sarah’s sure been poorly served by the Holden siblings recently, hasn’t she?

2. Why was Kevin nice to everybody but Sarah? He forgave Uncle Saul for ruining the company and insisting for lo these many months that he certainly was not gay; he was understanding, in a freaked-out sort of way, of Justin’s pseudo-incestuous feelings; but with Sarah (who certainly did not call him over to agonize about her boyfriend, since he’s the one who brought it up), he was all about blame and shame. If Saul had had an affair with Graham and took the deal because of it — and come to think of it, wouldn’t that have been an interesting way to do this — would Kevin have been so quick to run the guy off the property?

3. Where is Rebecca going to live now? She presumably split out of Holly’s on demand, and Justin made it clear her Walker welcome was retracted. Does she even have a car, like Scotty, to spend the night in? The only friend we’ve seen evidence of was Lena, and she’s off partying in the Land of Lost Love Interests. Maybe Rebecca can move in with Sarah, and they can spend evenings throwing darts at a photo of Holly.

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s recap, here are some memorable lines from the episode “Moral Hazard.” Did I miss one of your favorites? Share it in the comments.

Sarah: Is this what you do? You decimate companies, then give them a pep talk?

Graham: If there’s some sort of familial dysfunction when it comes to communicating, that’s not my problem.

Sarah: Losing Ojai will be hard enough for mom. She doesn’t have to know what you did. Nobody ever does.

Nora: Unfortunately? Unfortunately? No, no, “unfortunately” is “oops, I dented the car fender. I spilled red wine on the sofa.” Unfortunately is not “I ruined Ojai.”

Scotty: Kevin, it’s lunch, not my bar mitzvah.

Scotty: Okay, Kevin, there is no way you care this much about the carbon footprint of this loft. I wish you did, but you don’t. I know why you’ve been acting guilty lately. And I’ve been letting you go on in this overapologizing, “please Scotty” mode. But it’s too much.
Kevin: What do you mean?
Scotty: Kevin, just because I didn’t like the incredibly lame way you pseudo-proposed to me over a hospital bill doesn’t mean I’m not happy with our relationship exactly as it is now.

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I often wrestle here with the meaning of Brothers & Sisters episode titles, and have found some of this season’s particularly wanting. But I gotta say, after looking up the meaning of “moral hazard,” it’s a pretty clever label for this particularly hazardous episode. Here’s how Investopedia, a Forbes Media Company, defines the term:

“The risk that a party to a transaction has not entered into the contract in good faith, has provided misleading information about its assets, liabilities or credit capacity, or has an incentive to take unusual risks in a desperate attempt to earn a profit before the contract settles.”

This applies most obviously to Ojai Foods’ deal with Golden Plum, in which the latter’s bad faith has Ojai on the brink of collapse. But it also applies to Saul, who provided misleading information about Sarah’s consent, and had an incentive to take unusual risks because he is so unhappy with the way he’s lived his life. And it applies to Sarah, who intended to provide misleading information to Graham about her dousing of his deal to continue their dating relationship. And further, to Sarah as she attempts to hide Saul’s role in Ojai’s potential implosion by claiming she made the risky decision herself.

Nora, who I would say is providing misleading information by pretending to be a loving mother and then drop-kicking Sarah like she was a recalcitrant employee, advises Sarah that she’s not allowed to make mistakes, and insists on going to Tommy and Holly to beg for Keep Ojai Alive money. ‘Cause Sarah doesn’t feel bad enough already. She keeps up the misrepresentation of the misdeal as her fault at the meeting with the Walker Landing team, allowing Tommy to trash her for sleeping with Graham. Holly asks for a proposal to consider.

Of course, as we but not the Walkers know, Holly has not been dealing in good faith in personal matters, and Rebecca has been providing misleading information about her personal genetic assets. That’s causing some tension with Justin, who for a minute there thought about what it would be like if Rebecca was his girlfriend instead of his sister, and is having trouble stuffing those feelings back into the box. Rebecca, having lied about her discovery that David’s her dad in order to keep up just that sibling relationship, is all wanting to hang out, but Justin’s worried about the unusual risks that entails. He confesses to Kevin, who is appropriately freaked out by the incestuousness of it all, and advises Justin to just stay away from the girl.

