Brothers & Sisters

Today we complete our look for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the fifth and final part of Episode 1. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 5.

33:48
What’s this? An actual friendly conversation between Tommy and Justin? I love that Justin told Tommy about the blonde in Dad’s office — right from the start, these siblings couldn’t keep secrets. Tommy says he knows all about Holly and there’s no affair, but didn’t we find out later that Tommy did have a clue — I’m thinking maybe in the episode “Love Is Difficult”? White lie here, or slip-up there? We’ll discuss it when we get there.

34:45
Kinda creepy to see William and Nora being all affectionate now, isn’t it, knowing what-all we know?

35:52
Sarah’s first toast of many.

36:34
Nora declares that she’s never stopped loving Kitty, “not for one moment of her 38 years.” But sort of in the tone of voice you’d use to describe a chronic pain that you had learned to live with.

37:03
Nora to Kitty: “We fight. We fight. It’s not the end of the world.” And there’s another contender for Walker Family Motto.

37:51
Justin proposes a game of “Would You Rather.” And why, oh why, have we never revisited that game again? Sounds like Walker gold.

38:32
And again, a computer comes open to just exactly the one page its owner would least want people to see. William’s supposed to be a pretty savvy businessman; you’d think, if he was bleeding the pension fund dry, he might not leave the evidence up and the laptop on for anybody who flips the lid to see. Mighty convenient, is all I’m saying.

39:15
Paige says Grandpa reminds her of Mars, God of War. Not exactly the most heartwarming choice, is it?

40:07
This is really a dramatic and nicely done montage, with William falling into the pool, everyone realizing something has happened and running out and into the pool, all in the semi-dark with the Drums of Dread pounding in the background. Very evocative. But this time, I think my favorite moment is Fawn kind of sitting there all casual while everybody jumps up from the table. You get the feeling that it usually takes this girl a few minutes to catch up.

And that’s five days of catch-up on Episode 1. Retcon Patrol will continue on Monday with Episode 2.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Patriarchy

Today we continue our look for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the fourth part of Episode 1. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 4.

28:05
Jonathan describes the job Kitty’s rejecting him for as “being an 11:30 smartass on TV.� So this was a late-night show? I didn’t realize that. Surely it’s not 11:30 a.m., because the smartasses stay up late.

28:28
Kitty asks if marriage-job is an either-or thing, and Jonathan says, “I see our life together in New York. That’s just the way I see it.� And the first time through, I thought he was being really controlling, but this time — maybe because I know how short-lived Kitty’s commitment to being an 11:30 smartass was — I’m thinking he’s not necessarily a beast for wanting her to want him more than a job. Maybe it’s just his extreme hotness, lying there in bed in his T-shirt, that’s distracting me.

28:39
This is incredibly petty, but … there’s like a huge splotch on the carpet in Kitty and Jonathan’s hotel room. I’d like to believe it’s a shadow of something, but given the way the light’s coming into the room and the lack of shadow around it, I can’t figure out how it could be. Really just looks like a big ol’ stain. Jonathan should complain to the management.

28:44
William Walker, man of the people! Knowing the names of the folks at the lunch cart! Everyone in this town knows him, but do they really know him? No.

29:34
Okay, I’m no fan of Saul’s after his defensive rant when Sarah and Tommy questioned him earlier, but … it’s really pretty evil of William to coolly spin this whole story of the financial shortfalls being due to Saul’s mismanagement. Evil, and yet, I like this explanation so much better than the solution that was actually settled upon. It makes me wonder whether, when the writers wrote this, they hadn’t a clue as to where this mystery was going to go. The piece-of-property conclusion always seemed to me like something that just got thrown together to get that plotline the heck over with, already.

30:25
And conveniently, we now see William clearly colluding with Saul. He threatens Saul that he needs a solution by Monday, but Monday never comes for William, does it. See, if this were Columbo or Monk, Saul would totally be guilty of having somehow slipped a heart-attack-faking poison into something at the house there that only William consumes. The fact that he’s not at the birthday party only implicates him more. Oh, well, that’s a nice batch of retcon for Season 12 or so.

