Brothers & Sisters

Today continues our summer-long journey through the first season of Brothers & Sisters, from our perspective here at the end of Season Two. As with our re-view of Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, 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 9, “Mistakes Were Made Part 2.”

1:07
After the previouslies have finished, and we get a caption that says it’s September 19, 2001, we seem to be right back in the same scene from the end of the previous episode, in which Justin announces he’s enlisted. Indeed, Justin does make that announcement, but in a completely different way than in the last episode. What the hell?

At the very tail end of “Mistakes Were Made Part 1,” we see the Walkers flashback-style around the dinner table. William says “Amen,” as he does here. From there, the scenes proceed very differently. In the earlier episode, we get quite a bit of mostly silent action around the table, including a longish shot of Kitty still praying. Finally, we get this dialogue:

Justin: Guys?
Nora: What?
William: You want to say something?
Justin: I do … um … Look, I love you guys more than anything in the whole world. And I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the past few days. I can’t just sit here and let these people tear apart my family like this. I mean, God, Kitty, they almost killed you.
Kitty: No, Justin, I’m fine. I’m here now, it’s OK.
Justin: I know, OK, but the same thing could happen tomorrow, or they could do something even worse. It’s just not right.
Nora: Justin, what’s the matter?
Justin: Nothing’s the matter. I enlisted today. (blackout)

Compare that to the recreation of this scene here in “Mistakes Were Made Part 2.” William says “Amen,” and after a few seconds of round-the-table shots, there’s the following dialog:

Nora: Justin, what’s the matter?
Justin: Um, nothing’s the matter.
William: You want to say something?
Justin: Yeah, I, uh, I enlisted today.

At which point, his family proceeds to make fun of him.

What’s up with that? How can you open the second half of a two-parter with a completely different version of the same dinner? It can hardly be a different dinner, because I don’t think Justin could have announced his enlistment twice. Seems like kind of a cheap shot on Justin, though, to remove his rationale for the sake of yet another round of “what a worthless silly brother we have” jokes.

1:43
Not that I disagree with Nora that Justin should not go to war, but … right here, lady, right here is why your son is a good-for-nothing loafer. He’s how old, and your answer to his enlistment is, “No, you may not”? Of course, the way they’ve introduced it here, without Justin’s rationale, it seems like much more of a whim.

1:56
Nora says, “I will not have a child of mine putting themselves in harms’ way,” to which Justin rightly responds, “I’m not your child.” He’s not the most mature-acting fellow, for sure, but Nora’s an enabler.

2:39
William gives him the go-ahead, which shows more respect than anybody else at the table is giving Justin. I guess this is in keeping with William always being harder on Justin and trying to get him to be responsible, the kind of thing that made Justin mad in earlier episodes?

2:56
And now Nora is back in the present time, in the ER with the family, coming out of her memory of that dinner. I really thought we were going to get Justin’s cut speech in there somewhere, just rearranged, but nope. It was an alternate-universe dinner. And in fact, the lighter version was more amusing, and established Justin’s dysfunctional place in the family rather well. But again … how do you do two completely different versions of that scene? As I recall, these episodes were not originally conceived as a two-parter. The first was originally an episode called “Glass Jumps.” Justin’s speech is much more in keeping with the more melodramatic tone of that episode, and the jokes-around-the-dinner-table version much more in keeping with this road-trip-rific one. Perhaps they felt they needed a bridge between the two, but one that veered off in a different direction? I’d be ticked off that they thought no one would notice, except that … in previous viewings, I didn’t notice.

3:20
The doctor says the medicine they’ve given Justin is going to leave him “pretty out of it for the next 24 to 48 hours.” And that will be distinguishable from his normal personality … how?

3:50
Looking at the brochures for detox-’n'-spa facilities, Sarah wonders if they can have a family rate. If they address alcohol dependency … wouldn’t be a bad idea.

3:52
The forensic accountant says, “Using the password we discovered … ” Who’s this “we” he’s talking about? Sarah discovered the password, and I think she needs to get Ojai’s money back from this guy if it never occurred to him to put the sibilngs’ initials with Rebecca’s once they knew of her existence. Isn’t that, like, among the first batch of things you’d try?

5:13
Sarah tells Kevin, “Stop saying legal things just to piss me off.” That’s the Sarah I like to see.

5:45
Kitty says, “Divorce is not news.” Yeah, I bet Balthazar Getty’s wishing that was true right about now.

6:05
At this point, according to Kitty, McCallister is a front-runner for the vice-presidency. Well, she put a stop to that.

6:46
Does Amber know Warren went away with Kitty in “Northern Exposure”? Because she looks stricken to see them hugging, but it’s a pretty tame, workplace sort of hug. I know it’s needed to set up her ratting on Kitty later, but they could have set this up better.

7:10
All these years later, Nora’s still treating Justin like he’s five, doing his laundry and getting him videos. But I do like her response to Justin’s snarkiness, “Nice to see attempting suicide hasn’t hurt your sense of humor.”

7:27
Nora promises to tear Justin’s head off when he’s feeling better, but does she? I think that maybe has to wait until the next drug crisis.

8:06
Flashback, in which Justin overhears Nora saying he doesn’t have his father’s strengths and capabilities. You know, Nora had a lot of nerve accusing Kitty of sending Justin to war, because she was really pushing him. Has she never heard of reverse psychology? Nora may be a good mom overall, but I think her babying of Justin has paid off really badly.

Continue on to Part 2.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mistakes Were Made 2

Today we conclude our search for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the fifth and final part of Episode 8. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 5.

31:09
Alright, I think this is the first OMG Waking-Up-in-Bed-with-Someone scene of the series. Or did we get one with Kitty and Warren? I know there are many more ahead, though. I’m going to count them, and see if they all use this same Music of Gentle Whimsy.

32:20
Sadly, Nora has no one to hide in the bathroom and play phone tag with, but Kitty’s in the kitchen to see her sneaking home shamefaced, so who needs cell phones?

33:11
Nora says “Glass jumps,” a line that was originally the title of this episode. And while it’s hard to argue now that “Mistakes Were Made” is a pretty accurate moniker, it’s also worth nothing that the concept of sharp things jumping out across the years to cut you is one the writers should take to heart. I think there’s a fair amount of glass under their feet right now.

33:49
When Kitty says Justin wants to go to Mexico, Nora cries, “He’ll go to jail!” Guess Mom’s not giving him the big bucks for that passport.

34:01
Have we ever seen this sloping view of Holly’s house, on such a hill? I honestly didn’t know whose house we were getting an establishing shot of in until I heard Sarah yelling.

34:13
Sarah accuses Holly of condemning them to bankruptcy or worse to keep the “truth” from coming out, but Holly gave tons of information on Rebecca, as Sarah requested in case her father “misunderstood.” At that point, Sarah was allowing for William thinking it without it being true. Now, she’s all accusations and scorn. I hate what Holly hate did to the character of Sarah. Yet another reason to resent that it was all for nothin’.

