After it was resolved that Justin's deployment to Iraq would be delayed to allow him to work on his recovery, much of his story line has centered on his struggle to shake his addiction. But Justin's fears about going back to war were always there in the background. And tonight those fears became a reality in the worst way, as Justin found out at the last minute that his departure date was earlier than planned. At first I liked the way Justin handled his goodbyes individually — until, like Nora, I realized that he was saying goodbye for real, in case he wouldn’t be coming back. Even though I can see, rationally, how it doesn’t matter whether or not the word “goodbye” is actually said, I can understand how Nora felt that avoiding a formal goodbye would bring Justin back to her, as if not saying goodbye would make it impossible for him to die. Justin’s early departure coincided, unfortunately, with Kitty’s engagement party. He’d already said his ...
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The birth of Tommy and Julia’s twins has been anticipated by the Walkers all season long. Sadly, what should have been the happiest moment in Tommy and Julia’s lives turned out to be one of the most difficult. I can’t imagine how awful they must have felt, trying to decide whether or not their daughter should be a kidney donor for their son. Although he’s usually not a very emotional person, you could really see Tommy’s anguish when he told Nora that he was afraid when he saw his daughter that he wouldn’t be able to ask her to give her kidney, especially knowing how much she had been through. And although we haven’t seen much of Julia this season, Sarah Jane Morris really shone tonight in her portrayal of a mother saying goodbye to her son. I thought it was especially sad when the doctor asked Tommy and Julia if there were any final things they wanted to do, and Julia said she wanted to hold the baby.The other central story line tonight involved th...
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Question: Did you catch the discrepancy in continuity in Sunday's episode of Brothers & Sisters, during Joe and Rebecca's kiss? I assumed when the truth was finally revealed we were going to be shown exactly what happened directly after that lustful stare we left off with in "Game Night." Instead we got a version that varied quite significantly from the scene in "Game Night" in more ways than one. The dialogue was different, and Rebecca had an additional line before the stare (her comment on Joe's soft hands) that was quite significant. Her overall demeanor throughout the scene was entirely different, too. There was no indication that the "Game Night" scene was just Rebecca's version of what happened, so all I can think is that both scenes were meant to manipulate viewers to obtain a greater dramatic effect when the truth was finally revealed, continuity be damned. Now I know that this is normal for Hollywood, but it just feels sleazy, especially in the case of Brothers & Sisters, ...
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The wine tasting at Tommy and Holly’s new vineyard put Tommy at the center of tonight’s episode. The "center" of course being a place Tommy isn’t normally accustomed to being. He handled everything well, and he definitely came across as the voice of reason among the extended Walker family. Not that that was hard to do, what with the Walker siblings missing the point of the wine tasting and doing a fair amount of wine drinking. But Tommy’s toast was a nice tribute to his dad, managing to be both honest about his father's flaws and respectful of all he taught them. Unfortunately the episode didn’t end on a good note for Tommy. Hopefully the twins will be OK.Holly, on the other hand, didn’t exactly play the gracious host to the Walker family. In the beginning of the episode I actually felt sort of bad for her, which is unusual because Holly’s generally not the sort of character who generates a lot of sympathy. I don’t think Nora was really under ...
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Question: Ugh! Rebecca is such a bitch on Brothers & Sisters! Please tell me that karma is going to bushwhack her ass sometime soon.
Answer: EVC as a bad girl? Love. It. And to answer your question (spoiler alert), no, I hear Rebecca's indecent overture to Joe (and subsequent cover-up) goes virtually unpunished, which I find baffling. Equally as confounding: the shark-jumpy skeleton in Saul's closet that's about to, um, come out. I'll withhold final judgment until I see how the twist plays out on screen, but let me go on the record as saying I've got a bad feeling about it.