33:08
Kitty to Nora: “You can’t love me, and I don’t know what it’s about, but it’s not about the war.� Boy, has the dynamic between these two changed, or been reconceived. I’m thinking about that speech at the end of “Separation Anxiety,� with Nora saying that she was afraid to say “I need you� to Kitty to keep her from going to New York. That conversation, as I recall it, made it sound like they had a relationship before Kitty went to NY, and this makes it sound like they never did. A missed opportunity, I think, that Kitty’s status as Not Mom’s Favorite got resolved away so fast.

Continue on to Part 5

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Patriarchy

Today we continue our look for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the third part of Episode 1. Read Part 1 and Part 2 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 3.

21:56
Speaking of wasted plotlines — what a false start this whole talk-show set-up turned out to be. Long forgotten now, isn’t it. I wonder if the creators always meant for this to be a temporary thing, and if not, what the reasons were for ditching it. I’m not sorry it’s gone, mind you, but it seems like a lot of trouble for not much.

24:13
Don’t you love the way, on TV, the most top-secret account information is just a click or so in from the desktop? I have more trouble than that finding the document I just worked on.

24:37
Sarah, of the locked accounts: “It’s not cool, Tom.” Is that the only time ever he was called “Tom” not “Tommy”?

25:22
Well, okay, Saul just called him “Thomas.” Which is weirder.

25:25
Boy, is Saul a defensive old SOB when he’s challenged. He’s obviously a lot darker and more suspicious back here than he is by the end of Season Two, but this speech isn’t that different from the one he gave Sarah about the China deal. Sarah had a little more spirit early on, though — her put-down of him is just great.

26:23
Kitty didn’t expect the TV people to be smart. Was it the “Kitty Walker Is Red Hot” poster that convinced her they were all about the issues?

26:58
Who puts an engagement ring in a martini? Really? Aren’t there about a billion ways that can go seriously wrong? And is she going to want to put some booze-soaked thing on her finger?

27:15
Alright, so it’s bad of Jonathan to want Kitty to abandon her career prospects to start a family with him … but a year-and-a-half down the road, isn’t that pretty much exactly what Kitty asked Robert to do? She doesn’t seem to be career-pursuing very much herself, either, with all that conception-attempting. Jonathan appears to have been a victim of bad timing more than anything.

Continue on to Part 4

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Patriarchy

Today we continue our look for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the second part of Episode 1. Read yesterday’s post for the first twelve minutes or so, then hop right in here.

12:22
Fawn thinks Justin’s brothers and sisters are all really nice. And yet, they hate her, or the idea of her, anyway. She’s way too sweet for this bunch.

12:32
Love Julia and Joe sticking up for Justin. You get the sense in this scene, hanging around the kitchen, that Julia and Joe have actual relationships with their in-laws. Sad that this got lost along the way. (And typing that now got me thinking: Lots of “J” names in this show, with Jason still to come.)

12:48
Kevin jokes that Kitty’s fat. This, following a bit earlier on in which Kitty teases Justin for being skinny. Now, I’m not one to accuse Calista Flockhart of eating disorders or anything; I believe that she’s just naturally slight. But better not to make any references than these sorta jokey ones, no?

13:17
Kevin, of Kitty + Jonathan: “You seem slightly … smaller to accommodate what you see as his very large presence.” Another size joke, plus … could the same thing be said of Kitty and Robert? The two boyfriends do have kind of a lot in common.

15:03
Joe says he’s immune to Sarah’s family. That’s why it took a previously unbeknownst family member to mess him up.

15:29
This scene between Sarah and Joe, where he sort of turns aside her bedroom advances, always struck me as incredibly passive-aggressive on his part, and made me think Sarah should just kick his butt to the curb. All the good will I felt in that kitchen scene is gone. But I’ll admit, at least he seemed to be doing something with his hair back then. Shampoo can’t make up for the fact that you stink, fella!

16:10
For someone who made a big deal about promoting Sarah over Tommy’s head, William’s sure seems a lot more chummy with his son than his daughter. This sort of rivalry from Season One is what we presumably have to look forward to from the Sarah-Tommy co-presidency in Season Three. Except at least Sarah gets to hate Holly.

