Brothers & Sisters

Five questions about last Sunday’s episode, “Two Places,” still rattling around in my brain today:

1. Can we move Scotty in with Nora? I’ve got the worst feeling about him bunking at Kevin’s. Nora’s got that big house, and with Rebecca moving out now, there’s extra room. He and Nora could bond over cooking, and he’d be saved from sleeping in his car. Without, you know, sleeping anywhere else inappropriate.

2. What would have made you buy Joe’s change of heart? Judging from the comments, some viewers had no problem with the guy who grabbed full custody giving it right back up. For me, it seemed unnaturally quick, like the writers suddenly realized Pyper-Ferguson had another job lined up and they needed to dispatch Joe quick. I’m willing to believe Joe would see that the custody was not working and make a change for his children’s sake, but this is how it would have worked for me: Either give a few episodes’ breathing room between the brutal goings-on of “Domestic Issues” and the change of plans; or show us, in “Two Places,” a scene between Joe and Paige that brings the damage right to his doorstep. Kerris Dorsey seems to be a pretty good little actress; I’d have liked to see if she could drive that one home. Guilting Sarah is too easy, it’s like preaching to the choir. A good daddy-daughter dialog could have given Paige a chance to show that she’s her grandma’s granddaughter.

3. Why didn’t Joe and Sarah call Nora in the first place? It sounded like they were calling around to Paige’s friends, or anyone else she could have been with. Yet they had called the police and set up an Amber Alert without checking with Grandma. Seems like a good place to have looked for her, since the Walker homestead is apparently close enough to Sarah’s that Paige can get there on foot and Nora can sneak over undetected.

4. Did Lena pick the wrong Walker boy? Bummer for her that she’s having the affair with the formerly solid citizen who goes home early and has all sorts of marriage baggage. Justin seems more her type, and she could have been the Fawn to his relapsed addict. Now it’s just all kinds of awkward. And if that intervention goes down successfully next week, the window of Justin’s interest in her is going to be closing fast.

5. Is Holly becoming the voice of reason? It’s nice to see Patricia Wettig play something other than the reviled villain, for sure. But the character runs the risk of being this season’s Uncle Saul, available to provide advice and recriminations for others but essentially without personal plot. Perhaps the upcoming arrival of Ken Olin as an old flame will put Holly back in the … scheme of things.

_{Photos: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Two Places, commentary