Brothers & Sisters

I’ve been wondering about that title, “Double Negative,” since I first watched the show Sunday night. It seems like it should mean something. When the title was originally announced by ABC, I feared it might mean that neither Rebecca nor Justin was a Walker, and happily we were spared that — thought that hasn’t kept many viewers from feeling doubly negative about Rebecca’s change of paternity.

Share your thoughts about the title’s significance in the comments; meanwhile, I’m going to go searching for double negativity in the recap.

Rebecca and the Paternity Test

The question, “Is Rebecca the daughter of William Walker” is answered in the negative when she receives a call from the lab. Immediately, she confronts David, who’s conveniently on hand since he has nothing to do but lay about Holly’s house all day. Rebecca wonders if he already knew, and he stammers about the timing being suspicious, and Holly saying there was a tiny chance, and the fact that when she was born, he was a mess, and not Daddy material. She’s furious with him for not immediately embracing her as his girl, and at Holly for letting her live with Nora and become part of the family. David reassures her that she can still be a Walker, and not long after he skips town — whether to facilitate her continued Walker-ness, or because the prospect of being screamed at on a daily basis by hysterical women makes living in a Manhattan rathole look appealing by comparison.

Holly’s confused about David suddenly leaving, since they’d just been planning a vacation together. He gives lots of excuses, none of them involving “And oh, by the way, Rebecca took a paternity test and found I’m her father, so heads-up on trauma ahead.” Rebecca’s also keeping the news on the down-low. When she sees Justin at his mother’s charity ball that night, she tells him the test was negative and they’re still semi-siblings. And when she sees her mother at home after the party, she doesn’t mention the test outcome to her either, even (or maybe especially) after she hears that David is gone.

Justin, meanwhile, does not seem as overjoyed that he still has a little sis as you might expect from their closeness. Perhaps he’s just dazed by the anvils of Romantic Attraction that have been beaning him on the noggin throughout the episode. There seems to be a higher percentage of moony looks, for one thing. When he was surfing with Tommy and Kevin, he was a little freaked out by a brotherly joke about seeing Rebecca naked. And the morning after the party, when he comes by early to take his now DNA-approved sister surfing, he lingers longer over Rebecca’s leg while hooking her up to a surfboard than seems entirely brotherly. Oh, the Greek tragedy of it all.

Kitty and Robert and the Republican Nominee

The question, “Is Taylor going to ask Robert to be his Vice President?” is answered in the affirmative, as Kitty knew it would be. The guy comes by the house as promised last episode, but he comes a few hours early because a) he wants to put Robert off his game and b) he’s a jerk. Of course, the unexpected time of arrival leads to Kitty answering the door in a towel with green goop on her face. But even when she’s dressed, it’s clear that Taylor thinks she’s a flake and a nuisance. And she not exactly a fan of his either.

Finally Robert comes back from running, cleans up, and meets with the candidate, who does indeed, after some pontificating, ask him to take the VP spot. Robert’s kinda excited, but Kitty, not so much. She’s not eager to go back to campaigning at all, particularly with a gasbag like Taylor who has done nothing but attack Robert and, she’s sure, will not allow him to have a voice in the administration as promised. There’s more to it than that, of course. As they talk later at the party, Kitty reveals that she got a call from the IVF clinic, and the results were negative as to the viability of their embryos. She doesn’t know how they’re going to continue treatments on the campaign trail, and he’s upset that she wants him to repress his ambition — ambition she was initially attracted to — so they can do endless rounds of baby-trying. He suspects that she’s glad he lost the nomination.

Still, some of her warnings about Taylor get through, and so when Robert meets the candidate again, he questions Taylor more closely about whether “I will hear you out” means “I will give a damn about what you say.” When it becomes clear that Taylor’s just using him to win moderate voters and has no intention of actually including him in any meaningful way, Robert gives a negative response to the VP offer. On the way out, Taylor stops to tell Kitty that this is all her fault, and one day Robert will blame her for it. But Robert reassures her that he didn’t turn down Taylor because of Kitty, he turned down Taylor because of Taylor. And a darn good decision it was, because, all due respect to Ken Howard, I never wanna see that guy again either.

