A Matter Of Paternity
Written by Molly Newman And David Marshall Grant
Directed by Michael Schultz
9.0
"Superb"
Justin: "Look, you gotta put a good face on this, right? Just act like this'll be fun. You know, it's you and mom hanging on Thanksgiving, you know, a couple of single girls, ladies night, you know? That way she won't freak out on us."
Sarah: "I hope you all get salmonella and die."
Clearly evading Christmas for this season, the writers have decided that Thanksgiving can only be served with problems rather than fun. The first pops up in less than five minutes when 80% of the Walker children decide they have other places to be this year instead of with Nora.
First off all, Kitty and Robert are entertaining the latter's family for once and Kevin and Scotty have decided to spend the holidays with friends as well. The fun part is watching both Kitty and Kevin trying to claim moral superiority while being united in their cowardice in not telling Nora that they have other plans.
It's not much better either when they start talking to Tommy. Apparently for one episode only, Julia develops a serious backbone and effectively tells Tommy's other siblings that it's her parents who'll be getting them this year. I'm always surprised by how good Sarah Jane Morris can be and that's because the writers don't give her enough.
Justin's also planned not to attend Nora's Thanksgiving bash this year as well. Instead Rebecca's practically forcing him to spend it with her and Holly and unlike Julia; Rebecca's pushiness is more of a nuisance than an amusement.
Given that I detest Holly, can take Robert's family in small doses (bar Jason, who can bother us anytime) and have no interest in Julia's, it seems that the only people who have a valid excuse not to attend Nora's mammoth of a meal are Kevin and Scotty.
The unfortunate person however is Sarah, who not only has to face up to having a meal with just Nora but even got wrangled in trying to spin it so that she didn't freak out. Rachel Griffiths' flair for comedy came back when Sarah started chucking spuds at her siblings. It's a little hard not to laugh at that scene.
The part that I find funny is that while Nora did seem clearly disappointed that the majority of her children had other places they'd rather be, it's not like she overreacted or anything. We've seen Nora flip out over other stuff but this didn't bother her as much as her children assumed it would. That can only be a good thing of course.
Of course because it's unlikely that a family like the Walkers can go five minutes without interacting with one another, it was pretty obvious that something would have to pull them together. Also given that Tommy and Julia aren't as vocalised as everyone else, what better than to have a tragedy centred on them?
I don't mean that in a horrible way because both Balthazar Getty and Sarah Jane Morris are nicely served by this episode but after this, both of them will go back to having little or nothing to do. Failing that, Tommy will go back to being a bit of a jerk and Julia will be a cipher again.
However the tragedy centring on Elizabeth did succeed in bringing everyone together in the hospital. Livers can be a tricky so Elizabeth suffering from a damaged one not raised the drama but it brought back some uncomfortable truths for Tommy on the girl's parentage.
While there's a part of me that would've been happy had we never found out who Lizzie's bio-father was, I suppose that it was always going to be revealed at some point and it was interesting to see how the possibility of fathering a child hit home for both Kevin and Justin.
Childish comparisons aside, either way what mattered was finding out who it was in order to do a transplant on Elizabeth and to be fair, it certainly could've gone either way. Both Kevin and Justin had that 50/50 chance and either choice would've stirred up a lot of material for the writers to explore.
Because of the ongoing feud between Tommy and Kevin, perhaps it was apt that Kevin would be the father. Justin's reaction to finding this out was brilliant. His total conflict of being both relieved and disappointed was extremely well played but biology or not, it's Tommy and Julia who are Elizabeth's parents.
The next half of the episode then centred on Kevin getting prepared for surgery. We don't get a lot of a reaction from him but we can certainly see how it affected Tommy. Tommy chose to flip out during the very moment that Sarah took pleasure in taunting Kevin over food.
However in spite of his caustic comments to Nora, I don't think he was totally out of line. He was powerless over the well being of his child and given that he and Kevin weren't on the best of terms, it certainly made things a lot harder for him. Plus it didn't help that Nora was a little too full on at times as well.
I did however love his scene with Kitty. I know there are some viewers who might not have liked that she compared Tommy's situation to her own with the adoption but I think Kitty did raise some good points and I also think that part of her conversation might have inspired his later scenes with Kevin.
As operations went though, did anyone really think that something bad was going to happen to either Kevin or Elizabeth? I guess with Elizabeth there was an element of touch and go but at the same time, I don't think the writers would be that cruel and have Tommy and Julia lose a second child.
Also killing Kevin would be like suicide for this season. He and Scotty are the only relationship that the majority of viewers are invested in and regardless of him being gay Kevin is without doubt the best character on this show so killing him off would be a massive mistake.
