Brothers & Sisters

The title of this episode may have to do with history, but they should really have come up with something about pain, because that seemed to be the theme here — pain, both physical and emotional, and how to deal with it. Is it best to suffer? To withdraw? To do everything and anything to get rid of it? No one seems to have found the right remedy here, nor quite dealt with the fact that getting rid of pain sometimes involves spreading it around.

Justin, of course, is the one dealing with wrenching physical pain. And if that weren’t enough, he’s got to deal with the agony of family members trying to help him out of it. Kevin tries to soothe him with a bubble bath, aromatherapy and soft music, but that’s its own kind of painful to his youngest bro. Nora tries endless nagging and cajoling, because that’s worked so well with this kid in the past, but even her offer to buy him a surfboard does not get him to take his pain meds. She enlists Rebecca in “Operation Nora,” but doesn’t expect Holly’s daughter to actually sneak Justin out of the house. The field trip ends badly, and the ensuing pain convinces Justin to finally take his mother’s advice and pills. Be careful what you wish for, though, Nora, because as Rebecca points out, “He may not be Justin for a while.”

There’s plenty of emotional pain to go around, too — certainly Justin has that going on, and Nora as well. Even Sarah, who we see only briefly, apparently being told via cell phone that Paige does not love her. The big winners of the Emotional Pain sweepstakes, though, are Julia and Tommy. Julia, as we’ve been noticing, seems to be dealing with post-partum depression along with crushing grief over William’s death. Her husband, meanwhile, has on top of the pain of his father’s and son’s death the pain of dealing with in-laws who hate him. Those in-laws resolve to take Julia and the baby away, and Julia is surprisingly okay with that, because, she announces, she blames Tommy for William’s death. Her way of dealing with the pain is to run away from it for a little while, put things in perspective, and maybe come back eventually. Here, Tommy, you hold this pain for a while, ‘kay?

If Tommy needs a little help with that, or anything else, it looks like the amazingly helpful office manager Lena would be more than happy to oblige; she calls him late at night, after his wife has left him, to tell him all about the great deal she made with the dry-cleaner down the street. Kevin likewise has the opportunity to deal inappropriately with a romantic separation by taking up again with Scotty, who turns up in need of lawyerly assistance after being accused of DUI by a homophobic cop. Kevin quickly dispatches the case by proving the Breathalyzer was not properly calibrated, and Scotty pays him back with a dinner in the kitchen of a five-star restaurant, at which Scotty is now working as an intern. Kevin evades a kiss at the end of the meal and tells Scotty he’s in a relationship, even though the Reverend Boyfriend is currently in Malaysia. But hey, maybe they can just be friends, right?

For a cautionary example of what happens when you don’t deal well with your pain, and don’t avoid relationship temptations, we have Courtney McCallister, Robert’s icy ex. She’s got plans to go on Larry King and talk about her life as a discarded political wife, in hopes of getting a book deal and maybe dragging Robert’s name through the mud with that nanny story again. Robert can’t talk her out of it, but Kitty can, with a bluff about having the nanny all ready to refute the story. But although Courtney may be lying about Brigid, there seems some possible truth in her warnings about Robert’s solitary nature and inability to talk about emotionally complex life issues. We’ve seen him withdraw before. Will things be different when it’s Kitty McCallister he’s dealing with?

The episode ends with sundaes all around in the Walker kitchen, with Tommy (who, hooray, didn’t end up the night with Lena) and Kevin (who, hooray, didn’t end up the night with Scotty) and Justin (who, hooray, did finally take his pills so we can stop having those scenes of him writhing in agony) being all brotherly. It’s not lost on Nora that Justin’s kind of out of it, but that’s a problem for another day. A big problem. A big, looming, emotion-packed problem. But we’ll worry about that next week. For now, hey, for sitting around watching all this Walker suffering, don’t I get a sundae, too?

For more recaps of “History Repeating,” check these sites:

• TV Guide
• Entertainment Weekly
• TV Squad
• Television Without Pity
• AfterElton

and come back here tomorrow for a round-up of memorable lines.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, History Repeating, recap