'Brothers & Sisters': Speaking truth to power (and Sarah)

Did anyone else find Brothers & Sisters an exquisite torture this week? No, not because of the plot, which was actually pretty good -- I'm talking about watching all that tag-sale treasure just sitting out there, and I wasn't able to go rifling through bins of books and piles of kitsch from my childhood. Wants it! Wants the precious!

Is that a GI Joe with authentic Spoiler vision?

Nora wants to clear out William's old office so she can set up her foundation, and pledges to move all the old stuff into the garage. Small problem -- there are strata of Walker family detritus filling the garage to the point where I'm surprised it hasn't developed enough mass to spontaneously generate a black hole. Only one thing to do -- Yard sale!

The kids are unenthusiastic. Sarah and Kevin prefer to laze by the pool, and only agree to help when Nora threatens to sell their childhood treasures. But Justin has deeper concerns -- Nora is selling off absolutely everything that William ever touched. Come on, mom -- you're going to want some of these things! Justin protests. Nope. I'm over it, and I just want to move on, Nora insists. Everyone else buys that argument.

The yard sale is a wild success, but we do get hints that maybe Nora is in denial about what she's doing. She seems eager to just give away some of William's old stuff (including the honeymoon monkey), and she doesn't seem to be thinking about the real value of some of the things she's selling. If that golf ball really was signed by Arnold Palmer, and she really is doing this to raise money for her office, shouldn't she be listing it on eBay?

In the end, Nora has raked in a tidy haul of cash -- and it hits her what she's done. "It's all gone," she says, shell-shocked. Look like Justin was right -- Nora was selling at least in part out of anger. Justin comforts her by telling her that she's not going to get over 40 years of marriage in two years. Someday soon she'll be able to remember the good times, and the honeymoon monkey -- which Justin retrieved from its buyer -- will be there for her then.

The family business
Sarah is still exceedingly pissed at Tommy. Nora tries to get the two talking by bringing out a time capsule they buried when they were kids, but Sarah wants nothing to do with it. All the scorn and slurs and silent treatment wears Tommy down to the point where he can't face going to the garage sale. Julia and Elizabeth go, however, and Sarah is perfectly happy to talk to them. She's shocked when Julia seems cold to her. Duh.

And then Julia makes up for her months of silence by tearing Sarah a new one. Don't tell me this is just business, and this is all Tommy's fault. You made a bad deal, and Tommy had to dig the company out. You're not mad at him, you're mad at yourself, and you're taking it out on him. Get over yourself. Julia? I may love you at this moment. Sarah shows up at Tommy's with the time capsule. They go through it and bond over the time they spent working at Ojai as children. Tommy tells Sarah she's welcome back -- Holly can't stay forever. Sarah says she's not holding her breath. But at least the siblings are talking again.

Speaking of Holly... she can't get through to Rebecca through normal channels, so she hires her as a temp. Rebecca is pissed, but she starts to soften when she realizes Holly has nothing but work anymore. At the yard sale, Rebecca finds a landscape Holly painted for William, and ends up giving it to Holly. They start to reconcile (as the audience howls "Nooooooo!"), and Rebecca tells Holly that she's the only family she has.  But she can't trust her... Holly offers her a clerical job at Ojai, reasoning that it's neutral ground where they can see each other. (Um, ok...) She promises there will be no more lies between them. Too bad Holly just flirted all of Ryan's information out of her State Records stooge, and she left that folder lying on her desk for Rebecca to find. Now, you can argue that technically Holly didn't lie about this to Rebecca, but Rebecca seems pretty darn pissed all the same.

Politics as usual
Robert is pissy because he's losing his communications director -- Kitty decided on a publisher and she's leaving the job. Robert dismissed all the replacement candidates Kitty brings in -- they just don't have the zazz he's looking for! They're not her! Later, he admits that he fears for their marriage once they're no longer working together -- will they have anything to talk about anymore? Well, yeah -- Kitty is still writing about politics, idiot.  They'll always have that in common. 

Kitty considers backing out on the publishing deal, which makes Kevin crazy, since he's convinced Robert is the Antichrist.  Kevin lights into Robert at the sale (even going so far as to deprive him of the G.I. Joe he'd wanted since he was a kid), and incidentally tears holes in a jobs-creation bill that Robert's staff supports by Robert himself seems tepid about.

This inspires Robert to offer Kevin the communications director job. Kevin is aghast -- I hate you and all that you stand for! Also, ilk! Ilk, ilk ilk! (You know it's bad when he breaks out the "ilk.") But Kitty thinks it's so crazy that it just might work. Will Kevin take the job? I wouldn't bet against it.

Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends

• Justin is aghast that Nora wants to get rid of the office furniture. "What, dad's desk?" he gasps, clutching his metaphorical pearls. "He's not using it now," Nora replies. Good point.
• You'll have to give me a moment to be bitter and resentful -- the Walkers don't need to use their garage? I'll remember this when I'm digging my car out of massive Chicago snow drifts in a couple of months...
• Sarah was bitter about Tommy working at Ojai even as a kid. She told him he was a "soil inspector" and had him dig little holes throughout the orchard. Hee.
• Nora, Kevin and Sarah sort through stuff for the sale: "Whose kneepads are these?" Nora asks. "I think Sarah used them as breasts all through middle school," Kevin replies. After scoffing that she was plenty bodacious, Sarah strikes back: "I'd be very careful Kevin Walker -- I just found your breakdance pants." Ah, the 80s...
• Did anyone else feel torn between being proud of Nora and heartbroken for her when she told Justin about how she used to wonder what Holly gave William that she couldn't? Now she knows better.  "I started to believe that he really loved her. He didn't love Holly. He didn't love me. He was a cheat, plain an simple. It was his problem, not mine." Oof. Yes, it's something that Nora had to realize, but it still hurts.
• Sarah ponders what they could have been doing in the summers instead of working for Ojai: "'Why didn't we go surfing, like Justin, or do London, like kitty, or stay home, sulk, listen to Depche Mode, like Kevin?" Hee!
• Kevin gives the worst job interview on the face of the planet: "I truly believe that you and your ilk are destroying the country. And if I had access to this office, I would send damaging emails from your computer in the hope that I would bring down you and your entire party." And yet, we all know he's gong to take the job.
• Did anyone else prick up their ears when Tommy said that Holly wouldn't be there forever? Do you think he's got a plan to oust her? Wouldn't that be awesome?

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