34:20
Sarah says, flat out, “I know that Rebecca is my father’s daughter.” C’mon! He put her in a password! What more proof could you possibly want? A plate with her initials?

34:24
When Holly again denies that Rebecca is William’s child, Sarah says triumphantly, “Then why did adding her initials to ours open the files!” At which I would very much have loved for Holly to laugh uproariously and say, “Are you kidding me?” ‘Cause that’s what Sarah deserves.

34:38
Sarah accuses Holly of working hard to keep the truth from coming out. How has she been working hard? She was asked if it was true, and she said no. But she still provided tons of identifying information on her kid. Sarah is unhinged here, and that means this entire plot is unhinged.

34:43
And the fact that Holly hasn’t told Rebecca who her father is proves that her father is William … how?

34:53
Alright, I’m going to throw the writers a bone here. The outraged and unforgiving may just want to skip to the next time point.

Right here, freeze-frame, at 34:53, Holly is turned away from Sarah and Saul, and she has a smile on her face. If we’re going to have to live with the total overturning of everything we know from Season 1 to accommodate the writers’ latest whim, here’s where we start. Holly is smiling — as though, perhaps, she realizes that she’s being invited, nay forced, to link her child’s future to that of a well-off family, a family she’s always been on the outside of. She takes a step away, smiles that smile, then turns around and gives a performance. She’s an actor, after all, so she gives a performance designed to admit what Sarah is insisting to be the truth, in a way that makes William and herself look good and makes Rebecca look most pitiable. I always thought that speech was over the top — really, William would leave his wife and five children for her and his one baby? — but as an impromptu performance, it’s a nice little set piece. Comes around to bite her in the butt eventually, but really, if you have someone unwilling to believe the truth and insisting upon a truth that works out better for you, and you’re Holly, why not grab it?

I’m not saying this is what the writers intended at the time, or that they deserve the favor of spin; just that the issue has never so much been what Holly said as what Sarah believed, and Sarah was not prepared to believe anything but her stupid Password Theory. I’m surprised she’s taken Rebecca’s DNA test at its word. Labs make mistakes, ya know. I guess she’s still clinging to that theory beyond all logic, just with Ryan attached.

36:00
Okay, let me get this straight: Sarah knows Rebecca is William’s because he put her initial in the password. And Holly’s response is that yes, she is William’s, but he never knew, or he would have left his family. Except … if he used the initial, then he knew, but he didn’t leave his family. And if he didn’t know, then the initial “R” means something else, and what the heck are we doing here. Honestly, this whole plotline was a pathetic mess even before history got rewritten on it. I might not have minded giving the writers a do-over if they hadn’t gone for exactly the same thing with a different “R.” The password and the photo still prove absolutely nothing. Somebody, anybody, please, learn from your mistakes!

36:26
Good Lord, Sarah, if you wanted Holly to stay the hell away from your family, why did you make such a big stinking deal about her daughter being your half-sister? None of the Rebecca drama would have happened if Sarah hadn’t forced the issue.

36:47
Oh, my, Kevin’s apology. I still haven’t quite forgiven Scotty for not accepting this apology. So has it really been three Martian years now? Turned out to be shorter than human years, then.

38:04
I do like that Scotty asks for the check, though. Perhaps this is the dawn of his realization that sometimes you have to come down off the high horse.

38:25
Where did Tommy come into this little Justin rescue party? Last we heard, it was just going to be Nora and Kitty. Seems like Tommy would be the last person you’d want on an expedition to help Justin.

38:43
Nora says Justin’s overdose all her fault, which is kind of refreshing, because normally she’d say it’s Kitty’s.

38:49
I wonder if Dave Annable got a headache from the way Sally Field was manhandling his head there? It looks like there’s nerve damage, but … wait, it’s the Blinding Light of Flashback.

39:35
It’s a Walker dinner, and the idea is floated that they just stop talking for a minute. Ha!

40:01
William says, “Family is the only sure thing in life. Always was, always will be.” Wouldn’t be too sure about that, there, Pops.

41:16
It’s kind of creepy the way the past-dinner/present-OD ends up in the past. I guess Justin’s still there, in his unconscious reverie?

42:20
Justin announces, in the past, that he enlisted today. Is that the first proactive thing he’s ever done in his life? Bad time to start thinking for yourself, bro.

42:25
And that’s it. We’re left with a twofold cliffhanger — in the past, how the family will respond to the enlistment announcement; and in the present, will Justin die? Justin’s had two will-he-die cliffhangers, and nobody else has had any … well, okay, maybe Lizzie. And William Sr., I suppose, lest we thought he might rise from the pool. Still, Justin’s special, isn’t he? How will they almost kill him this season, do you suppose?

And that’s five days of catch-up on Episode 8. Next up: “Mistakes Were Made Part 2.” Road trip!

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mistakes Were Made Part 1

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 8. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 4.

20:18
Nora and David are dining outdoors, and although there are tablecloths and little twinkling lights, I’m pretty sure this is basically the same place they use as the coffee hangout. That hedge along one side is a giveaway.

21:05
You know, David seems like an awfully nice guy, very sweet, but he’s a little … boring, isn’t he? Time seems to move slower when they’re together, and not in a good way.

21:11
Nora says William made her feel, “like this whole world, this whole big beautiful world, was lucky to have me. Little me.” And lines like that, ladies and gentlemen, are why William Walker was a chick magnet.

21:51
Hard to know what’s scarier here, the blinding white burst of flashback light, or Dave Annable’s interpretation of a druggie trance.

22:01
Here’s Kitty coming home after 9/11 and being immediately embraced by Nora, quite the contrast to her coming home in the first episode and having Nora greet her as though she was covered in garbage.

23:33
I know this little one-on-one conversation between Justin and Kitty, when she describes her 9/11 experience and he gets torn up by how much it upset her, is necessary to provide his motivation to enlist, but … wouldn’t she have been telling this story to the whole gathered family? Or, if to one person, to Sarah? Justin just really doesn’t seem to be the go-to guy for sharing emotional trauma at this point, does he?

26:15
Druggie Justin. Please, let us now be rid of you once and for all.

26:29
Fawn! Seriously, I think marijuana smoke conjures her up. At least she has a T-shirt on as she meets Tyler.

26:59
So Justin’s fired, and also dumped. And the Troubled Face is in full force. Tyler totally harshed his mellow.

27:16
Fawn says, “You guys were a thing” without a trace of jealousy. She seems to be absolutely the easiest little gal in the world. She’s still up to going to Acapulco, even though Justin is being, like, majorly rude now. Hey, there, genie! Back in the bottle.

27:47
And again, we cut from one Troubled Boy to another, as Sarah gives it another go with Gabe.

28:38
Sarah says, “I might not be your mom, Gabe, but you are my son.” Where’s that promise now? Do we believe that Sarah will continue to have a relationship with her stepson despite her split from his dad, or did she drop him like a hot potato when things went bad with Joe? Don’t suppose we’ll ever know, but they could mention the kid now and then.

