Brothers & Sisters

That’s her, right there. That’s the Other Walker. The newest member of what ABC keeps assuring us is America’s Favorite Family. Isn’t she cute? She’s been a secret for a way long time, even to herself, but tonight, the secret’s out. Because the other Walkers? Can’t keep one to save their lives.

It’s a pretty shiny happy morning, though, as we begin. Kitty’s waking up with the senator again, although this time instead of running into the bathroom to cell phone her siblings, she stays put for a little pillow talk. Robert — we should call him that now, because even though we haven’t actually seen the birthmark on his butt, Kitty has — is having some second thoughts over the inability of a man running for president to have a normal life, or a normal relationship. A normal sex life, on the other hand, seems fairly do-able. Meanwhile, Holly and Saul — oh, let’s hope he just stopped by on the way to work, okay? — are finding that coffee is not possible from Holly’s fancy new coffee appliance, and continued canoodling is not possible once Rebecca blows in to smile and snark. And at the other Walker house, Tyler is having her robe-clad morning-after breakfast with … Nora, who’s telling her embarrassing stories about Justin, of which I’m guessing there are many.

All this familial light-heartedness is about to be shattered, though, by that Other Walker. Saul reports back to Sarah, Kevin and Tommy that their half-sis is in town, and they really ought to tell Nora about it. Sarah remains firmly on the side of lying, deceiving and concealing, and Kevin, the lawyer whose cases are all about lies, and Tommy, the brother who resents her leadership in all other things, agree. Saul, you’ll note, doesn’t actually agree; he just observes that they’ve made up their minds. That old man’s going to sing like a canary, you just know it.

Speaking of secrets not-so-well-kept, Kevin and Chad check out a gossip site which, surprise, has an item about the two of them out shopping and maybe just out. Kevin’s all hot to hunt the blogger down and sue him, but Chad makes him swear he won’t. Ha! He’s about as likely to honor that request as Saul is to keep the truth from Nora. During a nice sibling lunch, Nora tells Saul that she’s putting the past in the past, and that makes him feel guilty enough to bring the past into the present. News of Rebecca’s existence brings the nice sibling lunch to a very abrupt end, as Nora has to run home and tell the only other people in her family who don’t know, Kitty and Justin. Bummer for them — no one to blab to! Justin storms out of the house all bitter and lost and doomed. Gosh, you don’t suppose he’s going to do anything crazy, do you? Sarah and Joe come over to go on a misbegotten double date with Kitty and Robert, and Sarah gets the Laser Stare of Death from her mom, who then calls Kevin and gives him the Laser Stare remotely. I’ve gotten that stare before, and for way less than hiding an illegitimate half-sibling. It’s no fun, anyway.

Neither is the double date, which probably would have just been awkward before, but now is interrupted by incessant squabbling between Kitty, who’s hurt Sarah didn’t tell her about Rebecca, and Sarah, who’ll take this abuse from her mom but not from Kitty. The guys wisely duck outside for a cigar. Also not fun is Kevin’s confrontation with Saul, in which he promises to blame his uncle for any further family disintegration. And Justin sure doesn’t look like he’s having fun when he ditches on a dinner with Tyler’s family to meet some big dangerous-looking drug-dealer-type fellow in an alley … but we come back from commercial to find he’s really Justin’s AA sponsor. Silly us for being worried! Justin’s on the rocks but in control. When he finally makes it back home to a worried Nora and Tyler, he and the girlfriend agree that he’s maybe got enough on his plate right now, what with the rehab and the reenlistment and the Rebecca, without a relationship in there, too. They decide to just long for each other platonically for now.

Robert and Kitty have a sweet moment together post-dinner, in which Kitty tells her elected official that “You make me happy.” Sarah and Joe have a semi-sweet moment in the middle of a sleepless night, in which Joe tells Sarah “I’m right here.” Maybe if Sarah had gotten a little sleep, or a little sex, she might have been in a better mood in the morning. But she’s rolling right along on the Spite train, and after she steamrolls Tommy with it, insisting unsuccessfully that he can’t possibly go into business with Holly now, she ties young Rebecca to the rails and barrels on over her, telling her the truth about her father and her mother and her very screwed-up half-family. Holly is not happy to have had the role of telling her daughter who her father is — something she was going to do, really, any time now, one of these old days, honest — usurped by Sarah, and is all full of threats and anger and spitfire attitude to both Sarah and Saul, and I could have sworn we’d seen that scene at least once before, but whatever.

By the episode’s end, we’re mostly in a muddle. Sarah has lost her mother’s trust and faith in their closeness. Kevin has lost the right to go outside with Chad because, yep, he did call the gossip blogger and, yep, the gossip blogger did take that as incentive to go all out on the Chad Comes Out watch. Rebecca has lost her sense of who she is, and any chance to know her father. And Justin … well, Justin seems the most well-adjusted of the bunch, and when that’s true, you know you’re in trouble. Justin just goes to Holly’s house and asks to meet Rebecca, takes her for a nice walk and pushes her off a cliff stands overlooking the city lights while they chat about their high schools and their mutual friends and the possibility that they might easily have met and had a love story worthy of Greek tragedy. For now, anyway, the Walker tragedy’s not in that league. Though Sarah does look about ready to gouge somebody’s eyes out.

Photo: ABC.com

_{Original air date: 3/2/07}

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, recap, The Other Walker, Rebecca