7th Heaven

Peter wants to help former alcohol and drug addicts. He meets one, Nick, who wants to get in touch with his son. Peter helps them reconnect. Roxanne thinks that she is still in love with Chandler. Cecilia and Martin are going out. Ruthie is jealous of Cecilia because she spends so much time with her mom. Kevin doesn't want Lucy to play in the husband/wife softball games, so he keeps it a secret. Lucy finds out and wants to play, but she stinks. Paris sees Chandler and Roxanne together after Chandler broke their date.



This was a great episode! I like Cecilia and Martin together! Paris had a right to be upset, I would be too! This episode gets a 10!

Another episode that was pretty good. In this episode everyone had a little baggage with them that they needed to settle with someone else. This episode has its funny moments (mainly Kevin and Lucy) and its sad points (Peter, Alfred and Joe) and was pretty entertaining. It's not a classic episode but it'll do. For a show in its 8th season and with a revolving door of exiting and returning characters "7th Heaven" is still pretty strong in what it does. Let's break it down storyline by storyline…



Eric and Annie: Yes! The second time in a row that we see Annie a lot in an episode this season. Keep it up writers! It was nice that Eric and Annie are finally interacting again with one another than maybe just in one or two scenes like a lot of episodes in season 7 and earlier this season. Although, some fans have acknowledged and I've also noticed that Eric and Annie aren't as lovey-dovey as they were back in the earlier seasons. Actually, that's pretty common in marriages lasting that long like Eric and Annie's after 25 years—I think. You know they love each other very much but they express it in a different way now as they both have evolved. In marriages lasting that long you become more comfortable and okay with each other so you don't usually kiss and be lovey-dovey all the time when you see them as you used to be. It happens. Plus, it's great seeing that Eric and Annie go their separate ways in their separate storylines in these later episodes as Annie does her best to help Paris and correct her mistakes with Ruthie and Cecilia. It was getting odd that Annie was spending more time with Cecilia than her own daughter and I was glad it was indirectly addressed. With that Eric does his best to help Peter as part of his job. In the earlier seasons Eric and Annie made a lot of their decisions together when their whole family was still living under one roof and usually their storylines were intertwined together at some point. That was also good but I think the writers do a good job at characterizing Eric and Annie's marriage especially since most of their kids are grown up and are now able to separate from each other more. They've been through a lot and they've changed. I mean compare from season 1 till now.



Kevin and Lucy: This episode Kevin and Lucy didn't interact at all with the rest of the family-- they had their own separate plot. I actually think this is the first episode with them basically alone and it was very good and funny. Their storyline was pretty light and basic but entertaining to the very viewer as well. Man, Lucy does stink at sports! I'll admit it, I'm not the best athletic person by far but at least I can play softball pretty well. There's a ball, you have a bat- hit the ball! As bad as I felt for Lucy I think her and Kevin had a point. The point of the whole thing was for husband and wife police officers having a good time together and playing a friendly game as Lucy clearly stated when hiding out in the bathroom fuming. But like Kevin also said (and I quite agree) that sports are also about winning – but it's still not an excuse for his cheating. Sure, you want to have a good time but in the end you want to win too. If you don't think so---then you're lying to yourself. At the same time if I knew Lucy stunk ahead of time I would've never put her at first base in the first place and would've started her off further out in the field. But at the same time Lucy had a point about the cheating with the women not actually being married the men on the team as a requirement. This was a pretty good alone storyline for the newlywed couple. If I had to change one thing it would've been Lucy not being in the bathroom pouting when discussing the situation with Kevin. Her credibility goes down with that. She can be more mature than that, especially when you're married.



Martin and Cecelia: Ok, I'm guessing sometime over the last time we saw Martin and now in this episode that he and Cecilia got together. I guess Cecilia didn't mention it because she knows it's awkward still going to her ex-boyfriends house and spending time with his family. Why would she want to tell them since she likes them? I mean it's not too ridiculous that she'd imagine they get upset knowing their sons old girlfriend they see all the time is dating someone else and still wanting to hang with them. It was quite normal that she would start to pull back on see them, but as we all know the Camden's are a very accepting family and they like Cecilia and know Simon is gone. As for Martin we still know very little about his personality in general but we did find out that he's very good in playing baseball (just like is alter-ego Tyler). But I think in the next few episodes we'll get to know Martin a lot more. I bet anyone that he moves into the Camden house soon? I mean no one is using Simon or Ruthie's old rooms on the second floor anymore.



