Brothers & Sisters

This episode was very good. It was very dramatic, but it was still very good. Usually, I like the writers to throw in a few humorous moments in the more serious episodes, but in this case, this episode was extremely good because of the intense drama. Sally Field and Dave Anable were absolutely brilliant in this episode. I loved Emily VanCamp in this episode. She plays the part of Rebeca so well. I can't believe that Sarah told Rebeca about her father. That really shocked me. I really liked the ending with Justin and Rebeca. It's a shame that we have to wait until April for the next new episode. I can't wait to see what happens next. All in all, this was another outstanding episode of Brothers & Sisters.

This episode is mostly about everyone finding out about Holly's daughter Rebecca who has been said to be William's daughter as well.

The storm breaks out when Saul tells Nora about Rebecca. Nora is of course very upset and mad specially at Sarah for not telling her. Sarah is upset by her mum's reaction and then as a revenge to Holly tells the truth to Rebecca. So in the end Holly and Rebecca's relationship is broken as well as Nora and Sarah's. Though I dodn't think Sarah's behaviour in this episode was right I can't say everybody else was perfect either. In the end I felt kind of sorry for Sarah because everyone seemed to have a problem with her. Justin acted really good and grown-up this episode. It was strong of him not to fall back and I also loved the last scene when he went to see Rebecca and immediately seemed to get along with her. Kevin's stroyline was good but the Chad guy is still really getting on my nerves. He's inconfident and really selfish not taking Kevin's feelings into account at all. I wish he'd already come out for real or leave the show. Hopefully some time in the next episodes we're gonna see a family dinner with the siblings, Rebecca and Nora. That ought to be interesting.

Sarah (re Rebecca's existence): "You think this has been easy, keeping this a secret?"

Nora: "No-one asked you to. There is no justification for this".



Tick-tock and what do you know, the clock has struck. After her low key introduction in the previous episode, Rebecca was certainly destined to make her great big impact and just like a nuclear bomb, the truth in regards to her parentage caused as much devastation as anyone could've guessed.



Tommy might have been able to keep his brief encounter with his little sister under wraps but when Saul and Holly's booty call is interrupted by an inquisitive Rebecca who has now moved back in with her mother, Saul suddenly realises the truth is better coming out before Nora draws her own conclusions on the matter.



It's a shame then that everyone else seems to disagree with Saul's vote of honesty. Tommy might not be leaping down Saul's throat but he's not in an immediate rush to back Saul up and Sarah and Kevin react like a bunch of spoilt brats over the idea of having to publicly acknowledge another sibling among them.



It's also rather disgraceful that for seemingly mature adults both Sarah and Kevin can't even recognise that Nora is not the only one who is affected by this. There's Rebecca who's had to grow up without her father or step-siblings as such. It wouldn't have killed either one of them to have considered that when they were jumping down Saul's throat.



So it's a good job that Saul has enough cop on to ignore their pleas and tell Nora the truth during a dinner between them. It isn't coincidental that the straw that broke Saul into telling was the way Nora was starting to try and see Holly in a new light. Nora was beginning to wonder if Holly had been misjudged and with this one vital lie hanging over, Saul had to bring Nora up to speed about Rebecca.



On the plus anything that highlights Nora and Saul's relationship is good. Saul might have his skeevy moments but he does genuinely seem to care for Nora and he had every right to tell Nora about Rebecca. It's just a pity in a way that the girl now had to become a constant presence before Saul did the right thing.



Nora's reaction was pretty mellow given the circumstances. If you were expecting hysterics, then you might have been disappointed but then she had the task of telling Kitty and Justin they had a half-sister in the mix. Unlike everyone else, at least Nora told them straightaway.



To focus on Kitty's reaction first, she was suitably stunned. Reminding us that she was a bit of a Daddy's girl, Kitty reacted to William being a cheater by cheating on her then fiancé Jonathan. Here she's rather muted towards Nora but when faced with Sarah that quickly changes.



There are plenty of times to find out about having a half-sister but I guess before a double date with your boyfriend, oldest sister and her spouse isn't the best of them. Especially when Sarah went out of her way to keep it a secret from you as well.



Kitty wastes no time in turning what should be a pleasant dinner into a grilling session where Sarah pretty much badly defends herself. Out of all the futile stuff the Walker siblings tell each other, Kitty was right in her belief that Sarah was at fault for not telling everyone about Rebecca. Only Robert and Joe seem to be the only able to have a civilised conversation between the sisters bickering. Maybe Joe needs guy friends who aren't Walkers.



