Leave it to Parenthood to fill an episode with developments (or possible developments) that I didn’t want to see happen, yet still make me love the episode.
I wasn’t rooting for Crosby and Jasmine to get back together. I really hope Zoey doesn’t decide to keep the baby. I was worried about Amber’s relationship with Bob and I don’t want to see her lose a good career opportunity because of it. Yet even though the show didn’t go where I would have hoped last night, I found myself being swept up in all the emotions.
Camping Trip
OK, let’s begin with Jasmine and Crosby. These two have always had feelings for each other, we’ve known that. Crosby has never forgiven himself for screwing up with Jasmine. Jasmine cheated on Joe with Crosby, and she was jealous when she saw him with his new girlfriend. And yet, I didn’t think they’d get back together. Jasmine was planning on moving in with Joe, Crosby seemed happy with Lily.
Because they are co-parents who try and have a good relationship, both Jasmine and Crosby were accompanying Jabbar on a class camping trip in the school playground. But Jasmine decided not to sleep overnight, and we all knew why. As the family sat around the campfire, a different kind of spark was flying. Jasmine and Crosby will always have something, because feelings are complicated and they have a kid together.
Thanks to some adorable badgering from Jabbar, Jasmine decided to sleep in the tent after all and in the middle of the night Crosby confided in her about how he was filled with regret about screwing everything up, about losing his chance to be a family. It was heartbreaking and honest, but I wasn’t sure it would change anything.
Then, the next morning as everyone packed up their camping stuff in the pouring rain, Jasmine made a decision. She decided not to move in with Joe, but to ask Crosby if he’ll still marry her. It all seems like it’s moving too fast, and I can’t help but think about how hurt both Joe and Lily will be, but at the same time you kind of have to be happy for them. You kind of have to hope that it works out. This isn’t necessarily a storyline I wanted to see, but now that it’s happening I want to know where it goes.
Million Dollar Deal
While Crosby was off reuniting his family, Adam was slowly creeping towards totally betraying his brother. The two had met with a big time recording executive, who offered them a deal – a million dollar deal – for The Luncheonette. As Adam said, they were being offered a million bucks because The Luncheonette is cool. Yeah, they’re doing well, but they’re not doing that well. But Crosby absolutely wouldn’t consider it. (Something that Jasmine understood.)
I got where Crosby was coming from. It’s not about the money for him, and it never will be. This is his dream, to own the Luncheonette and work for himself. You could give him half a million bucks, and what would he use it for? To open a new recording studio? Because that’s what he wants, and he already has it.
Adam is in a different situation, and that’s something I think the show has done a good job of slowly building to. Adam has more financial pressures at home than Crosby does and, more importantly, this was never his dream. This is just a business to Adam, and the good business decision would be to take the money and run.
Behind Crosby’s back, Adam went for another drink with the exec. And he made another offer, a much bigger offer. I was actually OK with Adam going for a drink and talking, but it was when he shook the guy’s hand and said he’d have to convince Crosby to change his mind that he lost me. You cannot force someone to change his mind. Therefore, you should not shake on your intention to do so. We didn’t see what the new deal was, but it must be a ton of money.
New York, New York
Um, out of nowhere Mark suggests he and Sarah move to New York? What? This storyline was not OK with me. Mark just had a conversation with Drew about his intentions, and how Sarah isn’t just going to go and start a whole new family. You know what would really make Drew feel like that’s the case? If they have a new baby and move to New York, leaving her old life and old children back in California! That’s what!
Obviously, this move will not happen. Sarah will realize that her children still need her. She won’t want to leave her family, with whom she is abnormally close. It wouldn’t make sense for the character (even though she’s tempted, she’d never do it) and logistically it wouldn’t make sense for the show. I wish we didn’t know that Jason Ritter is a guest star, because it makes it hard for me to be invested in this relationship. Every time something comes up, I wonder “Will this be why they break up?” Now I find myself wondering if Mark will move to New York without Sarah.
I wasn’t a huge fan of this storyline, but I really liked how the show brought Sarah into the Amber/Bob/Kristina situation. When Sarah found out that Amber quit her job, she went to talk to Kristina about it and basically spoke for every viewer who thought Kristina crossed a line last week. Why was Amber dating Bob such a bad thing? Was it hurting her job performance? Why did Kristina intervene? They had a fight, and Kristina realized she’d overreacted to the situation. There was also a nice moment where Kristina told Sarah it would be OK if she went to New York. Because even though Kristina crossed a line, she did it because she cares about Amber and wants to look out for her. And if Sarah moved, all the Bravermans would keep looking out for Amber and Drew.
Kristina went to talk to Amber, but poor Amber is still so confused. The scene where she crawled into bed with her mom and said she didn’t want to talk about it was really sweet, and a great way to illustrate why Sarah won’t go to New York. Nineteen isn’t that old; her kids still need her.
Baby Complications
The story that really tore my heart out this week was Julia and Zoey’s. For a storyline that began in a place not everyone loved, they turned it into one hell of an arc. I’ve always been a Julia fan (and I love Joel), but I know not everyone is and they’ve often been under-serviced on this series. But I really think the writers did great things with this adoption storyline.
The adoption process has been messy, emotional and painful. Zoey wanted a closed adoption, but she chose Julia and Joel because of what a good family they’d be for her baby. And because they are good people (and also quite meddlesome) they became very entrenched in Zoey’s own life. We knew Julia and Zoey were, in a way, falling in love with each other. They legitimately care about each other in a way that would make an adoption very, very difficult.
Zoey had the baby, and the labor scenes were really well done. She didn’t want to hold the baby, which is a very understandable decision. Julia went home and got Joel and Sydney so they could meet the new addition to their family. They were so excited. And then Julia saw Zoey holding the baby, smiling lovingly. They looked at each other. There were tears. Julia walked away…what does this mean? I never thought that Zoey would change her mind. I still believe that the adoption will go through. I think this is just one more way the writers are showing us what a terrifying, painful process adoption can be on both sides.
Next week is the season finale (eighteen episodes was NOT enough, NBC!), so expect a lot of emotion and some resolutions to season-long storylines. So, what did you guys think of this episode?
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