Brothers & Sisters

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

1. Why didn’t Nora cook at Kitty’s house? I grew up about halfway between Pasadena and Santa Barbara, and went to college at the latter, and I remember it being close to an hour’s drive from my parents’ home. Schlepping cooked chickens two hours across CA with the risk of traffic jams extending the trip seems pretty silly, assuming Robert’s got a kitchen at that ranch. It makes sense to have Grandma cook for that homey touch, but not that she wouldn’t have done the cooking at Kitty’s.

2. How many months removed are we from Julia’s Arizona exile? Justin said it’s been “months” since he and Rebecca found out they’re not related, and how long before that did Tommy’s family reunite? I’d like to ensure that it’s been quite some time, because the only reason I can think of to even bother to have had Julia in this episode to throw up twice is if it’s some foreshadowing of her being pregnant by the Arizona boyfriend. But it’s been too many months for that to be a plot possibility, right? Right? Oh, please.

3. What is Rebecca living on, anyway? My question about the trust fund from last week got answered, but not how she’s paying for rent and furniture and gas and rental movies and motel rooms. I’m not looking for long scenes of her working the drive-through at In N Out Burger or anything, just a casual mention of a job somewhere along the line.

4. Is Holly tallying up the usage of Ojai phones for personal calls? The two group phone calls in this episode were priceless, and it was funny to add the fax machine into the mix. Lots of downtime for key Ojai employees, though, paper wasted, important phone calls possibly missed while dishing with family members. I’ll be this is going on their permanent record.

5. How did Holly know Ryan’s last name? I was wondering that all week, being pretty sure that Nora hadn’t given her anything more than “Ryan” and Saul hadn’t cracked under her donut-wielding interrogation. But watching it again yesterday to transcribe some memorable lines, I found the answer: Sarah let it spill. Oh, Sarah. It’s hard to resist those sarcastic comments. And the dig about Holly taking her self-loathing out on you was fun, and true. But did you have to say “Mom just told you about Ryan Lafferty“? Way to throw your half-brother to the shark.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Book Burning, commentary