One thing that Kitty does do is focus on how having a half-sister affects her solely. While she's able to make some reasonable assumptions on how she should deal with this kind of relationship, Kitty is just another member of the Walkers who fails to notice how this impacts Rebecca too.



Her behaviour is realistic in that regard so while it's annoying, I can't discount it's credibility but thankfully Robert is able to offer some support and there's a really touching moment between the two of them when Kitty tells Robert he makes her happy and he moved enough to sit with her. Then at least Kitty didn't behave as badly as Sarah and Kevin did with the knowledge of having a half-sister.



However compared to everyone else, there was only one person who behaved rationally about Rebecca and that has to be without a doubt Justin. Although he initially stormed off and it did briefly look like he was looking to get high, Justin went to talk to his sponsor about how he felt and after dealing with his own angst, he realised what the rest of siblings failed to – how it affects Rebecca.



Not only did Justin realise that but he then acted on it by taking the time to actually visit the girl and catch up with her. Rebecca wasn't exactly in the mood to embrace her new brother but Justin managed to break her tough exterior in an ending that was way lighter than anything else in the episode. Three cheers for Justin. This guy continues to mature as his siblings allow their pettiness to dictate their actions at times. Plus at least he had the savvy to treat Rebecca like a person as opposed to being a hindrance. Why couldn't Sarah, Kitty and Kevin do the same? Half the time they acted as if Rebecca was to blame in regards to the fallout here.



Another reason why Justin deserves a pat on the back this week is the way he handled having to dump Tyler. As easy as it is to ship these two, Justin realised that he perhaps got back with her too quickly and while he didn't adhere to his usual patterns upon being hit by something big, he did realise that he wasn't in a good place to be dating at the present.



It's a pity as well because not only does Tyler seem to be a great influence for him but she's also one of the few people that Nora seems to like dating her non-married kids. There's a fun scene where Justin gets embarrassed as Nora dishes out the family pictures and cringe worthy stories and sadly for Justin, missing the chance to meet Tyler's parents also meant not getting even.



Kevin meanwhile really pissed me off this week. Normally he's my favourite character but the way he leapt into Saul over Rebecca absolutely annoyed me to no end. Yeah I'll happily admit that Matthew Rhys and Ron Rifkin were stellar in that confrontation scene together but how on earth it's supposed to be Saul's fault when he was the only one who had the decency to tell Nora is beyond me. Learning about Rebecca will affect Nora deeply but I don't it'll destroy her either. Kevin completely overreacted in that situation. Does anyone in this family know by now that lying tends to be pointless anyway? Nora was going to find out at some point. Saul even pointed out that Rebecca's existence and parentage couldn't have been kept from her any longer.



Also when Kevin isn't childishly laying into Saul, there's also the thorny issue of him and Chad. Much as I don't hate Chad from the very episode he appeared in, I just knew he and Kevin weren't destined for the long haul but at the same time, I praise the writers for at least fleshing out their relationship and more importantly coming up with moments to sympathise with each party.



When a gossip site called "Skinny Minnie" has a rumour about Chad being gay after someone took a photo of him and Kevin shopping for a lamp, Chad seems more adamant to keep his sexuality a secret. After almost fighting tooth and nail to get Kevin back, this feel a little backwards on Chad's scope and suffice to say anymore signs of having to hide their relationship has to be enough to drive Kevin nuts.



This means that Kevin takes the bull by the horns and threatens Dan Silk, the rather camp owner of the site with legal action. Kevin might like to believe that small fry like Dan are easily scared by the law but he's hit with the grim fact that Dan isn't. Nope instead of printing a retraction, Dan takes more pleasure in creating a countdown as to when Chad decides to come out.



Chad's reaction to Kevin going behind his back is rather because when he starts talking, I'm pretty convinced he's all set to dump Kevin instead of just restricting their hang time indoors. Either way, for once Kevin's meddling hasn't bit him in the arse. Maybe Chad is more patient or in love with Kevin than Scotty was or maybe he'll some kinky way of having Kevin make it up to him. Too bad only something like that will only be hinted at on this series. At least Kevin is allowed to kiss men on the series.



Elsewhere if Sarah was having a rotten time last week, that was nothing compared to what she has to deal with here. The thing is last week, the issues between her and Joe had the complexity of blame not being applied to either. With this episode, a lot of Sarah's shortcomings are her fault.



