Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Parenthood: There’s Something I Need to Tell You…(S4E4)



Oh, man.  I’m really starting to get to like these characters, which meant this episode was full of teary moments, and not only for those on screen.

Jumping right in, Julia and Joel are still having loads of fun with Viktor, who continues to be bratty—this week, he refused to change out of pajamas to leave the house, for starters.  Julia is also having issues at work.  After a long day(and a missed recital), she is super stressed, and misses a major deadline at work, one that costs her firm a case, and millions of dollars.  She goes to opposing council to try to get them to extend the deadline, and when they (obviously) turn her down, she plays the, “I just adopted a 9 year old boy” card, to absolutely no effect.

Later, the kids are being obnoxious in the kitchen while Julia is making breakfast, and she has a complete and utter breakdown.  There is burning food, and sobbing on the floor, the whole nine yards.  They go to Viktor’s baseball game(more on that later), and Julia gets called back to work:  according to her boss, she WAS on the partnership track, but has seemed flakey and not focused for the last six months, and she takes that the entirely wrong way.  Instead of acting like a grownup, and saying “yes, with my new son, and the issues that come with adopting an older child, I have been less than focused.  Perhaps I can lessen my responsibilities, and take on a lesser role here, so I can focus on what has become more important to me,” she goes for the, “gah!  Wha!  Wait, no!  Totally not!  I quit!” 

I was not terribly impressed with her reaction, is what I’m saying.

Moving on.  Zeek and Camille didn’t have a large plot tonight, but he did check back in on his frined Ryan at the VFW, who apparently has gone a bit AWOL.  Zeek tracks him down to Ryan’s house, and reams him out for being a lazy layabout.  So, totally the way to get a person to listen to you.  Anyway, instead of laughing in Zeek’s face, and slamming the door, Ryan accepts and offer to go to a baseball game, not knowing it’s Viktor’s game.  In case you lost count, that is 7 people at the game already.

Another couple that didn’t have a whole lot going on was Crosby and Jasmine, though their story interweaved with the big one later.  Jasmine discovers that Adam makes a whole lot more that Crosby, and takes it upon herself to get Crosby to fix that mess.  Crosby talks to Adam several times, with Adam getting more and more stressed each time, until Crosby blow up, and tells Adam he’s being selfish, among other things, at the baseball game.  Adam, visibly deflated, says they’ll figure it out on Monday.  And we have 10 at the game

In slightly bigger stories, Sarah kissed Hank.  Or, to be more precise, Hank kissed her, but she didn’t pull away, or stop him until much too late.  They are all sorts of awkward through the rest of the episode, and eventually talk about it.  And then, Sarah decides her and Mark should move in together, because that is definitely a good idea.  Anyway, she and Mark end up at the baseball game as well, bringing our count to 12.

Lastly, we have the big story, with Adam and Kristina.  Amber comes over for a visit, and, having been told of ‘the situation’ by Adam, acts like a complete spaz when Kristina answers the door.  Kristina uses her amazing sense of deduction, and figures out she knows.  The next we see, Adam and Kristina are talking about how they need to tell the whole family, starting with Hattie.  They tell her over Skype, or a Skype-like program, and she is fully emotional, mostly because they aren’t actually telling her anything beyond ‘Mom’s sick, but she’s going to get better.’ 

Hattie obviously doesn’t take that for an answer, and calls Adam back, and he speaks to her like a grownup, and lays the whole thing out.  There is split-screening, and crying, and it’s all very emotional.  Definitely a contrast to when they tell Max.  He’s like, ‘yep,’ and that’s it.  Amber comes over later, and talks to him, and he has clearly done his research, because they have a good talk about what it means to be a grown-up, and oh, btw, my mom has cancer. 

And suddenly, we’re at the baseball game, and Adam and Kristina, along with Max and Amber and the rest of the crew are there, and our final count is 16 people to a youth baseball game for one kid that fails at baseball.

And this is where we have the biggest ridiculousness of the entire episode.  Zeek takes it upon himself to get the coach to put Viktor in the game, and is a complete ass about the whole thing.  “Look, sir, my entire family is here, plus this random veteran THAT PRESERVED OUR FREEDOM, the least you can do is play my grandson that sucks at baseball, dammit.”

The coach is reluctant at first, but after such an…impassioned…speech, the coach puts him in for the last out.  Of course, he gets two strikes, and then an infield home run, and wins the game, because the other team failed hilariously obviously, and the whole family was cheering and whatnot, until the whole crew make their way to…

A diner of some sort, and the chit-chatting commences.  That is, until Hattie walks in, and Kristina and she both break down at the same moment as I do…what a coincidence.  Kristina say she has an announcement, and we pan around the gathered grownups as the sad music plays, and I’m a mess in my super comfy chair.

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