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Haddie is making some changes. She dyes her hair jet black and wears trashy makeup... like Amber. Her parents are upset, and wonder what it means.
Jasmine is hired by the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and must move immediately to New York. Crosby tries to make the best of it, but he doesn't want to be separated from Jabbar. Who can blame him?! Finally, he decides to go to New York with them.
Because of the drama going on in the family due to Amber's behavior, Sarah feels like they made a mistake coming to Berkeley and considers leaving. Mr. Cyr counsels against it, but things are very chilly between Kristina and Sarah, and Kristina resents Adam's involvement with Sarah's children. Amber feels the family pressure and runs away. Sarah and Adam go out all night looking for her until she finally calls from a truck stop. Kristina and Haddie drive out to meet them, and the cousins work it out.
Zeek has an ego explosion about his investment meltdown and Julia takes him to task. He insists he knows what he's doing, but he so clearly does not. Nor does he know how to deal with his wife, who demands that he stay out of the house. The whole family watches as he begs her to take him back -- IN SONG. With a ukulele.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Hello, hello. Many thanks to the wonderful Kim for covering for me last week! TWoP trivia: Kim's recaps of The Real World were the first recaps I ever read, back in the extreme day. I invite you to go back and read some of those things and remember the salad days of reality TV, back when it was sort of interesting and not just a bunch of super-tanned skanks in a hot tub trying to scratch each other's eyes out with their squared-off French manicures without getting their multi-toned extensions wet. Y'all... when I'm pining for Real World: Seattle, a show I did not even watch, we can go ahead and deduce that my life has taken a seriously weird turn. I need a full-time job, and I need one soon.
We come now to the end of the first season of Parenthood, and I must say these 13 episodes have been a pleasant surprise. I'm not saying who, but some people watch this show and cry every single week. Right. That was me.
Ultra-black hair dye washes down a bathroom sink. Somebody is making a change, and to my great surprise, it's Haddie. Oh, girl. Goth hair? She smiles at the new her in the mirror, and goes even further, smearing on blood-red lipstick, Amber style. Downstairs, Max is complaining about his father's breakfast skills when Haddie nonchalantly rolls out her new look. "Oh my GOD," her mother says, seeing the sleek black bob her daughter now sports. Haddie looks bored: "Did something happen?" Hee. Nice try, child. Max says she looks like a panther, which she totally does -- a sex panther! -- and while Adam and Kristina sputter uncontrollably, Haddie makes a quick exit. "I like it!" Max says.
At HQ, Drew (love!) is panicking, having misplaced his biology homework. While his mom and grandmother scurry around looking for it, Amber tries to leave unnoticed. "Hey, that was the school," Sarah says, hanging up the phone and catching her on the stairs. "Have you been cutting class?" Amber shrugs. "That's... crazy," she says, adding that she's been going every day, like a good child. "Ha, really?" Sarah smirks. "Are you sure?" Sarah is about to pursue it, but Amber runs out the door just when Drew comes through again looking for his homework. Sarah abandons the Amber line of inquiry and finds Drew's homework under a stack of papers, along with a flyer about league baseball tryouts. She is excited at least one of her children seems to have goals and dreams. "Maybe I'll ask Uncle Adam," he says, "to help me, like, train for it." Sarah swallows hard. "What?" Drew asks. "Bad idea?" Poor Sarah hems and haws and says she'll call him. I can see why she'd be uncomfortable about calling, and everything, but Drew just said he would ask Uncle Adam to help him, so why not let Drew handle his own business -- as he just obvs planned to do -- and let the chips fall where they may?
Crosby is cooking breakfast on the houseboat when Jasmine gets The Call from the Alvin Ailey troupe. "I'm in," she says, in shock, when she hangs up. Crosby and Jabbar cheer wildly, but, of course, Crosby is also sad, especially when Jasmine says she'll need to leave soon for New York. "Like, Friday," she says. Crosby is trying to deal with this when the boat's bell rings. "Hey!" Zeek announces. "I'm movin' in!" Seeing his son's face fall, he wonders aloud if it's a bad time. Um, yes.
