Brothers & Sisters

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.

(more…)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mother’s Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(more…)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(more…)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(more…)

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

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

Rebecca and the Paternity Test

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

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

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

(more…)

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

Julia: Why do Republicans have so many winner-take-all primaries?
Kevin: Because they hate weakness. Even if you come in a close second, you have to be culled from the herd. It’s so Darwinian for people who don’t believe in evolution.
Tommy: At least we’re decisive. You guys are so sensitive, you split your delegates so nobody gets their feelings hurt.

Sarah: Mom moving to Washington? That’ll never happen.
Kitty: Well, we never thought she’d get busted for smoking pot, either.

Sarah: Who would have the parties if Mom moved to Washington?

Sarah: You don’t think Mom would really leave Paige and Coop, do you?
Tommy: Hello, what about Elizabeth?
Kevin: Get a grip, she’d never leave me.

Kevin: She’s not moving. She doesn’t have any winter clothes.

Rebecca: She invited my mom over to bake. Can’t you stop this?

Nora: Tommy, what are you doing?
Kevin: Tommy’s here?
Tommy: (from kitchen) Uh, Sarah knocked a pot off the stove.
Nora: Sarah’s in there too?
Sarah: Hi, Mom!
Nora: (after a moment, annoyed) Kitty?
Kitty: Hello.
Nora: What is going on?
(Sarah, Kitty and Tommy come in from the kitchen, feigning surprise at seeing Nora’s candlelit dinner with Issac)
Nora: What is this, just some sort of colossal coincidence that you’re all here interrupting my romantic dinner?
(They all deny any bad intentions)
Tommy: That’s not true, I came to tell Isaac about golf. Kev, right?
Kevin: What golf?
Nora: Too bad Justin isn’t here, then I could tell everyone at once.
Justin: (from other room) Yo.

(more…)

Normally, I don’t do recaps in an as-it-happened fashion, but this time it’s called for in order to keep account of those anvils that kept dropping. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the episode immensely, but … if we’d made it a drinking game to down a beverage every time somebody made a portentous statement about Rebecca’s Walkerness, we’d have all passed out by the third commercial break.

So now, welcome to Super Tuesday, Walker style (which means, several months late).

The results are playing on the TV at Graham’s as Sarah comes over and quicky disrobes, because the only politics they’re interested in is sexual politics … and at Tommy and Julia’s, as they watch the results with Kevin and debate the difference between winner-take-all and splitting delegates … and at Holly’s, as Rebecca and Justin return with ice cream and find Holly and David making out on the sofa … and backstage somewhere on the campaign trail, as Isaac tells Robert that his opponent is waiting for him to make his speech. Oops, that doesn’t sound good. But Kitty’s proud of her man anyway. His concession speech is playing again, hours later, as Isaac comes into Nora’s bedroom, sits down, and lays his head on her shoulder very sweetly. She allows as how she hopes he can stay in California a while and not rush back to Washington, but he’s already fallen asleep.

And … it’s three months later! Just like that! The magic of TV, I tell ya.

Robert and Kitty are in a fertility clinic office, getting instructions on injecting hormones. Robert lets slip that Nora and Isaac are having a special dinner that night, and the ABC Music of Whimsy works very hard to alert us that there is Walker wackiness ahead.

Here’s the soon-to-be-dining couple now. Appears that Isaac’s been living with the Widow Walker for lo these three months, but now she’s found out he’s taking a professorship that will finally take him back to Washington. He says he’s hoping she’ll move there with him, and that was to be the topic of tonight’s dinner. He’s hoping she’ll say yes, but she doesn’t look too sure.

Back from commercial, and into another montage. Boy, it’s like they read my post about wanting more family in various conversations, ’cause it’s a regular Walker roundelay here. Kitty tells Sarah that Isaac’s asking mom to go to Washington, something Sarah swears will never happen. But then Sarah mentions it to Saul, and she’s the one doubting while Saul’s sure it will never happen. He also mentions something about Graham’s new proposal, and asks about the upcoming birthday party (which Sarah says is for “the new one,” Rebecca. If you’re keeping count, that’s Anvil #1.) We move on to Kevin giving Tommy some papers to sign (about the winery, apparently, because Holly needs to sign them too) and the phone rings so that Sarah can let these two know about the outlandish news. Tommy calls Justin, who hasn’t heard a word. The phone chain ends as Justin gets another call, from Rebecca, referencing her birthday that night. She wants no part of it, but Justin explains that no one stops Nora from having parties, so “welcome to being a Walker.” Anvil #2. Uh-oh.

(more…)

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

Rebecca: Everybody thinks I’m an aimless loser.
Justin: Hey, ‘aimless loser’ is my job.