16:29
Ooh, Jonathan, that awful controlling guy! He … he just drops everything to visit her! And promises her a Hawaiian vacation! And books a bigger suite! Evil, evil boyfriend! (The line for an evil boyfriend like this, by the way, forms on the right.)

17:32
Saul’s all, “Pay no attention to the financial shenanigans behind the curtain! It’s all just modernization and simple glitches!” Why didn’t Sarah remember how untrustworthy this guy’s been when she expected him to put the kibosh on the China deal? He was all about reminding her of his history in the company, and has that history been good?

18:28
Hey, it’s Holly! The Mysterious Blonde in Dad’s Office. And it looks like William realizes she’s a bomb waiting to go off. “You’re handling me as if I am a problem!” You said it, sister!

18:56
William tells Holly he’s having cash-flow problems. But … wait. Didn’t those problems turn out to be because he took money from the business to buy that piece of land that turned out to be worth a ton of money, a chunk of which went to Holly? Essentially, it was his way of providing for Holly outside of his will? Maybe he should just tell her, “Hey, sweetie, I can’t buy your groceries this week because I’ve sunk some cash into a deal that will help you buy your way into my business and nearly destroy my family. Buck up!” Ah, if only he knew.

19:10
As with High Justin, I’d be happy if we could ditch Troubled Justin, too.

19:36
Noah! Aw, Noah. Can’t we bring him back, pretty please?

20:57
Sarah, in assuring Noah that she didn’t leave her job because of him, says “We have lives. Families. We knew where the line was.” Do we interpret that to mean Noah’s married, too? Love the chemistry between these two, and the thick sense of subtext. And then Sarah goes to her car and cries. What a waste that this plotline was abandoned.

Continue on to Part 3

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Patriarchy

Today begins what I hope will be a summer-long journey through the first season of Brothers & Sisters, from our perspective here at the end of Season Two. I’ll be looking for contradictions between where the Walkers were then and where they’re at now, and also commenting on how the episodes look in retrospect. I’ll time my observations to the playback of the DVD, for those who want to view along. Share your own reflections in the comments.

And now, Part 1 of Episode 1, “Patriarchy.”

0:07
So weird that we’re starting with an establishing shot of New York and a focus on Kitty. The show that sort of started with her at the center has spun out in so many directions. They’ve got like a Sex and the City vibe going on here for a show that’s nothing like that at all.

0:54
Less than a minute in, and we already have the birth of what will be a running joke: Kitty can’t cook. Not for nothing did she marry a guy with his own chef.

1:14
Watching this episode now, there are two characters who seem a little off to me, and one of them is Kevin. Maybe it’s just that Matthew Rhys needs a haircut.

3:06
I’m loving the fact that the family phone chain was at work even when Kitty was all the way in New York. “I’m sorry. It’s my family.” They should embroider that on a pillow.

4:50
Boy, the dialog’s really working hard to exposit in this opening, isn’t it? We’ve learned already that Kitty’s conservative, Sarah’s in marriage counseling, Kevin’s gay, Justin’s an addict and a war vet, and Tommy’s an asshat. Also, everybody’s afraid of Mom.

5:22
Gads! It honestly shocked me when William came waltzing down the stairs. I’m so accustomed to that “enter the house and look at pictures and think sadly of Dad while melancholy music plays” scene as being post-death.

6:32
Julia and Tommy come in with two bottles of wine. Foreshadowing that they’ll soon own a vineyard?

6:48
Tommy says “The lefties are starting!” We sort of lost track of him being the conservative brother, haven’t we? And if William and Tommy are both Republicans, why was it such a big deal for Kitty to be? Don’t you have to be the only one to be the black sheep?

6:58
Julia actually talks about a job! Teaching first grade! And has a conversation with her father-in-law! Though not, of course, a conversation we actually get to hear.

7:06
Can I just say, current plot weirdness aside, I am very happy for Dave Annable that he no longer has to play High Justin, ’cause man, that’s just goofy. You kind of have to love the overwhelming inappropriateness of Fawn, though. “They dropped the charges.”

