Brothers & Sisters – Zen and the Art of Mole Making – Recap

Monday, November 2, 2009, 03:27 AM | TV
Tags: Brothers & Sisters, Recap, Zen and the Art of Mole Making

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(Here’s Desi’s recap of tonight’s episode of Brothers & Sisters: Zen & The Art of Mole Making)

For the third week in a row, it’s good to see Gilles Marini’s continued appearance on Brothers & Sisters. Sarah is still hiding Luc from the children, leaving him to live in Nora’s Pasadena mansion, sneaking off to Sarah’s while her children are gone. I feel like if you’re in a relationship where the man flies from France to see you, it’s probably serious enough to introduce the kids, but what do I know.

Holly is still hoping to recover some of her lost fortune, but as she says to David, there’s a very small chance she will. I wonder what’s going to happen to Rebecca’s perfect, fabulous Hawaiian wedding.

I love Kevin, and I love Scotty, but I do not love Michelle. Maybe it’s because she made appearances in season one as the (beard) girlfriend of Chad, Kevin’s boyfriend. It’s plausible that Scotty and Michelle met the night of the party he and Kevin hooked up after separating, but it’s just so random to have brought her back in this capacity without mention of her for three years.

Kitty and Nora convene in their foyer, having heard noises. A call comes from their security company to verify their passcode, and they figure that it’s probably Luc coming in. Except that Luc is in the house and has come downstairs to join in the commotion. The three creep around the house before they see someone snooping in the fridge for a midnight snack, so Luc takes the blanket Kitty has wrapped up in to attack the intruder. As they roll around on the kitchen floor, the detainee starts yelling “mom!” and when the blanket is pulled away, it’s Tommy, the lost brother.

Of course in Walker style, all of the siblings are on the phone with him at once, and his response is that it would be easier to handle in person. (I love veiled references to seasons past.) My favorite line of the episode has to be Kevin: “I came home looking like I’d eaten an entire Backstreet Boy.” I lost it. Nora decides that they need to have a family dinner to hash out all of the gossip.

Kevin and Scotty go with Michelle to get her “lady parts” checked out to ensure that she’d be a good candidate for surrogacy. When all her tests come back clear, Kevin presents her with a contract that he wants her to sign before they go through with the pregnancy. Scott gets upset that Kevin hadn’t talked to him about it before and anyway doesn’t think it’s needed, and Michelle is offended that he thinks she needs to sign anything legal.

Before the family dinner, Nora finally receives a phone call from Julia, Tommy’s wife. Though he claimed that he’d been speaking to his daughter Elizabeth daily, Julia tells Nora that he hasn’t spoken to either of them since he left for Mexico and that she wants a divorce. He attempts to dodge this piece of information at dinner, but Nora can’t hold it in, spilling his secret. Rebecca and Scotty stand up to herd the kids to the living room where they won’t sit through the yelling, and Cooper gets runner-up for best line this episode: “but I don’t want to miss the fight!”

Ryan returns this episode, snooping around Holly’s office. Saul catches him poking through her drawers and confronts him, with Ryan explaining that she’s been taking off-the-books meetings and that he’s concerned for her and the company. But it’s Ryan and of course that’s a lie, and he meets businessman Dennis York to discuss what he’s learned about Holly’s fallen fortune. Dennis takes this information to make her an offer that I would never be able to refuse, offering to buy out her part of Ojai for double what it’s worth. She declines.

Kevin goes to Michelle’s office to confront her and explain his need for the contract, and she agrees to be their surrogate again. I’m not amused. How about we bring Chad back to be the godfather?

The family assembles to say goodbye to Tommy, and Nora expresses her concern over his divorce. He basically tells her that he isn’t going to deal with it and doesn’t want her there for him to talk to, so she settles for wishing him a safe trip back to Mexico. He tells her that he isn’t going back: he’s going to Seattle to see his wife and daughter.

I think I have romanticized the way Tommy was before he disappeared to this new-age convent in Mexico because I didn’t like him the way I used to… or maybe it’s all the vegan food he’s been eating.

5 Comments for Brothers & Sisters – Zen and the Art of Mole Making – Recap

1

Good recap. Just a minor correction:

>>It’s plausible that Scotty and Michelle met the night of the party he and Kevin hooked up after separating>>

No, Michelle and Scotty were already friends. Michelle was the one who arranged the blind date between Kevin and Scotty (she didn’t realize Kevin and Chad were seeing each other).

Scott on November 2, 2009 at 9:58 am
2

#signgillesmarini!

desi on November 2, 2009 at 11:41 am
3

Hmmmm. Fying from France to see a girl seems really serious. It’s nice to be entairtened by shows which in reality happens (in america).

Vic on November 2, 2009 at 12:16 pm
4

i’ll go back and re-watch it again but it still doesn’t excuse the writers from changing her name, even from last week to this week.

desi on November 2, 2009 at 1:21 pm
5

I love this show! Great writing and I really get invested in the characters.
It is a shame however that it has to follow Desperate Housewives. That sucked hard last year and this season it’s just laughable. ABC should finally find it (B&S) worthy and move it to another night to get a bigger audience.

mandabutter on November 3, 2009 at 3:05 am