Brothers & Sisters: The Fortune Teller told me...

This week on Brothers & Sisters, Kitty's neuroses bite her in the butt, the chip on Kevin's shoulder nearly bludgeons everyone around him, Rebecca's commitment issues come to the fore, Sarah realizes she's working with children, and Nora's hair-brained scheme just might work -- until Holly gets in the way. How did all those plotlines fit into one episode? Magic!

Nothing up my sleeve -- presto, spoilers!

Kitty and Robert get the summons to meet with the birth mother, and Kitty is in a tizzy. That tizzy increases when the mother comes in -- she's not some downtrodden high-schooler, but is instead a poised, mature, neurosurgeon-in-training who has it together.  Trish, the birth mother, would rather devote her life to her career than a kid. Robert is thrilled with her -- she's smart, she's funny, she's resolute, she's perfect! Kitty isn't so sure. She tries to ask Trish some question, but Trish is busy saving lives or some such nonsense. (The nerve!)

Kitty tracks Trish down alone later and peppers her with questions: Are you sure about giving up your baby? Are you sure you're sure? Are you sure you're sure you're sure? After the 12th iteration of this, Trish tells Kitty to forget it -- she deals with enough neuroses in her patients. Ouch.

Kitty tells Robert Trish changed her mind about the adoption, and Robert figures out that Kitty may have helped that decision along. He's furious. Do you even want to be a parent? Then why did you sabotage this? Kitty eventually tells Robert that she's still gun-shy from the miscarriage, the failed fertility treatments, all that heartbreak, and so she was protecting herself from having that sort of devastation happen to her again. She pledges to fix things with Trish -- but it's too late. Trish has already contacted the social worker to find another set of parents. She tells Kitty she'll find another baby, eventually. You know that heartbreak Kitty was trying to avoid? It just happened right there.

Kevin and Robert
Kevin wants Robert to make a statement against Proposition 8, which would (and did, in this recent election) ban gay marriages. Robert says he did, four weeks ago, and besides, Kevin has something else to deal with. That something else is a reporter who claims to have evidence that Robert is having an affair with the (female, fiction, and definitely not Schwarzeneggerian) governor. Both of them snuck into a swanky hotel in quick succession, and the reporter has photos to prove it. He gives Kevin 24 hours to get him an explanation or he'll run with the story.

Kevin confronts Robert, who is already sick of Kevin's attitude. Um, dude, not about you, and all I can tell you is I met with the governor on a sensitive political issue. Trust me, and go do your job! Ah, but Kevin has trust issues, so he can't leave it at that. He consults with Saul, who tells him not to work with someone he can't trust.  A demonstration of the art of misdirection give Kevin an idea -- he calls the reporter and gives him the statement he wanted Robert to make on Prop 8. The story in the paper the next day says Robert urged the governor to support the no campaign. No mention of an affair. Robert seems furious -- you were supposed to make the story go away, not advance your own political agenda. But he's actually pleased -- the affair story was quashed (turns out the governor is having an affair, but not with Robert -- she just wanted his advice on how to deal with it) and now Robert is getting good press. Considering how the vote went, I find that last bit hard to believe.

Nora and George
George Lafferty initially decides to tell Ryan nothing, but now he's having second thoughts. Nora ends up inviting him to meet the family at Tommy and Julia's anniversary party. To keep it from being awkward, they decide to pretend George is someone else. How could something like that go wrong?

Well, first, everyone thinks Nora and George are dating, and that his name is Elton. Then, Kitty shows up and outs "Elton" as George, and the family is up in arms. Why? I'm not entirely sure. Finally, George flings himself into Holly's gaping maw of malice, and he decides that though Nora's family is "seductive," it's better off if Ryan knows nothing about them. Hmm. Well, the fortuneteller (and casting reports) says that Ryan will show up eventually, and that he'll cause trouble.

Sarah and the Start-Ups
Sarah is appalled to find out that she's working with a couple of kids -- they play guitar at work, draw on the whiteboard, play with magic tricks, do everything but actually work! She reads them the riot act, then recruits Start-Up Geek to be the parlor magician at Tommy and Julia's party. That goes well, until Holly realizes that Sarah is working with these two young 'uns. The contempt drips from her smile.

The next day, the Start-Ups appear at Sarah's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, having worked all night to make product improvements that Sarah had talked about. She realizes that even though the Start Uppers seem like undisciplined kids, they do work really hard -- just not in the way she's used to.

Rebecca and Justin
Justin tells Rebecca he loves her -- and she says thanks. Doh! This throws Justin into a massive, passive-aggressive sulk. At the party, the fortune-teller tells Rebecca that she will have a great love -- but not now. At some point in the future, she'll meet someone who will make her totally forget Justin. Rebecca decides this is the impetus she needs to tell Justin she loves him -- and isn't it always nice to realize someone says "I love you" to spite someone else? Yeah, Justin fails to enthuse, and he gives back Rebecca's key.

Later, Rebecca makes it up to Justin by taping his key to the door (yes, it's in an envelope, but I still deplore Rebecca's single-girl-living-alone-in-a-city-and-not-getting-killed instincts) and making an elaborate candle-lit dinner. There is no perfect moment to say I love you, because it's always the moment, she says. The two make up. Now -- how long will it last?

Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends

• Justin, I know you thought you were being adorable, but lurking in the bathroom when your girlfriend is taking a shower comes off as creepy, not affectionate.
• Stu calls Kevin "Kitty's brother." The reporter greets Kevin with "It's good to see that nepotism is alive and well!" Kevin seems shocked by both of these comments. For a smart guy, he can be sort of dim sometimes.
• Kevin also seemed horrified to learn that this job wasn't All About Him. How could Robert not have anticipated this?
• The preview made it look like Kitty and Robert were shocked that Trish, the birth mother, was black. That hardly came up at all in the show itself. Previews drive me nuts sometimes.
• George and Nora try to come up with an alias for him. Nora suggests Bob. George suggests Mick Jagger. Failing that, how about Dylan Jagger? "Elton" is actually looking pretty subtle after all that!
• What do you think about Kitty's reaction to Trish -- was she right to question her deeply about her commitment to giving up the baby, or did she totally screw the pooch by overthinking everything and picking away at Trish? I'm inclined to believe the latter.
• Sarah gets peevish when Start-Up Stud noodles on the guitar and Start-Up Geek doodles on the whiteboard. Was I imagining things, or was Start-Up Geek drawing J. J. Abram's Bad Robot? Nice cross-network plug there!
• Holly to Sarah, when the Start-Ups introduced themselves: "I didn't know you were in business with a magician!" She looks like the cat who ate the canary there.
• After the Walker kids discover who George really is, it's time for the regularly scheduled Walker Family Meltdown. Julia walks up to see what's up  -- "I thought I heard yelling." "What, our family?" one of the brothers quips. Heh.

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