Brothers & Sisters

Boy, Julia’s dad is really an SOB, isn’t he? Have we ever, ever heard, even in passing, even as a stray joke somewhere along the line, that Tommy and Ben hated each other? Has Tommy ever made a comment about Julia’s family, at all? Did we even know Julia had a family until she mentioned they were abroad and not able to hurry home for the birth?

I don’t mind villains. There are villains in real life, sure. Holly has been the villain on this show, and I really haven’t objected to her presence as much as many show fans have. But villains dropped from the sky, snarling and snarky, to foil the relationship of a family member just ’cause the writers can’t figure out any more interesting way to develop a couple’s storyline? Sheesh. Lena must have taken that big flashing Plot Device sign off her head and Fed-Ex’d it to the Ridges just in time for Ben to cover it with additional blinking lights. Even Courtney McCallister, in two icy scenes, had more nuance than that guy.

I’ll buy the Julia post-partum depression story, but an “I blame you for William’s death and so I’m taking our baby and going home with my parents, or else we won’t survive” needs a little more working up to, doesn’t it? It would have helped if they’d painted Tommy as more of an inconsiderate workaholic, but the guy seems to have been doing whatever he could to help Julia, while, by the way, dealing with his own darn grief.

I know these writers can do complex relationships. Why can’t they manage that for Tommy and Julia? They’re either blandly happy or arbitrarily sad. I hated the blandly happy part last season, but seeing the alternative now, I’d gladly go back to it. And while I have high hopes that the Lena storyline is a bluff, and Tommy will not actually cheat on the love of his life, it’s still tiresome just in the clumsy set-up, isn’t it? This whole icky plot cannot be over with fast enough.

I’m interested to see how the writers handle Justin Addict 2.0, and I hope they’ll find new places to go with it. Ditto Kevin-Scotty … would it be 3.0 now? Just friends? Just keep it that way, okay, at least until it’s for sure that Viva Laughlin’s taking off and the Reverend Boyfriend has been assigned to Malaysia permanently. That CBS series starts this Thursday, by the way, 10 p.m. ET/PT, followed by a second installment on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT. So if you want to start actively rooting for it to tank and give us back Eric Winter, now’s the time.

“History Repeating” was kind of a loaded title for this episode — did it really live up to it? The Tommy storyline didn’t have any historical resonance, did it? If he’d started an affair with Lena, maybe, but the circumstances would not in many ways parallel William’s taking up with Holly. Did it refer only to Justin, starting again with the drugs, although in a very different context from the past? Did it refer to Kevin seeing Scotty again, although in a far-less messed-up way? “History Repeating” usually involves people making the same old mistakes again. Am I missing something here? It seems like a great title for a different episode.

Then again, I guess “Demon Father-in-Laws from Hell” would have been a little lengthy.

What did you think of the episode? Leave your thoughts in the comments, and come back tomorrow for a full recap.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, History Repeating, commentary