Unfortunately, Rebecca catches Justin in a lie about dating some made-up girl, and there’s nothing for it but to take a sibling night at the movies. But Justin is so hyperaware of every touch and every innuendo that he finally has to come clean about the misleading information he’s been supplying about everything being the same. It’s not, and Rebecca runs off after hearing that he’s got unbrotherly feelings for her.

When she gets home, Holly finally calls her on the sullen crap she’s been pulling, and Rebecca reveals what she’s learned about her paternity. Holly claims she didn’t know, and when she accuses her daughter of sending David away, Rebecca doesn’t deny it, since David’s absence makes her desperate attempt to remain a Walker that much easier. Finally, Holly’s had it with Rebecca’s constant ingratitude for these enormous duplicitous sacrifices her mother has made, and kicks the girl out of the house.

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Last night, on an all-new episode of Dynasty …

Wait, what? That wasn’t Dynasty? With the evil woman throwing her daughter out and then taking over her rival’s company? You sure? It was Brothers and Sisters?

Oh.

Okay.

Well, then, last night saw the return of Evil Holly, and has anyone missed her? Not me. I was hoping that maybe her rescuing Ojai was going to be about making amends for lying about Rebecca being William’s daughter, but no, it was just the opposite, and so much worse.

Really, Sarah needs to quit immediately, and get a job that does not involve working under Holly, sharing power with Tommy, or serving her whole unsupportive and judgmental family. It was painful to see her taking the blame for Saul, painful to see how quick Nora was to dump on her (did she have no recollection of that conversation in which Sarah stewed about Saul’s advice and Nora told her to trust him?), and painful to see how willing her brothers were to — there’s no nice way to say this — punish her for having sex. No job is worth this.

While I hated Holly’s business dealings, I’m not sure I blame her all that much for throwing Rebecca out — really, you can only call your mother a lying whore so many times before the rent’s gonna come due. The scene between Justin and Rebecca, when he found out she had lied about still being a Walker, I found a lot more confusing. I’m going to figure that he figures that if Rebecca lied to stay his sister, she must not have feelings for him the way he does for her, and he’s hurt — but his reaction was awfully swift for that amount of figuring. Maybe the scene was pared down due to the need to cram all kinds of plot into four short weeks …

… like, for example, those few Robert-Kitty scenes, which seemed to have wandered in from a completely different episode. Usually, the show uses a sufficiently scattershot approach that you can get away with it, but in this one, everything had at least some relationship to the business disaster, except for the McCallisters mating like bunnies. I thought at the end they were at least going to say Kitty wasn’t in the mood because she’d gotten a phone call about the family drama, but they might as well have been in the White House for all the connection they had to the clan this week. The only way I can figure it is that Kitty’s going to be pregnant in the finale, so they needed to set it up in this next-to-last episode. In an incredibly clumsy way.

And yet, with all of that, there were things to like about the episode, most of them involving Kevin. Saul finally came out (although with all the trouble he caused, he could at least have broken something plowing into that tree). The scene in which Justin admitted his feelings for Rebecca to Kevin was pretty hilarious. And of course, the proposal was adorable, every bit as sweet and romantic as his first try was dry and businesslike.

The merger, though, gives me a stomachache. Though I agree with Sarah that she was culpable because of the way she turned the turndown over to Saul, this solution hands out way more humiliation for her than she deserves or should have to live with. And next week, hey, more secrets! Maybe the big William secret will in some way change the business landscape, or Rebecca will swoop in with the magical antidote that will neutralize her mother’s evil powers. Otherwise, seriously, they should install Saul as co-president with Tommy — ’cause it would serve them both right — and let Sarah get herself her own life. Wonder if they’re hiring wherever Noah’s at?

