'Private Practice': One begins where the other ends

It's a one-way ticket back to L.A. for Private Practice after tonight, as we wrap up the last of the three-part crossover event. Addison says goodbye to Seattle, and heads back home to tangle with her brother the himbo, her best friend's hopeless crush on said himbo, and also deliver a hermaphroditic newborn. Whoo, good times.

However, to give the crossover its due, Derek asks Addison to stick around to monitor Jen the stroke mom's baby, and she does to repay the favor of saving Archer's life. Unfortunately, Derek's original mistake during the first surgery snowballs, leading to Jen's death. Addison's showdown with Derek in the OR was the official baton-passing from Addison to Meredith, even if Meredith didn't really want the baton in the end. Have fun with Derek the broken murderer, Mer.

But back to L.A. we go. where Archer recovered from brain surgery very quickly, didn't he? And the brain worms didn't leave any new sense of morality behind, so he's still sleeping with anything that moves, behind Naomi's back. Addison tells him she can't keep his secret, no matter what the Montgomery Party Line is. But she does, at least at first. She finally breaks down and tells Naomi the truth, but Archer has already skipped town.

Charlotte asks Cooper to move in with her, but he refuses. She ends up getting past the situation by sleeping with Archer, beating herself up about it, and telling Cooper, who refuses to let that ruin things, even if he's the guy living with Violet. Charlotte's tough as nails exterior is crumbling, which is sad, because that's what made her interesting. Now she's just flawed.

Violet agrees to co-chair a couples' therapy session with Sheldon. Violet ends up seeing a wife and a husband - from different couples - making out in the stairwell. Sheldon and Violet end up approaching them both, and even though they decide to face their respective spouses and be together at first, the husband ends up reconnecting with his own wife, and the girlfriend finds out during the next session. Her husband leaves the session, saying he's done, but the other remaining couples reconnect. And in the end, so do Violet and Sheldon, finding some kind of middle ground.

And Pete is broken, he says, but his cancer patient who's living in denial is a little more so. And Sam, who called his girlfriend "Naomi" is a little farther down the denial road. Or river. Whatever.

The secondary storyline involved a newborn born with both sets of genitalia. The parents aren't sure whether to assign a gender now, or wait, and face peer and social issues. There's no right answer, but they decide to go along with the original ultrasound, and assign the baby as male - even if genetically, the child has two big X chromosomes and Addison stresses that only 30% of children orient as male. In the end, she tells the parents that she can't do the surgery, and the mother agrees, against the wishes of the dad. The dad walks out, but Naomi, fresh off the pain of Archer's cheating and departure, confronts him. He returns, because he must be a better man than Archer in the end, right?

So the crossover ended with a whimper, but we're left with a fragile Addison. What would we have had if Archer would have died, instead of just leaving, crying that he's just turned into their father? That might have been a more interesting storyline. A certain peace was made with Derek, and now we're left now with Addison all alone. No SWAT team dude, no rival sexy doctor, nada.

But then, there's always Pete, the original Private Practice fling object.

Nah.

Thoughts...

• The ABC PR machine is working overtime lately. We had the crossover, or whatever it ended up being, since this evening's crossover finale was a bit of a whimper. But Kate Walsh is on a bunch of magazine covers right now. Eleventh hour despair? Hmmm.

• "Storming the frickin' castle!" Nice line, Cooper! I'm a sucker for a good Princess Bride reference.

• Man, I know it's not my show, but Faye Dunaway! No wire hangers ever Faye Dunaway! Get out of my OR, Faye Dunaway!

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