Peter, Alfred and Joe: Now first of all I'm quite surprised at Reverend Camden. If I was him no matter how much Peter begged I would never let him attend an Alcohol Recovery Center. Even with supervision from an adult like Eric or Chandler it is definitely no place for a child when you have patients recovering from alcoholism who could experience violent withdrawal symptoms and seizures in the center (Remember Aunt Julie in Season 1?). But you know this is television and the writers wanted to make a point about this subject. It seems we also got a little character development in Peter as we found out for the first time that Peter's father was an alcoholic who left them (Now we find out?). I liked how in the end we don't really see what happens between Alfred and Joe in the end as we only see that they make eye contact and shake hands with each other. Because it's true that in life the most power that we have at helping people is by at just trying to point them in the right direction of where they need to go. Sometimes there are happy endings and sometimes they're not in real life.



Chandler, Paris & Roxanne: Ok I find these characters tolerable again--not love them as much as the Camdens---but I can now tolerate them again after a rocky start for their characters this season. I know many don't like the relationship between Chandler and Paris and think it's odd that he would be with such and older woman. But for me they look pretty ok together (and in real life Jeremy London is a lot older than his character, 31 compared to 24). Anyway I felt bad for Paris as she did give out a suggestion to Chandler that it would be great to come to her house since Peter would be gone. It was important to her that she didn't want to give the wrong impression of herself to him, as she really likes him so it was normal for her to being nervous. I also felt bad for Roxanne. There are some people who date but dump their significant other after they feel they're getting too close and committing. Some people at first can be uncomfortable with that (i.e. Roxanne) but later on they see it was a big mistake and realize what a good thing what they gave up and now want it back. So it was quite likely Roxanne would want Chandler back. But is it too late? -Nah! As much as I kind of like Chandler and Paris together I doubt they'll be together in the long run since the writers have invested more in Chandler and Roxanne and this is just a break for them in their evolving relationship. Plus, you know the writers are going to put a wedding in some time over the season (It's "7th Heaven") and more than likely it'll be Chandler and Roxanne's.



Overall, this episode was pretty good. A few minor errors but still the execution overall was quite excellent and reminds me that throughout all this shows changes over the years it continues to do what it does best. No wonder the show has been on for so long. I can't wait till next week to see Meredith Baxter on "7th Heaven." To me she'll always be the mom from Family Ties. I was too young to remember the show but luckily I caught a lot when it aired on cable in the mid 1990's. It looks like she won't be playing the morally acceptable character. But I'm even more excited to see Barry Watson and Sarah Danielle Madison in two weeks! All together now: Yay!



Side Note: A few years ago I caught Stephen Collins and Meredith Baxter's 1992 TV-Movie "The Betty Broderick Story" on the cable channel Lifetime. She was completely evil in that movie and so sad when she shot Stephen in the back multiple times and his wife in the bed. It's even creepier the real Betty Broderick exists and is now in jail.



Grade: **9 out of 10**



Rants and Bits:

*Ok, I partly understood Ruthie in this episode. I could understand that she feels threatened by Cecilia as she's getting a lot of Annie's attention but she doesn't need Annie to tell her if she wants to help clean the house or help the twins. Ruthie if you want to do it, do it!



*Why was Martin (Tyler Hoechlin) in the Camden's backyard anyway when he was introduced in the episode? This is only is second appearance he's made and the second time it was awkward.



*Why is Peter spending the night at Ruthie's house? I never believed that they were "supposedly" boyfriend and girlfriend but they're both at that age where it gets weird for a girl and boy to have a sleep over together.



*Hey, Kevin, what's wrong with kissing and being lovey-dovey to your wife when being on a Husband/Wife Baseball team? I'm surprised the rest of team players whose wives were actually there weren't making out and being lovey doovey with each other.



*Paris was the person to really seem to be excited about seeing the twins in a long time. I wish Annie had more scenes taking them to park and just doing things with them and being happy with them.



*Once again, writer's you are on a role with Annie. I keep repeating this because I don't want Annie to disappear into one/two scenes an episode like she was earlier in the season and also last season.