Robert: You all told me to focus on Adamson and Burgess, ignore the rest of them, those were the two to pay attention to, and then Taylor ambushes us in Iowa.
Travis: Well, we also advised you to reveal the truth about Adamson and you didn’t, which gave Taylor the opportunity to reveal it on his own schedule.
Isaac: And even worse, it let Taylor see what kind of campaign you’re running.
Robert: And what kind of campaign is that?
Isaac: Robert, taking the high road doesn’t always get you where you want to go.

Kevin: I’m not actually a karaoke … type.

Scotty: They just think you’re … uptight.
Kevin: I’m not uptight!
Scotty: Okay. Whatever you need to tell yourself.

Travis: I get very nervous when Kitty’s vague.

Travis: Hey, maybe we can do a photo op, you know, you, rifle in one hand, deer or elk …
Isaac: Too late, it’s small game season, squirrels, bobtail rabbits.
Robert: Yeah, it’s not very manly to kill Thumper.

Saul: I was very surprised that you had time for lunch.
Nora: Why, I always have time for you, Saul, and then, a lot of my family and loved ones are not even in the state.

Nora: Why are you smiling?
Saul: I just thought how much fun it would be to tell mother about your new boyfriend.
Nora: I really don’t care what anyone thinks. I only care what I think and what Isaac thinks. And you know what? I have a family who loves me, and they’re happy when I’m happy.
Saul: So, this is no longer about you and Isaac, right?

(more…)

“I feel like we’re both doing the same thing. We’re making compromises for a greater purpose.”

Jason McCallister says those words to his brother, Robert, toward the end of last Sunday’s episode of Brothers & Sisters, and since lines of dialog that contain the title of the episode ought, by my reckoning, to have something important to say about what we’re seeing, I’m going to use that as the theme for this recap.

Most obviously, for the greater purpose of helping us forget how annoying their storyline has been of late, the Powers That Be have compromised the role of Tommy and Julia on the show by leaving them completely out of the loop this week. Not even so much as a name check. Sure, Robert was missing last week, but at least he got a talking-head shot on the TV and a discussion of his handsomeness. Apparently, Tommy and Julia are getting their marriage counseling in Malaysia, and we already know the phone service stinks.

Perhaps for the greater purpose of keeping their options open regarding Danny Glover’s continued presence on the show, those same PTB have also compromised the integrity of ABC press releases by excising promised scenes in which Nora was to have found out Something Bad about Isaac. Fortunately, ABC press releases don’t have all that much integrity to begin with, so no harm done there. The loss kind of marginalized Nora, reducing her to phone conversations and Advising the Young People, but her telling Kitty to suck it up and be a mom to her sick stepkids was certainly more fun than yet another round of romantic disillusionment.

On to what we did see. First, foremost, and funniest, we saw Sarah compromise her resistance toward Graham for the greater purpose of getting over her divorce, and Kevin compromise his dignity for the greater purpose of getting Scotty’s friends to like him. Those pals see Kevin as a stuffed shirt who’s hurt their friend in the past, so when Sarah — smarting from the arrival of her divorce papers, and from the news that Joe’s taking his girlfriend/ex-wife to Paris instead of her — wants to go out, get wild, and do what Walkers do best (drink!), Kevin takes her to the gay karaoke bar where he knows Scotty and crew will be.

(more…)

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

Kitty: That would be Typhoid Travis, attempting to spread his plague to the good people of Iowa.
Travis: Those good people gave me this plague.

Kitty: The man watched our family disintegrate over paella, I think you’re past the “too forward” stage.

Nora: I don’t even talk to Justin, who I guess is still sleeping with Lena. What could she be thinking?
Kitty: I don’t know, maybe she’s wishing Kevin were straight so she could go for the whole Walker Trifecta.

Travis: Wow. I have so many questions about that conversation.

Justin: Why don’t you quit?
Lena: Because unlike you, I don’t live at my parents’ house rent-free, and I don’t have a bunch of money in the bank either, alright? I need this paycheck.

Julia: You know, this new Mexican place just opened right by my parents’ house, they have the best fish tacos.
Tommy: Is that where he took you?
Julia: What? … No, he did not take me for Mexican food. And how can you even bring him up when she’s sitting right outside the door.
Tommy: You’re the one who suggested eating here.
Julia: I thought we were going for normal, which obviously isn’t working, probably because all I can think about is, did you do it on your desk? On hers?
Tommy: Like I don’t have questions about the guy you slept with? Was it really just once? Was he good? At least you know what you’re going up against.
Julia: Up against?
Tommy: I didn’t mean it like that.

Nora: I want something quiet and elegant and sophisticated, like he is.

Justin: It was a mistake, okay?
Rebecca: Really? Because usually, when people do something over and over again that’s not really a mistake, that’s more of a hobby, or …
Justin: Or what, an addiction, right?
Rebecca: I didn’t say that. But now that you mention it, there are some glaring similarities.