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Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Moral Hazard, commentary

My husband likes watching science fiction. And invariably, when I come in the room and find him in the middle of some episode of some space opera, I can tell which scene we’re in: The one in which the oxygen is running out, and the communication system is down, and the enemy is closing in, and the engine’s about to explode, and all hope is lost, and that bunch of regulars, by golly, this time, they’re all gonna die!

That’s sort of where we seem to be with the Walkers, now, isn’t it? The family business is going down! Rebecca has lost her family! Justin’s in love with his sister! All we need is a meteor hurtling toward Pasadena (or perhaps a massive fireball fueled by the heated wrath of fans) to complete the picture. The Walkers, woe is them!

We can only hope that, as with so many scenes of intergalactic doom, things get reconciled unexpectedly in a less than doomsday sort of way. I don’t suppose we can hope for a lab mix-up that wipes this whole de-Walkerizing subplot from the face of the planet, but some honesty from Rebecca and a resolution that relieves Dave Annable from doing the Puppy-Dog Eyes of Forbidden Love all the way into next season would be nice. Likewise, whatever is going to befall the family business, be it financial ruin or rescue by everybody’s worst enemy, let it happen in a fashion that does not necessitate a cliff-hanger.

To get you into the mood for tonight, a few offerings from ABC:

+ The official press release description: “In a surprising twist of fate for the Walkers, Holly becomes the only saving grace for Ojai Foods after a major international business deal goes bad. Meanwhile, Justin delivers some heartbreaking news about a family member, Saul makes a stunning confession and Kevin and Scotty share a life-changing moment, on “Brothers & Sisters,” SUNDAY, MAY 4 (10:02-11:00 p.m., ET). … Guest starring are Luke MacFarlane as Scotty Wandell, Justine Dorsey as Sophie McCallister, Max Burkholder as Jack McCallister, Matt Fletcher as the cashier, Tom Virtue as Dr. Bob Rosen and Paula Rhodes as the B-movie victim. “Moral Hazard” was written by Sherri Cooper-Landsman and Jason Wilborn and directed by Michael Morris.”

+ The preview on the B&S homepage, the same one, I think, that we saw at the end of last week’s episode. To recap: Kitty and Robert try making a baby the old-fashioned way; Sarah says they’re about to lose the family business; Nora says Sarah can’t make mistakes like this; Kevin says to Justin, “You have to stay away from her!”; Rebecca asks Justin if something’s wrong; Rebecca runs away from Justin looking upset; Rebecca tells Holly she’s incapable of loving anybody. And over all of this, the ABC Deep Voice of Dramatic Come-Ons intones, “When the passion is hot and the scandals are juicy, when the betrayal goes deep, and when the desires are forbidden, it’s just another night with the Walkers.” And a singer sings, “Here comes the rest of our lives.”

+ From the writers: A Writer’s Room video for last week, in which Supervising Producer Liz Tigelaar and Consulting Producer Josh Reims seem really pleased about this whole Rebecca paternity business; a Bloggers & Sisters entry that begins “Greetings lovers (and ex-lovers) of our show” and acknowledges that many fans are not so pleased about this whole Rebecca paternity business; and the return, against all that is good and decent, of the McCallister and Me blog, which by all rights should have died with the McCallister campaign. Instead, the blogger has switched from stalking the candidate to stalking Justin and Rebecca. Whatever.

Assuming you’re still watching the show, share your thoughts here on tonight’s episode, and I’ll be back during the week with a review, recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, Moral Hazard, commentary

You know, every so often the ABC website features some cutesy little thing like Valentines or quizzes. I’m always happy to see Brothers & Sisters included in such foolishness, rather than being ignored as is so often the case. But sometimes the results don’t quite make good on the promise of extra show goodies.

It is with those mixed emotions that I regard the Mother’s Day e-cards currently being touted on the site. The good news is that B&S is represented in all four categories. The bad news is … well, let me just describe them for you, and let you form your own judgments.

Category: New Moms
Photo: Julia holding Elizabeth, who is sticking out her tongue in a way that says, “I can’t believe they’re exploiting my cuteness like this.”
Caption: “Mom, you’re the greatest. Happy Mother’s Day!”
What It Should Have Said: “Mom, I’m glad you’re staying with Daddy for my sake! Happy Mother’s Day!”

