Brothers & Sisters

A storyline filled with twists and turns, one that will leave you at the edge of your seat. "Troubled Waters" takes advantage of its two hour slot, as it successfully weaves together the setbacks to which each member of the family faces. In the beginning, the unification at the family dinner ends abruptly (when does it not) when Nora mentions her encounter with Ryan. Each character disperses into the real world, facing problems they attempt to resolve on their own: Justin's discouragement of the life he leads following his service in the war, Kitty's frustrations toward Robert and his inability to put family ahead of his ambitious goals, Kevin's struggles to serve as a gay liberal working for a republican, Tommy's attempts to protect the family company, Sarah's desperation for love, and Nora's inability to maintain a utopia among the members of the Walker family. The problems that each character faces seem to dissipate when Kitty hears the news that Trish is in labor. Instead, everyone's problems escalate in the hospital. Thankfully, however, the Walker family have each other. They are able to push each other out of the holes they create although sometimes it CAN be a little bit too late (sorry Saul!) as seen in Mr. Tommy Walker's situation. This episode, like any others, highlight the importance of family, one that welcomes two additional members: Ryan and Evan. This show acts as evidence that the troubled waters a person dives into can be shallow with the presence of the individual's family.

Nora (to Kitty): "This is the beginning of the most incredible relationship you will ever have. So get your big brown eyes back and go meet your baby."



Something of a rarity with this show is two parters. If this was Grey's Anatomy, then every season would at least have two of them and perhaps a three parter thrown into the mix. Thankfully this show doesn't rely on them quite so much but when they do decide to use them (this is only the second time), at least there's enough drama to justify two whole episodes being dedicated to it.



First off all, Nora gathered everyone around for dinner so she could tell them about meeting Ryan. Of course, everyone had suspected that when she called them all for a family meal that something had gone down and their various guesses as to what it might be were amusing.



As for them finding out about Ryan – I thought they had a fairly restrained reaction. I mean, we've seen various members of this family blow up over minor things and while no-one was exactly jumping for joy over the possibility of Ryan factoring in their lives, all hell did not break loose. Wasn't Saul overreacting just a tad?



Even when they found out that Nora had given Ryan an airline ticket, we didn't get anything too dramatic. Also it might have helped that Ryan himself didn't actually feature in this episode as well, even if he was talked about in various scenes.



Sarah to her credit actually took an interest in wanting to know a little more about him, something which she didn't exactly hide when talking to Justin and Tommy in later scenes. It's been a while since Sarah's had a scene with the former so this episode amended that.



Justin couldn't keep quiet about the real reason Rebecca up and left him and it made sense that he would tell Sarah of all people. It also made sense that while Sarah would try and downplay things with Justin, she had no problem in taking Tommy aside and explaining to him how much of a bad idea his little scheme was.



Once again, I really wanted to punch Tommy in this episode. I'm all for getting rid of Holly but how many times and how people had to tell that what he was doing was a phenomenally stupid idea? Even now, when it's looking like things are going to blow up in his face, he still had the stupidity to rant about Sarah leaving Ojai.



Her and Saul's mistake last year with the company was at least unintentional whereas as Tommy has willingly put his own family business on the line just to get Holly out of the Walkers lives for good. Worse still for him is that Holly now is out to save herself.



If this episode was remotely supposed to make me feel sorry for Holly, then it failed. When are the writers going to get into their skulls that people a) do not find Holly all that interesting as a villain and b) are more likely to wait for hell to freeze over a thousand times before bestowing any pity on her.



Holly really went above and beyond in being as much of a pain in the ass as Tommy did this week. David's return gave Holly yet another excuse to act like the victim and if Robert can't pull that off convincingly, then Holly shouldn't even try it.



Maybe David is a deadbeat but laying into him for abandoning her and Rebecca all those years certainly made me laugh. Did Holly not remotely think that her habitual lying and annoying fixation on the Walkers might have contributed to David being largely absent from her and Rebecca's lives?



I liked that David actually called Holly out on a lot of her crap. I loved that he castigated her for being so obsessed with William that she was willing to settle for being second best. It doesn't however mean that I remotely care about Holly and it also didn't surprise that Holly would find some twisted way of using David's dressing down to her own advantage.



They do say repeatedly hell hath no fury than a woman scorned and Holly certainly wanted to stick the knife into Tommy. She was willing to even bankrupt herself to do that until her lawyer talked her down, so she opted to pay a house call to Julia. Holly figures that she can probably shoot Tommy's marriage and his career in one fell swoop. If I didn't dislike her, I might actually salute the irritant.