Also having a bad time is Sarah as she drops by Adam's house and has to deal with Kristina, who is still angry about Haddie and Amber. Do I get why she's mad? Yes. Do I get why she's even mad at Sarah? Kind of. But do I get why Kristina is acting like Sarah's the one who did something wrong, when she's been nothing but apologetic? Not really. But Kristina, nonetheless, is giving her the extreme cold shoulder. "Honey, your sister's here," she tells Adam, barely acknowledging Sarah at the door. He asks which one. "The old one," she says. Awful. Sarah gets to the point, showing her brother the baseball flyer, and wondering if he could maybe help Drew with the whole thing. Kristina makes sure to make the whole conversation as uncomfortable as possible, sort of slamming around the kitchen and interrupting. "I see you guys are busy," Sarah says, kind of rolling her eyes at Adam who returns the eye-roll in understanding. I dislike the "women are emotional bitches" undercurrent here, but Sarah and Adam at least are trying to rise above. Poor Sarah, man. She was wrong, I think, not to go to the Autism Walk last week, but otherwise she is blameless in this ordeal with Haddie and Amber, and only trying to do her best while dealing with an admittedly-annoying insecurity complex about everyone else's "perfection." I love it that she is attempting to be normal in the face of Kristina's frost, even going so far as to try to chat about kitchen cleaner, only to be shut down. "Oh, whattya got? That Easy Clean? I love that stuff, it, uh, okay." Hee. No doubt all of this is swimming through her stressed brain when she finally flails out the door, causing her to back too quickly out of the driveway and, arrrrrgh, smash her brother's tail light. Responsibility aside, she does what any other eternally put-upon person would do in this situation: she drives away. Look, it's wrong, but... dude. Sometimes the universe keeps crapping on you, and you have to just keep moving.
And where's best to run when you need relief? Into the arms of hottie Mr. Cyr. Well, not into his arms, per se, but whatever, into his library. She finds him at school to talk to him about Amber. "I don't want her to unravel," she says, uncomfortably, as they discuss the current situation between Amber and Haddie. He kindly asks how she's dealing with all of it herself. She sighs and says it's made her realize that maybe coming to Berkeley was a mistake; It's disrupted the whole family and has made her decide they're better off on their own. "So, we should move on," she says. "And make a mess of someplace new." Mr. Cyr says okay, though it is so not okay. "I think that's actually what I came to tell you, today," she says. "Because... well, because I missed your face." Aw. I love their totally inappropriate relationship. I can't help it. He is too young and has an annoying faux-beard, but he likes her and does not write poetry about her reproductive system. (Or... does he?) Anyway, he says he's missed her, too, and that for what it's worth, he doesn't think running away from her problems is the answer. "I think that you're doing a great job with Amber; you're an incredible mother," he says. "I think that she's going to be just fine, here, and I don't think you should leave." She smiles at him, sadly. "Please," he adds. "Don't leave." Oh, Mr. Cyr! Fine, you're pretty cute.
But, wait. Scratch that. I thought Mr. Cyr was cute until I saw Jabbar, whose cuteness eclipses all other cuteness AND the sun AND the entire output of Japanese animators since the beginning of time. Crosby is helping him get ready to pack for his move to New York, trying out a raincoat that Max kindly passed on for use in his new town. Jabbar is kind of worried about this New York place, but Crosby assures him he's going to love it. BUT, Jabbar asks, do they have bagels there, like at Bagel City? Hee. "Do they have bagels?" Crosby says, eyes wide. "Dude, New York has the best bagels anywhere. They're hot and fresh and you can smell them on the streets. You're gonna be smiling all day long!" Jabbar's not smiling now, though. He sits down to contemplate and, as kids will do, suddenly changes the subject to the thing that has been most heavy on his mind: "How come I call you Crosby?" Crosby asks him what he means. "I could call you Daddy," Jabbar says, hopefully. "Right?" Crosby's face lights up and, I'm sorry, it makes me love Dax Shepherd. Not that the guy is unlovable, but I don't know. His agonizing hair wings make me mad sometimes, but all is forgiven whenever he is with Jabbar. "Yeah, of course!" he says. "I would like that." Jabbar shrugs and says okay, issue resolved. Crosby is really happy. "How 'bout we go tackle this city," he suggests. "Just a couple of dudes in search of a science center and some pizza." Jabbar, naturally, is thrilled, and throws his arms around his dad.