28:54
At the end of her life, Sarah will be able to look back and say, “At least I had three great kids. Paige, Cooper, and … what was his name? Surly kid, messy hair? If only we had a plate with his initials to remind us.”

29:52
Now, this scene always breaks my heart. Gabe is reaching out, expressing interest in the plates. Sarah has been wanting to include him, and this is the perfect heartwarming way. But it makes her realize the secret to the password, and she’s off! without so much as an offer of making a plate later. Bad stepmom! Bad!

30:41
I think they borrowed this password-figuring-out music from Alias or something. It’s super-suspenseful accompaniment for Sarah … writing down the names of her siblings and circling the initials so we’ll know what she’s doing. Oooh, typing!

30:59
And the password with the “R” on the end starts a cascade of files opening, as it does approximately never in real life. I don’t think Sarah even hit the enter key; those files were just so eager to open after all this time.

31:01
Sarah says “You lying bitch!” presumably because Holly had said Rebecca was not William’s daughter. And that’s even more ironic now, since in the current alternate universe state of things, Holly was not lying at this point, but only became a lying bitch later, when she said that Rebecca was William’s daughter. This stuff is making my head hurt.

31:03
The Drum of Dramatic Import ends the scene of Sarah’s discovery, but … you know, although this whole thing has been made particularly lame by the revelation that the “R” stood for Ryan and not Rebecca, it was infuriatingly flimsy from the start. At the very, very most, the “R” at the end of the password means that William thought Rebecca was his daughter, yet Sarah’s treating it like it’s a damning DNA test. Alternate R-named illegitimate sibling aside, William could have thought using your kids’ initials is too easy a password to crack, and used the initial of his lady friend’s daughter, without assuming relationship. He could have searched for an extra initial to mix things up and noticed a box of Ritz crackers in the kitchen. It’s a password, for goodness sake. It’s not a birth certificate. And look at all the ridiculous mess it got the Walkers and the writers into.

Continue on to Part 5.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mistakes Were Made Part 1

Today we continue our search for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the third part of Episode 8. Read Part 1 and Part 2 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 3.

15:01
Says Kitty: “Mother, if you were to meet someone, anyone, even a street person, even, upon whom you could regularly unleash your enthusiasm and your poopy emerald smoothies, I think there is nobody in this family who is going to complain.” So true. Unless, of course, he wants to move her to Washington, D.C. In which case, there will be whining.

15:42
Sarah says, “People don’t just punch each other in the face in the middle of a soccer game.” Well, maybe not the kids. The parents in the stands, though, for sure.

16:06
Boy, if that’s all Sarah’s got in the coaxing-teens-to-open-up department, she’s gonna be toast when Paige gets to that age.

16:09
Do they have Gabe stashed in the attic? The ceiling slopes kind of sharply. But he’s got a bed and a beanbag chair, so he’s good.

16:11
Nice “screwed-up youth” segue from Gabe slamming the door to Justin searching his apartment for drugs. See, this is what happens when you clean the place up. You can’t find anything.

17:01
Why exactly was it humiliating for Holly to give all Rebecca’s information? Just what did go on with that weird password guy?

17:10
Holly was beginning to fall for Saul, but now thinks he was only in it for the clues about the money. And I should be paying close attention to all this tense talk between the two, but I find myself distracted by the shirt Holly’s wearing, with a shiny hummingbird above the left breast. It looks like that kind of iron-on transfer that was big when I was in high school in the ’70s. I know Holly’s still a gal on a budget at this point, but … honey, update the wardrobe.

17:18
Saul says he’s already fallen for Holly, and swears it’s not a lie. Well … apparently it is, but is it a lie to Holly or himself, or to us? The writers have admitted they didn’t start out making Uncle Saul gay, and watching this the first time through I thought the guy probably did have a longtime crush on his brother-in-law’s girl, but didn’t know what to do with her once he got her. Now, with the extra subtext of the tacked-on “Saul’s gay” plot, I think these scenes actually make more sense, and it’s less annoying that the relationship never went anywhere. If you’re trying to deny to yourself that you’re gay, being “in love” with an inaccessible woman is probably a reasonable way to get through the day. Until your brother-in-law suddenly drops dead, and she’s not so inaccessible.

17:31
But when he tells Holly “I’m on your side”? That’s lying. I don’t think he’s on anybody’s side but his own.

17:44
Don’t know whether this kiss was deliberately intended to be awkward, but … yikes. Chemistry, not so much. At one point, it looks like Holly is going to fall over. It does look rather much like the kiss of a guy who’s pep-talking to himself, “Okay. I can do this”

18:30
Alright, here, as she expresses her disillusionment with the war, the character of Kitty starts to morph from a righteous conservative to sort of a liberal’s dream of a conservative. Which is to say, not so much of one. I suppose it’s inevitable, given the likely political leanings of the writing staff, but the idea of diverse political views in a family, and loving someone whose beliefs you find reprehensible, got watered down. I guess they tried to flare them up again with the gay marriage issue between Kitty and Kevin, but by that time it seemed more an exercise for the sake of conflict than a belief system.

18:54
It occurs to me that one of the reasons Justin is the way he is is because the Walkers have always scurried to save him from the consequences of his bad decisions. He only ever had to face them once, and that’s just because Nora overplayed her hand — he was ready to sign the papers rescinding his enlistment. Somebody needs to step up and say, “This sucks, but take responsibility.” It wound up being McCallister, but I wish it had been Kitty, right here from the first.

19:31
Even if we didn’t know this was going to be a drug deal by Justin’s Troubled Look, and the scruffy guy he meets, and the lack of eye contact during chit chat, we’d know it by the fact that the guy asks about Fawn. She’s the muse of his Dark Side.

19:44
The drug dealer’s name is Shawn. Which rhymes with Fawn!

19:58
Shawn is a full-service scumbag, able to give you drugs and fake passports. But Justin, no matter where you go, there is no way you won’t be you. Bummer, dude.

Continue on to Part 4.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mistakes Were Made Part 1

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 8. Read yesterday’s post for the first nine minutes or so, then hop right in here.

8:47
Justin’s at work, and happens to walk into an empty hotel room where war news is playing. Let this be a lesson to you, people: When you leave your room, turn the TV off, lest you send some poor young vet over the edge.

8:52
The closed-captioning is such a slacker. The maid’s prattling on and on about something, and all the caption says is “[speaking Spanish].” Maybe she’s giving Justin instructions on how to go escape to her family in Mexico, and we’ll never know.

9:08
Ack! Blinding white flashback light!

9:26
Ack! Blinding bad Nora flashback hair!

9:29
Justin’s giving his dad advice about what chicks dig. Seems like ol’ William didn’t have too much trouble in that regard.

9:51
William says Justin reminds him of him when he was younger. But I don’t think you build a big business by blowing off work to surf.

9:55
What a little puppy-dog boy they’ve made Justin here, to differentiate him from Mr. Troubled in the Present Day. In such an over-achieving family, why wasn’t he being made to work or go to school or do something besides surf? Why, come to think of it, is he still doing pretty much the same thing, seven years and two war tours later?

