Brothers & Sisters

Five questions — and a couple of answers — about last Sunday’s episode, “States of the Union”:

1. Was that the same dress Sarah was wearing at the Matriarchy engagement party? The color and cut and fit and style just looked very familiar to me. So I popped in the DVD for that episode (how great to have the DVDs to refer to!) and can report that it is not, in fact, the identical frock. The party number had a subtle pattern to it and a button-over piece at the neck, and probably was ruined by the jump into the pool anyway. Maybe Sarah went out and bought this somewhat similar one in an effort to replace it. I do like it that the sisters have their own styles, with Sarah wearing classic, tailored dresses and Kitty wearing skimpy little low-cut things with sweaters. You know, come to think of it, Sarah dresses a lot more like a political wife than Mrs.-McCallister-to-be.

2. Did Nora parachute down into Sarah’s house? Or have we established somewhere, and I missed it, that the Whedons lived within easy walking distance of the Walker homestead? Nora must have some sort of stealth capability for Kitty to have walked into her sister’s house not knowing that their mother was there. You’d think she might have been tipped off by the presence of the woman’s car out front — though you kind of have to love the idea of Nora parking, like, around the block so as to effectively sneak up on her offspring.

3. How come there’s no Project Kevin? A child not answering the phone has never stopped Nora from being nosy before. The long-distance relationship may not seem to need too much motherly intervention, but if she’d only known about the mission Kevin was on this episode while she was out spa-ing it with the girls! It certainly outrates Kitty’s pre-nup jitters for importance, anyway. I’m personally missing a scene in which Nora tracks Kevin down at Saul’s office, walks in and says, “Well, what are you two talking about? Everybody looks so serious!”

4. Is Holly losing her edge? Coming right out and confronting Tommy directly over his alleged misbehavior seems kind of unlike her. Tucking that information away for when she can use it to her advantage, totally. I guess she was making a point about not setting them up for a sexual harrassment suit, and maybe she knows things about Lena that cause her concern. But from a short-term, purely self-involved point of view — Holly’s POV, more often than not — a happy Tommy who’s screwing around instead of mooning around over his wife is probably a business asset. You’d also expect her to take some satisfaction in seeing one of the holier-than-thou Walkers surrender the moral high ground.

5. So what happened to that scene with Kitty and the bouquet? It was in the previews, and the bouquet was in Kitty’s purse when she spoke with Robert at the end. If you’re wondering whether your local network extended a commercial too long, or you accidentally nodded off, don’t worry: It’s not you. According to the Writer’s Room video, the show was 11 minutes too long, and that slapsticky stuff all got left on the cutting-room floor. They hoped nobody would notice that bouquet in the bag. I did. Did you?

_{Photos: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, History Repeating, commentary