Kristina and Adam try to discuss Haddie's recent transformation with their daughter but are kept at arm's length by her unending wellspring of 'tude. Apparently, along with her recent physical changes, she has also started ditching Chemistry. "Are Amber and Steve in your class?" Kristina asks. Haddie freaks out, of course, and says that no, it has nothing to do with them, but even if it did, her parents don't get to act like they know everything about her. This is the kind of precocious child I want to lock in a vault and not allow to emerge until her 27th birthday. Kristina tries to say that she remembers what it is like to go through these things, but Haddie spits tacks, saying she just wanted to dye her hair, okay, because she just did, all right? She stomps out and Kristina is overcome. "What is going on here?" she asks aloud. "I don't recognize her, literally." Adam tries to say that he thinks Haddie will be okay, but Kristina keeps talking, saying he doesn't know what teenage girls go through. All his "she's gonna be fine" stuff does not smooth her feathers (or her latent teenage-years hangover), especially when he drops that he's got to run to avoid being late for baseball practice with Drew. "OH, that's so awesome, honey," she snarks. "Why don't you focus on our family right now? I'm just sayin'..." She chokes back tears and runs from the room.
Camille is in the attic, painting, when Sarah comes in and tries to talk about the whole Zeek-Camille-Matthew triangle. Camille says that though it is none of Sarah's biz, the Matthew situation is over. Sarah uncomfortably says that, you know, Zeek had mentioned the guy was at the house. Camille interrupts. "That's the thing about your father," she says, angry. "He talks to everyone but me." Ah, but here's a segue. Sarah says that Julia is having that Tim(m) guy over again to talk to Zeek about what can be done about the property, and Sarah thinks Camille ought to be there, too. "Why didn't he invite me?" Camille snits. "You see? That's what I'm talking about." Sarah loses it. She says if Camille is going to just sit around waiting for Zeek to call her and invite her, she could be waiting forever. "Don't be a victim, you know?" she says. "Do something! You don't need an invitation to your own life." Camille regards her, serenely. "You are absolutely right," she says. "And I'm really glad I taught you that." Oh, MOTHER. Did my mother write this? Y'all would tell me if my own mom was a writer for this show, right? Because there's not one smart thing I've said in 37 years that she hasn't taken credit for, and frankly... she's probably right about all of it. Nevermind.
Back on the houseboat, a different kind of victimization is going on. An assault on my ears. An attack on one of the greatest country songs of all time, sung so drunkenly out of tune by Zeek, accompanied by Crosby on his houseboat piano, that I have to bite my knuckles to keep from screaming. They are shooting tequila, which frankly is no excuse, but it does at least explain the creepiness of this whole scene, half of which includes Zeek's musings on all the "cute little things" he met in Saigon during the war, including one who "had the tightest little..." Yeah, DID I just hear that right? These are words you don't need to hear from Craig T., am I right? People, I for real wish I could rinse my brain with bleach right now. Are you serious, NBC? Dax Shepard seems to agree with me as he gags on his beer chaser and insists he does not require all the details on that particular cute little thing. DAMN. Again, it's cool that the actors are allowed all this free-wheeling ad-lib time for these scenes, but... seriously. Creepy Sex Grandpa is really not endearing. Uh, anyway, Zeek boozily thanks his youngest son for hanging out with him like this, since Adam wouldn't even crack a brew while he was staying there. "No way!" Crosby says. "If he drinks too much, the stick falls out of his ass." Hee. They do a lot more shots and a lot more swigs and, when Crosby goes for a refill, Zeek foggily admits that he doesn't even know what he's saying half the time these days. That brings me a measure of relief, at least. "You're mother's gonna forgive me," he says. "She's got to." Crosby bro-style assures him that everything will surely blow over, but Zeek's already moved on, specifically to get into Crosby's face about how he can't allow Jasmine to take Jabbbar to New York. Crosby tries to say his dad doesn't understand, but Zeek shouts that Crosby can't let Jabbar slip away from him. "You," he blearily adds, "have to Man Up." Naw, man. YOU have to SHUT up.