Sarah and Ojai Foods

The question, “Did Saul do as Sarah asked and nix Graham’s deal?” is answered in the negative, and boy is she steamed when she finds out. He huffs and puffs about how he’s worked at Ojai for almost as long as she’s been alive, and he’s the CFO, and it’s all kinds of insulting that she doesn’t trust him when he … well, goes behind her back and OKs a deal she specifically said she didn’t want. Still, no one’s better at deflecting blame than Saul.

Sarah’s still upset when she and Graham go to Nora’s charity ball, and after she gracelessly says that the cancer theme’s a downer in front of the parent of a child with leukemia, she goes to find many, many drinks. Graham asks her what her mood is all about, since he thought they were celebrating the deal. She asks him if he knew Saul went against her wishes, and he wonders why she didn’t bring her wishes directly to him. So now she’s insulted both the men in her business life, and that’s something even alcohol can’t take care of — she needs ice cream, later, in Nora’s kitchen. She tells Nora a little about the situation, and Mom suggests trusting Saul.

So Sarah does. She trusts him. She goes into Ojai the next morning all full of love and trust and sharing and enthusiasm for the deal she blames herself for being too cautious to turn down. But we notice, way before she does, the sheepish look on the faces of Graham and Saul, and as soon as she stops talking, they give her the negative news: Golden Plum, the Chinese company they did the deal with, has gone bankrupt. And Ojai owes 20 million it has no way of getting. Hey, nice work, boys! Sarah was just about to get over those trust issues.

Kevin and Scotty and Health Insurance

The question, “Can Kevin make a practical suggestion in a way that is not insulting and coldy unromantic?” is answered in the negative, but Scotty loves him anyway. The chef-in-training comes home with a handful of stitches after a kitchen accident, and reveals that he has no health insurance to pay the huge hospital bill. Scotty’s sure he’ll think of some way to handle it — ’cause we know he’s all about responsible financial management — but Kevin thinks he has the answer after his brothers, on their surfing get-together, suggest a domestic partnership so that Scotty could be on Kevin’s health insurance.

So at the party — which Scotty actually gets to dress up and go to this time, and not as a cater-waiter — Kevin suavely suggests that they do the domestic partnership thing for the sole and businesslike reason of tapping into his firm’s long list of benefits. That doesn’t exactly sweep Scotty off his feet, and he responds in the negative. Later, Scotty admits that the 12-year-old girl in him wants a domestic partnership to be something you enter into out of love and wanting to be together forever, not out of legal convenience. Kevin’s not sure he’ll ever be ready for that, and Scotty is very understanding. Wow, such maturity from Scotty! That’s a positive development, anyway.

Nora and Her Future Plans

The answer, “Will Nora embark on some ridiculous decorating project to get over Isaac’s departure?” is answered in the negative, though for a while it sure looks like renovation’s in the offing. Her children all come to comfort her with brunch, and react with amusement to the news that her interior decorator’s coming by, since most past crises have warranted a redesign. Kitty’s departure to New York = new cabinets; Justin’s enlistment = new wallpaper; Kevin’s coming out = backyard overhaul to facilitate more pool parties.

But when the decorator’s actually there, asking Nora what she wants, the Walker matriarch realizes that she doesn’t have a clue. It’s not until the party that night, when conversing with the mother of a child with leukemia, that she figures it out: She wants to start a home away from home for families receiving treatment. I’m pretty sure Ronald McDonald has the corner on that sort of thing, but Nora’s all gung-ho anyway, and Sarah says Ojai will finance it. Of course, that was before Sarah found out that the family business might not be left with enough money to even buy a Big Mac. But that negative news has to wait for next week.

Photo: ABC.com

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Double Negative, recap