7:27
Do you believe for one minute that a family dinner at the Walkers involves storebought pizza? Isn’t that the sort of thing that sends Kevin and Sarah into a tizzy in “Separation Anxiety”?

7:51
Dad’s still alive, and Tommy’s already auditioning for the role of Justin’s hypercritical father figure.

8:12
Of course, William quickly demonstrates that Tommy has a long way to go to be as horrible to Justin as he is. No wonder this kid is so screwed up.

9:11
Poor Sarah. She thought that when she quit her old job, she’d make up in time what she lost in money, but it’s not working out that way. Aw, honey, you have no idea how bad that career move was.

9:22
“Plus, it’s not easy having these two parents who have this absurd, iconic romance.” Well, absurd, anyway.

10:41
Nora’s the other character who just seems off in this early episode, like Sally Field imitating Betty Buckley. I’m glad they warmed Nora up and made her less scary. Watching her here, you can kinda see why William might have wanted to get out of the house now and then.

11:24
William takes a mystery phone call. Presumably Holly. Or maybe one of the many other mistresses we may come to know over the next however many seasons.

Continue on to Part 2

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Patriarchy

Tonight, Brothers & Sisters re-run season gets underway with the fourth episode from Season Two, “States of the Union.”

To refresh your memory, that’s the one where Nora and her daughters go on a spa trip, Sarah can’t quite allow herself to have a fling, Kitty’s upset about a prenuptial agreement she saw in Robert’s mail, Justin starts abusing his pain meds, Scotty sees Saul at Milo’s party, and, oh yeah, Tommy takes up with Lena (but if you’re like me, you’ll fast-forward through that part). For more details, check the posts written on its first airing:

• First Impressions
• Recap
• Memorable Lines
• Five Questions

Speaking of things we’ve already seen, starting tomorrow I’m going to be on Retcon Patrol, viewing the Season One DVDs in light of the Season Two developments, and pointing out all the places where things were not what they seemed — or, as may well be the case, as they were outright declared to be.

My plan is to blog about each of those original episodes over the course of several days, mentioning each moment of interest according to the time it appears on the DVD — kind of an extremely low-tech pop-up video, if you use your imagination. View along with me, and share your own observations in the comments. With any luck, there’ll be enough nitpicking and second-guessing and overanalyzing to see us all the way through the long idle summer.

And since it’s clear that the Brothers & Sisters writing staff doesn’t have time to do this sort of retroactive fact-checking, we can think of it as our contribution to the plotline health of the show. Yeah, that’s it.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, States of the Union

We’ve talked about the bad times. But it’s worth thinking back on the good times of the season past, too. And nothing says “good times” like a Walker party. Here are some of the bashes the brothers and sisters drank their way through in Season Two.

Episode: “Home Front”
Occasion: Kitty’s birthday
Highlights: Walkers get drunk in the bar waiting for a table at a Mexican restaurant; Rebecca overhears Sarah and Kitty talking about her and suggests they just tell her to her face that they don’t want her around; Robert announces that Justin’s okay; when the party moves back to Chez Walker, Robert gets a call that Justin’s been wounded.
Memorable Line: “Do you know why he’s not here to celebrate? Because he’s off fighting in that stupid war. And one more thing that makes this day special, my cheating husband died a year ago today. So maybe if you could move your drunken asses out of these chairs, then perhaps my family could sit down and eat a damn burrito and end this miserable day!” — Nora

Episode: “Holy Matrimony!”
Occasion: Kitty and Robert’s wedding
Highlights: Kitty halts the ceremony in the middle to confess that she handled a blackmail attempt against Robert; all three brothers plus their mother’s boyfriend are detained by the Secret Service; Rebecca tells Justin about Lena and Tommy’s affair.
Memorable Line: “Why did I think that there would be any available men at this wedding? I just had a 20 minute conversation about quail hunting.” — Sarah

Episode: “The Feast of the Epiphany”
Occasion: Nora can’t ask Isaac on a date, so she invites him to a family dinner
Highlights: Mass confessions, including Tommy’s affair with Lena, Justin’s continuing affair with Lena, Julia’s affair with an old high-school boyfriend, and Robert’s not wanting kids.
Memorable Line: “My mother cooked paella. My family imploded.” — Sarah