Category: Nesting
Photo: Nora, hands clasped.
Caption: “We like you, Mom, we really like you!”
What It Should Have Said: “We act like we don’t need you, Mom, but don’t even think about leaving town.”

Category: Words of Wisdom
Photo: Nora and Sarah, face to face.
Caption: “Thanks for all the great unwanted advice throughout the years. Happy Mother’s Day!”
What It Should Have Said: Aw, you know, this one is marginally appropriate. Though I wouldn’t advise sending it to your actual mother.

Category: Letting Go
Photo: Nora on the phone.
Caption: “Mom, I wanted to call, but we live in the internet age. Happy Mother’s Day.”
What It Should Have Said: “Sometimes motherhood means sucking it up.” (Oh, wait, that would be under “Words of Wisdom.”)

More than appropriate captions, though, I think ABC is really missing the boat by not doing a card with Rebecca and Holly on it. Just think of the possible touching sentiments:

“Mom, you’re a liar who hopped from bed to bed and didn’t even know who fathered her own baby. Happy Mother’s Day!”

“You were willing to be sloppy seconds for some rich jerk with a wife and kids, and my dad didn’t want to fess up to having a bastard child with his mistress because he didn’t want to risk his Norman Rockwell life. Do I have it straight, Mom?”

“Are you sure you’re really my mother? Really sure?”

Maybe they’re saving Becca for Father’s Day e-cards. Something like, “Sorry you’re not my dad after all,” or, “It’s a girl!”

What combination of Walker and sentiment would you like to see on a card? Share your creativity in the comments.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, e-cards, Mother’s Day

Wish you could hang around the Brothers & Sisters set? Have lunch with Uncle Saul? Maybe grab a passing writer and slap some sense into him or her?

Can’t promise that last part, but Margie from Watching Battlestar Galactica wrote to let me know that CharityFolks.com is auctioning off a day on the B&S set, complete with a midday meal with Ron Rifkin. They did the same thing about a year-and-a-half ago; apparently Rifkin’s the only guy on the set who’s willing to lunch with nobodies.

Once again, the auction proceeds go to DreamYard & Urban Ecology Institute; once again, there are a crazy lot of rules pretty much limiting any likelihood that you’ll see anything juicy; and once again, they are using the same old old show logo, the one above, which has not been correct since they scrapped the first pilot. Does this set visit take place in a time warp, or what. Say hi to Betty Buckley!

The other thing that cracked me up about the auction page is this run-down of Rifkin’s resume: “Ron Rifkin is an actor and director who is featured in numerous television shows. Perhaps best know for the role of Arvin Sloane in Alias, opposite Jennifer Garner, Mr. Rifkin currently plays second-in-command businessman Saul Holden on Brothers & Sisters, opposite Sally Field. He also played Bonnie Franklin’s second boyfriend on One Day at a Time.” I mean, this guy’s got nearly 100 credits on his IMDb profile, not to mention a distinguished Broadway career, and the best they can do is “Bonnie Franklin’s second boyfriend”?

(Not surprisingly, this bio is lifted fairly directly from the actor’s Wikipedia entry, which must have been written by a One Day at a Time fan.)

Still, all kidding aside, it would be pretty cool to get a set visit, and surely someone among my readers has $2,000 burning a hole in his or her pocket to make it happen. Go, get Ron Rifkin to share his favorite credits over lunch, and report back!

Five questions about last Sunday’s episode — “Double Negative” — still rattling around in my brain:

1. Can we set a rule now: No more updos? I thought the done-up hairstyle looked bad on Nora last week, and unbecoming on both Kitty and Rebecca this week (particularly Kitty). Is there a law that fancy dress has to equal fancy hair? It should be repealed, quickly.

