Brothers & Sisters

Maybe they should have called this one “The Trouble With Triangles,” because awkward three-sided relationships were all over the place in “The Missionary Imposition,” the eleventh episode of the second season of Brothers & Sisters. Whether the third party was a certain busy blonde, a returning Man of God, or the damages of history, all sorts of twosomes were under attack.

Triangles 1 and 2: Scotty-Kevin-Jason, Kevin-Jason-God

The inevitable finally occurs: Kevin’s long-lost Reverend Ex-Boyfriend is back in town, and wants to talk to him. Kevin behaves admirably and vets the idea of having the guy over for coffee with Scotty, who is in one of those positions where you really want to say no but you really can’t without looking desperate and immature. So he says of course, fine, sure, go ahead, have coffee. Then, apparently, decides he can live with being desperate and immature, because he bursts in on the exes’ cozy get-together with a bag of soft-shell crabs and a whole lot of nervous conversation.

It’s probably a good thing he did, because the way Kevin and Jason were looking at each other at the start of their reunion, and their general cordiality, might have opened a door for a resumption of romance. Scotty slams that door pretty well shut by goading the two into confronting the elephant in the room — the fact that Jason never called. The two of them are sufficiently on edge from the awkwardness of the evening that they get right down to it, with Jason claiming he didn’t call because he missed Kevin so much he was having a crisis of faith over it, and Kevin responding that not calling is a pretty strange way of telling someone you miss them. By the end they’re hating each other again, but still, you know, lotsa passion there.

Which is why Scotty storms out afterwards, and winds up sleeping in his car. And why, the next morning, when Kevin gets in the car with him and very sweetly declares him the winner, Scotty insists that Kevin have no more meetings with his brother-in-law’s brother. Chilly encounters at family events will be unavoidable, of course, but no more coffee in the loft, no way, no how. Kevin agrees, and we should probably start taking wagers on how long that’s going to last. It would require Scotty not being jealous anymore, and Kevin not resenting restrictions put upon him, and I don’t know, have we seen anything about these characters that would lead us to believe either was possible?

Triangles 3, 4 and 5: Lena-Tommy-Julia, Tommy-Julia-Julia’s old boyfriend, Tommy-Lena-Justin

All those jumbled-up sharp corners are still flashing around, drawing blood. As we first hear from Nora, then see for ourselves, Justin’s still sleeping with Lena — but Justin’s about the only one who can’t see that Lena’s just not that into him. She thinks he’s being too intense, he thinks she’s talking too much and should just shut up and kiss him. As long as he can keep avoiding every member of his family, they haven’t a care in the world.

Tommy and Julia are also trying to be all, “No problem,” despite their declaration of mutual infidelity in the previous episode. No big deal, back to normal, let’s do lunch, please ignore any jealous comments that flare up, like Tommy asking if Julia bought that nightie in Phoenix. Nope, nothing wrong here.

And nothing wrong at the office either, Tommy assures Holly, he can work with Lena, everything’s cool, he and Julia are back together, no problem. Holly’s more worried about lawsuits than love, and warns him to remain absolutely businesslike. She then takes off for an appointment, setting up a situation in which Tommy has to step in for her at a meeting, making him unable to go out to lunch with Julia, who’s stopped by the office as a surprise to pick him up, and insists they get some takeout and eat there, in his office, with Lena right outside the door. They manage to get partway through their tacos before Julia mentions a Mexican place in Phoenix, and Tommy just has to ask if he took her there, and Julia just has to ask did you and Lena do it on this desk? … and lunch pretty much goes downhill from there.

Afterwards, because Tommy is an idiot and thinks that remaining absolutely businesslike means leaning close to the girl you had an affair with and telling her it’s easier to talk to her than your wife, Lena interprets all the marital stress as an opening for her own sad self and tries to kiss Tommy. He, then, becomes a Fortress of Rectitude and declares that he loves his wife, and is no longer interested in extracurricular activities. That finally gets Lena to realize that she’s been stuck, and she needs to unstick herself by getting as far away from the Walkers as possible. Holly gives her some wise counsel, one unsuccessful homewrecker to another, and, to the cheers of a delighted audience (or was that just me?), she’s gone, baby, gone.