Episode: “Separation Anxiety”
Occasion: Rebecca’s birthday
Highlights: Tommy disapproves of Sarah’s relationship with Graham; the siblings disapprove of Nora going away with Isaac; Nora disapproves of her children being all up in her business; Holly disapproves of David giving Rebecca the kind of necklace you’d give your daughter.
Memorable Line: “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! (To Rebecca) None of this applies to you, sweetie. You’re fine. Happy birthday.” — Nora

Episode: “Double Negative”
Occasion: Fundraiser for children’s cancer charity
Highlights: Rebecca lies to Justin about the results of her paternity test; Kevin makes the least romantic proposal ever to Scotty; Sarah and Graham argue about Saul’s okaying of the China deal.
Memorable Line: “Mom, I’ve got to get another drink. This cancer thing is such a downer.” — Sarah

Episode: “Prior Commitments”
Occasion: Kevin and Scotty’s wedding
Highlights: Uncle Saul comes out; Rebecca and Justin make up; Sarah shares her theory about the existence of an alternate illegitimate “R”-named Walker.
Memorable Line: “My God, this is like the gayest week of my life.” — Justin

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, parties

Okay, I know, it’s really the actress who plays Kitty, Calista Flockhart, hanging at the film festival with boyfriend Harrison Ford, who has some small art film about a crystal skull debuting there. (They’re pictured above with, from left, Mellody Hobson, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, and Shia LaBeouf.)

Still, because my head is stuck in Walker-ville, it’s fun to see this shot of her with the movie elite. And to imagine the kind of trouble Kitty and her siblings could get into at a bash like this.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Calista Flockhart, Harrison Ford

Hey, you! Ryan whatever-your-last-name-is! Over here!

You don’t know it, buddy, but sometime next fall, give or take an actor’s strike, your life is going to be turned upside down.

Maybe you have no reason to expect that you might have another family. You may believe your dad’s your dad and not be in the market for some dead dude to be your actual DNA donor. But I’m sorry to say, that’s not likely to stop your Walker brothers and sisters. They’re entirely well-meaning, but they don’t know when to leave well enough alone.

Eventually, one of them — maybe Sarah, ’cause she’s got practice — is going to break it to you that your mother had an affair with her father and you are by blood a Walker. First, before you do anything else, I implore you, get a DNA test. Because, for example, if you decide you want to hit on Sarah, it would be good to be sure you’re not really her brother. Not absolutely necessary, as it turns out, but good nonetheless.

Then, if indeed you are found to be a Walker, the true meaning of the “R” in William’s password, I’ve got another “R” word for you: Run.

Run fast, before you become intoxicated by those beautiful siblings with their wit and their banter and their parties and their mother who could so easily replace your dead one. They look good, but brother, they are a disaster waiting to happen. And not waiting long — there’s one every few episodes.

You’ve probably led an uneventful life up until now. Enjoy it. Return to it. Or risk the fan hatred for this misbegotten plotline transferring to your young shoulders.

No offense, but the next best thing we can do to hoping this whole plotline goes away is hoping that you do. Don’t let us down.

– Terri

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Season 2 was a busy one for the Walkers, chock-full of plotlines that flashed by, plotlines that couldn’t get gone fast enough, and plotlines that seemed to be going somewhere then fizzled out.

I thought that, all in all, and considering the complicating factor of the writer’s strike, it was a pretty enjoyable little seasonette. But of course, there are always nits to pick, and what do we really have to do between now and September but sit around and pick them?

Much wrath has been focused of late on the Rebecca-Justin and Ryan twists at season’s end, but those were hardly the only plotting missteps, and the verdict isn’t necessarily unanimous on the badness of any of them. So let’s take a moment to review some additional contenders for Most Misbegotten Plotlines. Share your most-hated three (or contribute more nominees) in the comments.

1. Rebecca? Not a Walker after all.

2. Justin realizes that he was totally wrong about that “She’s hot, and I feel nothing” thing.

3. A computer password and an old photo are once again taken as indisputable proof that there’s an R-named illegitimate Walker at large.

