Brothers and Sisters: In Which the Shit Finally Hits the Fan

Okay, so here’s the deal: I have company coming to stay in less than two hours, and I only just got off of work. So, I’m going to try a first for me – getting this thing written in under an hour. And that includes getting it posted. Because I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but posting these things, with those cute little pictures and captions, is kind of a bitch. Anyway, this will be brief. (Hopefully.)

Since Kitty and Robert are like completely separate from anything and everything else this week, I’m starting with them. Robert’s kids and ex-wife have come to see him, only he hasn’t told the kids that he almost died. He was just “sick.” Kitty nags him the whole episode, all with little Evan in her arms, and he eventually starts snapping at everyone and being a complete jerk. He finally tells his children how serious the whole thing was and they handle it a lot better than he does, because when they leave, he totally breaks down and starts crying. It’s good to see him not being completely evil all the time.

The rest of the episode is about Tommy (but in a good way) and good old Ryan Lafferty, aka The Other Other Walker. Nora is trying to get all of her kids together to meet Ryan, but Sarah, Kevin and Tommy are all claiming work stuff as an excuse. Tommy is the only one who is almost telling the truth – the three of them are actually at Tommy’s arraignment, along with Holly and Julia. Julia posts bail, like a good wife, and then promptly kicks Tommy’s loser self to the curb, like a good woman. She cannot believe that he would do something like this without even thinking of what him going to jail would do to her and Elizabeth. And I think she just hit the nail on the head – he wasn’t thinking, like at all.

Justin and Rebecca are trying to completely ignore the whole situation, due to their awkward dating scenario. They agree to not take sides, though it seems to me that they’re both at least anti-Tommy right about now. Justin is also opposed to meeting Ryan, though it’s never really made clear why he’s so against the poor kid, besides the fact that he doesn’t want to deal with another half-sibling. At least not one that he doesn’t have the potential to date.

Speaking of Ryan, he’s questioning his decision to come meet the whole gang, especially since none of them seem interested in meeting him. Nora decides that they should go to Ojai and that Tommy will give them a tour! Oh, Nora.

Two words. Dancing. Stars. Squee!

Kevin, Sarah and Saul are discussing their options, namely that Holly needs to drop the charges against stupid Tommy. Since it’s a privately owned company, they should be able to handle it privately. They argue about who should go talk to Holly, but Kevin doesn’t want anyone talking to her without a lawyer. Sarah comes up with the brilliant, if sort of mean, plan to get Justin to talk to Rebecca, who will then talk to her mother.

At Ojai, Rebecca is freaking out to Justin on the phone because Nora and Ryan have just shown up and of course, Nora doesn’t know about Tommy. And if she runs into Holly, Holly will obviously spill. I’m shocked she didn’t go right to her door and bitch her out, honestly. Rebecca offers to give them a tour of the loading docks, where they just got a shipment of pears, and presumably where Holly won’t be.

Sarah has lured Justin to her house with cookies, and Justin is less than sympathetic, until Sarah tells him about how Tommy was there for him when he was at rock bottom. Justin takes the words out of my mouth when he yells, “He didn’t even speak to me!” Heh. Sarah just tells him that this is about family and he’s involved whether he wants to be or not. Sarah finally just goes to see Holly herself and offers that Tommy would leave everything behind and never step foot in Ojai again, if Holly would drop her case. Holly is not very cooperative and doesn’t believe that he was really going to change his mind. Sarah even tries to play the William card, but Holly’s like, “Bitch, please. Fool did this to himself.” Word.

Nora has now decided to have a family dinner, and we know how awesome those always are. She even invites Rebecca, though Kitty is stuck at home with the baby. And Evan. Ba-dum-bum! Elsewhere, Justin is trying to get Rebecca to talk to Holly on his behalf, and she is resistant. He backpeddles immediately, and then she gets worried about Tommy being at the dinner. Justin promises that he will not let anything bad happen at the dinner.

David is at Holly’s, making dinner and speculating that Holly might be enjoying this whole Tommy thing a little too much. Rebecca shows up and she actually does bring up Tommy’s suffering and suggests dropping the charges. She doesn’t want Tommy to go to jail, and she also wants to save her relationship with Justin, and that’s how she really frames it – Holly should do it for her. Holly says she’ll think about it.

At Walker Manse, Kevin and Sarah discuss Holly and Tommy, and then she hilariously asks if she’s dressed too fancy with her bow on her shirt. Scotty (!) and Saul are having the exact same conversation. About Tommy, not about the bow. Sarah also gets in a good one about how since Rebecca’s coming, she should just invite Joe and really up the tension. Oh man, Joe. He sucked more than Tommy. Tommy happens to arrive right then, and he and Justin get snippy with each other about Rebecca, and before you know it, they’re all hissing and whispering over each other (Kevin, Scotty and Saul are suddenly there, too, out of nowhere). Nora chides them for gossiping about Ryan and tells them to be nice and be themselves, without realizing that they can’t be both. However, when Ryan walks in, they all rush him and start happily introducing themselves. Justin even hugs him. Nora doesn’t recognize these shiny new nice children of hers.