2. Speaking of fashion, is it just me, or were the party gowns pretty underwhelming? I thought Kitty’s was just awful (like an arrow pointing up at the bad hairdo); Rebecca’s was too modest in the front and too racy in the back; Nora’s was a little too revealing; and Sarah’s was kinda blah. In contrast, I thought Rebecca looked fabulous in that T-shirt she was wearing for her confrontation with David, and Kitty in that white sweater set she was wearing for her confrontation with Taylor. I think the costume department has a real strength in casual clothes. (Loved Rebecca’s shorts-style bikini bottoms, too.)

3. Does Holly not have a doorbell? I guess Justin was trying not to wake Holly by not ringing, but knocking loud enough to wake Rebecca and summon her to the door would seem to have been just as bad.

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s recap, here are some memorable lines from the episode “Double Negative.” Did I miss one of your favorites? Share it in the comments.

Kevin: This is what you want, all alone in this big empty house?
Justin: Hello, I live here.
Kevin: Exactly.
Tommy: Let’s not get into your problems, all right?

Rebecca: Who’s Jamie?
Tommy: Mom’s interior designer.
Sarah: Yeah. When she turns up, it’s like a maternal distress call. When Kitty went to New York, within 24 hours, all the kitchen cabinetry — gutted.
Nora: Well, you know, the cabinetry was awful. It was dingy. It was maple.
Justin: When I enlisted in the army, all new wallpaper upstairs.
Kevin: How about when I came out? Most parents just cry. Mom rips out the entire backyard.
Sarah: Nothing but dirt, dumpsters and porta-potties for, like, two years.
Nora: Well, I thought Kevin would have a lot more pool parties. I was trying to be supportive.

Rebecca: Gosh, if it turns out I’m not a Walker, your mom’s gonna build a third floor. Not a bad deal, lose a sister, gain a ping-pong table.

Taylor: I think it’s time for Robert and I to bury the hatchet.
Kitty: I can think of a few places I’d like to bury the hatchet.

Taylor: All’s fair in politics.
Kitty: I think you mean “love and war.”
Taylor: Politics is love and war, at least when you do it right.

Taylor: Maggie, she loves it, all of it — the traveling, the rallies, the thousand-dollar-a-plate dinners, all the asses to kiss.
Kitty: I certainly don’t miss the asses.

Kitty: I’m drowning in his smugness and his aftershave.

Scotty: Tetanus shot, $25. Seven stitches, $2,500. Absence of health insurance, priceless.

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I’ve been wondering about that title, “Double Negative,” since I first watched the show Sunday night. It seems like it should mean something. When the title was originally announced by ABC, I feared it might mean that neither Rebecca nor Justin was a Walker, and happily we were spared that — thought that hasn’t kept many viewers from feeling doubly negative about Rebecca’s change of paternity.

Share your thoughts about the title’s significance in the comments; meanwhile, I’m going to go searching for double negativity in the recap.

Rebecca and the Paternity Test

The question, “Is Rebecca the daughter of William Walker” is answered in the negative when she receives a call from the lab. Immediately, she confronts David, who’s conveniently on hand since he has nothing to do but lay about Holly’s house all day. Rebecca wonders if he already knew, and he stammers about the timing being suspicious, and Holly saying there was a tiny chance, and the fact that when she was born, he was a mess, and not Daddy material. She’s furious with him for not immediately embracing her as his girl, and at Holly for letting her live with Nora and become part of the family. David reassures her that she can still be a Walker, and not long after he skips town — whether to facilitate her continued Walker-ness, or because the prospect of being screamed at on a daily basis by hysterical women makes living in a Manhattan rathole look appealing by comparison.

Holly’s confused about David suddenly leaving, since they’d just been planning a vacation together. He gives lots of excuses, none of them involving “And oh, by the way, Rebecca took a paternity test and found I’m her father, so heads-up on trauma ahead.” Rebecca’s also keeping the news on the down-low. When she sees Justin at his mother’s charity ball that night, she tells him the test was negative and they’re still semi-siblings. And when she sees her mother at home after the party, she doesn’t mention the test outcome to her either, even (or maybe especially) after she hears that David is gone.