4. Holly’s benevolent financial rescue of Ojai Foods just coincidentally puts her in the CEO’s seat.

5. Julia splits for Arizona instead of sticking around for a decent postpartum depression storyline.

6. Tommy declares Julia the love of his life, then sleeps with the office manager.

7. Justin takes Tommy’s girlfriend hand-me-downs.

8. Jason goes to Malaysia and forgets how to dial a phone.

9. Justin becomes an addict again, but it doesn’t matter, because he can kick the pills at the Walker’s in-home detox center.

10. Sarah finally gets to have a little fun, and is promptly punished for it.

I’d say I was probably most annoyed by 4, 6, and 8, with the latter two bothering me way more than 1, 2, and 3. How ’bout you?

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Season 2, commentary

So, as we face our first Sunday with no new Walker episodes until all the way to fall, I have to ask:

How come all the ABC cool kids get two-hour finales, and all we get is a lousy hour — not even that, when you consider that Desperate Housewives is still stealing two of our minutes every week.

Those housewives have their two-hour finale this week. Upcoming extended send-offs are scheduled for Grey’s Anatomy and Lost and Ugly Betty.

You’d have thought, with the TV-first gay marriage of series regulars, the onset of a semi-incestuous romance, and the discovery of a previously unknown family member, the Brothers & Sisters season ender might have merited a double episode. But nooooo. The Walkers don’t get no respect. Their fans, either.

And sure, this may well have been a creative decision on the part of the Brothers & Sisters team. They may have not felt the ability or the need to churn out an extended episode. Perhaps I shouldn’t be blaming ABC at all. But with all the other two-hour send-offs out there, it’s hard not to feel slighted. Especially since Brothers & Sisters always seems to get less promotional love than its network siblings.

Personally, I thought the wedding was a little more abrupt than it might have been if all that plot hadn’t had to have been crammed into fifty-eight minutes, and ditto Saul’s long-awaited coming out.

Are there things you would have liked to see in an extended Brothers & Sisters finale? Or would you have settled for an even shorter episode if it had meant cutting out all that Rebecca and Justin and Ryan nonsense? Sulk with me in the comments.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

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

1. What happened with the rings? Did Kevin and Scotty really forget that little detail while they were busy making canapes and driving to Arizona? Did they buy rings, but forget to bring them? Or did they not think to tell Kitty that wasn’t going to be part of the ceremony/ritual/whatever? It did create a nice opening for Tommy and Robert to chip in their rings, sort of as a gesture of inclusion in the family. How lucky that everybody had the appropriate finger size!

2. What do the writers have against Arizona? It’s the Land of Bad In-Laws, with both Scotty’s and Julia’s folks in residence. Does this mean Holly has to move there if Justin and Rebecca get hitched? Maybe there’s some value to speeding up that storyline after all.

3. What did Tommy, Justin, and Kevin do all night? It was dropped at least once that it was a five-hour drive to Arizona. It was nighttime when they declared “Road Trip!” but presumably late enough in the morning when they rolled up to the Wandells that the couple was dressed and open to receiving visitors (though not so late that Kevin couldn’t get back well before his ceremony/ritual/whatever). If they drove all night and then slept in the car for, like, five hours, I’m with Justin — worst bachelor party ever!

(more…)

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

Nora: Before cell phones, no one had this much to say to each other.

Nora: No, I didn’t tell Kevin. There would be no need for a family meeting if I had, because everyone would already know.

Sarah: If I don’t get to work, Holly’s going to start ransacking my desk.

Nora: How should I say this?
Justin: Okay, you know what? Rebecca’s not our sister. Dad wasn’t her dad. DNA, gotta love it.

Kitty: Are you engaged to Scotty?
Kevin: No, I met some guy last night. Yeah, of course to Scotty.

Kitty: Wow, you’re getting married?
Kevin: No, not married, committed. No comments from the peanut gallery.
Tommy: It would be so easy.

Kitty: I agonized over meeting her. I could barely look at her for months. And now that I actually like her, I find out that she’s just the love child of my dad’s mistress and some guy.

