Nora may be good at many things, but it doesn’t look like working at the family business is one of them. It was strange to see her floundering around the office like a fish out of water, especially when Nora always seems so in control at home. I kept expecting some of her self-confidence to eventually show itself in the workplace. How surprising was it to see some great ideas come from Holly instead?Although Holly’s ideas may have been good, it seems like she could learn to be a little more tactful. Making reference to her closeness to William during a meeting where half the attendees were Walker family members seemed in poor taste, to say the least. At least Holly realized that, but I couldn’t tell if she was genuinely sorry for bringing it up — as she told Nora. I find Holly a little hard to read in general. I can see how her relationship with William prompted her interest in his business, but actually, working there seems a little extreme. How can she think w...
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One of the things I like most about Brothers & Sisters is that each week there are moments that I think about long after the show is over. Tonight, that moment was Kitty comforting Nora as she cried about losing Justin again. It can’t be easy to see your mom fall apart, and I’m sure it was scary for Kitty to play the mom role for her own mother. But she did it very well, and the shot of the two embracing showed viewers that Kitty and her mom will make it through Justin’s second call to duty without the tension and anger that existed between them when he enlisted. It was overall an emotional night for the Walker family, who dealt with both their first Thanksgiving without William and Justin’s impending return to active duty. Kitty made a mistake in asking Senator McAllister (Rob Lowe) for help in getting Justin out of the army, but at least her intentions were good, and she was honest about what she had done. It didn’t seem like Amber, on the other hand,...
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Sarah, Kitty, Kevin, Tommy, Justin... Rebecca. It looks like Sarah’s suspicions were right and Rebecca is in fact their father’s daughter. After all those combinations, the password, which was composed of William’s children’s initials, was actually relatively simple. Although, to be fair, no one knew about William’s sixth child. Including, it seems, William himself. Holly’s reason for hiding the truth from everyone, although apparently well-intentioned, seems to have made everything extremely complicated. And really hard on Holly. Did William suspect that Rebecca was his child? The extent of his relationship with Rebecca isn't quite clear, but he obviously thought enough of her to keep a photo of her at the ranch and to make her part of the password. The past played a big role in tonight’s episode, as we saw in the flashbacks of September 11, the family’s reactions (including those of guest star Tom Skerritt) and Justin’s decision to enl...
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So Tommy’s wife Julia finally talked tonight, and she certainly had a lot to say. I felt bad for Tommy when she announced to the entire family that she was hoping to get pregnant soon, knowing what Tommy had just found out. They seemed to discuss everything and reconcile before the benefit was over, although the coatroom scene was pretty embarrassing for everybody. Speaking of embarrassing, Nora keeps getting stuck in awkward situations with other men, although at least tonight wasn’t over a date that wasn’t really a date. It was pretty awful of that guy to let his wife think that Nora was hitting on him, and to make matters worse, his wife (Meredith Baxter from Family Ties) believed him. I don’t know how, because I’m sure that’s not the first time her husband did that.I personally found it hard to believe that Kevin would be so insensitive as to offer to pay for Scotty’s lost wages if he would be his date for the night, because Kevin is generally ...
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It was nice of Jonathan to give the brothers and sisters some friendly business advice, although I got the impression from his final conversation with Kitty that he might not be that optimistic about the future of the family business. I actually felt kind of bad for him when he and Kitty were breaking up, even though Jonathan often comes off as arrogant and I never really liked him for Kitty. He appeared to be genuinely sad, and he also apparently knew Kitty better than she thought, as he seemed aware that she hadn’t fully let him in.But tonight was really all about Nora and Kitty for me. Sally Field was great as usual, especially when Nora realized her “date” with David the contractor wasn’t really a date. How awful, and it only seemed worse when Nora tried to salvage it with jokes about her “comedic timing” being off. It was good to see Treat Williams (Everwood) back on TV again as David, even though things ended awkwardly between him and Nora. Kitty ...
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Kitty and her mother are living under one roof, and each thinks the other needs her there. Something tells me the scene has been set for plenty of conflict. Based on the premiere episode of Brothers & Sisters alone, I might have thought it would be hostile conflict, but after tonight I’m not so sure. The Walker family just seemed so fragile in the wake of their father’s death, Kitty and her mother included. And even when she was mad at her mother, Kitty seemed protective of her and aware of her vulnerability. It occurred to me while watching them interact tonight that the two are actually a lot alike. Not in their political beliefs, obviously. But in their stubbornness, their closeness to Justin and their commitment to the things that are important to them, mother and daughter actually have a lot in common.Speaking of Justin (who I think kind of looks like Matthew Fox), it says a lot about his character that his life is a mess right now and yet he still comes across as...
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Even with William's death and Kitty's tentative reconciliation with her mother in tonight's premiere of Brothers & Sisters, the first thing my mind went to when the show was over was Kitty and her mom's cringe-worthy fake hug for William's benefit. It just seemed so sad to actually clarify that the hug was for show and didn't mean anything - and that was far from the only illusion in the Walker household. Mom and Dad might not actually have been the perfect couple their kids always thought they were, and patriarch William in particular seemed to have a lot to hide. Did he cheat on his wife? Or did that woman he seemed to be secretively talking to have something to do with the family business' obvious problems? Speaking of the family business, Sarah sure doesn't seem happy about her decision to become a part of it. Although her marital problems didn't seem like much of a secret, I'm guessing that her feelings for her former coworker are probably complicating things in a way that ...
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