'Brothers & Sisters': Suck it up
Have your parents ever looked at you grimly and said "I can't wait until you have children"? Nora finally got to play one of those cards tonight on Brothers & Sisters, and she loved it. It was awesome.
Do you remember when you had spoiler-pox, Kitty?
I actually liked Sarah's storyline tonight -- she's fun when she loosens up. And she had reason to loosen up tonight -- her divorce papers came through, Joe was taking his ex-wife/current girlfriend to Paris, and Graham was being, well, Graham. In that situation, what else could she do but "what Walkers do best." "Get really drunk?" asks Kevin. That's the one!
Sarah convinces Kevin (who was smarting from the realization that Scotty's friends think he's evil and a stuffed shirt and uptight) to go out on the town. Kevin agrees -- so long as he can pick the bar. This led them to the gay bar Scotty and Friends called their own, which seemed like a miscalculation. Kevin just isn't comfortable with Scotty's friends. He's not a bar-going, karaoke-singing sort of guy. He is kind of uptight, but in the nicest of all possible ways.
Sarah, of course, performs magnificently -- a girl can't go wrong with Cher in a gay bar, and hey, Rachel Griffiths can really sing. That, plus the tequila, plus the story about her divorce papers and her ex, plus the fact that she seems so much more laid-back than Kevin, makes her the belle of the ball. Her new best friends convince her to get those divorce papers and sign them immediately, so she calls into the office. To her surprise, Graham answers the phone. When he can't find a messenger willing to deliver divorce papers to a bar, he goes himself. Sarah signs, then, after a few more tequila shots (these Walkers must have livers of steel), flings herself at Graham. He tries to play the gentleman, but Sarah's not having it. Cue the bom-chicka-wow-wow. It's about time!
Kevin, meanwhile, looks completely miserable and completely unmoved. Finally, after the ingestion of heroic amounts of alcohol, he takes the karaoke stage... and he can't sing. He's sweet and sincere and trying to impress Scotty's friends ("You Were Always On My Mind" is a nice choice), but Scotty knows this just ain't his boy. He leads a completely sloshed Kevin offstage, and most likely ends the evening holding Kevin's hair as he pukes often and with great vigor. Good times!
Robert is campaigning in Michigan and is feeling slightly miserable that he doesn't get to see his kids and Jason. Kitty brings all three of them into town, which thrills Robert and plays great with the electorate (lots of pictures in the local paper of Robert and his kids at some county fair). Things are slightly tense for Isaac -- he did, after all, out Jason all those years ago -- and turn very bad for Kitty when the kids infect her with the flu. Now Kitty is trapped in a hotel room with restive, sniffly kids, and all those joyous thoughts of motherhood go south.
Robert has some political juggling to do, and Travis (the ass) doesn't help by telling Jason not to talk to anyone in the Midwest. Apparently Travis thinks Jason's gay cooties would turn off Midwestern voters -- and he thinks Robert would endorse that decision because Isaac is on the team. As Jason hadn't known Isaac was responsible for that little slice of personal hell, he's most put out. The brothers have words, Robert tells Jason to suck it up, then Robert meets with the governor of Michigan, an old war buddy who had promised to publicly endorse him. Since the guy running neck and neck with Robert apparently holds grudges, the governor declines to do so -- and tells Robert, in the politest way possible, to suck it up. Robert apologizes to Jason for all the compromises he's had to make, and Jason tells him he's still a good guy who is called to serve. Apparently the people of Michigan agree, as Robert wins the primary.
Nora is pining for Isaac, who is also pining for her. Nora tries to play Oprah with Saul -- you're my brother, I love you, you can tell me anything, share you feelings -- but Saul isn't biting. That is, until he goes to visit his friend Milo and finds Evan (the always adorable Enrico Colantoni) camping out at his apartment. The two men hang out and bond. Could this be the start of something for Saul? Or is he just uncomfortable and wigged out by the whole situation?
Rebecca decides to work on photography with David. He takes her out shooting, gives her some pointers and equipment, and shares some photos from the good old days when he was with her mom on Thirtysomething. Rebecca ends the episode contemplating an old picture of Holly -- is she doing the math in her head? Holly insists that there's no way David is her dad, but I'm not sure Rebecca believes her.
Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends
- Justin got a nanosecond of screen time tonight -- boo! Still, he had a good line: "Apparently, everyone thinks I'm an aimless loser," Rebecca says when Nora starts pushing her to find a direction in life. "Hey, aimless loser is my job!" Justin says.
- Travis gets bloodthirsty about the competition: "We are going to kill him in Michigan and then we're going to drag his bloody carcass through every primary state until there's nothing left but a bloody flag lapel pin." Robert can hardly keep a straight face.