Scotty: I feel like we’ve been pre-empted by a special news bulletin.

Kevin: They can’t drive five hours to be at their son’s … bonding ritual?
Scotty: Is that what we’re calling it now? Because that sounds kind of kinky.
Kevin: Well, commitment ceremony sounds so … it’s like we’re being formally institutionalized.
Scotty: Well, a lot of people would say that’s an accurate description of marriage.

Scotty: I wasn’t raised in Los Angeles. I never heard my parents use the word “gay” until I told them I was.

Tommy: (to Sarah) You were the one who went looking for Rebecca in the first place. You were the one who was obsessed with that baby picture. And you were the one who told her our dad was her father. So if you’re looking for somebody to blame, look in the mirror.

Nora: Put Scotty’s parents down there.
Kevin: They’re not coming.
Nora: Well, you need to give people more notice.
Kevin: It’s not the notice part that’s the problem, it’s the two grooms part.

Nora: Even if you expect the worst from your parents doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when it happens. Could I call them?
Kevin: You could call them. But unless you tell them I’m a woman, I don’t think you’ll have much luck.

(more…)

One thing you can say for Brothers & Sisters season finales: They’re not all about the cliffhangers. Sure, there is the possibility of a brother from another mother hanging over the Walkers’ heads, but at least the basics of that mystery have been laid out, and everyone’s been forthright about it. Mystery sib storyline? Been there, done that.

Otherwise, though, this episode was all about tying up storylines, some of which have been waiting for resolution for a very long time.

Like, for example, Saul’s. The possibility of Nora’s brother being gay was introduced all the way back at last season’s finale. Developments since then have been slow, but Saul did tell his sister he was once in love with a man, and finally came out to Kevin last week. After all that leisurely build-up, the big reveal to the family came surprisingly quickly. At the wedding, Saul told Nora that he thought what Kevin and Scotty were doing was the bravest thing he’d ever seen. He also told her about his conversation with Kevin, and how he had thought that all he would have to do was tell one person, and he would be free.

Later, he walked into a room where his nieces and nephews were conferring — about the possibility of an additional illegitimate nephew out there, as it happened — and Saul naturally assumed, because Kevin can’t keep a secret, that they were talking about him. So he told them all, yeah, that’s right, I’m gay, eliciting exclamations of surprise, but not exactly shock. Saul should have known it would take more than that to really rattle this family. For a show that’s so about secrets, maybe there’s some wisdom here: that sometimes the secrets you tie yourself in knots to hide turn out, when actually revealed, to be no big deal at all. So much time lost for nothing.

Also turning out to be not such a big deal is the revelation that Rebecca is not William’s daughter after all. Having been filled in on the paternity test by Justin at the end of the last episode, Nora calls the clan over to give them the news. Kevin, arriving late, assumes — just like Saul later in the episode — that they’re talking about him, and that Scotty has spilled the beans of their impending nuptials. But eventually, after the congratulations are in and the Walker home has been secured for the ceremony, the siblings deal once more with the removal of Rebecca from the bloodline, and their reaction turns out to be about the same as the one they’ll give Saul later — surprise, but nothing world-ending.

Nora lets Rebecca know that she’s still considered part of the family, and nothing has changed. The time she spent helping Nora through Justin’s time away at war has endeared her to the Walker matriarch sufficiently to cement her place in the family. Sarah tells her the Walkers are like the Mafia — once you’re in, you can’t get out. And Kevin and Tommy apparently think she’d be just as good as a sister-in-law as a half-sister, because with the incest restrictions lifted they’re both fine with the idea of Justin going for a romantic relationship with her. Tommy points out that the two of them have always had a special connection, and maybe it’s worth forgiving her for lying to see where the connection leads.

So when Rebecca approaches Justin at Kevin’s wedding, he’s ready to talk. She apologizes for lying, he apologizes for overreacting, and then he suggests starting back at Square One, as if they’d just met, without the season-and-a-half’s worth of sibling baggage. By the end of the episode, though, she’s had second thoughts about that. She calls him to meet her on a scenic mountaintop (a cliff, though not a cliffhanger) and confesses that she can’t do what he wants — by which she means go back to the start, not pursue a romantic relationship, as some fans may have hoped. She tells him that perhaps all this Walker drama, the paternity fake-out and becoming part of the family, was just a way to bring the two of them together. They kiss, and then join hands and jump off the cliff … No, no, no, that’s not what happens. They sort of laugh at the awkwardness of it, and she rests her head on his shoulder, and he puts his hand on her head, and it’s really sort of sweet. C’mon, it is.