At the usual diner, Sarah and Julia try to reassure Adam that Haddie's hair change is no big deal, while Crosby ribs him that it means his daughter will soon become a stripper. Nice. The normal jibber jabber goes on as they all talk over each other, the highlights of which include Adam talking about the unconscionable behavior of whoever busted his tail light, and Sarah not owning up to it. Crosby grabs his head, in pain, and reports on his drunken night with his father. Everyone is rightly mortified, and Julia asks what's really going on with their parents. Naturally, since they've been keeping the secret for about three minutes and can bear it no longer, Sarah and Adam come clean about Zeek's affair of many years ago. I guess they forgot for a minute about Camille's thing with Matthew, because neither of them mention it, though you know they will. Adam does remember, however, that he needs to cancel on baseball practice with Drew that night. He kind of flails around about having stuff to do at home, and needing to keep the peace with Kristina, but Sarah gets it. "I'm sorry," Adam says. Sarah sighs. "No," she says. "I'm sorry."
Drew's the one who's really sorry, though, because he has to practice baseball with his mother. "Mom," he says, chasing after one of her wild throws. "I can barely look at you." I love Drew. Amber comes out during these shenanigans to ask what's going on, seeing as how Sarah doesn't know anything about sports. "What's to know?" Sarah asks, adjusting her baseball cap. "You throw it; you catch it. Adam couldn't make it." Amber realizes this is all down to her actions with Steve. Eh, true enough, but really it's about a bunch of adults unable to overcome their own adolescent memories and emotions, catalyzed by this new event. Sarah tries to brush it off so she can enjoy this one moment with Drew, but Amber can't let it go. "I'm sure they think that Haddie dyed her hair black because of me, too," she mopes. Sarah tells her not to make everything about herself, and as Amber continues her assurance-begging, Sarah finally snaps. "Maybe you should have thought about what you did, before... you know?" she says. Amber is shocked and appalled, totally offended, but... girl. Your mom's right. Sorry. There comes a time when you have to stop whining about something that is your own doing. Poor Drew feebly tries a few "guys, please"s but the ladies are off and running and now Sarah is really mad. "It's one thing if you're miserable," she yells at her daughter. "It's another thing if you bring us all down with you. So, I'm just asking - just think ONE STEP beyond 'oh, this feels good.' That's all I'm asking you to do." So harsh -- it hurt to watch it -- but she's so right. I mean, by now, Amber has learned this lesson a few times, from what I can tell. Her jaw drops all the way open and she stutters an "okay" before taking off, Sarah calling after her in an apology that falls on deaf ears.
Crosby is helping Jasmine pack up her apartment when he stops to ask her about The Plan. He doesn't want Jabbar to think he's losing his father, he says. "It's really important to me that you're being clear to him about why you're going to New York," he says. "And why I can't move there with you." He says he wants Jabbar to know he's not abandoning him. Poor Crosby is very upset, and Jasmine isn't really helping, vaguely talking about visits and phone dates. Back on the houseboat, Zeek's not really helping, either. When Crosby comes home, depressed, he acts like a bitch and Crosby can't take it. "You got a lot of nerve giving me advice about Jasmine after what you did to mom," he says. Zeek condescendingly says it's pretty complicated. "Is it? Is it super-complicated?" Crosby snarks. "She stood by you for 40 years." He says Zeek can't just sit around on his boat and think Camille's going to show up and beg him to come home. "You are going to lose her," he yells. "You need to take your own advice, and fight for her. You be a man, Dad."
