Brothers & Sisters

This week, with all the characters checked-up on, I’m going to do some looking ahead to what I’d like to see more of in upcoming episodes of Brothers & Sisters — sometimes specific stories, sometimes general directions. Yesterday’s was a general longing for more sibling together time, a frequent stoking of that great family chemistry. Today’s post will be more specific, with a story idea I’ve been playing with in my head since two things happened last week: I wrote about the fact that we’d never seen anyone from William’s side of the family, and I read someone else’s blog musing that Jamie Lee Curtis should be on a TV show again.

And the thought that she would play pretty darn well with the Walkers has been entertaining me ever since.

It’s about time a high-profile female guest star came and stayed for a while, isn’t it? There’s male guest stars with story arcs all the time, but the women mostly pop in for an isolated episode. Curtis is about midway in age between Sally Field and Rachel Griffiths, so indulge me a little as I imagine a storyline involving those three that will probably never come to fruition, but is fun to think about.

For the backstory, let’s say that William’s extended family lived in another part of the country, and that he was estranged from them — maybe over money, or because they didn’t like his wife, or any of those family feuds that aren’t really about anything but take on a life of their own. But say he had a niece who came to California for college, and William was asked to help her out when she got in a jam, which he did despite Nora’s disapproval. That brought the niece into the family circle, and the combination of “college girl” and “who your mother disapproves of” is irresistible to the preteenish Sarah (maybe about Paige’s age). Something happened that Nora interpreted as putting Sarah in danger, and that sealed it. Nora insisted that they have nothing more to do with William’s niece, and that in turn finalized the fracture with his family.

But maybe Sarah and her siblings secretly kept in touch with their cousin anyway; maybe William did, too (and maybe, along the way, she met and liked Holly). Perhaps, as adults, Sarah and the others snuck off to see their cousin when she was in town, unbeknownst to Nora. And maybe Sarah tried to contact her cousin when William died, but she was out of the country. Now she comes back, steamed that her family wasn’t properly notified of William’s passing, and ready to have it out over the events of long ago. Sarah is caught between her cousin and her mother; maybe now as a mother, she understands more about why Nora handled things as she did, and maybe Nora realizes she handled things badly.

Or something like that. Do you have a plot idea for Curtis? Or another actor you’d like to see on the show? Share your plot meanderings in the comments.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Jamie Lee Curtis