‘Brothers & Sisters’: Father figures

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Despite airing a holiday-themed episode a week after the actual holiday, Sunday night’s episode of ‘Brothers & Sisters’ was an interesting one mainly because of the revelation that Kevin was the biological father of Tommy’s and Julia’s rarely seen child, Elizabeth.

Ever since Tommy and Julia decided to keep the biological father’s identity a secret in season one, it was a story begging to be explored later. An organ transplant for the baby, who was born prematurely with conditions that claimed the life of her twin, William, was a logical impetus to figure out the real dad. There was no suspense: Tommy, ever the worried parent, simply utters, ‘It’s Kevin,’ before rushing Kevin away for tests. Scotty and Justin, the other possible candidate to be Elizabeth’s dad, are left in shock. I was not shocked (who’d let a former addict and alcoholic donate parts of his liver to a baby?), but I was satisfied with the outcome.

The decision to make Kevin the biological father was a good one. When the show goes back on the air on Jan. 4, it looks like Kevin will take an interest in being Elizabeth’s legal father, an act that would undoubtedly tear the brothers’ relationship apart, not to mention test Kevin’s relationship with Scotty. It’s drama-filled, it’s complicated and it’s just what ‘Brothers & Sisters’ needs to resurrect itself from an otherwise mediocre season. There will be no petty scuffles in the bushes when child custody is involved, especially in a situation as sensitive as this.

The paternal-identity theme also applies to Rebecca. Ever since she found out that David was her real dad, that story has been begging to be explored as well. Holly claims David’s flakiness was reason enough to not pursue him, but she’s lied plenty of times in order to protect Rebecca. The Ryan Lafferty character is also waiting in the wings, so we can count on yet another search for a biological father.

What are your thoughts? Is it a good or bad idea to have Kevin attempt to gain custody of Elizabeth? Will Rebecca ever reunite with David?

--Enid Portuguez