I just took a break to do my hair and my make-up. We’re going out to dinner, you see. That will not be counted as part of my hour. FYI, I’m more than half way through the episode and I still have a half hour left. Whoo!

While Sarah chats with Ryan, Tommy and Justin don’t talk to each other, and then Rebecca shows up and things get weird. Ryan comes in and thanks Rebecca for the tour of Ojai, and Tommy’s all, “Oh, really?” Ryan scampers, but overhears Kevin and Scotty arguing in the kitchen. Kevin doesn’t think Tommy is acting appropriately, given that he committed a felony. Ryan is shocked and Scotty tells Kevin to just hush because the evening is almost over. Also? Scotty is cooking, which is a nice touch. So, when Nora comes to find Ryan later, he lets her off the hook and tells her that he already knows about Tommy embezzling money. Her face betrays the fact that she had no idea and he fells awful.

Nora charges into the dining room and is like, “Where the fuck is Tommy?” Justin has the nerve to snap at Ryan for telling Nora, but seriously, he just needs to shut up. Kevin is uncomfortable that this is going down in front of Rebecca, who is inevitably on Holly’s side. When she starts to defend her mother, Tommy starts yelling at her like the douche he is. Nora’s like, “Screw Holly, what about your family, you moron?!” Tommy says he’s doing this for his family and that Holly is just trying to steal Ojai. Rebecca once again says this isn’t her mother’s fault and Tommy just keeps yelling at her. Justin tries to get her to stay out of it and Kevin tells Tommy to shut up, only to have Tommy turn on him and tell him to shut up. Tommy says he’s just doing what his father would have done. Nora: “Your father? Your father! What your father did was unforgivable! I DESPISE him for it!” Tommy: “Really? Well, you sure loved living off of it, Mom.” Nora: SMACK! That’s right – she just bitch slapped him. Finally. Then, he gets even more gross by saying he wonders if the family is even worth saving. You know? I didn’t think it was possible for me to hate Tommy any more than I already do, but he just totally bypassed even my worst expectations.

Also? I totally failed my 1-hour goal. It is now three days later, my guests are gone, and the next episode has already aired. I am deeply sorry, guys. I’ve been a bad recapper this week. But, the show must go on.

Rebecca is sitting outside all by her lonesome when Ryan finds her, wanting to make sure she’s OK. She says she’s not sure if her and Justin can get through all this drama, but does half-heartedly say that the Walkers aren’t always this bad. Ryan calls Tommy a jerk, while Justin watches from afar.

At Saul’s, Nora is confronting Saul about not keeping her in the loop. She’s not satisfied that he tried to get Tommy to see some sense, and she thinks she had the right to know. She goes as far as telling him that he’s comfortable dealing with lies, and that’s why Tommy (and William before him) came to Saul. Saul, in turn, says that she’s comfortable staying in the dark, and Nora says that she’s changed now. It’s a tough scene to watch because they’re both right, but man, I hate to see them like this. Nora storms out after saying that right now, she can only see the ways he hasn’t changed. Those two kicked that scene’s ass.

Rebecca comes to find Justin at his apartment, and they get into it about him not defending her and telling her to just stand there and shut up. He tells her that he can’t worry about his family being a little harsh on her, and she can’t believe he just called it a “little harsh.” He says he doesn’t get where she’s coming from and she realizes that it will always be the Walkers over her. She says it’s not working out and that she’s choosing her family over him. He’s all, “Seriously? That’s just effing awesome.” She storms out, and they break up just as I finally admitted that I actually liked them together. Thanks, show!

Rebecca runs right to Holly and tells her to do whatever she needs to do, and then she cries and her mother just holds her while her father watches on. That was kind of nice, I guess. I’m really sort of torn on the Holly issue. She did force her way into the company and sort of pushed Saul and Sarah out, but she’s also done pretty well with the company and Walker Landing has been successful. I can see why Tommy would want her out, but not to the extent that he’s taken it.

Walker Manse, where Ryan is up early and making breakfast. Man, he’s just shoing up all those Walker kids, isn’t he? He tells Nora that he wants to stick around and that the fact that the family isn’t perfect is actually a relief. He has a chance of fitting in now, and it’s all really sweet.

Justin has come to Sarah, broken heart in hand, needing his big sister. All he can think about is using, and she invites him to stay with her before taking him in her arms. Of course, he’ll have to fight Tommy for the couch, and I think we all agree that Tommy can just sleep on the floor.

Ryan, on the other hand, has come to see Rebecca, to see if she’s alright. She invites him in to watch some TV and tells him that her and Justin broke up. He claims to be sorry, but I think he’s actually pretty happy about it. I’m not sure I like where this is going. I guess I feel like the writers should some more effort into the Justin/Rebecca thing, given that they un-related her just so they could hook up. But, I do adore Ryan, so we’ll see.