Brothers & Sisters

In advance of a full recap, here are five questions from last night’s episode that are tickling my brain this morning.

1. Will we ever see Julia again? At least this time, Tommy’s pregnant wife was mentioned when she failed to appear at a family gathering. The excuse for her absence was morning sickness that lasts all day … and all season, one fears. Is Sarah Jane Morris so busy on another project that she can’t come sit quietly in a folding chair and be part of the clan for one lousy scene? Is she in contract renegotiations that interfere with her ability to walk on and walk off? Is Rob Lowe so stretching the budget that they’ve had to cut back on non-speaking spouses? What’s up with that?

2. Why did ABC cut “gay” from its promo? As I mentioned a few days ago, a last-minute ABC promo for this episode featured an exchange in which Kitty, surprised, says to Lowe’s Senator McCallister, “You have a brother?” to which the senator replies, “And a cute one, too,” and Kitty says, “Is he single?” Except, that’s not how the scene went. In the actual show, the exchange started with, “You have a gay brother?” which explains the surprise a lot better, since much of the episode had been about him not supporting gay marriage. If they wanted to protect the plot twist, why promo the exchange at all? I’ve seen conversations clipped and promo’d in misleading ways before, but I think a flat-out altered line is unusual, isn’t it?

3. They’ve stunt-cast Nora and Saul’s mother. They’re talking about stunt-casting Holly’s daughter. So now, let’s start taking names for the stunt-casting of Joe’s ex-wife and Gabe’s mom. Guesses, anyone?

4. I think it was great to have Holly come to Ojai Foods to actually work, and not just annoy … but did it have to be so overwhelmingly at Nora’s expense? I’d have enjoyed her being there to tweak Holly a little, but she quickly degenerated into blithering idiot mode. Dogs at work? Really?

5. Shouldn’t a rehab place make you want to get better? ‘Cause that was some beautiful spot Justin’s in. And I’d have to think that, given the option of staying there vs. going back to your ridiculous bickering family … man, bring on those mango smoothies.

_{Photo: ABC.com}