Recap: 2-02 “An American Family”
The episode opens with an American family in a tragic setting: a military funeral. The same military funeral we’ve been seeing in previews and commercials since last week’s episode, the same military funeral that ABC’s marketing braintrust would like us to believe just might, maybe, be Justin’s funeral. And sure enough, there are Robert and Kitty, looking stricken. There’s the folded flag being placed in the hands of a woman in black. There’s the camera panning slowly up to the woman’s face. And …
It’s not Nora! So it’s not Justin! It’s an American family, but not our American family. And so we are supposed to feel, what, relieved, that the agony being suffered here will not be our concern? I don’t know if this scene would have seemed so cruelly manipulative and graceless if it hadn’t been teased in all those commercials, so I’ll give the writers a pass for now. But don’t use funerals as fake-outs, folks. It’s not nice.
Justin’s peril is quickly dispatched in the next scene, when we see that not only was that not Justin being laid to rest, his family knows that he’s injured but alive, and are on the verge of bringing him home. So all that silly suspense from last week? Never mind! We’re going on a road trip!
Who’s up for a ride? Kevin, for one, if it gets him out of doing odd jobs around Sarah’s house, or contemplating the prospect of handling her divorce. Sarah, on the other hand, needs to get together with Joe at least one more time, because she still has a little self-esteem left for him to trample on. Tommy almost offers to hit the road, but at the last minute correctly interprets Julia’s Burning Stare of Death as meaning he should stay home with his wife and child, although he’s wrong to think he’ll get any Daddy Points for doing so. Kitty’s good to go, despite the disapproval of a very unpleasant guy on Robert’s campaign (am I right that it’s his campaign manger? is Danny Glover going to replace him? can that happen now, please?).
Rebecca would seem a natural addition to the riding party, but she knows that she has a little errand to do before Justin comes home — that would be telling Sarah that she kissed Joe back — and it looks like it’s time to stop putting it off. Plus, by a complete coincidence, her pretty blonde friend Lena, who we have never heard from before, is in town to visit, and make boring small talk, and, oh, hey, maybe fill a job position at Holly and Tommy’s winery. That big flashing light over her head that says “Plot Device! Beware!”? Oh, just ignore that. Tommy seems to be able to.
Lena gets the job, and immediately demonstrates extreme skill at putting her foot in her mouth, first offering to set Saul up on a date with her aunt, then, flustered, offering to set him up with a nice guy she knows. No, no! proclaims Saul heartily. Please do not interpret my lifelong bachelordom and taste in fine furnishings to mean that I don’t love women! I do! I love them! Really! I’m not coming out for at least a few more episodes!
Foot-in-mouth disease also infects the carful of Walkers heading down to San Diego on Justin detail. Kitty makes the mistake of thinking it’s a good idea to do recon on a conservative radio talk-show host in the car with her super-liberal mother and brother listening. The loudmouth conveniently chooses just that segment to rail at the senator and his wacky in-laws-to-be, digging up anti-war letters-to-the-editor by Nora, and lamenting the possibility of Kevin and Jason getting busy in the Lincoln Bedroom.
Kitty successfully blocks Nora and Kevin from calling in, but then goes ahead and calls in herself. And in fact, she’s doing a decent job of jousting with the blowhard until her ever-helpful family members hijack the phone and give the guy enough sound-bytes to keep his ratings rolling for months. Since Kitty fails to throw her phone into the sea when she has the chance, she quickly gets a buzz from her fiance, who heard the whole thing and is Not Happy. After Kitty promises to clean up the mess and hangs up on him, Mean Campaign Guy suggests to Robert that he might want to try to get out of this marriage. But darn the luck — he’s in love with the girl. And quite likely knows a thing or two about out-of-control families on his own.
Meanwhile, that extra self-esteem trampling Sarah needed? Joe’s happy to supply it, admitting that he’s stopped wearing his ring, is ready for divorce, and was back with his ex-wife even before his washing-machine quickie with Sarah last week. Later, Rebecca comes by the office to confess that maybe she led Joe on, giving Sarah an apparent opportunity to bitch at someone who won’t be bitchy back. Oops, wait a minute; Rebecca doesn’t lash back, but Holly’s waiting out in the hall to return the volley. Sarah just can’t get a break. Holly, on the other hand, gets that mother and child reunion she’s been wanting so much, as Rebecca comes to her house lamenting that she’ll never be a proper Walker.
If she could see the way Nora was behaving at the military hospital, Rebecca might not feel so bad about being out-of-sync with the family. Because Nora? Is a very bad girl. Sure, she wants to see her boy right away, and the kind of red tape you’ll find at a military facility — heck, at any hospital — can be maddening. But threatening a soldier that, if you don’t get what you want Right Now, you will start swearing and causing a commotion? Put that lady in the brig! That woman from the airport in the first season finale, the one who respectfully but firmly told Nora that she could not go into the boarding area no matter how much she threatened and cajoled? That woman needs to come to San Diego and teach the military a thing or two about dealing with bossy mamas.
After a cheerful reunion with Justin, the Walker contingent has a talk with the doctor about their soldier’s condition, and while his injured knee will eventually heal, there’s a whole lotta pain between here and there. That’s a particular problem for Justin, who refuses to take pain medication because he doesn’t want to be an addict again. Nor, apparently, does he want to be mother-smothered again, which makes his homecoming and reunion with extended family just beyond tense. He can’t so much as enjoy a hamburger or allow a nephew to sit on his sore knee without Nora rushing to his protection.
Nora’s all concerned that Justin’s not the same boy she sent to war, although if I recall correctly, that boy didn’t really appreciate the helicopter parenting either. Justin’s all concerned that he’ll never forget what he saw on the battlefield and he’ll never settle in back home, but Robert — come by not to chastise Kitty, but at the request of Justin — assures him that he shouldn’t and he will.
The senator then goes on to clean up the talk-radio mess, delivering a right-minded speech on that right-wing radio show and zinging the Mean Campaign Guy afterwards as a bonus. The Justin mess, though? Not so easily cleaned up. As the nerve block that’s been sparing him wears off, the youngest brother is in severe pain, so severe that he is helpless to keep his mother from comforting him. It’s going to be a long recovery.
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