Brothers & Sisters

Often, the title of a Brothers & Sisters episode doubles as its theme. In this case, “Julia” appears to apply only to the character we’re saying goodbye to — Tommy’s wife, who splits town when her hubby refuses to return (and who says she’d want him if he did). But we can make a theme of it, too, as other characters suffer situations from the Tommy ‘n’ Julia playbook.

Julia’s departure plot is kicked off by a familiar Walker behavior, keeping secrets. Tommy failed to mention that second mortgage he took out to finance his anti-Holly scheme, and as a result, Julia’s got a foreclosure sign out front. Her parents want her to come home — of course they do — and the Walkers want her to stay put, to the point that Kevin pays up the loan (over Scotty’s slight objection) and Nora creates a teaching job at the cancer center for her. With that plus two enormous plush horses purchased by Grandma and Uncle Kevin, how can Julia and Elizabeth leave? But leave they do, after Julia taks Nora’s pep talk to heart and accepts a job offered by a mentor in Seattle. It’s all over but the final family dinner, at the end of which Julia lets Kevin know she’ll be ignoring that paper Tommy had him sign and letting Elizabeth know who her biological father is. And with that, she’s gone, leaving Nora to store all of Tommy’s junk in her closets.

The hard times Julia had after Elizabeth’s birth and baby William’s death — when she became distant from her husband and finally went to Arizona to stay with her parents and have a brief affair — is echoed in Kitty’s way too friendly relationship with CuteParkDad. She’s got nothing to say to Robert, but plenty to say to Alec, who’s thinking of buying a house and wants Kitty’s opinion about it. She sneaks off to take a walk-through with him and is enchanted by the porch swing out front. On the way home, though, they get into a car accident that leaves them both with airbag burns on their arms. Robert’s appropriately freaked out and attentive over the fact that his wife could have been badly hurt, and puts ointment and gauze on her arms before putting her down for a nap. Kitty seems a little chastened by the accident, and might be ready to step back from the affair abyss … except that while she sleeps, Robert takes Evan to the park, and is surprised when Alec’s son knows Evan, and takes a good look at the kid’s father, and notices the telltale airbag-burn-bandages on his arms, and adds to that the fact that Kitty wouldn’t let him come to the accident site and Alec has guilt written all over his face, and Kitty is so busted. She knows it, too, when she sees Robert’s note about going to the park, and when her husband comes back and asks if she’s in love with Alec, she doesn’t answer. Their ensuing estrangement gets Robert out of the Julia farewell dinner, and afterward, Kitty meets Alec at the porch swing. Instead of telling him it’s over, she goes ahead and kisses him. He asks “What are we gonna do?” but we’ll all have to wait ’til next week to find out.

The kind of Ojai share-shuffling that cost Julia a husband is still going on, with the latest William spawn to sneakily accumulate shares being Ryan. In his case, he’s secretly in cahoots with Holly, who’s peeved that Sarah is moving right back into her role as the board’s favorite and wants some backup of her own. She persuades Ryan to get a job at Ojai because, for William’s children, a job comes with voting shares. Ryan plays along and lets Sarah think he’s with her and against Holly. Holly then pretends to be outraged that Sarah wants another stinkin’ Walker to have voting rights, and suggests that Rebecca get some shares to to even things out. Sarah falls for it all, but Holly’s plan isn’t perfect. When Ryan tells Rebecca, over a squirmy candlelit dinner, that he’s gleeful about how upset Sarah will be when she finds she’s been tricked, Rebecca realizes what’s up and goes straight to Justin with the information. Making exactly one person who believes Justin that Ryan’s not what he seems. (Here’s an idea, kids: Have Rebecca grab some of Ryan’s hair from the shower drain and get a dang DNA test already.)

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, Julia, recap