By Al Lowe
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.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?