Brothers & Sisters

You know those humor books and sites where they boil down a literary work or movie into a few sentences or, maybe, a haiku? That’s kind of what this season of Brothers & Sisters has been like, hasn’t it? The short-attention-span, whiplash pace continued with last night’s episode, “The Feast of the Epiphany,” which neatly dispatched most of the plot complications that had dug in their fingernails and held on so far:

• Tommy’s infidelity? Check! Julia confessed to cheating too, so they’ve decided the sleeping around cancels out and they’re staying together.
• Robert’s lying about wanting children? Check! He confessed, they discussed, and the issue is tabled for the moment.
• Robert’s lying about his wartime heroism? Check! A town hall meeting with veterans cleared the air about the issue.
• Isaac’s inside info about Robert’s opponent? Check! Though Robert still didn’t want to go dirty, the word got out somehow and Adamson quit the race.
• Rebecca’s possible alternate paternity? Check! ‘Cause Holly swore David’s not her father. And hey, Holly wouldn’t lie, right?

The only resolution I hoped for and missed was Lena getting hit by a bus … but maybe they’re saving that for sweeps.

Still, when Brothers & Sisters taketh away, it also giveth. So this episode furthered new romances for Nora and Sarah — and you know, I like their new fellas, but can’t commit because if the pattern holds, they’ll be gone in a few episodes — and threw some complications into Kevin’s old-new romance with Scotty. That is, Jason’s coming back. And sending e-mails. And wanting to have lunch. And making Scotty feel pretty sure he’ll be living out of his car again soon. It doesn’t help that Kevin’s acting all deceptive and bumbling and Kevin-like about it.

What remains the same, regardless of the storytelling pace, is the extreme ill-advisedness of getting the Walkers together for dinner and expecting decorum. Nora, Nora, Nora. I’ve sometimes chastised the siblings for expecting their mother to be anything other than manipulative and overinvolved, but you know, she’s just as foolish for expecting them to be anything other than argumentative and screwed-up. You might as well enjoy it, lady. We do.

And we might as well enjoy the breakneck plots, too, because it seems to be the Walker way this season, if not from the start. I’m beginning to appreciate it a little bit if only because it keeps the show from being a soap opera. The plotlines, sure, they are undeniably sudsy. But one thing soaps are not is fast-paced; they’ll milk a single storyline for years. While I may sometimes wish there was more emotional depth to some of the stories — and that we could actually see scenes like Tommy and Julia making up instead of hearing the pat resolution — I am grateful not to have to wallow in them for weeks and weeks on end.

Which brings us back to Lena. Bus? Hole in the ground? Urgent business anywhere but here? Who cares! She’s overstayed her welcome by at least five episodes.

What did you think about the episode? Share your thoughts in the comments, and come back tomorrow for a full re-cap.

_ABC.com

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, The Feast of the Epiphany, review