(more…)

Maybe they should have called this one “The Trouble With Triangles,” because awkward three-sided relationships were all over the place in “The Missionary Imposition,” the eleventh episode of the second season of Brothers & Sisters. Whether the third party was a certain busy blonde, a returning Man of God, or the damages of history, all sorts of twosomes were under attack.

Triangles 1 and 2: Scotty-Kevin-Jason, Kevin-Jason-God

The inevitable finally occurs: Kevin’s long-lost Reverend Ex-Boyfriend is back in town, and wants to talk to him. Kevin behaves admirably and vets the idea of having the guy over for coffee with Scotty, who is in one of those positions where you really want to say no but you really can’t without looking desperate and immature. So he says of course, fine, sure, go ahead, have coffee. Then, apparently, decides he can live with being desperate and immature, because he bursts in on the exes’ cozy get-together with a bag of soft-shell crabs and a whole lot of nervous conversation.

It’s probably a good thing he did, because the way Kevin and Jason were looking at each other at the start of their reunion, and their general cordiality, might have opened a door for a resumption of romance. Scotty slams that door pretty well shut by goading the two into confronting the elephant in the room — the fact that Jason never called. The two of them are sufficiently on edge from the awkwardness of the evening that they get right down to it, with Jason claiming he didn’t call because he missed Kevin so much he was having a crisis of faith over it, and Kevin responding that not calling is a pretty strange way of telling someone you miss them. By the end they’re hating each other again, but still, you know, lotsa passion there.

Which is why Scotty storms out afterwards, and winds up sleeping in his car. And why, the next morning, when Kevin gets in the car with him and very sweetly declares him the winner, Scotty insists that Kevin have no more meetings with his brother-in-law’s brother. Chilly encounters at family events will be unavoidable, of course, but no more coffee in the loft, no way, no how. Kevin agrees, and we should probably start taking wagers on how long that’s going to last. It would require Scotty not being jealous anymore, and Kevin not resenting restrictions put upon him, and I don’t know, have we seen anything about these characters that would lead us to believe either was possible?

(more…)

As a follow-up to yesterday’s recap, here are some memorable lines from the episode “The Feast of the Epiphany.”

Isaac: Presidential politics and fairness. Kind of like oil and water.

Nora: Why is it I never see my children all together anymore? Especially not Tommy and Justin. They’re like Superman and Clark Kent.

Nora: Remember when you wanted to skateboard in the driveway with Bobby Lampert and you were too nervous to be alone with him, so I pretended to clean out the garage?
Sarah: What are you saying, mother? You’re too nervous to have a playdate with Isaac?

Sarah: You’ve always had a thing for Republicans.
Nora: You know what, he’s not a Republican Republican. He’s a self-reliant, historically sensitive, get the job done yourself kind of … Republican.

Nora: Alright. I’m into him. That makes me pathetic, right?
Sarah: No, mother, no, it makes you cute …
Nora: That’s worse.
Sarah: … and human. And you have a crush.

Kevin: Who made you my conscience? What are you, Jiminy Cricket?
Sarah: Maybe you need a conscience. All the men in this family could do with a little cricket on their shoulder.

(more…)

If telling the truth would hurt someone, do you still have to tell it?

That question provides the theme for “The Feast of the Epiphany,” the tenth episode of the second season of Brothers & Sisters. And knowing these Walkers as we do, it is no surprise to learn that their answer is: Yes. You tell. As many people as possible.

Amazing that all these children came from William Walker, the ultimate “Don’t ask, don’t tell” patriarch, isn’t it? The gene that helped him keep the secret of Holly Harper for decades obviously did not pass down to his offspring.

Saul, who certainly has a truth to be told, was entirely missing from this episode. But there were certainly secrets aplenty burning to get out. Let’s look at which Walkers had beans to spill this time around.

Nora’s secret: She likes Ike.
Who it might hurt: Nora’s pride, if Isaac doesn’t reciprocate. So instead of just asking the dude on a date, she plots a big family dinner to which she can casually invite him. ‘Cause Walker family dinners are the height of civilized discourse and decorum, and what better way to charm the Republican gentleman? Nora = seriously delusional. Her secret does slip out to Sarah, who does a little “Mom has a boyfriend” dance and confers with Kevin as to how they can get warring siblings Tommy and Justin to dine together without speaking, making eye contact, or engaging in fisticuffs. Sarah quickly also catches on to …

Kevin’s secret: Jason has e-mailed that he’s coming home and wants to have lunch.
Who it might hurt: Scotty, who’s already expressing insecurity about whether he’ll be living in his car again when Jason gets back. So it’s a good idea, right, for Kevin to not tell him that he’s heard from the Reverend Ex-Boyfriend and that they’re going to be getting together? Sarah’s not so sure, but there are plenty of other sibling bad decisions to gossip about, as they both reveal that they know the truth about …

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