10:08
Aw, you know, I’m not sure that even now I’m ready to have watching those towers burn and fall be something characters do on TV. It’s too fake for something too real.

10:57
And … Kevin puts his foot in his mouth again, and Scotty makes him pay for it. I just so disliked the dynamic between the two of them in this first-time-through. There are so many legitimate jerks in the world, and Kevin is so clearly trying to be what Scotty wants him to be, and Scotty is so quick to take offense. Bah! Good riddance to him, and bring on the kinder, gentler Scotty of Season 2. Seems like a different character there, but I like him better.

11:47
One of the things they tried for the password was Rebecca’s favorite color. Really? They thought that might be the password? The illegitimate daughter’s favorite color? That’s why this guy gets the big bucks, I guess. … Blood type? Really?

12:18
The password guy gives this snarky little smile when Sarah goes to take a phone call, like he’s digging all the family drama involved with Holly not “being happy” about providing all Rebecca’s details.

12:54
How many billable hours does Kevin spend handling legal problems for his siblings, or handing them off? Does his firm care?

13:02
Justin says, “So because I’m a bellboy, I have to go to Baghdad.” Bummer how that career path’s worked out for you, dude.

13:10
Kevin squashes Justin’s plan to flee to Mexico. Would have been a pretty sweet road trip, though, with Nora ditzily chatting up the border guards so they don’t notice Justin in the trunk.

To be continued.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mistakes Were Made Part 1

Before we move on to the next part of “Mistakes Were Made,” I have to admit that I dropped the retcon ball last week, and missed some big flashing errors around the introduction of the baby picture that started out being of Rebecca until the writers decided at the end of Season 2 that, whoops, never mind, it’s Ryan really.

There were a couple of glaring moments in “Northern Exposure” that I missed, and then Holly’s declaration that it was indeed Rebecca in the first part of “Mistakes Were Made Part 1.” I’ve gone back and added my comments to the play-by-play on those episode posts, but for those who’ve already read them, I thought I’d group the gaffes here, too.

From “Northern Exposure”:

(in the attic)

23:26
Sarah says that’s her dad’s car in the picture, and pinpoints it as one he got in ‘79. Now, if the picture is supposed to be of Ryan … that means William was there with his car when the picture was taken? I had kind of gotten the impression from “Prior Commitments” that William hadn’t had much contact with the kid. Just a drive-by photo shooting, apparently.

(at the table)

28:12
Joe hands The Photo to Justin, who says it’s clearly not of him because the baby has a bonnet on. I’m pretty sure that was intended, at the time, to suggest that the baby was a girl, as indeed we were later led to believe that it was, right up until the point where the writers suddenly decided it was a different baby and a boy. Did Ryan’s mom always want a girl or something?

From “Mistakes Were Made Part 1″:

(Saul, Holly, and Sarah at the office)

5:21
Whoa. Holly said that the photo was Rebecca. The same photo that Rebecca later says is not her, and Kevin remembers is Ryan. Why would Holly either 1) mistake an anonymous baby in a very clear photo for her own kid, or 2) lie that the kid is hers when she then firmly says the child is not a Walker? Big whoops here.

And, back to today:

You know, I’m sure they thought it was a nice touch reintroducing this photo at the end of Season 2 and making it Ryan. It must have seemed like a bit of continuity, but … boy, how very much not. There were plenty of ways to have introduced Ryan, if that really had to happen, that would not involve a photo with William’s car and a girlish bonnet in it, a photo that Holly had said without hesitation was her daughter. I can think of lots of reasons why Holly might lie about Rebecca being William’s one way or the other, but the photo? No reason at all.

People who create TV shows must long for the days before DVDs when obsessed fans couldn’t easily go back and check this stuff out, mustn’t they?

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, continuity errors

Today continues our summer-long journey through the first season of Brothers & Sisters, from our perspective here at the end of Season Two. As with our re-view of Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, 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 8, “Mistakes Were Made Part 1.”

0:33
The “previouslies” feature that shouting match outside the jail from “An Act of Will” that is so very far from Sally Field’s and Dave Annable’s finest work. I would have been very happy never to see that scene again.

0:41
“See Through You” by Flunk accompanies the Justin-Tyler “lick-word” scene. Speaking of scenes we never want to see, please please please tell me we won’t have to see stuff like this with Justin and Rebecca. It will be so painful to have to scrub my eyeballs after.

1:55
Whoever gave Cooper a drum set clearly hates Sarah and Joe.

2:15
Joe’s out of town? What, is there a Guitar Teacher’s Convention or something? Actually, though, looking back from the point at which they’ve gotten back together, perhaps there’s something significant about both of Gabe’s parents being out of town at the same time.

2:26
Gabe makes a big point of saying that Paige and Cooper are his half brother and half sister, and that he is their half brother. I thought it was kind of clumsy expositioning, but … is it also a little anvil tossing about Rebecca?

2:32
I don’t believe frittata is the only thing Cooper will eat in the mornings. I believe Super Sugar Bombs cereal and frosted donuts are the only things Cooper will eat in the mornings.

2:48
Do Paige and Cooper eat on the special personalized plates every morning? If so, these folks keep way more on top of their dishwashing than I do.

2:56
Kitty and Kevin are in the show’s all-purpose outdoor restaurant-y space. Looks like coffee’s the primary menu item, so I assume they’re supposed to be at Kevin’s standard coffee spot. But I think it’s not the same table area that Scotty and Kevin got coffee at. It looks more like the spot where Kevin and Chad had dinner, and maybe Nora and David.

3:05
At any rate, judging by the logo on the cups, the place is called North Light.

3:34
“You’re the lying whore of the family!” “You’re the stuck-up bitch!” Ah, more of that gentle Kitty-Kevin rapport we saw at the end of “Northern Exposure.”

3:22
Kitty says Kevin talked to Scotty the whole weekend like he was the help, and … did he really? Don’t remember too many conversations between them, other than the two fights, which hardly represented the whole weekend (or seemed like addressing the help, unless you regularly argue with the help over how you should live your life).

5:21
Sarah shows Holly the picture of the mystery baby and gets confirmation that it’s Rebecca. But when asked if “Rebecca is dad’s daughter,” Holly says “No, no,” and “Truly, Sarah, she’s not,” and “but she’s not” again. Would that they had left it at that. … Edited to add: Whoa, reading this over the next morning, I realize what the big retcon moment is here: Holly said that the photo was Rebecca. The same photo that Rebecca later says is not her, and Kevin remembers is Ryan. Why would Holly either 1) mistake an anonymous baby in a very clear photo for her own kid, or 2) lie that the kid is hers when she then firmly says the child is not a Walker? Big whoops here.

5:50
Sarah asks Holly to give the forensic accountant lots of details about Rebecca, like Social Security Number and pet names. Some DNA might have been a good idea, too.