There's got to be a morning after: Sarah arrives at Amber's bedroom, huge coffee cups in hand, and begs forgiveness. "I'm sorry about what I said," she says through the door. "You don't bring everybody down. You bring everybody up. Up with people. This coffee is going to bring you up the way you bring me up..." She laughs as she opens the door, the gorgeous Lucy Schwartz song "Gone Away" playing in the background, to find that Amber has disappeared. How she knows she's run away, I can't imagine, but she does, and Sarah's face says it all as she races out of the room.
She minces no words when she arrives at Kristina's door and asks for Steve's number. Apparently she had called the house several times and Kristina didn't answer, and wow, Sarah is mad. Kristina passive-aggressively drags her feet getting the number while Sarah impatiently waits. "If it's a giant problem, then..." Sarah snarks, and Kristina snottily answers that it's not a giant problem and that she's trying to get the number and avoid saying something she's going to regret later. "OH," Sarah shoots back, and they might get into it, but Adam comes down the stairs at this moment to intervene. He asks why Sarah needs Steve's number. She looks at the floor, feeling like the loser again. "Amber's missing," she says. Kristina's eyes go wide, and Adam rushes straight out the door with his sister.
I am perversely pleased by this scene in which the Boy gets his. Sure, he didn't do anything with anyone against their will, but whatever, it's always the girls who have to bear the brunt of this teen bullshit. Adam pounds on Steve's parents' door, which is cheerily answered by Steve's mom. Oh, lady. There's no way I can recap what is said, because no one stops talking long enough for anyone to take a breath, including me, but let me break it down in terms that anyone who was ever a teenager will understand: Steve's busted. Sarah outs him as having tried to pressure Haddie into having sex and then having sex with Amber, instead, thus earning Amber a whore's rep while he comes out smelling like a rose. Was it all his fault? No. But then again, yes. All right, no, but still: he sucks. Don't have sex with your girlfriend's cousin five minutes after a break-up. It's a simple rule. The best part is that while Adam and Sarah are yelling and Steve's parents are standing around in an outraged shock, Steve is doing his nice guy act, being concerned about Amber's well-being, because, he says, "I love your daughter." Adam FLIPS. "You got both these girls feeling miserable!" he yells. "You're lucky you didn't have sex with my daughter!" Presumably Sarah drags him away amidst all the yelling, because they are soon on the road to beautiful Fresno.
"I forget that Fresno is so industrial," Adam muses. Sarah: "How could you forget? I mean, you used to visit all the time." Adam: "Well, you can't keep me away from the Raisin Capital of the World." Awesome. They arrive at the lair of the hated Damian. "I never thought I'd hope to find the two of them together," Sarah says, and the mount the stairs to his gross apartment, hearing giggling on the other side of the door. "I think we've found them," Sarah says, and Adam figures he'd better hang back while she goes in to extract Amber. "What? No, you're muscle," she insists. "Now, man up! Cover your eyes!" With that, they burst in, and find Damian and... some other naked chick. "This is a brand new girl!" Sarah yells, adding an apology while Adam cringes. "Where's Amber?!" Damian haughtily tells her that he hasn't seen Amber in weeks. "So sorry," Sarah says, pushing Adam out, and adds to the naked chick that she's very pretty. They get out fast, but Damian screams after them to close the door, and Adam has to run back up the stairs to do it. Hilarious. "My God," Sarah crabs at him. "You're the politest person I know!"
Back in the car, Sarah is becoming more frantic, leaving yet another message for Amber. "I'm just still looking for you, with Uncle Adam," she says. "We stopped by Damian's house, so that made me feel a whole lot better... I'm somewhat holding it together, and... I love you." It can't even think of how scary it is not to know where your child is.
