"Brothers & Sisters" Episode 203 Recap: “History Repeating”

Julia: I blame you Tommy. I want to get past this. I think if I go away I’ll be able to put it in perspective.

Cut back to the French restaurant. Dinner is over. The wine has been drunk. I hope somebody called a cab for Kevin.

Kevin: Looks like you really got your life together. I guess I can’t tease you anymore.
Scotty: Oh, please. Never stop teasing.
Kevin: It’s gonna take a lot of meals like this to pay your legal bills, sir.
Scotty: That’s fine by me.

Scotty leans in for a kiss, and Kevin acts all surprised and pulls back.

Oh, come now. You accept a fancy French meal from an ex-boyfriend, and you feign surprise when he puts the moves on you?

Kevin quickly mentions that he’s been dating the priest. Funny that didn’t come up over the main course.

Scotty is mortified that he made an unwelcome pass. He asks where the minister boyfriend is and to his credit doesn’t mock Kevin when he hears that Jason is somewhere in the south pacific singing “Some Enchanted Evening” to Maylasia's famed red squirrels.

Instead, he politely makes apologies, but suggests that Kevin should scoot, so he can get ready for dinner service.

Scotty: It’s about to get busy and I need some time to poach my fool head in vermouth.

We head back to the Walker mansion. We are in Justin’s bedroom where he writhes in agony, probably in response to Nora, who’s standing at the foot of the bed repeating her, “Honey, I really wish you’d reconsider the painkillers” speech.

Cut back to the French restaurant. Oh goody. We get to see Scotty again, his head now all sticky from vermouth. Kevin refuses to be shooed away and asks if maybe the two of them can be friends. Oh damn. Instead of Scotty being Kevin’s “Mr. Big,” I think he’s going to be his “Stanford Blatch.” Bummer.

Cut to DC (McAllister and Kitty sure do book a lot of frequent flyer miles.) Kitty is taking her shot at Courtney McAllister, who only has a “minute to speak because she’s baking a rhubarb cherry pie for the Sidwell friends school charity auction.”

Oh please, that private school has like a fifty thousand a year tuition. The last thing the place needs is anyone’s charity.

Kitty pulls out a big bluff.

Kitty: We found the nanny. She’s willing to tell the truth. I just thought you’d want that piece of information before you go on tonight and give your “presentation.” Thank you for your time and say hi to Larry.
Courtney: (clearly rattled by Kitty’s claim to have found the nanny.) You think you’re his partner? Nobody’s his partner. He does it all alone.

Cut to Saul’s office at Walker Foods. He’s working late. Tommy comes in, all dejected and tells Saul that Julia is going back to Arizona with the in-laws. She blames him for pulling the plug on baby William.

Cut to a hotel room. McAllister is pacing. Any minute now his ex-wife will be on CNN dragging his name through the mud. He notices that Kitty is blithely tapping away on her laptop, seemingly very calm.

McAllister: Aren’t you stressed?
Kitty: I am. I’m afraid that “republicangal” is going to swoop in and snipe my eBay bid on this Ronald Reagan limited edition bobble head.

Just then, McAllister gets a call from campaign manager Travis. Good news, apparently Courtney canceled her Larry King interview.

Brief side note, but what does this storyline mean and why is it important? For the life of me, McAllister’s rocky relationship with his ex-wife doesn’t seem very interesting. Unless we meet the nanny at some point down the line and find out he’s a guy or something.

Cut to Tommy’s house. He arrives home from work to find Julia’s bags packed. His windbag father-in-law is a bit less windbaggy in this scene. He assures Tommy that taking Julia back to Arizona is “the right thing to do.”

Tommy: You might think this is the right thing to do, but it’s a bad idea.

…because come next episode I’ll be romantically involved with my office manager, Lena.

Tommy goes into the nursery and says his goodbyes to Julia and Cabbage. Even here, her departure imminent, she visibly recoils when he tries to kiss her. Poor Tommy. I really do feel sorry for him. My sympathies would be even stronger if it weren’t so clear that Lena is waiting in the wings for him.