Justin, meanwhile, does not seem as overjoyed that he still has a little sis as you might expect from their closeness. Perhaps he’s just dazed by the anvils of Romantic Attraction that have been beaning him on the noggin throughout the episode. There seems to be a higher percentage of moony looks, for one thing. When he was surfing with Tommy and Kevin, he was a little freaked out by a brotherly joke about seeing Rebecca naked. And the morning after the party, when he comes by early to take his now DNA-approved sister surfing, he lingers longer over Rebecca’s leg while hooking her up to a surfboard than seems entirely brotherly. Oh, the Greek tragedy of it all.

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Yep, they went there.

The paternity tests are in, and Rebecca’s de-Walkering has begun.

And yep, they’re going there.

The anvils of inappropriate sibling attraction between Justin and Rebecca were falling fast and furious.

So, okay.

We could spend a lot of time debating on it, and probably will. Personally, I spent my commercial breaks wondering whether somehow, the razor clippings could have been left over from William’s last shave, and not be the bearded David’s at all. But that’s just sad. It is what it is.

Sometimes the wave takes you soaring. And sometimes the wave crashes you into the beach. But you just have to ride it anyway.

So all I’ll say for that plot is … wow, Emily VanCamp did some fine acting in that scene with Ken Olin. And wow, David proved Holly right in disqualifying him from the paternity pool by slinking away into the night after hearing Rebecca’s news. I’m happy that we found out as soon as Rebecca got the call, and not sad that she lied to Justin about the results — that party was hardly the place for a big revelation, and the uncomfortableness of Justin’s now apparent-out-of-nowhere romantic feelings for her make it likely that the deception won’t last long.

Anyway, it’s done. No crying over spilled … whatever. Let’s celebrate that Robert’s political campaigning is also done for now, sparing us both more campaign scenes and more exposure to that awful Taylor. Good riddance.

Kevin and Scotty stayed true to tradition — was it for this same big fundraiser last year that Kevin got in trouble for offering to pay Scotty’s lost wages so he could go to the party? He sure does know how to sweet-talk. Scotty turned down the least-romantic domestic-partnership proposal ever, but it’s pretty sure we haven’t seen the end of that idea, or maybe that hand injury, given how much Scotty was wincing.

Poor Sarah. Girl doesn’t even get to take any satisfaction in being proven right! Sort of takes the fun out of “I told you so” when your company’s going down the toilet.

All in all, and despite the giant “Aw, no!” right in the middle, I enjoyed the episode. The show’s always been more than the sum of its individual plotlines, and that’s a good thing, because some of its individual plotlines have been terrible. It will at least be interesting to see just exactly how this one wipes out.

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Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Double Negative, commentary

There’s another new episode on tonight — hooray! — in which we, or at least Rebecca, will apparently discover the results of her paternity test — boo? hooray? hard to say. What does look like fun is the prospect of the Brothers Walker out surfing together. The sight of Kevin in a wetsuit on the beach seems as unlikely to me as the sight of Justin on a golf course, but this family’s full of surprises. Maybe too full.

At any rate, if you’re looking for some previews and promos to get you ready for tonight’s trip down Walker way, here’s what ABC has placed at your disposal:

+ A new Writer’s Room video, with David Marshall Grant and Molly Newman discussing “Separation Anxiety.” Sample revelation: Grant’s favorite quote from the episode was Isaac’s “Undecided voters tend to go with the incumbent”; Newman’s favorite was Justin’s “I live here, pant-load.”

+ The ABC B&S homepage also features two promos and a sneak peek. There’s also a silly little cross-promotional interview with Dave Annable and Chyler Leigh of Grey’s Anatomy, in which the two actors pretend to be interested in one another’s characters and experiences. Annable does come off as completely adorable, of course. As always.

+ The writer’s blog Bloggers and Sisters has a short preview of tonight’s episode, a long post about a set visit during the filming of the episode, and another long post about a table read for the first episode of next season.

+ The writers’ TV Guide blog and fake-paparazzi McCallister and Me blog … have not been updated since before the strike, actually. And I’m fine with that. Let the writers focus on writing episodes. (Would be nice if the music guide got an update, though. And the family tree, alas, may soon need one.)

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