Watching Brothers & Sisters: “On the Road Again”

It’s season finale time, folks, and Brothers & Sisters once again promised big happenings, major plot twists, and according to this week’s promos, one… shattering… event!

And for the first time in a long while, Brothers and Sisters actually lived up to its own hype.

The promise that one of the cast was “not coming back” was a little too carefully worded, leading me to believe that it didn’t actually equal ”being torn apart by a pack of rabid wolves ON SCREEN so there can be no question about the character’s absolute demise,” which is my personal dream for Scotty (nothing against actor Luke McFarlane). “Not coming back” could have just as easily meant “leaving town for some made-up job opportunity,” which is always a let-down for a season finale, but a cheap cop-out device that is used way too often for me to dismiss it as a sincere possibility.

But tonight, B&S actually knocked someone off, and in a fairly impressive Highway 101 pile-up scene (I’m trying to remember if it’s actually 101 – I used to drive it from Orange County through Ojai and Ventura and into Santa Barbara during my college years, but that was a long time ago).

I didn’t even find it forced that all the major characters were on the road at the same time and in close enough proximity to crash into one another (for once, not figuratively).

Yes, there were a few eye-rolling moments (Did Saul really hear his HIV status for the first time on that call with Nora?), and a lot of filler (Justin and Rebecca, as usual).  And considering how long we’ve been made to wait for the big secret of Narrow Lake, the fact that it’s just a lot of water was a huge letdown.  If it took this long for Holly, Nora and Sarah to find it with their crack drilling time, and considering it’s truly “an ocean of water” down below, how was it so easy for William Walker to find it thirty-some-odd years ago and realize that he needed to purchase the land, pronto.  Or am I missing something?

Whoops, I gave away a plot point before the jump.  Sorry about that.  I won’t give away any more until after.  But just so you know, there’s a lot of water at Narrow Lake and everyone’s going to be rich.  Ojai Foods just folded last week, and now the entire damn Walker family is worth more than they were before.  I hate televsion.

More spoilers below.  You’ve been warned.
It was a toss-up for most of the episode, but ultimately the Grim Reaper came-a-callin’ for ex-Senator Robert McAllister, who’d been recently flirting with heart attack number two, but was instead done-in by a non-successful collision with a great big semi.

I couldn’t tell if that was a seat belt in the background or a piece of something actually stuck into the side of Rob Lowe’s head during his farewell scene with Calista Flockhart. Could you?  Either way, it was rough to watch, and Rob and Calista did great work with their teary farewells, with Robert admitting between his weak final breaths how scared he was to become a father until he saw how strong Kitty was as a mother. I knew Rob Lowe was leaving the show, but I was sure the writers would devise a scenario that would allow him to return next season just in case he wanted to.  But this ain’t LOST, and there ain’t no sideways worlds, so that creepy final icy look on Rob Lowe’s face seems to confirm that Senator McAllister is in fact worm food and that Kitty is now a widow.  Makes sense dramatically now that Sarah is hooked up with Luc.  We need at least one Walker babe to be single to permit an onslaught of good-looking male actors to cycle through the B&S doors next season.  R.I.P. Rob Lowe and may your next series be more successful than Dr. Vegas.

Other than all the red herrings the show threw out to lead us to think that it could be any Walker at any time to bite the dust, the biggest head-spinner seems to be that Uncle Saul is HIV positive.  While I’m happy at the notion that Ron Rifkin, who has been doing great work for decades, is finally being given a story arc on this show that will allow him to do more than simply throw his hands in the air and say, “let’s not over-react here, Nora,” I was really – and I mean REALLY –  disappointed in the way the writers threw this in out of absolutely nowhere!

Granted, it’s always a smart move to have one or two characters around whose history we know very little about so the writers can put them into play at any given moment with a newly-invented back story that advances everything forward.  But come on!  In the span of one episode, Saul way-too-feverishly denies the need for an HIV test.  Then, Saul admits that a past dalliance is living with HIV and that he’s afraid to actually have the test.  Then, Saul has an HIV test.  Then, Saul calls to find out the results in front of his own sister and without missing a beat tells her that he’s totally  fine.  Then Saul is immediately in a major car accident and finds himself bleeding profusely.  Then, Saul warns his family off dramatically and shouts that they can’t touch him. Then, Saul looks away in shame. Hooray for a real dramatic door opening up for Ron Rifkin next season, but what a rip off to the character, and the audience.

There’s not really much more.  if you care about Justin and Rebecca, you need to go elsewhere.

Oh!  One more thing.  Saul and Scotty were preparing the menu for their new restaurant and Lamb Burgers with Mint Garlic Sauce was mentioned as an item on their menu.  I’m not saying the writers of Brothers and Sisters are checking out Tv Food and Drink, but it isn’t totally out of the realm of possibility.

And what did you think? Has the show redeemed its wobbly season with this episode? Are you sad neither Justin nor Rebecca bit the dust? Should we worry about Patricia Wettig’s character even though she’s married to one of the show’s producers? I would love to know what’s on your mind.

Tags: Brothers and Sisters, Calista Flockhart, Colin Egglesfield, Dave Annable, Dennis York, Luke Macfarlane, Matthew Rhys, Patricia Wettig, Rachel Griffiths, Rob Lowe, Ron Rifkin, Sally Field