- Travis calling the kids "walking Petri dishes" is a little rich, considering he was the plague rat last week.
- Poor Kitty is taken aback when the kids, instructed to "just watch anything" find porn. "That show is for grown-ups, grown-ups who love each other, and love to watch other grown-ups who love each other..." Nice save, Kitty.
- The look Nora gets on her face when Kitty starts complaining about the kids is priceless. Schadenfreudelicious! And then there's this: "Sweetheart, I'm saying this to you with as much love as I possibly can. Sometimes motherhood means sucking it up. Kitty: Go suck it up." Hee!
- Am I the only one who was hoping Rachel Griffiths would break out some Abba during her karaoke sojourn? Or am I the only one who remembers Muriel's Wedding?
- Ooooh, Holly and David -- I very much like them together. They're one of the few married actor couples who have chemistry on screen. I hope Ken Olin sticks around.
Jason is going to come to Kevin's needs I guarantee it. It's too bad there won't be any new episodes until April now but in that time we'll see some amazing developments between these 2.
Maybe I was a bit distracted, but I felt last night's episode had both too little and too much going on. We touched on a lot of scenarios happening. But since I love this show, it's just a small gripe. I did enjoy the common theme of just deal or "suck it up".
I do like Ken Olin and he and Patricia Wettig together, though his character here is still a bit sketchy. I also don't like the prospect of Rebecca not being a Walker. They spent a good bit of time acclimating her to the Family and I like her addition and new dynamic for the Walkers. I personally, don't want her and Justin to date - which is where I feel/fear this story is heading. I'm happy with them having an intimate familial friendship, where they can really tell the other anything.
And this is, I admit, a silly peeve, because I'm well aware that this show is purely fiction and not hewing to reality at all, but I was totally taken out of the story for just a moment when Robert met with the governor of Michigan, "an old war buddy", because the current governor of Michigan is a woman.
"Schadenfreudelicious!"
LOVE IT! Great reference.
Did anyone else notice that the TV news network they were watching was NBS, which was Steven Weber's fictitious network on the dearly departed Studio 60?
It was a good episode, but not the best. A bit light on the drama, and the confrontation w/ Robert and Jason didn't amount to much. I would have preferred to see a bit of a falling out, if only for a few episodes.
I thought I read somewhere that the show was looking for a new partner for Kevin which means both Scotty and Jason will be out of the picture. If true, I'd hate that to happen as Kevin has equally good chemistry with both men.
What was that all about with Rebecca staring at her mother's photo as if she was thinking something? I thought that was poorly done. Holly insists the guy isn't Rebecca's father and I tend to believe her because I don't think they'd bring Rebecca into the story as a sister and then reveal - one season later - that she's isn't. Just so they can have her hook up with Justin or something.
Knowing that there's no way in hell that Robert can become president (because it would totally shift the tone of the show and cut Kitty off from the rest of her family), Robert either has to lose the election or get shot. I'm thinking that Robert might actually get shot by someone. Maybe that guy that was trying to blackmail him a few months back. It would certainly give Calista Flockhart a good storyline.
Interesting theory that Robert could get ******inated. Seems a little over the top but the writers could pull it off.
I also was a little puzzled by the scene w/ Rebecca and the picture. The clue to what was going on there seemed to be the lack of a date on this particular picture. I hope that Rebecca really is a Walker, and Ken Olin is just going to be a love interest for Holly.
Francine,
I believe that rumor is false. There haven't been any indications they are casting a new love interest for Kevin. Things may change, of course, but I see them pursuing Kevin/Scotty for awhile.
It's Kevin and Jason all the way, I guarantee if the writer's want a power couple they will push this. And after last night's episode it proved true that they both don't fit well into one another's worlds and would be better off as friends. Jason is Kevin's equal and we all know it.
Speaking as someone who could see Kevin with either Scotty or Jason, I thought last night ultimately showed Kevin and Scotty starting to fit into each other's lives. Scotty's friends were won over in the end by Kevin's singing (painful as it was, lol).
And the moment where Scott kissed Kevin and escorted him offstage was adorable.
I have to agree, Kevin and Jason, are the couple to watch, I don't like Kevin with Scotty what so ever. Kevin needs someone mature and no what Love realy is. No on to fact about the Govenor of Michigan, I am from MI, and it really irked, me by placing a Man governor here in Michigan since we have woman govenor since 2003, so that was really out there, and I don't like the writers really study MI, because we dont' have fair like that in Michigan in FEB, and our Primaries were held in January, not Feburary. I wish writers would get their facts straight.
Nancy, I think they purposely cast a man in the role of Michigan's governor to make it clear they weren't based the character on the real-life governor.
Also, this episode was originally scheduled to air in January but ABC postponed it until last night. So the writers can't be blamed for the timing issues.