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It occurred to me that not being able to actually see what happened between Joe and Rebecca for so long gave us, as viewers, the chance to react the same way the Walkers did: based on what we heard. I know when Rebecca initially told Justin that Joe had kissed her (at the end of the “Game Night” episode) I totally believed her. She’s new to the family and trying to fit in — why would she want to do something that could jeopardize that?But then I read everyone’s comments and I realized that Rebecca might not be as innocent as she seemed. Could she be getting back at Sarah? Could she think, in some way, that making an accusation like this would help her gain the support of her new family?The “good” Rebecca and the “ulterior motives” Rebecca were both running through my head as I watched tonight’s episode, and, I have to say, I really wanted to believe that Rebecca was being honest. It wasn’t hard to think that, too, since Joe wasn...
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Joe kissed Rebecca. When Rebecca first came into the picture I never thought I’d be writing that sentence. I can’t believe Joe. It just seems so, well, out of character. Although I guess we don’t really know very much about him, to be honest. He’s a musician, he stays at home with the kids, he seems frustrated and bored at times, and his marriage to Sarah seems to have its problems. But basically all his on-screen time has involved his shared marital problems with Sarah, or, a few episodes back, his reaction to Paige’s diabetes. So I guess we don’t actually know much about Joe himself. But kissing his wife’s newly discovered half sister definitely doesn’t say very much about him as a person. And it seems especially creepy that it happened right after Rebecca told him about her much older ex-boyfriend. Was Joe taking that as a sign that she’d be interested in him as well? I’m not sure how Joe and Sarah’s already troubled marriage...
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Kitty supposedly went to Senator McCallister’s hometown looking for some commentary about how great the senator is from those who knew him first. She also secretly hoped to get some gossip that would be beneficial to her in her role as Robert’s girlfriend. What she found at first was pretty run-of-the-mill: a small town with nothing to do (well, nothing that didn’t involve artichokes) and a high-school sweetheart with generic nice things to say. But boy was Kitty ever in for a surprise when she found out exactly why Robert meant so much to his high-school girlfriend. I can’t believe Sarah and Kitty went to that keg party to begin with — although maybe that was the artiritas talking. And it did set up a good opportunity for Kitty and Alice to have a real conversation. For a second I thought they might say that Robert was the father of Alice’s high-school-age son. I’m glad they didn’t, as Kitty and Robert’s relationship already has enough ...
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Although the February sweeps officially have been over for several days, Sunday night sure felt like a sweeps extravaganza, with game-changing episodes of two major series. Both pivotal hours, of Sci Fi’s Battlestar Galactica and ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, dealt with the fate of daughters whose respective departure and arrival is setting off shock waves for their unconventional families (the Galactica crew and the Walker clan).The episode that undoubtedly will cause the largest stir in TV fandom was Galactica’s riveting and ultimately devastating journey into the metaphysical, as Starbuck (a brooding, tormented Katee Sackhoff) finally faced and embraced her destiny. Which meant, in a series of visions and hallucinations guided by the specter of the not-quite-Leobon as if he were the Ghost of Psychodramas Past, that Kara had to confront the soul-crushing memories of her abusive mother, who instilled in the self-destructive Starbuck a belief that suffering was good f...
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It was a surprise to hear Noah’s name mentioned tonight. After briefly appearing in the opening episodes, he seemed to disappear. I thought we were going to go through the rest of the season without hearing about him again. But in attempting to address her feelings toward Joe’s friend Vanessa, Sarah was forced to confront her own confusing extramarital friendship and how it affected the way she feels about her husband. Coming clean to Joe didn’t seem to help much, at least for now. In fact, Sarah looked so inconsolable during her solo visit to the therapist that it was hard not to wonder if Sarah and Joe were ever going to be able to get back to the place they were before. And Sarah’s marriage wasn’t her only problem. Tommy continued to distance himself from her and the rest of the Walkers by officially going into business with Holly, although not until he did some checking to make sure Holly was being genuine in her offer. The flashback scenes with William ...
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