At Julia's, the financial meeting with Tim(MM)mm(m) is going on. Camille is in attendance, which Zeek somehow takes as a good sign. Wow, I am at all interested in Timm or anything happening with this. He's annoying, Zeek is annoying, and the buying and selling of securities and properties and all of that is zzzzz.... Huh? Timm tries to explain how Zeek is going to have to "take a haircut" on this deal, seeing as how it's a textbook example of timing the market wrong, and how I WISH he was talking about a literal haircut, because Zeek very desperately needs one. This all turns into a lot of dick-measuring about how Zeek was in Nam and blah blah blah securitized fund/don't patronize me/the world's in the toilet. The only person enjoying this whole scene is the silent Joel, who gets to watch his weakened father-in-law rip Timm a new one. "I'm just a regular guy," Zeek says, coming down the table to lean over the guy who came to help him. "But you wanna know something, Timm-with-two-Ms? I consider myself TOO BIG to FAIL." With that, he pounds convincingly on the table and walks out, leaving Julia embarrassed and furious; Camille rolling her eyes; and Joel smugly satisfied.
Speaking of failing, back on the road from Fresno, it's happening again. Adam gets pulled over because of his busted tail light. Pleading with the officer about the missing niece is fruitless, and when the cop goes to run his plates, Sarah sucks it up and admits her tail light guilt. "I couldn't handle one more bad thing!" she says, to his incredulous lecture. "I didn't want to disappoint you again! Well, now we know where she gets it from!" She says that every day since this thing with Steve happened, all she can think is that moving her family to Berkeley was a mistake and that they should move back. Before Adam can respond, her phone rings. "Oh my God," she says, looking at the number. "Amber." Since Amber's calling from the last pay phone left in America, I am not sure how she knew it was her, but, thank God, it is. She's calling from a truck stop in Gilroy. A truck stop to which she HITCHHIKED. "Oh, I'm gonna kill you," Sarah says, and who could blame her? Not Amber, who says she knows, and cries for Sarah to just please come and get her. Thing is, she doesn't know the address of the place, and I guess she's too scared to go inside and ask, though surely the parking lot pay phone booth is far more scary. "She's okay; she's okay," Sarah says repeatedly, while Adam heads off into the night to this truck stop, whereabouts unknown.
On the way there, Adam calls Kristina on the car's speaker phone to give her an update. "Is she okay?" Kristina asks, genuinely concerned. She insists that she will meet them at the truck stop. "I'm closer, it's easy." Adam assures her that she doesn't need to do that. "I do have to do it," she says. "She's my niece." When Sarah hears this over the speaker, she fights back tears, and so do I. Haddie, also, overhears what's going on, and begs Kristina to take her, too. "Honey, you have to stay with Max," Kristina says, but when she sees her daughter's sincerity, she gives in. They drop Max at Camille's and go.
Back at Julia's, Zeek is getting owned by his youngest kid. "Dad, you and your stupid pride," she screams at him. "You could lose everything. You could lose the house! You could lose Mom! I'm sorry I'm yelling at you, but I don't want to see that happen, because I love you." He tries to assuage her with stupid dad platitudes (daditudes?), but she throws up her hands.
In the car on the way to Gilroy, Haddie finally tells the truth about why she dyed her hair. "I just needed a change," she says. "Just, something had to change. I was really bored with myself. Because everything I did was predictable, and was like this person who everybody thought they knew." Bless her heart. Kristina sighs, but Haddie goes on. She says when Amber came to town, she was struck by how different she was. "She's free! And, I hate her for what she did with Steve, but I want to be more like her." Kristina is overcome. "You're so perfect the way that you are," she says. "It kills me to see you hurt like this." She says when she was Haddie's age she was pressured into many things that she regrets "by my friends, by boys, and people that I thought I trusted, and I don't want that for you." Monica Potter just rips me up every time every time. She says she wants Haddie to talk to her about all this stuff, all the time. "I know you know, already, about Steve," Haddie says, talking about sex. "Well, I'm not ready." Kristina, supportively but firmly, says yeah, she's not ready, and she's proud of Haddie for knowing it. "Sorry for not telling you I was gonna dye my hair," Haddie says, and Kristina smiles. "Honey, I kind of like it," she says. "It's really cute!"
