Sunday, December 16, 2012

Parenthood: What to My Wandering Eyes(S4E11)



Again with the dusty viewing experience, geez.  This week, we had a bunch of stories that all convalesced into one, with tons of tears to go around.

Adam and Kristina have gone all out for Christmas, buying everything on all the kids’ lists, though Kristina is not looking very good while wrapping them all.  On Christmas Eve, she can’t stop coughing, and Adam insists on bringing her to the ER.  After taking care of the kid situation(Crosby and Jasmine are going to watch them), Adam and Kristina are at the hospital.

They don’t want to alarm anyone in the family, so they try to keep everything on the DL, but when Zeke stops by the house, Max, in his normal blunt way, tells him Kristina is in the hospital.  Zeke shows up at a terrible moment, when Kristina is crashing, and Adam yells at him to go home.

Adam asks the doctor what is going on, and Kristina is in septic shock, and is very touch and go.  The doctor kind of fails at comforting, and Adam continues to freak out.  A little while later, Kristina is awake, and tells Adam about a file she has on the computer, and to make sure the kids see it.  Zeke makes a second appearance, and he came bearing gifts: a sandwich and things to get through a hospital stay.  There are hugs and tears all around, and Adam seems a bit more calm.

That is, until he pulls out the computer and watches the video.  Oh, my goodness, I was crying the whole way through it.  It was basically a goodbye video, and even though it was kind of…off, the just the idea of it was tear-inducing, so yeah.

Meanwhile, Julia and Joel are having Christmas fun with the kids, who are sneaking around trying to find their presents.  When the kids get caught, Julia warns them that Santa won’t give them good presents if they are all sneaky and things, but Viktor is having none of that.  “It’s just a  fat man in a suit, he’s not real.”  Sidney is decidedly distressed, and Julia and Joel have much handwringing about the loss of innocence and blah blah blah.

Crosby and Jasmine are having a great time watching Adam and Kristina’s kids with Jabbar, even doing a better job at the whole Aspie parenting then Adam and Kristina. 

Amber and Ryan, on the other hand…  They are making cookies and generally enjoying each other’s company when he lets her know that he is not going to Wyoming for Christmas.  Later, Amber is visiting Julia and Joel, and finds out that Ryan left the job after the first day.  Amber talks to Ryan about it, and she insists Ryan go and talk to Joel, and even to take her car to do it. 

Cut to several hours later, and Amber is frantically calling Ryan, since he isn’t back yet, and hasn’t been answering his phone.  One loud tire squeal later, Amber and Ryan are having a huge fight in the parking lot, since he is drunk and never even went to talk to Joel, let alone the damage he caused to her car by rubbing against a parking pole.

Sarah and Hank are the mall Santa photographers, and Sarah is being a complete and utter bitch to the customers, and Hank basically has to talk her down.  Later, they are at the mall bar comparing pathetic life stories, and Sarah wins with the ‘living with her parents at 42’ card.  The next thing we see, they are in bed, grinning awkwardly at each other.  Hank manages to stick his foot in his mouth yet again, but Sarah gets the Kristina phone call, and rushes out.

So, everyone is at Zeke and Camille’s house, and Zeke gives everyone the lowdown on the hospital situation.  Everyone is kind of down, but then Jabbar comes running in, asking about Santa, since Viktor is still going around crushing dreams.  Zeke tells the story of how he met Santa, and the kids are all enthralled. 

Jasmine and Crosby, though, are on the porch with Nora.  Jasmine is contemplative, and tells Crosby she wants another baby.  Crosby goes for the fake out with a long pause, before admitting he wants another baby, too.  Even though Nora is a trouble-maker for starting all this.

Hank shows up at the door later, and pulls his foot out of his mouth with a beautiful portrait of Sarah, and the arc that you could see coming from episode one has finally come to fruition.

The next morning, Amber gets a text from Ryan.  He’s terribly sorry, of course, and promises to fix everything that is wrong with him.  Amber, though, has seen this story before, and doesn’t want to end up like her mom and Seth.  She tells Ryan they need time apart, because as much as she is in love with him, she can’t be dragged down by him, either.  And so Amber and Ryan are on a break.

And then!  Kristina is sitting up, drinking water, and feeling 1000 times better.  And it’s made even better by all fourteen of the Braverman clan, allowed into the ICU by a bribe to the desk nurse.  Cause that is something that would definitely be allowed.  Of course, it is fully adorable, with matching scarves and a surprise appearance by Hattie.

Oh, man.  This was a highly emotional episode.  It was nice to see some of the arcs hitting fully expected beats, and even some unexpected ones, as well.  I’m pretty sure I was teary-eyed through most of the Kristina stuff, for sure.

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