“Brothers & Sisters” Episode 122 Recap: "Favorite Son"

This week’s episode is called “Favorite Son.”

The show opens at a hospital waiting room in Santa Barbara.

The family is holding vigil while the doctors are seeing Julia and the newborn twins. In case you missed last week’s episode – Julia went into premature labor up at Tommy and Holly’s new vineyard in Santa Barbara.

Tommy is all nervous because he doesn’t know any of the doctors in Santa Barbara. So who's going to fill his Oxycontin prescription? The rest of the family are more sanguine. In fact, Kevin and Saul are actually playing Scrabble. Scrabble? I guess Kevin never leaves home without his travel game board.

Kevin is lamenting that he was absolutely useless when Julia went into labor. It was Justin who “saved the day”

Kevin: Here I got the chance to save these two babies – either of which might be biologically mine and I have nothing. Justin however is trained for this.

Saul reminds him that Justin’s army medic training hardly made him better equipped to handle this particular situation

Saul: Delivering premature twins in a vineyard in Southern Cal is hardly what the army had in mind for Justin when he enlisted. Anyway, they could just as easily be his.

Uh, hello! Tommy is standing right there. He is the putative “father” regardless of biology and I’m sure the last thing he wants to hear is Kevin and Justin speculating over who’s the “real” father.

A woman in a white lab coat walks up.

Nora: Oh, she looks like a OB/GYN
Kevin: Sexist, mom!

Here they’re waiting to find out if the babies are going to live or die and Kevin still has time to be a feminist watchdog. But then, he has time to play Scrabble so why am I surprised?

Doctor: Thomas Walker?
Tommy: Yes.
Doctor: You wife is doing fine. She just needs some rest. Your brother looks like he did some excellent work.

What, did Justin put a field tourniquet on her or something? Or is she talking about his earlier “work” getting her pregnant in the first place? Tommy asks about the twins.

Doctor: 29 weeks and extremely low birth weight. We’re lucky we got them here when we did. Unfortunately, your insurance card is expired so we had to discharge your wife and the twins. You can pick ‘em up by the dumpster out back.

Okay, I added that last bit. I’m sure Tommy and Julia have excellent medical coverage. It's not like they're blue-collar, middle class Americans. Those folks are totally screwed.

Nora jumps in and starts asking very technical childbirth questions.

Nora: What about their APGARs? They haven’t peed yet have they?
Doctor: Well, the boy did a big number two…

Okay she didn’t say that. I should stop making jokes. This is serious.

Only, what the hell is with Nora’s shoulder pads?