6:16
Sarah hands Holly an envelope — with the photo in it? Can’t remember if they get it back, but they sure have it later.

6:55
David asks Nora out on a date. Either Treat Williams got a lot of sun or they’re overdoing the rouge, because his complexion is somewhat lobster-like.

7:04
And now Justin is eating cantaloupe off Tyler’s stomach, and … I guess these scenes are supposed to be fun and sexy, but I mostly just feel sorry for the actors.

7:18
So they’re at Justin’s place. He’s straightened it up some since his mom and sister were there in “An Act of Will.” But not a lot.

7:37
Don’t you generally sign for a letter, then go read it? Does the postal service actually require that you read the whole thing right there in your underwear before you acknowledge receipt?

7:48
The Troubled Look’s back. The days of cantaloupe and lick-word are over.

8:24
Uncle Sam still wants Justin. Doesn’t the army know he can’t handle these super-serious storylines?

To be continued.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mistakes Were Made

Today we conclude our search for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the fifth and final part of Episode 7. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 5.

32:35
Warren says that if he and Kitty were supposed to happen, they would have happened by now. And, you know, if Rob Lowe wasn’t waiting in the next episode or two to sweep her off her feet.

32:40
Scotty complains that Kevin is telling him what he should say and what he should be. Isn’t that just what Scotty’s been doing to Kevin back here in their relationship 1.0?

32:45
Warren’s offered Scotty a ride. Would have liked to hear the conversation that led up to that.

34:03
“Whether it’s your kid or Tommy’s kid, it’s still going to be a Walker.” This discussion between Kitty and Kevin ticked me off the first time I watched it because it seemed to place so much emphasis on genetics and give no recognition to the fact that an adopted Walker would be just as fiercely protected by the clan. It’s particularly ironic now, given the fact that Kitty will be adopting. (And, I suppose, because Rebecca has been absorbed by the Walkers even though she turns out not to be William’s kid.)

34:33
So where was this whole clan of pissed-off people when young Kevin was feeling alone and different?

34:40
I will say, though, that I really like the rapport between Kitty and Kevin here, and the sort of gentle way she was able to talk to him about something everybody else has been yelling about.

35:35
Boy, have we come a long way from these early days when Julia was such a worshipful wife, to the abandonment/mutual affairs of Season 2. I always thought she was a little Stepford-y in the early days, but the leap’s been too big. I hope they find some middle ground next season.

36:19
Justin has taken back full possession of the Troubled Look. This whole war story thing … somehow, it’s just too weighty for the lightness of this particular episode. Dave Annable does light so very much better than heavy.

37:18
Well, okay, then, brother. As long as you want to father my child to address demons of your own, and not because you want to help me and my wife, I will accept your sperm.

37:32
“Seems like I’m always apologizing for my family,” says Nora. And who failed to teach them what’s appropriate dinner-table conversation, lady, hmm?

37:40
“If they’re not falling out of trees, they’re killing each other over sperm.” That should be in needlepoint on the Wall o’ Pictures at the Walker Homestead.

38:18
Nora and David’s first kiss. Aw. While other relationships were crumbling around them, the oldsters managed to hold it together.

38:58
Okay, looks like Nora did take all the photos down from the wall in addition to prying off the panel. Goodbye, house!

39:15
Nora says, “Justin was conceived here,” which, unless she was sneaking off to the Ojai for a little action on the side, pretty much settles any question of Justin’s paternity. Though I wouldn’t put anything past the writers at this point.

40:18
Sarah shows Saul the photo found in Ojai, and says he looks like he just saw a ghost. Why would he assume the photo was of Rebecca? The photo he saw with Holly wasn’t a baby picture, was it? I can see him thinking, upon reflection, that it might be her, but to be struck with it so strongly that he loses his typical poker face and quick lying skills? Seems … convenient.

40:51
Saul says he doesn’t think anyone’s interests are served in idle speculation about paternity. And how right he turned out to be.

41:12
The closed captioning says that’s Ray LaMontagne’s “Shelter” playing over the Scene of Embarrassing Sperm Bank Repartee.

41:30
Shouldn’t Kevin and Justin have filled out the forms before they made their donation?

42:05
Tommy has had enough sperm talk for the rest of his life. And the three of them walk off a vision of brotherly togetherness. I really like that they didn’t end the episode on the obvious note of future intrigue, but on this sort of goofy scene with the Three Stooges. They do that a lot on this show, and I appreciate it.

And that’s five days of catch-up on Episode 7. Next up: The first of the game-changing two-part “Mistakes Were Made.” The Troubled Look is gonna get a workout.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Northern Exposure

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 7. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 4.

26:04
I like the continuity of Scotty agreeing with Sarah that the Walkers are not a normal family by saying, “Having eaten a few meals with you people …”

26:07
Kevin is starting to regret that he told everybody about Tommy’s request. And why did he, exactly? Not his secret to spill, so to speak, though that never stopped any of them before.

26:22
Scotty thinks it’s odd that Kevin, as a gay man, is grasping at “normal,” and Kevin thinks it’s annoying that Scotty ties every decision to his sexuality. I gotta say, I’m with Kevin. Does anybody consider that he might still be a little freaked out by the request, and need support instead of judgment? I mean, it’s a pretty disconcerting thing to be asked. I wonder how quickly Sarah would have said “Sure!” to being a surrogate mother for Kitty.

27:04
Warren’s busted! Amber tells Kitty, while they’re comparing notes on how not to be stupid blondes, that she thinks Warren’s in Vegas. How is it possible that he did not know he would get found out with that? Maybe it’s not just the blondes who are stupid.

28:00
Alright, face off for most awkward Walker dinner so far: Taquitos with Holly by the pool, or sperm discussion at the Ojai house? Discuss.

28:12
Joe hands The Photo to Justin, who says it’s clearly not of him because the baby has a bonnet on. I’m pretty sure that was intended, at the time, to suggest that the baby was a girl, as indeed we were later led to believe that it was, right up until the point where the writers suddenly decided it was a different baby and a boy. Did Ryan’s mom always want a girl or something?

28:37
The mere sight of a baby picture drives Julia to tears. You know, I dealt with infertility for a while, and I don’t think I ever lost it over old anonymous baby pictures. Friends and close relatives getting pregnant, totally.

28:45
Sarah is really being a jerk, sniping at Kevin over Julia’s tears. I’d say this is when her character took a wrong turn into rigid and judgmental, but we still have the great bar scene in “Mistakes Were Made” to come. You’re going down a dangerous path, though, missy.

28:54
Tommy, on the other hand, is totally righteous in his anger about Kevin discussing this with everybody. Although … he has met his brother, right?

29:09
Things you never expect to hear at the dinner table: “You asked Kevin for his sperm and didn’t tell me!”

29:12
And our first reaction shot is Warren pulling spaghetti into his mouth in a way that’s kind of hilarious and also unsettling.

29:16
Followed by David unflappably complimenting Nora on the pasta. He’s this dinner’s equivalent of Scotty asking for the mango peach salsa.