First off all while she may have had the unenviable task of finding out about William being a fraud and the father of Holly's only child, it wasn't Sarah's place to keep this information to herself. She's had plenty of opportunities to come clean and refused to take them and while she may have had Nora's interests at heart, she still made the wrong call and the worst thing is that she refuses to admit it.



When Joe tries to connect with her, she brushed him off and when Saul wanted to be honest about Rebecca, Sarah shot him down. Also when Kitty and Nora confronted her over keeping it a secret from them, Sarah's reasons weren't exactly the best, now were they?



Worse still is that in spite of failing to recognise her fault in the matter, she took out her hatred of Holly and the fact that Tommy still decided to go into business with her out on Rebecca. In fact the way Sarah called the unsuspecting girl into her office and told her about her true parentage was downright nasty. Sarah's hatred for Holly has clouded her judgement and here she really did bring out her worst traits.



You'd have to be the most unsympathetic person in the world to not feel bad for Rebecca during that scene. We don't get to hear the exact words Sarah says to her but the confrontation between Rebecca and Holly is spectacular. Emily Van Camp and Patricia Wettig not only convincingly look like a mother/daughter combo but the fireworks that ensue as Rebecca blasts both her parents really convinces.



Holly is then quick to give Sarah a piece of her mind and regardless of how you feel, Holly has a point. Sarah doesn't have to like or respect Holly and her assessment as to why she's unlikely to do either is spot on but the way she took her aggression out on Rebecca was uncalled for. Even I wouldn't have done that to my worst enemy.



What if Paige and Cooper didn't know that Gabe was their half-brother and they were callously told about him like Rebecca was about the Walkers, how would Sarah then feel? Holly looked deadly serious when carrying out her threat to Sarah and both Patricia Wettig and Rachel Griffiths really nailed that scene.



Also in "The Other Walker"



This is third episode in a row that seems to have opened with a post sex scenario. It's also interesting how Robert is discussing his children more vocally now.



Holly: "Point is we have options. Why can't you be happy?"

Rebecca: "I would be happier if we had coffee".



Things about Rebecca: She's 20, dated a guy Justin knew, hates football, dropped out of college and lived with a friend in Chicago for a brief time.



Kevin: "Your Mom reads Skinny Minnie?"

Chad: "She googles my name every week".



Tyler: "Oh my God, you were the guy in the piano tie"

Justin: "Mom you're killing me".



Is it me or is Dan Silk a not so subtle model on that other famous gossip monger, Perez Hilton?



Nora: "There will be no more lies, Saul, do you hear me, no more. I won't stand for it".



Saul: "Frankly I wasn't thinking about you"

Kevin: "You weren't thinking about anyone".



Sarah was wearing a rather conservative looking dress during that meal with Kitty, Robert and Joe.



Robert (re Sarah/Kitty): "Those guys always argue like this?"

Joe: "Yeah".



Kitty (to Robert): "My Dad. I've been grieving for a father I don't even know. And I was just getting started for all getting happy".



I think the guy who played Justin's sponsor was the same guy who helped Gabrielle grieve over miscarrying in Desperate Housewives' "The Sun Won't Set". ABC tend to recycle their actors.



Tyler: "That's how it should be"

Justin: "You were right to worry".



Sarah: "Do I know you?"

Rebecca: "No, I don't think so, I'm her daughter".



In the fashion stakes, I like the bohemian attire that Rebecca seems to wear and Justin had this great jacket on during his meeting with his sponsor. Hey, I visit TWOP.



Holly: "There's two million in a trust which you get when you're 25"

Rebecca (re William): "I guess it's better than a crappy doll".



Holly: "I let you treat me like dirt because I loved and respected your father but I am done treating you with any civility"

Sarah: "Is that a threat?"

Holly: "You bet your ass it is".



Standout music: "Always On Your Side" by Sheryl Crow and "Stay Humble" by Tyler James.



Justin: "Okay I'm officially freaked out. What if we had met? What if we…"

Rebecca: "Oh the Greek tragedy of it all".



Chronology: A week since "Love Is Difficult".



"The Other Walker" is quite an explosive outing here. Rebecca's presence was always going to cause a major shift in the dynamic but I didn't think it would almost decimate as much as it did here. Still it made for an incredible hour and seeing her integration into the Walker clan will be very interesting to watch.