As for Rebecca, all she did this episode was defend David and tell Holly that Tommy was trying to screw her out of Ojai. Perhaps it's good that Holly had already figured that out beforehand. I'm sure we'll have to deal with some Rebecca/Justin stuff that'll involve more fighting/making up.



As for the main event of the episode, Kitty's maternal dreams were pretty set to come true in this episode. After getting confirmation from Robert that he is capable of caring about something other than his political ambitions, Kitty's dour mood went out the window. Plus it helped that Trish was going into labour as well.



I have to admit that the writers took a very interesting tack with the character of Trish. Despite casting The Wire's Sonja Sohn, the character's only cropped up for a third time and now she's here to essentially deliver the baby. While I don't want any custody battles later on (or at all), it's kind of a pity that Trish won't be around after this two-parter concludes.



Having Nora and Kitty trying to create a peaceful surrounding was hilarious, especially given that the two of them are like bulls in a china shop. They couldn't even let Trish have a decent kip with their yapping about Ryan, though it did make for a fun moment when Trish actively enjoyed Nora to go through William's sexual history.



Of course the main point of this episode was trying to get Robert to attend the birth of his own child. I think at this point, Robert would willingly allow himself to be kidnapped by terrorists just to get out of seeing his child being born. The writers certainly cooked up enough distractions to keep him as far away from the hospital as they possibly could.



First off all, there was the threat of his running for the governor seat being leaked prior to his own announcement, so Robert had the radical idea of moving the announcement to the very day that Trish would be giving birth. In all fairness, Robert could've at least waited one more day. The world wouldn't have melted as a result of him actually being with Kitty and his new child.



The other distraction was the confrontation with current governor Eve. The scandalised woman mentioned back in "Do You Believe In Magic?" wasn't impressed with Robert trying to usurp her seat and I'm fairly certain she would live up to her threat of ruining him. Robert's smugness might work sometimes but this was clearly a time when he shouldn't have goaded Eve. That being said, if he was right about some of her recent voting decision, then she might not be that much of a threat to him getting the governor's seat after all.



The annoying part was that at the beginning of the episode, Robert did seriously promise to be there for Kitty with the baby and even when they went back to their own place, he tried to tell her that their family was a priority. So far, he's off to a disastrous start in getting her to believe that.



Kitty can often be whiny but over the last couple of episodes, even I side with her more than Robert. It's not that Kitty begrudges Robert being politically ambitious but she's right to be concerned that he's not fully committed to being a parent. Robert doing his announcement at the hospital seemed to a final straw for her.



Every marriage of TV (and in real life) has those ups and downs but unless Robert doesn't dial it down a little, I have a feeling that Kitty might wind up becoming a single mother by the time the season was out. This has been something that the writers have been drawing on for a bit now.



Even Kevin had to point out yet again to Robert that Kitty was going to be furious with him. Robert might have acknowledged but he certainly took his time in trying to get to the hospital. And then when he actually bothered to go, the biggest distraction of them all came.



Robert's exhibited no health problems as far as I can tell so having him collapse at the end of the episode as Trish gave birth took me by surprise. Until I get conclusive proof in the next episode, I'm fairly certain that Robert won't be kicking the bucket any time soon; though he'll probably wish he was dying when Kitty gets her hands on him.



Also in "Troubled Waters Part 1"



The episode opened with Nora rushing to the hospital (dream sequence? Something we see in the second part?) and saying the man getting 300 volts was family.



Justin: "So does anyone wanna guess why we're really here?"

Saul: "Don't you think it's possible your mother wants to have her children over without an agenda?"

Everyone: "No."



Sarah thinking that the meal was in aid of her success with Greenatopia (where are Kyle and Ethan?) was amusing, though apparently it only warrants a roast chicken and not a rack of lamb.



Justin: "How are things going with Henry?"

Saul: "Great. He wants to have dinner with you all separately."

Sarah: "We don't do separately."



Robert (re sex): "Don't tell me you haven't thought about it?"

Kitty: "The thought may have crossed my mind."

Robert: "Let's take advantage of it."



Justin showed more discomfort when Nora probed him about working but didn't seem to mind getting roped into fixing Sarah's pipes.



Robert: "When was the last time I told you, you were doing a good job?"