Finally, they arrive at the truck stop where Amber waits nervously inside. It's raining, and for a moment, Haddie and Kristina watch Amber through the window. Haddie tells her mom she wants to go in first, and as freakin' Ray Lamontagne rips my heart right out, Haddie forgives Amber. Sarah and Adam arrive and stand under Kristina's umbrella, Sarah between her brother and his wife, and when everyone finally goes inside, it's clear that all is forgiven, by everyone. Damn this show. They need to rename it "Being a Girl is Hard." Jeez, with the tears. What is it with me lately? Don't get me started about what happens when I hear that one Taylor Swift song on the radio about being 15. Seriously, I have to turn it off AND pull over.
At HQ the day, Amber is wrapped up on the couch when she is joined by Sarah. "I'm sorry," Amber says. Sarah smiles. "You just scared me so much," she says. "You know, when I was your age, I slept with my cousin's boyfriend." Amber sits up. "Are you kidding?" she asks, in surprise. Sarah: "Yyyess." Awesome. "I didn't do that," she says. "But, I smoked and drank a lot. That's why you're so short." She says Amber tries to act so tough, but that Sarah knows the real her: how brave and smart and funny she is. "I'm so proud of you," she says. "And I'm just so glad that you're my kid." Amber is in tears. "Thanks for coming for me," she says. "I'm so glad you're my mom." Sarah strokes her hair and finally laughs. "Man, I can't take it," she says. Amber: "I know. We've really got to get it together."
Crosby is having a final breakfast with Jabbar at Jasmine's apartment, telling him all about the three million parts that make up the Boeing 747 he'll be flying on later that day. "How come you know so much about airplanes?" Jabbar asks, amazed. Crosby: "Because I love airplanes. I have since I was a kid." Jabbar smiles. "You're just like me, Daddy," he says, and Crosby dies. No, seriously, you can see his soul break in half. He goes to talk to Jasmine, having to insist that she stop packing for one second. He says he hates his dad right now for what he did to his mom, but that Zeek was a great dad. He took him places and taught him things "and he smiled every time he saw me. He could never stay mad at me, because he loved me so much." He says he doesn't want Jabbar to be without a dad, without him, in his life every day. "I don't want to be rational," he says. "I want to come with you. I want to get in the cab, buy a ticket and go." Jasmine is amazed. "What about your family?" she asks, and Crosby kind of laughs. "Jasmine," he says. "You are my family." She smiles.
At HQ, Adam is on hand to practice with Drew for the baseball tryout when the whole family (minus Crosby) arrives to go together to cheer him on. Zeek also shows up, and he and Camille have their long-awaited showdown. "Look," he says. "I want you back." Camille says it's not that easy, and that she wants some room to find out who she is. "I love being a mother," she says. "And for a good deal of the time, I loved being a wife, but I just think I got swallowed up somewhere." That's why he cheated, she says, because he looked at her and couldn't see her anymore. "I see you now," he insists. Camille: "Because you're scared." Yeah! He says he wants to spend the rest of the time they have together, making their lives good. "I'm gonna sing now." Oh, um, this is not how to start making your life good! We just heard you sing 30 minutes ago! But to Camille's consternation and the rest of the family's amazement, he does it anyway. With a ukulele. Yes, you heard me. Craig T. Nelson, TV's Coach, sings "I'm Into Somethin' Good," with a ukulele. I can see what they were going for, here, but I'm not really feeling it, so I concentrate instead on the awesomeness of Drew's baseball tryout, which we see the fam enjoying together as we slow-mo out of the season. Yes, yes, we're into something good. Thanks for hanging out this first season. Something tells me the Bravermans will be back.
Al Lowe is a writer and musician living in Atlanta. She can be reached at deepsubject@gmail.com.
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