And that might be a sad thing for Justin, except that while Lena’s been falling for the big brother all over again, the little brother has been to a counseling session and heard another vet addict talk about how he used sex as a substitute for substances in drowning out his pain over the war. The lightbulb goes on over Justin’s head, and so he was probably as ready to leave Lena as Lena was to leave him. Her departure means he can start speaking to Tommy again, and they share a nice moment where Tommy tells Justin that Lena tried to kiss him, Justin says he knows and they broke up, and the two talk about having a beer together since they can’t actually do it.

Triangle 6: Lena-Justin-Rebecca

Lena’s leaving also means that Justin can start talking to Rebecca again. The two have been on the outs since the wedding, and Becca’s surprised to hear from Nora that Justin and Lena are still an item. She confronts him about it, adding to his growing awareness that his relationship with Lena is dangerous and self-destructive. So later, when it’s over, he stops by her house and they go on that same walk they did when they first met. She can’t resist saying “I told you so,” but at least they’re talking. And let’s hope that’s all they’re doing — none of these “hey, they’re not really siblings!” plots, or anything.

Triangle 7: Nora-Isaac-The McCallister campaign

The cutest li’l subplot of the night revolved around Nora and Isaac finally having a date, just the two of them, sans Nora’s absurdly confessional offspring. Nora starts out the episode huddled on the couch with a bag of potato chips, talking to Kitty like they’re teenage pals worrying over why a cute boy hasn’t called. Kitty’s in the car between campaign stops, with a sickly Travis beside her, advising Nora to go over to Isaac’s table in the cafeteria and … no, wait, that is, go over to the campaign office and ask him out for lunch. Nora’s sure she couldn’t do that, and yet she does.

As Kitty predicted, he hasn’t called because he’s been swamped with work — not having a spiritual crisis, not scared off by the strange siblings, not not wanting to go out with the widow Walker, just highly occupied with the small job of getting a guy elected president. He can’t make lunch, but he does clear his schedule to take her to dinner. She wisely solicits Rebecca’s help this time in picking out something to wear instead of Emily Craft’s, and so does not look like a streetwalker when she meets him at the restaurant. They have a perfectly nice dinner, and Isaac gets points for telling the office to stop calling him. And Nora maybe loses points when, to Isaac’s question of how she is, she prattles on about her children. Afterward, she’s on the phone to Kitty again, wondering if Isaac’s gonna ask her to the prom … er, a second date.

Triangle 8: Graham-Sarah-Sarah’s ginormous trust issues

Not even getting to a first date are Sarah and Graham, though Graham gives it a good effort. Sarah’s putting up roadblocks all over the place, though, first arguing with Saul about how many stores this new venture should involve, then arguing with Graham about it, then protesting when he expects her to just up and go to San Francisco for a meeting, then insisting that should they go to this meeting the prospect of a fun evening afterward is off the table.

So intent is Sarah on establishing the boundary between business and pleasure that she even returns the bouquet of flowers Graham had sent to her hotel room. Trouble is, it wasn’t Graham that sent them, it was the hotel, and she looks pretty silly all riled up about nothin’. She’s got one phrase in Chinese rehearsed for when she goes to the meeting, but after that she’s looking to the translator, who turns out to be … Graham. But despite her fears that he’ll make some huge deal she’s not going to want to agree to, it turns out that he does indeed respect her wishes and make the deal for ten stores. He also drops the fact that she has a brother-in-law running for president into the negotiations, which may have turned things in their favor.

Later, when they’re celebrating over drinks, discussing Robert’s candidacy, and having about the first pleasant conversation they’ve had all episode, Sarah discovers that Graham’s respected her wishes about not having fun together on their night in SF — he’s made another date. Awk. Ward. Whatever he’s doing with Yvonne causes him to miss the plane back to L.A. the next morning, and when he and Sarah speak again, she’s back to shutting him down. Maybe not quite so firmly now, though.

For now, the only triangle they’re dealing with is the way Sarah’s reaction to her breakup with Joe is making her hyper-super-cautious about everything. But surely Graham’s got a wife or a girlfriend or a girl in every port or something that will get in their way in the long run. No romance gets to go smoothly in these parts.

For more recaps of “The Missionary Imposition,” 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, The Feast of the Epiphany, recaps