Kevin: "You've never told me that."

Robert: "Really?"

Kevin: "No."

Robert: "Well, you're doing a good job."



David: "Just give me a break."

Holly: "I am sorry but your sudden need to be a father is a little hard to swallow."



So David was jealous of William. How long is he staying around and will it actually be good for Holly and Rebecca? More importantly, will viewers actually care?



Kitty: "Let's visualise."

Trish: "All I can visualise is an epidural."



Kevin: "Robert, I'm a gay democrat. The only reason I came to work for you is because I believed you when you said you wanted to govern in a different way and now was our time."



Both Trish and Scotty aren't particularly fond of Sandalwood Candles. Maybe it was just being in agony that turned Trish off them and Nora with her ice cubes.



David (to Holly): "Just walk away from this. You don't need William, you don't need the Walkers. You deserve more, you always have."



Sarah: "I think I can hear Trish calling for you."

Kitty: "No, no, she's not calling for me. She's screaming in agony."



Standout music: I am definitely going with Coldplay's "Fix You", given how brilliantly it was used in this episode but I also really liked AM's "Live A Lie".



Kitty: "Mom, thanks for being here."

Nora: "Where else would I be?"



Chronology: This episode aired during the first week of March 2009, so I'm going to go with that for now.



As the start of a two-parter, "Troubled Waters Part 1" is a brilliant set piece. The strength of this show is certainly the Walkers and how they interact with each other and others and this episode works with that alone. I would've dialled down some of Holly's scenes but essentially this is a high point for the season and of the same quality that made viewers (myself especially) fall in love with the show from the beginning.

In this episode of Brothers and Sisters, the following happens. We open this episode with Nora running through a hospital and a man lying on a table have CPR preformed. Who do not see his face, but we know it's a man, as we see his chest. We then jump back to 24 hours earlier. We have everyone at Nora's house having a family meal together, although everyone thinks that there is more at play, than simply a meal. During which Robert announces that he is going to be running for Governor. Nora then announces that she went to see Ryan the previous weekend. The next day Kitty gets the phone call she has been waiting for, Trish (the birthday mother) has gone into labour. So the ring round for the whole family is on, and so everyone soon hears about the happy news. Nora and Kitty get to the hospital, but Robert can't make it, not yet, as he has to announce his run for Governor earlier than expected due to a leak (that actually didn't come from the Walker family). Rebecca returns home and tells her mother about what she thinks is going on with Tommy and the company. So Holly tells her that she was right about the deal. Nora and Kitty stay with Trish whilst she is in labour and help her to get through it. When Kitty realises that Robert isn't going to be there in time for the birth, she asks one of her siblings to get hold of him and to tell him it's over, as he has now chosen the job over his family. As Robert and Kevin rush to get to the hospital, Robert collapses (in the car park) and.......... the baby is born. And the baby is a .........boy.

This first part of a double episode was classic brothers and sisters drama. While Trish is about to have Kitty and Robert's baby, Robert has a heart attack. Tommy gets in deep water as Holly hunts for evidence that he carried out illegal acts trying to get rid of her from Ohai Foods. It seemed like everyone was involved in some sort of crisis or dramatic storyline here. This was fantastic TV and I was gripped throughout. The opening scenes did not show who was almost dying, though it was obviously one of the male characters. By the end, it was clear that it was Robert. Brilliant stuff.

Let me just start off by saying that all things considered, I absolutely loved this episode. While the promos for this episode were misleading when they said that there would be a shocking death and in the end no one really died for good, I still loved this episode. There were so many great things about this episode. The highlight of this episode for me was definitely the family dinner at the beginning of the episode. Two other things that I loved about this episode were definitely Justin and Kevin's storylines. It's so great seeing Justin finally start to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Kevin's storyline in this episode was just great in general. Matthew Rhys' performance as Kevin in this episode was outstanding. Scotty was great in this episode too. I loved all of the Kevin and Scotty scenes too. It was great seeing David come back and put Holly in her place. I loved all of the scenes with Nora, Kitty and Trish when Nora and Kitty were trying to distract Trish by telling her about Ryan and everything that's happened with their family. As for the ending of the episode, I absolutely loved that too. It was definitely very exciting with Tommy getting arrested and Ryan unexpectedly showing up at the Walker's house. The whole cast did an amazing job in this episode, especially Sally Field, Dave Annable, Calista Flockhart, Rob Lowe and Matthew Rhys. In closing, I thought that this was a very well written, well acted and well made episode of Brothers & Sisters from everyone involved, and I can't wait to see the next episode of Brothers & Sisters.

