Brothers & Sisters

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

1. Can we set a rule now: No more updos? I thought the done-up hairstyle looked bad on Nora last week, and unbecoming on both Kitty and Rebecca this week (particularly Kitty). Is there a law that fancy dress has to equal fancy hair? It should be repealed, quickly.

2. Speaking of fashion, is it just me, or were the party gowns pretty underwhelming? I thought Kitty’s was just awful (like an arrow pointing up at the bad hairdo); Rebecca’s was too modest in the front and too racy in the back; Nora’s was a little too revealing; and Sarah’s was kinda blah. In contrast, I thought Rebecca looked fabulous in that T-shirt she was wearing for her confrontation with David, and Kitty in that white sweater set she was wearing for her confrontation with Taylor. I think the costume department has a real strength in casual clothes. (Loved Rebecca’s shorts-style bikini bottoms, too.)

3. Does Holly not have a doorbell? I guess Justin was trying not to wake Holly by not ringing, but knocking loud enough to wake Rebecca and summon her to the door would seem to have been just as bad.

4. Whatever sort of Ronald McDonald-house clone Nora gets going, can Justin work there? This is assuming that Ojai’s impending doom doesn’t torpedo the idea. There’s been so much joking about Justin’s shiftlessness without anything being done about it. His medical training and personableness would seem to make him a good choice for interacting with families of sick kids.

5. Why did David come to find Holly in the first place? It’s sure been hinted that he wondered if her daughter was his, right down to his giving Rebecca the heirloom necklace last week. Seems odd that he’d split the moment he found out that he was right about being the dad. I assume that he thought this would make it easier for her to keep being a Walker, and that maybe he was a little freaked out by the responsibility when he actually got it — Ken Olin did a great job of slowly encroaching panic in his scene with Emily VanCamp. If there’s not been some crazy mix-up at the lab (please please please) and he really is Rebecca’s pop, I hope he comes back after he’s had time to think it over; if she has to have a living dad, she should at least get to have a relationship with him.

_{Photos: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Double Negative, commentary