So this episode starts out with the usual banter. Kitty and Robert set up a double date with Sarah and Joe. Saul meets Rebbecca for the first time and then tells Sarah, Tommy and Kevin that Rebbecca is in town to stay. Sarah thinks that they shouldn't tell Nora but Saul disagrees and thinks that with all the bad stuff that's happened to Nora they should tell her. I agree with Saul. I think that all these secrets, all though they make great TV, shouldn't be kept secrets. They just fester and make a bad situation so much more worse. Take Rebbecca for instance. Not telling Nora makes Nora extremely upset with Saul, Sarah, Tommy and Kevin because they didn't tell her right away. So Saul decides that he is going to tell Nora without the others approval. It doesn't go too well. When Nora tells Kitty and Justin, who don't know about Rebbecca, Justin explodes and says that he doesn't know why he's so shocked because the family thrives on keeping secrets. For the first time I actually felt honestly sorry for Justin. When we see Justin next he's telling Tyler (who rocks by the way) that he can't meet up with her that night. He's standing in what looks like the "bad part of town" and meets with this guy. We think that he's getting drugs again and then it cuts to commercial. However when we come back we see that it's his sponsor. PHEW! Then one afternoon Rebbecca stops into the office to surprise Holly. Sarah sits Rebbecca down and tells her the truth. Rebbecca goes home to yell and scream at Holly and Holly in return comes to yell and scream at Sarah. Overall a very powerful episode.

I want to see REBECCA since ten episodes, I think. I'm a little disappointed by the episode. I'm so excited to this episode and I will imagine so much story about Rebecca. Ok. The episode is good but it's not a wonderful episode. I like some scenes like Sarah and Nora or Kitty with McCallister or Justin ann his girlfriend. I love the last scene of this episode between Justin and Rebeccas I want some scenes like that in the futur of the show and I want to see Rebecca introduces in the Walker. I think that the next episode will be better.

Oh my what an episode. It was definitely interesting to see Nora's reaction and especially Justin and Kitty's reaction. I got so scared Justin was going to get drugs when I saw him meeting his sponsor. I'm so glad he went to go to someone he can talk to. I'm saddened that he told Tyler he couldn't be in a relationship but I understand it was what was best for him to take care of himself. I do believe it was right for Sarah to reveal the secret to Rebecca and that Holly deserved it. I'm not fond of Holly making it such a big deal that the secret was revealed because Rebecca needed to know and it doesn't seem as if Holly wanted to tell her. I don't see why Chad can't just come out already. I really don't want Kevin to be hurt. Overall a fairly interesting episode and I can't wait til the next episode.

I love this show as it has high noon drama but also great writing and great acting. In particular, Sally Field holds it all in together as the patriach Nora. The family finds out a huge secret that could threaten to tear them apart. In particular, hurt Rebecca in a huge way. Shows you that the past can come back to haunt you!

We all knew it was coming but the episode paid off Rebecca in a big way. First that great meeting with Saul, Sarah, Kevin and Thomas as they realize their big fear has come true and how to deal with it, with Saul pointing out rightly that, as Kevin put it, "this family can't keep secrets."



Sally Field should take the scene with Nora finding out and put it in her Emmy nomination tape as it was just wonderful. Even better was the shock from her, Kitty and Justin that the rest of the family took it upon themselves to decide they weren't ready to know the truth. One can argue that was right for Kitty, who's idolizing of her father means she takes this worse than the others. But then she did have a right to know. For once, Kitty had good reason to snap at Sarah about it, leading to the fun dinner scene where Robert and Joe try to slink away.



Another awesome scene was with Kevin yelling at Saul who quite rightly snaps back at how he's Nora's brother and that gave him the right to tell her. He's dead on about this; Saul has known Nora way before any of the kids were born or before William so he should have been the one to break it to her. Good work from Rifkin on the righteous anger.



I'm a bit bummed that Justin seems to be breaking up again with his girlfriend but at least it's on better terms with the chance to get back together. And I enjoyed Kevin realizing his hotshot lawyer act doesn't always work as he tries to balance the possibility of outing Chad. As for Sarah...I lost a lot of respect for her in this ep. Bottom line, she had no right to tell Rebecca the truth before Holly could. Her blind bias of Holly, as if William was an innocent victim, has been grating but is getting totally out of hand as she seems to truly believe Holly is making it her mission to destroy the family. The truth is, if anyone's hurt it, it's Sarah for wrecking the trust between Rebecca and her mother and I don't see the rest of the clan going with her on this. And yet we had that scene where Nora explains why she's held Sarah in higher esteem than the others and it thus hurts when she does something like this. And good job by Wettig handling the reactions by Rebecca and her verbal smackdown on Sarah. So the big secret is out, Sarah and Holly are at war and Rebecca has a new family to get used to. Things are going to get real fun from here on in.

