‘Brothers & Sisters’: One vote short

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Was it me or was Sunday night’s ‘Brothers & Sisters’ just a tad bit boring? Shirtless scenes involving Rob Lowe and Luke MacFarlane only mildly distracted from the fact that the episode’s pacing and storylines were tedious and lacked energy.

Kitty announced that she won’t be running for Congress as initially planned. Instead, she decided to enter the race for Robert’s vacated Senate seat. Naturally it was news she needed to break to the rest of the Walkers, who democratically took an anonymous vote on whether they supported the idea. The result? All were in favor except for one, whom Kitty automatically assumed was her perennial sparring partner Nora. The thought of her mother not supporting her decision to run perturbed Kitty for the rest of the night and inspired Robert to volunteer for Nora’s and Scotty’s charity cooking event in order to get to the bottom of her vote.
Lowe and Sally Field have proven that they can deliver a powerful scene together (their showdowns earlier this season after Kitty was diagnosed were the most memorable), but the two arguing over cumin and coriander just didn’t do it for me. Nora, annoyed that Robert would question her faith in her daughter, admitted that she wasn’t happy about Kitty running for Senate in light of the year’s events but insisted that the ‘no’ vote didn’t belong to her.

The culprit was actually Kevin, who, as it turns out, was also responsible for dashing Kitty’s high school presidential dreams. In the episode, we briefly accompanied Kevin and Kitty to the former’s 20-year high school reunion, a fairly tame affair that wasn’t nearly as mortifying as Kevin made it seem. I thought it would have been fun to insert a flashback, or at the very least show an old photo of Kevin’s chubby, nerdy teenage persona he was so embarrassed about. The whole storyline just didn’t pack the punch, comedically or dramatically, as it could have.

Sarah and Roy didn’t set off any sparks either, but I think that was the point. After taking it slow for a month, they finally consummated their relationship with a motel romp that Sarah rated as a less than enthusiastic ‘7’ in her love-o-meter. An ‘I miss you’ text from Luc (and Roy’s disinterest in ‘Spinal Tap’) might have influenced her appraisal -- who would settle for a 7 when the door to a hot love affair still remained ajar?

The most interesting part of the episode involved Holly, who has been desperately grasping at straws at Ojai. She stalled her deal to sell her shares to William Walker’s old nemesis Dennis York in order to research exactly why he’d be interested in buying her out in the first place. But her digging proved futile and a later meeting confirmed that Dennis simply was a vengeful creep obsessed with taking anything that belonged to William. I have a feeling that Holly didn’t sacrifice herself (if she did, what was the point of promising David she’d sell her shares?), but that tense scene coupled with her tearful acceptance of David’s proposal were the dramatic moments that made the episode worth watching.

What were your thoughts on the episode? Do you think Holly did the deed with Dennis? Are you looking forward to Luc’s return?
-- Enid Portuguez

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