I did of course enjoy his scenes with Scotty, prior to him going in surgery but then again, any scene with Scotty nowadays is awesome. The fact that Scotty has been in three episodes in a row is also awesome. Plus, in spite of all the bravado, we also saw Scotty more fearful for Kevin's safety as well.
As for the later scenes with Tommy post surgery, I think they might have been the best ones we've had between them, apart from their scrap in "Bakersfield" of course. Tommy admitted that firing his brother was wrong and Kevin finally forgave him. After all, he did admit earlier that he had been faking it.
However I do wonder how Kevin and Tommy are going to deal with the fact that they know the former is Elizabeth's bio-dad. Will Kevin play a bigger role in Elizabeth's life or will he just stick to being the cool uncle? It might be better if he stuck to the latter. After all, I'm sure we can go a few seasons before him and Scotty become parents, though you never know with this show.
Speaking of Scotty, anyone else notice that there was a bit of a power struggle with him and Nora when it came to looking after Kevin? I can see both perspectives but I did find myself siding with Scotty a little more. However I do prefer him and Nora as allies rather than enemies, so don't make them enemies, B&S writers.
Another strong point of this episode was Robert taking a backseat as well. His role was largely dominated by entertaining his own family and then later showing up at the hospital to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Walkers. Yes, even Kevin getting surgery will not stop Nora from getting her meal, though at least here, Sarah did manage not to assault anyone else with potatoes.
If there was one element of this episode, it would go to Rebecca. Her pushiness towards Justin felt a little forced. I don't see anything wrong in her wanting to spend Thanksgiving with Holly but I did have a problem with her forcing Justin's hand in the matter.
In fact, even during the hospital scenes it became more apparent about how mismatched Justin and Rebecca are. He completely ignored her and she spent more time going on about her own father abandonment issues, which would have been more sympathetic if this had been a more lighter episode.
Also when I thought this episode might be a Holly free zone, she showed up in at least one scene and still managed to annoy the crap out of me. So, given the context of her conversation with Rebecca, I can take it that David will be resurfacing later in the season. This show certainly knows how to keep it in the family and yes, that pun was intended very much.
Also in "Just A Sliver"
The opening scene with Kitty, Kevin and Robert all working at the same time was amusing but bizarre. Surely one of them could've worked in another room or the kitchen?
Kevin: "Could you keep it down, please?"
Kitty: "Sorry, Kevin but this is my home, not your office."
I'm actually surprised that they didn't use the plot of Thanksgiving as another means to try and get Kevin to connect with Scotty's family. I hope we do see them again.
Julia: "What's going on?"
Tommy: "Everybody's picked this Thanksgiving not to go and nobody's told mom. She's gonna freak out."
Kitty: "Sarah, I'm sorry but you can't."
Sarah: "You want to make a bet?"
Kitty: "What about Mr Fluffy?"
Sarah: "I can't believe I'm having to spend Thanksgiving alone with my mother and a decrepit cat?"
Since when Sarah look after other neighbours' cats, which to be fair, she didn't really look after?
Justin (re Nora): "She didn't mean that."
Kevin: "It was aimed at us all."
Sarah (picking up a potato): "No Kevin, this is aimed at you."
Tommy: "How close is mom to you and don't be obvious?"
Justin: "Two big pumpkins and a turkey."
Saul was supposed to spend time with Ida but given that he told Justin about seeing someone, maybe he was lying to Nora.
Saul: "If you cook it, they will come."
Nora: "I cook it and they'll forgive me."
Sarah (to Kevin): "Your iPod."
Justin: "That's great. Now he can listen to show tunes all night."
Kevin's hatred of shrimp came up when Sarah decided make everything she ordered from the Chinese with the addition of shrimp.
Scotty: "Kevin, I think what you're doing is incredible. I don't think I'd be so brave."
Kevin: "That's because you're not a morning person, honey."
Scotty: "Payment? You're giving them a piece of your life, isn't that enough?"
Kevin: "Oh no. No good deed goes unpunished."
Standout music: "Glorious" by Melissa Etheridge stood out the most for me.
Nora: "When are you two gonna start on solid foods? You're disappearing."
Tommy: "Yeah, it's the 'sick baby diet'. Works like a charm."
Sarah: "You know, everyone in this building is on some kind of drug and we can't even drink. It's not fair."
Chronology: November 2008 obviously, given that it's the Thanksgiving period.
For a seasonal episode, this was certainly one of the strongest we've had. "Just A Sliver" delivered the goods on the drama but we really could've done without Holly's scenes in this episode more than ever.moreless