29:23
Tommy didn’t tell Julia because he wanted it to be a surprise. “Hey, honey, look what Kevin sent us!”

29:27
Nora asks calmly: “Is there something special about Kevin’s sperm I’m unaware of?” Any chance that this show was going to be a darkly realistic drama addressing serious issues that face the American family is pretty much gone with that line. Which, of course, is why I love it so.

30:25
Kevin says, “We can’t keep secrets in this family.” And then we see Joe give this funny little “True that!” nod. This episode should have gotten some sort of group Emmy for reaction shots, because all these background actors are really on their game.

30:27
Kevin’s concerned that the kid might be embarrassed one day to find out his father is his gay uncle. Sarah says he sounds like he’s channeling Jerry Falwell. I’d say it’s more like General Hospital, but still, he has a point. Wasn’t it Jack Nicholson who found out as an adult that his aunt was really his mother, and was pretty freaked out by it? I still don’t think these Walkers have thought this thing through.

30:37
And more demerits to Sarah for bringing Scotty into the fight, and setting him up to disagree with Kevin. If this is what sex in the attic does for her, I think she and Joe should be celibate.

30:44
Kevin tells Scotty that if he’s not going to support him, then shut up, and Sarah gives him a look. But you know, you KNOW that if Joe disagreed with her in a conversation like this, she would say exactly the same thing.

30:48
And this is how we know Scotty’s a good Southern boy, despite the fact that he has no accent and his parents live in Arizona: Even under these stressful circumstances, even when he’s leaving in a huff, he asks politely if he may be excused from the table.

30:54
Prompting all the other spouses and significant others to skedaddle after him, with a couple of bottles of wine. Would love to be a fly on the wall at that party.

31:09
Nora says that of all the madness she has witnessed from her children, this takes the cake. Personally, I’d say maybe sex in a public cloakroom edges it out, and that someone who outed her husband’s mistress at a dinner party probably has no room to talk. What would you say is the greatest cake-taking madness in the show so far — seasons one and two?

31:41
I’ve been coming down pretty hard on Justin, but when he says, so sweetly and simply, “I’ll help you, Tommy,” I just want to hug him. While at the same time totally understanding why Tommy might fear what sort of child his chemically enhanced mutant sperm might produce.

31:50
Nora says, “Tommy, if your brother wants to give you his sperm, I don’t see why …” in the same tone of voice she probably used on them when they were kids having trouble playing nice. And cracks me up. The combination of emotion and hilarity in this scene kind of became the tone of the show — much to its improvement, says I.

Continue on to Part 5.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Northern Exposure

Today we continue our search for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the third part of Episode 7. Read Part 1 and Part 2 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 3.

16:42
Not sure why Kitty would need to lie to her mother about why she and Warren are there. Wasn’t Nora desperate for one of her children to hook up with the guy?

16:43
Kitty says she and Warren are going to be preparing for a big interview, and Nora asks if that’s “the euphemism of choice these days.” No, but that’s going to become a really overused joke on this show. I can think of at least twice in coming episodes when something along those lines is used. I’m gonna start a count.

17:00
Nora to Kitty: “You’re the journalist. Lie!”

17:21
And Kevin, being the lawyer, cross-examines. Watch this scene again and note Scotty’s many cute facial expressions. Nice reaction work by Luke Macfarlane.

17:48
Love it that Kevin mentions Amber. Nice callback to the previous episode, where they danced.

18:06
Well, you’ve got to give the Walkers this: They may have gone from one couple’s romantic weekend to five couples’ ruined one, but there’s always enough wine to go around.

18:41
If “the roads are like rivers,” to the degree that everybody’s stuck, how did our last soggy straggling couple, Justin and Tyler, make it here to be Couple #6?

18:58
Why is Sarah wearing a hat and gloves as she walks in to breakfast? Was she sleeping in the treehouse?

19:03
So which Walker do we believe snored like a freight train? Kevin? Kitty? Some other culprit?

19:22
Justin didn’t pack clothes, but Tyler is very cutely and completely attired. Catholic girls may not be “good,” but they know how to pack.

19:34
Tommy wants Kevin to help him clear some brush so they can play football. And yeah, it’s just a ruse to get him outside to ask for sperm. (Is that the euphemism of choice these days? No.) Still, do we imagine the Walkers doing the Perfect American Family thing of playing football on the lawn together? I can see Tommy and William being into it, absolutely, maybe Justin, maybe Sarah, but the rest of the clan? Badminton, I’d believe.

19:50
More non-family-member reaction work here, in embarrassed response to Tommy’s refusal to accept Justin’s help: First Tyler comforts Justin, then Scotty gives a wincing smile, then Warren looks … annoyed that this is interrupting his newspaper reading? Hard to say. You’ve got to feel for Tyler the most here — at least Scotty and Warren have been to a Walker gathering, and know what to expect.

20:11
Whoa — Tommy has a tattoo! I mean, I’m pretty sure that it’s Balthazar Getty who has the tattoo, and it is in no way part of Tommy’s character, but … a little longer with the T-shirt sleeves, wardrobe department, or we’re going to need some backstory on that.

20:15
Tommy: “Can you hand me a screwdriver? You know what a screwdriver looks like?”
Kevin (and all of us playing at home): “It’s orange and it comes in a glass filled with ice.”

20:22
That thing where Tommy laughs for a minute, then snaps his fingers and stops cold? That’s a little scary. Is that left over from Alias or something?

20:35
I guess those clothes Tyler had on before were PJ-ish in nature, because she’s wearing something completely different now. So she packed a lot. Envisioning a different sort of weekend than Justin, apparently.

20:47
Justin is such a doofus. He’s there with his sexy girlfriend, who also happens to be his BOSS, and that seems to him like a good time to smoke a joint, and be sarcastic about it besides. Old habits die hard.

21:03
Justin says he doesn’t care what his family thinks, and Tyler says she thinks it’s all he cares about. And again, I ask, if she’s so smart, what’s she doing with this guy? Working out some high school issues, must be.

21:21
Andy Stochansky’s “That Summer” accompanies Justin and Tyler getting down to what they’d originally planned. May I just say, freeze-framing a scene with two actors kissing so you can type out the song title from the closed-captioning is not an advisable thing to do. Some things you do not need to examine in detail.

21:30
How much would you have loved it if David had just stayed in that pink bathrobe the whole time? Shame the dryer worked.

21:43
David has clearly never been to a Walker get-together, because he thinks it’s a good thing when Nora says it’s going to be a “sensational meal.”

22:06
Kitty describes her family as “songs around the piano during the holidays, touch football in the summertime.” Why have we, in two seasons, never seen such activity? I mean, I know the kids are grown now, but if these are family traditions, I have a hard time believing Nora would not force them at gunpoint to continue them. Instead, we’ve just had a lot of golf.

22:28
When Kitty gives Warren her inspirational speech on Why I Am a Republican, how come she doesn’t add, “Oh, and you know, my father was, too. And my brother.” Wouldn’t Dad’s affiliation, at least, have had something to do with it?

