Five questions: “Separation Anxiety”
Five questions about last Sunday’s episode — “Separation Anxiety” — still rattling around in my brain:
1. Was Saul confused about the time of the party? I sure was. In Sarah’s office at the start of the episode, after discussing the prospect of Nora going away with Isaac, Saul quite clearly asked about the birthday party tonight. It wasn’t just me — the closed-captioning heard it, too. It had me wondering for quite a bit of the episode whether this birthday party was going to be after the romantic dinner, and how that was going to work. I kept expecting the sibs to use it as an excuse for crashing the dinner, but then it became apparent that the party was the next night. I’d write it off to the scene getting moved and somebody not catching the continuity problem, except … Sarah and Saul’s conversation seemed clearly pre-Nora-declaration, with some wonkiness involving the timing of Graham’s proposal, too. Did anybody else get confused by this? Would have been funny to have Saul show up at the dinner saying truthfully that he thought the party was that night, and Nora not believe that he wasn’t being manipulative, too.
2. Where were all those needy kids after they drove their mother’s boyfriend away? Boy, make her feel guilty for abandoning you, and then when she decides not to go you leave her there to eat dinner alone? That’s cold. I suppose the point was that Nora has to start enjoying her own company, but for it to start on that night Isaac leaves made it look like her children don’t want to hang around with her, but they don’t want her going out and having a life of her own, either.
3. When Graham was talking about stocks changing hands in the business deal, was that Ojai stock being used to pay for something? It made me wonder if there was a hostile takeover of some sort coming up, and that’s what makes Holly (and her shares) their “last hope.” Personally, I can’t say I’d be all that disappointed if Ojai Foods just went away. I know we’re supposed to care about it as the bedrock family business, but the business plots are entirely uninteresting to me. And Sarah almost always seems to look bad in them.
4. So where was Scotty? Logically, I know that actors are contracted for a certain number of episodes and that therefore it doesn’t do to worry too much about their absences. But it just seemed wrong that he wasn’t there at that party, scurrying off to the kitchen with all the other significant others. He could certainly have assured David that this was, indeed, standard Walker Party Operating Procedure.
5. Are the Walkers living in the future? Super Tuesday was in early February, making three months later … May. I guess the three months was approximate and it’s silly to expect things on a show to be taking place exactly on our own time. But I keep thinking, alright, so what we’re seeing hasn’t actually happened yet. If we don’t like what happens with Rebecca, can we get a do-over?
Photos: ABC.com
Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Separation Anxiety, commentary
April 24th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
3. I am not sure. If I understand correctly, Ojai is about to take a loan of 20 million dollar. To make things easier Golden Plum (what a name!) offers part of their shares instead of ‘to soften the deal’. Assuming that the business goes wel in China, the profits of Golden Plum will be good and therefore a part will return to Ojai and help in the payment of the loan.
This of course providing the deal goes as good as it should…. If it doesn’t… . And I fear that will happen. The deal in China goes wrong, the Golden Plum shares will become worthless and therefore Ojai will have a huge problem meeting the their obligation to pay back the loan of 20 million. And I can imagine that THAT was Sarah’s worst fear. Both of Graham and Saul talk about how great the deal is, if everything goes right. Sarah foresees problems and expects Saul to back her up and not accept the deal.
I think that Saul accepts the deal on her behalf. (fraud)
And I disagree with you, as a bookkeeper I find this a fascinating storyline, only topped by Kevin/Scotty. And so much better then the campaign stuff I had to suffer through.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Yeah, I agree with Sylviane–the Sarah/Saul plot has a lot of potential. Not only because of the dynamics between the two (particularly if Saul goes behind her back and commit fraud, per the previews), but also because it would place the family’s wealth in jeopardy and up the stakes.
Sarah has always been written as more risk-adverse in business than Saul/Graham, so I wish that had been emphasized more in her decision to nix the deal (hopefully she’ll focus on this in the next ep). As Sylviane pointed out, although this deal has a possibly high rate of return, there is naturally a corresponding high risk. That, in of itself, could justify Sarah’s reluctance to sign off on it.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
Just tossing in my two cents that I like the business story lines. They are more high stakes because it is a family business, so there are emotional issues as well as business issues to deal with when decisions go awry. There have been plenty of soaps that have “family businesses” that we never see or hear of, but B&S actually talks about stocks and risk in a way that matter and that is a nice change.