To be completely honest, I have skipped watching Brothers & Sisters the past few weeks. Not necessarily because of a loss of interest, but just because I was not in the mood to tune in. After seeing this weeks installment, it has become clear to me that I made a mistake in tuning out. I am just blown away at how efficient this debut season has been. This episode moves the plot greatly as the Walker’s are introduced to their sister. There are so many mixed emotions in this episode and the atmosphere is brilliant. I particularly enjoyed the interaction between Justin and the new sister at the end of the episode. In an emotional roller coaster of an episode, efficiency in the acting and writing prevails yet again making Brothers & Sisters stand out among most dramas on television currently. Highly recommended.

I liked this episode. They finally told Nora that her husband had a daughter from his affair, to top it off Nora finds out that almost her entire family knew about this and they did not tell her about it. I did not like Saul telling Nora about this because before he told her he spoke with Sarah, Kevin and Thom and they all had decided that they where going to keep it a secret for not because their family could not take another hit like that after all that they have gone through. Once Nora tells Kitty and Justin that their father had another daughter with Holly and that their other siblings knew about this matter they (Kitty and Justin) could not believe that their siblings did not come out and tell them that they had another sister. And then there’s the whole thing that is going on with Kevin and his Chad, and to top it all off a web-site has a photo and an article letting the whole public that this star (Chad) was gay and that he should come out of the closet. This was the part that I did not like when Rebecca went to the office she somehow met Sarah and asked if she knew where her mother Holly was and Sarah kindly told her no. But then she asked Rebecca if she had a few minutes to talk and this is when Sarah told Rebecca the truth about who her father was and that her mother had been lying to her for so long and that she had an affair with a married man. After this Rebecca went home and confronted Holly about why she never told her the about who her father was.

Towards the end of this episode Justin goes to Holly’s house to meet and talk with Rebecca. It seems that they went to the same high school or something because they both knew the same people in high school. I might have gotten this wrong but that’s was the impression I had when I heard them talk.

this episode focus on the introduction of the long awaited arrival of rebecca williams and holly daughter. as expected this episode showed the surprised and anger of all the familly member especialy those of nora kitty and justin who didn't knew about her

in all and for all i thought this was a very goud episode and it will be interesting how the introduction of rebecca wil afect the family in the long haul

"this whole family revolves around lying" Those words are spoken by rehabJustin, and sum up the tone for this and many past episodes. These infuriating, arrogant kids are still trying to keep their Mama in the dark about her dead husband's past. This time it's about Rebecca, the bastard daughter William shares with Mistress Holly. They dicker about how devastating the news will be to Kitty, rehabJustin, and Mama. About how it's better that they don't know. Why do they think she's so fragile? She's dealt with the zoo that is them for 35–40 years, and she's not broken. This is really the most deceptive, self-righteous, judgmental family! But, there are some secrets that just won't keep. So, I'm with Uncle Sol, who asks, "C'mon. Haven't we learned anything this year?" Apparently not.



And so the downward spiral that is this episode begins, with sniping at one another galore. They (well rehabJustin does) finally have a glimmer of empathy for someone else, when Justin's sponsor (whom Justin wisely chose to call instead of his local drug dealer) has him reflect on how this might affect Rebecca, who doesn't have any knowledge of her father at all! 'Cause up to this point, all people outside of the Family Walker seem to have just been cardboard cutouts to them. And Justin and his girfriend realize that now is not the best time for a seriously emotional relationship. OK, so maybe rehabJustin's learning something.



Sarah, on the other hand, proves herself to be a vengeful, resentful, first-class bit*h when she deliberately ambushes Rebecca with the info about the family tie, when she made an impromptu visit to Ojai offices to visit her mother. I get that Sarah is only human, but while she accuses everyone around her for causing misery, she actively creates it out of her own inflated self-righteouness (Oh, and when I described the family as self-righteous, I mostly meant Sarah).



So, going back to the top, where the question is, "Haven't we learned anything this year?" Well, yes, as the song playing during the end scenes where rehabJustin tries to connect with his newly-found sister says, "Stay humble, stay humble".