Brothers & Sisters

This was kind of a patchwork episode, with scenes flowing back and forth among four different plots: The Walker women’s spa vacation; Justin’s rehab and relapse; Kevin’s confrontation of Saul; and Tommy’s business mistakes. The spa plot recurred the most, 13 scenes by my count, with six each for the other three. But since the subject of those three sub-plots were much heavier, it sort of felt like they had equal weight.

I’ll look at each plot thread independently here, since aside from a little lap-over of Nora interacting with Justin at the start and Tommy toward the end, they were largely self-contained.

The Spa Trip

It starts with Sarah being down in the dumps about her 10th anniversary passing without so much as an aluminum paperweight to commemorate it. Kitty’s sympathetic, but when she happens to see a prenuptial agreement in Robert’s personal mail, she snaps to a plan: Sisters to the spa, forget about weddings and divorces, relax and de-stress. Unfortunately, she mentions it with their mother within earshot, and Nora quickly does that “make your kids talking you into doing something you want and they don’t” thing she does so well. And so much for that stress-free overnight — they’re bringing the stress with them.

And sharing it, as it turns out, with everybody else at the spa. Nora proves she doesn’t understand the concept of “quiet room” by insisting on reading an article on divorce to Sarah. Kitty further violates the rules by using a cell phone to call and not communicate with Robert. When Sarah spills the news that Julia didn’t just go on a visit to her parents but actually took Elizabeth and left Tommy, Nora and Kitty’s high-volume reaction gets them kicked out of the “quiet room” for good.

Nora’s determined to go to Tommy’s office and talk to him, but the girls insist she focus on Sarah’s problems, and with the bar and restaurant closed, what choice do they have but to crash a wedding, sip champagne, nibble on lamb chops, and dis the trophy bride. When a handsome fella wanders over, Kitty grabs Nora and cuts out so that Sarah can have a little romance. That works out poorly all around, ’cause Nora uses the opportunity to slip over to Tommy’s, Kitty has a little one-sided tiff with Robert, and Sarah tries to pick up the guy but is lock-blocked when the key card of her room doesn’t work (well, okay, as she later figures out, it was the wrong room).

Kitty and Sarah confront Nora when she comes back from Tommy’s, and order her to stop meddling in their lives. Then, of course, the next morning, feeling lonely and doubt-laden, they beg her to start meddling again. You know, Nora always wins. Why Tommy hasn’t sent her out to passive-aggressive the Ridges into submission and snatch Julia and Lizzie back, I’ll never know.

The Relapse

Now that Justin’s on the pain pills, he’s a happy snarky guy again, watching The Hills with Rebecca, eating junk food, and telling his mom to go spread her overconcern around amongst his other screwed-up siblings. Since Rebecca’s offered to do the rehab run, there’s really no reason for Nora not to go spa-ing. Except, of course, for the fact that mother guilt is waaaay more powerful than newly discovered half-sister guilt. Rebecca means well, but she’s an amateur.

Justin’s bending that knee ever so slightly in rehab, with much painful wincing, but the therapist is encouraging. Of course, the therapist’s maybe not the most perceptive guy in the world, because he makes the mistake of assuming Rebecca is Justin’s girlfriend. And then another mistake, in introducing Justin to a fellow patient who is feeling no pain because he’s “high as a kite.” Little lightbulb goes on over Justin’s head. Rebecca makes the concerned girlfriend sister face, and for good reason.

Because next time she sees him working that knee, at home, he’s like Gumby, merrily bending it way beyond the point he could do at his rehab session. Gee, Justin, that’s great. How many pills did you take, now? Justin’s shocked, shocked that she would suspect him, and insists that she count the remaining pills. Now, at this point, you, me, and everybody else in the world knows that J’s got a stash somewhere. But Rebecca, the savvy wild child, dutifully counts the pills and prostrates herself in apology when there turn out to be just the right number. What happened to that sneaky girl who used to go by the name “Rebecca”? Maybe she’s on some drugs, too.

Whatever, that sweet girl’s still apologizing the next morning, and Justin finally lets her off the hook, as long as she explains the plotlines of The Hills to him and fetches drinks. He needs some water, don’t you know, to wash down that handful of pills he scored from the junkie at the rehab place. Even lying addicts need to wet their whistle, you know?

The Outing

Poor Saul. He finally gets up the nerve to go to Milo’s place, and he finds there a big gay party and his nephew’s ex, Scotty, serving canapes and taking notes. Sure enough, Scotty’s quick to mention to Kevin that he didn’t know Uncle Saul was gay. Neither did Kevin, actually, but after a bit of a chat about it he starts to realize that, hmm, come to think of it, it’s not that outlandish a revelation. So he runs right on over to Saul’s office to ask him, “Are you gay?” And Saul responds pretty much exactly the way Justin responded when Rebecca asked him, “Are you high?” That is, in a flurry of righteous indignation that usually covers up lying.

Actually, it’s pretty much the exact reaction Saul’s shown any time a Walker sibling asks him something that he knows more than he wants to say about. So Kevin’s not exactly buying it, not at their first meeting, nor at their second, when Saul invites him back to talk. Saul specifically denies being gay, but all Kevin can think about is how much it would have meant to have Saul stand up for him when he came out to his family, and how much he’d like to provide support for his uncle now. Not that Saul needs it. No, no, no, nothing to support here. Move along now.

The Affair?

Tommy’s learning that when Julia said she needed space, she didn’t just mean the space between Pasadena and Phoenix, she meant having nothing to do with her husband at all, not even a little bit, like he doesn’t exist. Holly’s trying to get his mind off his marital woes and into the hand-to-hand combat of business, but he wanders in late to a tough meeting, fiddles with his cell phone, and then gives a resigned answer to a potential business partner instead of the hard line Holly was hoping for.

He’s also not showing much of a defense against Lena, who’s all understanding and sweet and blonde and available, suggesting they open a bottle of wine after work one night when there’s just too much traffic to drive home, don’t you know. Nora almost comes to the rescue, making her spa escape and stopping by the office just after the wine’s poured. But Tommy quickly deduces that Sarah’s tattled, and turns down his mom’s suggestion that he drive to Phoenix at once to reclaim his girls. Nora’s shuffled back out the door, Tommy and Lena have a heart to heart talk about baby William’s death, Lena urges Tommy to think about himself for a change, and …

… and we really have no idea what happened next, except that it involved them being at the office the next morning in exactly the same clothes as the night before. Holly has all sorts of ideas about what happened next, and she calls Tommy into her office to chastise him — not for screwing around, because she’s really not got much of a high horse to ride there, but for screwing the help, which could be a business liability. Tommy makes a feeble denial and then looks sheepish, so presumably he did indeed cheat?

Maybe we’ll find out next week, since the previews show Tommy saying “What happened before can never happen again,” but later telling Lena to get into his car. Hope Julia’s not planning any surprise visits home.

For more recaps of “States of the Union,” 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, States of the Union, recap