So while this is two episodes one here, I am only writing one review, because I cannot really see where the episode can be split.



Well after heavy promo that someone was going to die, no one did, well Robert did but if you blinked you missed it. I thought it might be Trish the birth mom whose pregnancy was progressing faster than it was supposed to, or Saul who has not had a whole lot to do lately, or even David, as that would drive a huge wedge between Rebecca and the Walkers, but I was not sure how he would die. I take back that thought after my favorite moment of the night when David delivered a high energy monologue to Holly about her addiction to the life she never had with William Walker.



So the episode opened with this high dramatic run down the hospital hallway and then cut back to the day before and a nice Walker dinner. The very nice dinner was plagued with questions, mainly why it was that Nora was going all out, if it was not Sarah's business success, or Robert's run for Governor, or Saul's new boyfriend, or Justin doing something, then it had to be Nora's recent visit with Ryan Lafferty. Nora broke the news to her brood that she recently visited the illegitimate offspring of her late husband and gave him ticket to come visit his brothers & sisters. While they were all shocked by the plane ticket, no one seemed to be that surprised by Nora's behavior though, and frankly neither was I.



So the next morning Kitty arrived home to talk more about Ryan and then got the call that her baby was on the way, but her joyous news was trumped by Robert's career ambitions. The current governor decided she was going to continue to seek the Republican nomination after all, which meant he needed to announce his candidacy that day, and then go witness the birth of his child. As the birth was progressing faster, Kitty began to realize that her husband had never intended to be there, that his ambitions were greater than their family. Kitty went so far as to call him a charmer, Nora once referred to her late husband as a charmer, are we starting to see some similarities between mother and daughter?



Meanwhile Justin was fixing Sarah's plumbing, since as his family pointed out at dinner he had nothing else do, he began to hint at Rebecca's accusations and Sarah began her eldest sibling concern routine. She began questioning everyone and as Kevin or Saul pointed out making them accessories. Now the thing is that Holly already began looking into the legality of Tommy's actions, and it seemed that the only real issue was that he embezzled money form the company to pay for his shady deal. As Holly soon realized that she was being ousted she lost it, and not to mention the man who left her last spring was back with their daughter. It was hear that David finally smacked some sense into Holly, verbally at least, someone give Ken Olin an Emmy, that was powerful, he finally explained what it was that Holly holding onto, because he was there the whole time and knew everything that happened between them. It was a great speech and I hope that Ken will spend some more time on screen, because I am really getting to like David.



Then came the big segway number, featuring Coldplay's Fix You, which maybe the saddest song of this generation. Robert collapsed, Trish delivered, and Kitty realized he was not coming. Yet he really had a heart attack, and Kevin and team had to rush him to the hospital, where we then got back to Nora running down the hall.



Justin was left to explaining what the Doctors had told the family about his heart condition, and they all realized that Justin would make a great doctor, given his medic training in the military. Then Rebecca finally made it to the hospital where she realized that her love for Justin was so deep that she was not going to let her family or his family come between them any longer. More on that one later.



As Sarah began to piece together what exactly Tommy had done, so did Holly and she brought in Julia, and then Saul called Sarah to tell her that there were lawyers at her brother's house seizing his documents.



Now that Trish delivered and Robert was recovering, Kitty and Nora brought baby Evan home where she watched Kevin on tv downplaying the rumors of Robert's heart attack and reaffirming the public of his candidacy for governor. It was then that Kitty realized her husband had lied to her and had no intention of slowing down his ambition, and then she had to tell her baby that it was just going to be the two of them now, very moving. I hope that this is just a low point for the couple, but the fact that Robert refused to slow down made it easy for everyone to see that she was going to have to do this on her own.



Back at Nora's house Justin and Rebecca were making dinner and discussing their future, mainly his plan to become a doctor, and there was a knock at the door. Ryan finally showed up and was greeted by the other would be illegitimate offspring, and while he believed her to be Kitty or Sarah was shocked to see that it was his other half or whatever, and then Justin came to the door and once again was the first to meet the illegitimate sibling. So a lot happened in this two hour movie event, and while the promos deceived us, the actors delivered, and the writers delivered. It was powerful and dark, and I can't wait to see what will happen to the Walkers next, and who knows maybe someone will die.