22:51
Oh, Warren, Warren, Warren. Lying that you told Amber about your weekend with Kitty. Don’t you know nothing ever stays a secret in Walker-land?

23:07
Sarah thinks maybe they should hire a medium instead of a forensic accountant. And I will always mourn the drunken Ouija Board scene that we never got.

23:19
And there it is! The debut of The Picture. It’s Kitty! No, it’s Tommy! No, it’s Justin! No, it’s Rebecca! No, it’s Ryan! Will the real baby please stand up?

23:26
Alright, here’s a problem. Sarah says that’s her dad’s car in the picture, and pinpoints it as one he got in ‘79. Now, if the picture is supposed to be of Ryan … that means William was there with his car when the picture was taken? I had kind of gotten the impression from “Prior Commitments” that William hadn’t had much contact with the kid. Hmm. Just a drive-by photo shooting, perhaps.

23:39
Sarah wishes she knew Joe in high school, he must have been hot. That haircut would probably have worked a lot better for him back in 1979.

23:52
Sarah says attic sex is much better than treehouse sex. Actually, they both sound dirty to me, and not in a good way.

25:21
I feel kind of sorry for Getty and Rhys having to act this “Brother, can you spare some sperm?” scene; it’s like a plotline that wandered in from Desperate Housewives.

25:30
Speaking of treehouse sex, here come Justin and Tyler crashing down. That’s two siblings caught in public sex in two episodes. What, do they think this is HBO?

Continue on to Part 4.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Northern Exposure

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 7. Read yesterday’s post for the first nine minutes or so, then hop right in here.

10:10
David begs Nora to let him drive her to Ojai, or maybe he just wants to make her stop dithering. Total number of couples currently heading that day to Ojai: Five.

10:43
The fertility specialist recommends one donor who “is of Irish and Jewish descent, just like you, Mr. Walker.” So William’s side of the family is Irish? That explains the drinking.

11:39
Total number of couples currently heading that day to Ojai: Six. Total number of couples planning to have lots of sex because they will be all alone and their mother will be nowhere around: Five. Couples who will succeed: Zero.

12:04
So basically, this guy’s job is to spend his day looking at the trivia of people’s lives and trying to twist it into passwords? Wonder how he comes up with his own.

12:42
I was wondering why Saul and Holly weren’t Ranch House Couple #7, but I guess it’s because Sarah told him she and Joe were going.

12:55
Saul wrote down Rebecca on the list. But not “Becky.” He lies that it’s William’s first high-school crush. Yuck.

13:25
Saul has borrowed the Troubled Look from Justin for this episode. That kid gets to be giddy for a bit.

13:28
I assume this rough-hewn structure getting soaked with rain in the establishing shot is the famous treehouse? There looks to be a blanket in there, so maybe random neighborhood kids are using it for the same purposes the Walkers did years ago.

15:22
So Nora’s made a special trip to pry a panel off the wall, but the fifty or sixty pictures on the wall next to it, she’s going to leave?

23:30
Number of couples currently embarrassed to find that someone else is in the house: Two, as Kitty and Warren arrive to suprise Nora and David, who is wearing a pink bathrobe because Nora is drying his rain-soaked clothes.

Continue on to Part 3.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Northern Exposure

Today continues 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. As with our re-view of Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, 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 7, “Northern Exposure.”

1:16
Average viewer for Red White and Blue: a 50-year-old white guy who makes $100,000 a year. Is that a large demographic?

2:26
Warren, clearly a little overwhelmed by Amber’s girlish enthusiasm, wants to go away someplace with Kitty. Thus beginning the final round in their on-again off-again whatever. Ho hum. Is it time for the senator yet?

2:39
Warren says they can see if “what we thought they had” could work. When did they think that? On their drunken one-night stand?

3:15
“When one’s father embezzles 15 million dollars of his own company’s pension money, one can’t really afford to be sentimental,” says Sarah. But one can start speaking in an strangely formal way.

3:42
Sarah tells the siblings she’s considering selling the ranch house because “It might be fun to keep us out of bankruptcy,” and no one seems surprised. Was that news out in the open already? Tommy knew, obviously, Kevin’s been in on it since they first found out, and Sarah told Mom at the end of the last episode. But I don’t think we actually saw Kitty get the news of Dad’s embezzlement and the company’s dire condition (though it would explain her taking up with Warren again, since she seems to do that in the wake of severe disappointment with Dad — maybe she knows that William would have hated the guy), and Justin’s been totally out of the loop.

4:02
Kevin’s first memory is of Dad reading him a bedtime story at the ranch house. And Justin learned to ride a bike up there. Clearly, it cannot be sold. Bring on the bankruptcy!

4:20
A historical first: Nora advises trusting the judgment of one of her children.

4:33
Is this the first incidence of the Sibling Eye Communication Trick, in which they silently signal their agreement to reject their mother’s suggestions?

5:01
Can’t you just totally see young Sarah curled up in a chair on the porch reading Jane Eyre? Those were the days.

5:13
And now we have the beginning of the Tucker Booth/treehouse trifecta, as Sarah admits to losing her virginity to the tall blonde Ojai-an …

5:45
… and Kevin does, too (the second time — the first was also in Ojai, to “this girl called Sarah Gimble.” Should your first time be with somebody who has the same name as your sister?) …

6:36
… and Justin says he got high for the first time with T.B., also in the treehouse.

6:40
Where are Justin and Tyler here? Justin’s living at home now, right? Is this his room? Or maybe Tyler’s apartment? Doesn’t look familiar, anyway. (Though a little bit like Lena’s apartment, with the bed as the primary feature.)

7:06
Total number of couples currently planning to have a weekend alone in Ojai: Three.

7:59
Kitty, in an effort to sneakily clear her weekend, advocates for Amber doing an interview as a way to increase the show’s appeal to the youth market. I’m thinking she’ll do pretty well with the 50-year-old white guys, too.

8:43
Kitty tells Warren she’ll only go away with him if he tells Amber exactly what’s going on. What, like “Your mentor only recommended you for this interview so she could steal your boyfriend”?

9:02
Total number of couples currently planning to have a weekend alone in Ojai: Four.

Continue on to Part 2.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Northern Exposure

Today we conclude our search for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the fifth and final part of Episode 6. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 5.

33:34
Kind of Saul to point out to Holly that everybody’s staring at her. I think she’s got the right idea about why that might be. Shouldn’t they be the ones sitting at the Wicked table?

33:45
Saul pops into junior detective mode when he sees a picture of Rebecca in Holly’s purse. Um, what was her name again? And how many ways can it be anagrammed into a password?

33:48
Her name’s Becky? Does Holly ever actually call her that to her face? Becca, I think, but not Becky.

33:55
When Holly refers to “Becky” doing an “independent study,” she means she’s followed her older married lover to Chicago, right?

