Brothers & Sisters – The Wine Festival – Recap

Monday, November 16, 2009, 12:09 AM | TV
Tags: Brothers & Sisters, Recap, The Wine Festival

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(Here’s Desi’s recap of tonight’s episode of Brothers & Sisters: The Wine Festival)

Expect this Brothers & Sisters recap to be largely unintelligible since I’m still processing what just happened. By the end of the episode, I was beginning all my notes with “OMG” and using caps lock explicitly in discussing the episode with others.

Rebecca sits down to calculate her due date, finding that she’s six months along, due in July. She tries again to call Justin, who is busy studying for his med school exams. When he finally calls her back, he still can’t talk since he’s in the study lounge and can’t leave until he learns the ins and outs of the spinal cord. He thinks she’s just stressed about the big wine festival Ojai has coming up and tells her that he can’t take on her stress as well as his.

In the Walker kitchen, Nora prepares for her date with Dr. Simon while Sarah laments Luc’s lack of income or American visa. As Nora dabs on her eyelashes what I can only assume is Latisse, Saul calls Sarah with an emergency at the winery. Nora goes on her date and Simon explains that he feels like she’s hiding him, not going on dates in extremely public places, so she invites him to the wine festival.

At Ojai, the board chairman, Jane, has arrived with her review of the business’ strategies. Though the family has planned to attend the festival, they didn’t plan to enter anything in competition, though she feels they should. The family tries the wine with her and Saul loves the wine, agreeing that it should be entered in competition. They don’t have a marketing plan, though, so Sarah volunteers Luc to do the label for the bottle. When she goes home to tell him the “good news,” he isn’t as excited as she is. He doesn’t want to be commercialized and doesn’t think he needs the work since his art sells well in France, and he’s not worried about the visa, saying they have time, but he finally agrees to design something.

Holly and David, still trying to finance Rebecca and Justin’s wedding after losing the fortune, talk about music details for the ceremony. Holly is certain that the new line of wines will make lots of money for the company and her, but David is less certain.

Scotty and Kevin continue the search for a surrogate, eating ice cream and browsing on matching laptops. As they narrow their selection down to only 20, they solicit opinions from other family members. Finally, Kevin points out that they’ll be the ones raising their child, so whomever they choose as a surrogate is less important than how they choose to parent.

At Sarah’s house, Luc sits by the window drinking the wine as he sketches out designs for the label. After much pressuring from Sarah, and defending that he wasn’t yet finished, he allows her to see them and reluctantly gives her an unfinished design that she wants to use. At the festival, Sarah introduces Luc to a hotel owner, trying to push him as a graphic designer to get him more work, and he isn’t impressed. She apologizes, saying she’s just worried about the company and he says he flew 6,000 miles to be with her. He just wants her to by happy and says that he’ll be there for her…and then he gets up and walks away. OMG!

(This is where I got really confused, because a Levi Johnston commercial came on. WTF?)

Back at the wine festival, Walker Landing wins in its division. Ryan immediately whips out his phone and calls the evil businessman, Dennis, to let him know about the success. As they meet for lunch, Dennis explains that Ryan stands to benefit if he’s able to buy into the company, and they hatch an evil plan. Holly’s office phone rings, and she and Saul rush off to find that the entire stock of Walker Landing’s prize-winning wine have been drained out. OMG! Here’s my issue with Ryan (or maybe more accurately, the actor who plays him): he’s rarely on the show. He gets maybe one scene an episode. WHY THE HECK IS HE IN THE CREDITS? Luke Grimes, you are no Balthazar Getty to be getting that treatment.

Simon and Nora have a fight at the wine festival. She feels bad about the age difference and he accuses her of “playing it safe,” saying that her age doesn’t bother him but that she’s always lived in Pasadena does. He leaves her at the festival to be driven home by Sarah, also having been left by her date. Simon later comes to the house and they make up as she explains how her life is anything but safe, showing him the lawn Scotty and Kevin married on, the bannister Justin crashed his head on when he was drunk, and other important locations in her house. They make out on the stairway. OMG!

And then…the Last Five Minutes. The episode would have been fabulous without them, but they were there, so I guess I ought to include them. Rebecca, not having a chance to tell her fiancee, finally tells her dad that she’s pregnant. He gives her all kinds of advice (which confused me, since he was an absent father until she was 22 or so) and when Justin finally comes home after his exams, she fails again at telling him. I got SO irritated because really, Greg Berlanti, how long are we going to drag this story out? OMG! Don’t make me hate Justin!

Kitty and Robert were away for the entire episode, but I didn’t really miss them. Probably because I just can’t deal with that bald cap on Calista Flockhart. Bald is beautiful, but the wig is horrible. Horrible. It was definitely an OMG. But Robert’s reaction, that he doesn’t love her any differently with hair or without it, was absolutely adorable.

The point where Moe and I really lost it was at Sarah’s house. Luc walks in, all packed up, AND HE BREAKS UP WITH SARAH. WHY @GOD WHY??? The producers start playing “Winter Song” by Sara Bareilles, but I’m too wise to give in to their trickery. #bringbackgilles!

As much as I enjoyed the drama level of the episode, Justin’s douchiness and Luc dumping Sarah made me hate it a little while. Dear producers: PLEASE DON’T GO THE WAY OF GREY’S ANATOMY!

1 Comments for Brothers & Sisters – The Wine Festival – Recap

1

Thanks for the recap! I thought Rebecca was six WEEKS along, not six months …

And yeah, Luc’s “I’ll be there for you” turned pretty quickly into “see ya!” Although I think we all saw it coming, with the way Sarah was nagging him to death, trying to railroad him into being something he’s not. Didn’t she learn anything about artsy types after Joe? Maybe she should start dating accountants, or something. I did feel sorry for Sarah, though, even if she is a bit of a harpy.

OMG I wasn’t going to watch this season, what with Kitty’s depressing cancer all, but I just realized I’m hooked all over again … damn you, Brothers & Sisters!

hesterprune on November 16, 2009 at 5:41 pm