'Brothers & Sisters': Happy fun detox party!

And the gut-punches continue! Brothers & Sisters brought us an intervention; tons of desperate cruelty; surprising character changes; truths admitted or confirmed; political machinations; and enough jaw-droppingly gorgeous, raw and real moments that I'm still sniffling. The women came out relatively unscathed, but the men of the Walker family took a beating.

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The intervention was heart-breaking. Nora catches Justin riffling through her purse right before he walks into his family's stern but loving embrace. The rest of the family was already resolved, but Nora probably needed that extra little push. Justin immediately goes into search-and-destroy mode with everyone, spewing every hateful -- and painfully accurate -- thing he can think of at the gathered crowd. Before he can come up with something nasty to say to Kitty, she trumps him with the miscarriage card -- I'm bleeding and aching and hello, just lost a baby!, but I'm here because I love you and I want to help. That stops him cold. He and Nora decide they can do the detox at home, with his family's help, and everyone (except Tommy, who is fooling around with Lena and not answering his phone) reluctantly agrees.

Saul tracks Tommy down and finally gets him back to Walker Central for the detox party. He's disapproving of Tommy, and defensive to Kevin about pretty much everything. He eventually storms off, telling Nora this is her family, not his, and he can't be this person anymore. 

Tommy is a git, sniping at Justin for dragging them into this and denying to Saul that anything is happening with Lena. When Kevin mentions Lena, Tommyplays the "I know you are but what am I?" card -- he accuses Kevin of sleeping with Scotty, of not telling Jason about his visitor, and of being a randy, duplicitous creep. Kevin does not respond with time-honored rubber/glue retort, but it's warranted.

Kevin gets increasingly defensive about his relationship with Jason -- I'm dating someone, I'm happy, it's fine! -- but finally admits that Jason never calls him back, and he's lonely. He didn't want to tell anyone because he felt pathetic. Oh, Kevin -- you're the least damaged man in the house at the moment.

Justin is in hell -- sweating, vomiting, shaking, rolling in pain, hating himself and life and the pills and his family and himself some more. His dealer calls late at night, and he panics -- I just need to go out and get some air! He deploys the Super Special Baby of the Family Eyes of Pleading and Persuasion on Nora, and it looks like she's going to cave -- but she locks the door and grits out that Justin's not going anywhere. Oh, Nora. That had to be one of the hardest, and most noble, things she's ever done.

I thought those moments -- the intervention, the sweaty detox, the pain of watching a loved one suffer -- would be the most affecting thing to watch, but then the show snuck up on me: Kevin and Tommy are talking about their dad, how admired him but never felt like they measured up. It's 4a.m., everyone's exhausted, you can see them starting to slump and fray a bit. Nora overhears them, and tells them their dad did love them. Then: "But get over it -- you're both better men than you father. And you were as good a dad to Justin today as William Walker ever was. I have never in my life been so proud of you." Oof. It's the exhausted, matter-of-fact delivery that makes it all the more powerful. She's wrung out, completely spent, there's no juice left for a big emotional scene. She just says what they need to know, and it renders them -- and me -- speechless. Beautifully done.

With all this drama and heartbreak, the political plot almost gets lost. Short version -- Travis and team screw something up (again); Robert spends time with his daughter and realizes he's missing a lot; Robert tells Travis to fire his team, because they're useless, and the only reason Travis himself isn't being fired is because that would be a signal that the campaign was in trouble.

In the end, Saul tells Nora he loves men, but leaves when Kevin comes downstairs. Tommy ends things with Lena again, but this time it looks like it's going to stick, and Lena is not happy about it. Kitty tells Robert she wants to get married now, and have a baby -- he wants a baby, right? Instead of admitting his true feelings -- and he admitted this to Travis, for crying out loud! -- he lies. Oh, Robert. This won't be good.

Highlights, quotes and odds and ends:

• I cannot express how much Sally Field rocked tonight. You could see in her eyes when Justin talked how much she wanted to believe him, that things could be ok. And then you saw that crumble, and her resolve grow, when she locked the door. At the end, when she told things needed to change between them, it broke my heart. 
• The whole damn cast stepped it up, actually. Their reactions when it looked like Nora was going to open the door for Justin were just dead on -- sadness and despair that Nora just couldn't stop "helping" Justin, then respect when she came through. Special kudos to Calista Flockhart and Dave Annable, though -- both of them were amazing.
• However, did Rachel Griffiths have some vacation time saved up? She was barely in this episode. I missed her.
• Scotty leaves a basket of fresh-baked pastries for Kevin. Very thoughtful, but oh, that doesn't bode well.
• Dear Tommy: Shut up. Again.
• When Tommy finally shows up, he asks what's the emergency -- everyone's just sitting on the couch! "This is just the lull between hell and ...hell with vomiting," Sarah replies. Yup, that sums it up.
• Robert's response to Travis sneering that he's offended by rough politics: "Offended? I'm not offended. Racism offends me. Wasteful government spending offends me. This? Well this is just bad strategy. Look, there are 12 other guys who do dirty better than I do. I need a different angle, and not because I have some naive view of politics but because otherwise? I don't win this thing!" It's a different side than we'd seen of him, and it makes the coming election storylines much more compelling.
• This exchange between Justin and Nora at the end worked perfectly: Justin: "I had a dream you locked me in the house." Nora: "It wasn't a dream, I did." Justin: "And you had superpowers, but I was sure I knew how to beat you."  Nora: "How?" Justin: "Crying and whining, basically..." Oh, Justin. Up until now, that did work. No more, as evidenced by Nora's response when he asks if she feels like making him some oatmeal: "You're a man, make it yourself." That may be the first time she's ever said that to him.

What did you think? Did the intervention and detox destroy you, or was it the littler moments, like Nora talking to Kevin and Tommy? What was the most hateful thing Justin said? Do you think he'll be clean for good from now on? Has Nora finally decided to stop mothering him? Were you surprised by Robert's political plot? Is telling Kitty he really wants to have a kid going to come back and bite him? And was I alone in being a sniffling mess by the end of the episode?

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