34:09
Saul whispers “Rebecca” twice into his secret tape-recording decoder ring. Except … Holly never called her Rebecca in their conversation, just “Becky.” Some people have a nickname for a name, and some people who are the children of actresses have incredibly weird names that go with those nicknames. Seems odd he would ignore the name Holly said and go right to the full name.

34:50
This little bit — where Nora rants about what monsters her children are being tonight. and the ladies’ room attendant tells a bizarre little story of her own, perfectly deadpan — is totally random, but it makes me smile.

35:04
Ah, the bathroom trick, where the person you’re talking about comes out of the stall. Used at least once more, in the first episode of Season 2 when they’re at the Mexican restaurant for Kitty’s birthday and Rebecca overhears Sarah and Kitty talking about her. Anybody think of other incidences? I’ll be looking out for ‘em.

35:56
Holly tells Nora that the sad thing is, “neither one of us got what we wanted.” Is that really true? Holly may have wanted more, but at least until she found out about William’s infidelity, Nora had pretty much what she wanted. Of course, now what she wants is for Holly to drop dead, and she’s not gonna get that.

36:10
How sweet for Justin to have some inappropriate behavior to chide Tommy about (in this case, public sex).

36:41
Sarah wants them all to stop pretending they’re perfect people, just for fourteen seconds. And … go!

36:55
Okay! Back to being perfect! ‘Cept Sarah’s just told Mom there’s more wrong with the business than she knows. So there’s still some imperfection ahead.

37:47
What ever happened to that fabulously expensive trip the lovely and generous Mrs. Nora Walker inadvertently won at auction for $25,000-plus? We never heard about it again. Kevin seems so wistful when his suggestion that they all just move there where nobody knows them is ignored.

39:34
How long has it been, here, since William’s death? Sarah’s talking about the struggle and missing her kids and not recognizing herself anymore, but the really hard stuff has been since he died and they found out about the embezzlement, right? It sounds like it’s been months and months of this, but I thought it had all been happening more quickly than that. In the previous episode, “Date Night,” Saul said that Nora’s husband “just died,” but of course he was being petty and childish there in their little spat on the stairs, so maybe he was exaggerating some.

40:43
Nora says Sarah’s not a daughter, she’s the damn trifecta. I think she’d be better off if she was a daughter.

40:56
Roseanne Cash’s “World Unseen” starts playing as Holly releases Saul for family duty and the shamed Walker family gathers for its own party outside.

42:05
Scotty and Kevin finally get to dance. Looks like Scotty insists on leading.

And that’s five days of catch-up on Episode 6. Retcon Patrol will continue tomorrow on Friday with Episode 7.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, For the Children

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 6. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 4.

23:54
I know I asked this when I wrote about the episode the first time around, but: If Tyler’s a smart girl, and a hotel manager, and this event is as high-profile in the community as it seems, would she not have known it was a black-and-white ball? And even if she didn’t, would black not be the safest thing to wear to an event the formality of which you are unsure? I think her whole involvement with Justin is some sort of cry for help.

26:01
Julia is hoping to be pregnant by Christmas, and she gets her wish — they’ll announce the impending blessed event on Thanksgiving.

27:33
Amber admits people underestimate her a lot, and says it “goes with the hair.” And also, I’d say, the baby-doll voice. And the giggle. And expressions like, “Goodie!”

27:57
I know Nora can be plenty tough, but it’s more along the lines of emotional manipulation than direct threats of violence. So I don’t at all believe that she would tell Harry that if he made a fool of her she would cut his nuts off. Especially since he did. And she didn’t. As far as we got to see, anyway.

29:17
Nickname alert: Tommy calls Julia “Jules.” Have we heard that before? Or since?

29:43
Do they really just allow random people into coat closets at big affairs like this? From what I’ve seen, those racks are usually blocked off by employees waiting for tips.

30:23
How cute is tipsy Kevin, dancing with women so he can ask them if he made a mistake with Scotty. Matthew Rhys does high-functioning drunk really well. Sort of a sleepy thing with the eyes and just a bit of slurriness.

31:16
Hate this whole scene with Margaret and Harry and Nora. It seems so over-the-top and really not necessary with all the better stuff going on. I suppose its purpose is to drive Margaret to the coatroom so she can find Tommy and Julia going at it on her mink, but … it’s like they set up a whole “best friend” just for a joke and then completely ditched the whole thing.

32:06
Matthew Rhys also does pathetic romantic begging well. While I wasn’t in the Scotty fan club early on like a lot of folks here, I think this scene with Kevin flipping from lovelorn to lawyerly is one of my favorites from the first season. Just paints his character so perfectly. “Can you please forgive me so I can stop getting drunk?”

Continue on to the conclusion, Part 5.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Date Night

Today we continue our search for inconsistent or comment-worthy moments in the Brothers & Sisters first season with a look at the third part of Episode 6. Read Part 1 and Part 2 if you need to catch up, then dive right in here with Part 3.

17:39
True to family form, Justin asks for a date by describing the event in derogatory terms. But Tyler, who must have crazy low self-esteem under that confident exterior or she wouldn’t be going out with this guy, says yes.

18:02
Well, maybe she agrees because he says “they’ve got great food and it’s kind of weird and cool,” and “it’ll be rocking.” Silver-tongued devil.

18:45
Kitty asks her mom if anybody ever tells her to “bugger off,” and then says sarcastically that her mother is “so chill.” Someone in the writing staff got a slang dictionary for their birthday.

18:50
Lest we wonder where the Walker kids got their inability to keep a secret, Nora immediately spills to Kitty what Joe let slip about Ojai’s problems.

19:20
It’s nice that Nora doesn’t want to get Joe into trouble. Doesn’t seem to mind getting Kitty into trouble, though.

20:04
While discussing potential baby names, Julia opines that she wants to find something unique. Like, oh, I don’t know … Elizabeth!

20:19
Here’s why Justin was in such a good mood in that scene with Tyler: Tommy borrowed his Troubled Look to get through this “I’m infertile but haven’t told the wife” spell. Julia’s trying it out too.

20:45
Kitty has really awful taste in formalwear, doesn’t she? Between this bow-bedecked silly thing and that unflattering green dress she wore in “Double Negative,” I think she really could use a fashion consultant.

20:57
For someone who’s going to have a career of sorts in politics, Kitty sure doesn’t know how to be politic. “Hey, Sarah, hi, nice party, by the way, Mom says Joe told her the company’s in big trouble, and what’s up with that?” For goodness sake, let the woman get a drink or ten first.

21:49
Kitty immediately gets her comeuppance for her clumsy handling of the Ojai inquiry when she discovers that her mother has invited Warren to be the emcee, and he has invited Amber to be his date. The big event just gets more and more excruciating, doesn’t it?

23:08
And Nora, in turn, gets her comeuppance for telling Kitty “you can’t be mad at people for who they bring to this, it’s such a good cause” when Saul arrives with Holly on his arm. Holly says Nora and Kitty look stunning, but really, stunned is more like it.

Continue on to Part 4.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, For the Children