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Remember how, last week, I wrote that it was smart of the writers to put all the frustrating business and paternity plots into the same episode as Kevin’s proposal, because when you’re swooning over the latter it’s easy to overlook the former?

Well, I’ll admit to having no perspective on this episode, because, as an adoptive parent, Kitty and Robert’s decision to adopt did that same thing to me this time around. I was frustrated last season when adoption was never really explored as an option for Tommy and Julia, and watching Kitty go through ever more invasive fertility treatments this season, the subject has been on my mind as well. My husband and I never went quite as far with IVF as the McCallisters, but we made our decision to pursue adoption for much the same reason, and so Sarah’s speech made me tear up: “Kitty, you remember the somersaults, I remember the heartburn, you know what Cooper remembers? Nothing. There are no guarantees. In the end, the only thing that matters is that there’s a child. And that lasts forever.”

I’m overjoyed that a show that has been so much about all the different ways there are to be a family is going to joyfully include this way, too. And so I was also happy to see the Walkers continue to consider Rebecca one of their own. And welcome Scotty into the family so resoundingly, even as his own parents (well, his mother, anyway) cut off any likelihood that Kevin would be considered a part of theirs. As for the possibility of there being an as-yet-unmet “R”-named Walker … I’m not going to jump to conclusions, and wish the Walkers wouldn’t either. The mystery plot was my least favorite part of Season 1, but in retrospect, I think Season 2 was weakened by not having that kind of major plot arc. So perhaps this is good news for Season 3.

Did Tommy make it back into my good graces? I was a little ticked at the way he talked to Sarah in the early scene with Holly, but I thought it was interesting that he was the one to ask Holly whether she knew about Rebecca’s paternity test before she made the deal, and I would have liked to have heard the conversation that would have followed had Sarah not burst in. I’m going to give the guy a pass for now just because the scenes with the three brothers were such a hoot. You want to talk about chemistry, I think Getty, Rhys and Annable have about the best on the show, and play off each other marvelously. You can sort of see years of teasing and tweaking behind every exchange.

The wedding was lovely, if a little anti-climactic. Saul’s coming out was more of a punchline than a dramatic highlight, and I think that’s appropriate for this show — with the spilling of secrets like your sister not being your sister, your brother lusting after your non-sister sister, and the possibility of an alternative alleged illegitimate sibling, your bachelor uncle being gay is good for an eyebrow raise but not much more. Saul, we’re so on to the next secret.

Last week, the order of scenes was shuffled to put the one perceived as the strongest — Kevin’s proposal — at the end. And last season, the finale ended not with the dramatic Sending of Justin to War, but with everybody leaping into the pool. So it’s interesting to see what was chosen as the end note to this episode, and to the season. Not the Ryan Reveal, but the Rebecca-Justin Kiss. Not the drama, but the romance. Not the past, but the future. The Season 1 finale nicely brought the season full circle, contrasting the premiere’s ending with William dead in the pool with everybody coming back to life in there. Similarly, the Season 2 opener ended with Rebecca sending a video message to Justin that reinforced their connection and concluded with “I need you,” and the finale takes that connection in a new direction.

I was glad that they got the kiss out of the way, and both felt awkward about it, acknowledging that there needs to be some transition here. I suspect that transition’s going to to take place over the unseen summer, but personally, I’m going to go with it. I don’t know that I see the same romantic chemistry between these two that the show’s creators obviously do, but they are pretty cute together, and similarly needy. Perhaps this will give these two crazy kids a shot at a plot that has less to do with drugs and deception than gainful employment and independence. ‘Bout time, times two.

What did you think about the episode? Share your thoughts in the comments, and come back throughout the week for a recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Prior Commitments, commentary