"Brothers & Sisters" Episode 301 Recap: “Glass Houses”

Cut to the gleaming kitchen of Casa Walker. Kitty reads the letter to Justin and her mother, particularly mocking what Sarah wrote about Nora ... 

Kitty: Get a load of this: a better grandmother I could not wish for your baby. A better friend I could not wish for the world. Okay, the world?!

I don’t understand what’s so wrong about this. If Sally Field isn’t a friend to the world, I don’t know who is. I mean, we like her, we really like her!

Rebecca comes in asking if she can pilfer household items for her new apartment. Nora tells her to help herself to any linens she needs, but Justin gets freaked out she might take “the ones with the robots” from when he was a kid. Don’t worry, Justin. From what we know about Rebecca, she’s got no problem sleeping on stained sheets.

Cut to the newly merged offices of Ojai-Walker Food-Landing. Sarah’s hair is looking a total fright, and she’s putting deodorant on right in her office. Did I miss the episode where she became homeless?

Sarah’s ragged appearance is meant to convey how hot and miserable her office is since the a.c. is on the fritz, although I’m not quite sure how that excuses her for having left her house without showering or deodorizing herself properly in the first place. I’m a bit worried because Sarah is totally my favorite character (right after Scotty, Kevin, Nora, and the MIA Warren), and it looks like they’re setting her up for some sort of nervous breakdown.

She’s on the phone with Nora, who we learn was the actual author of the letter, which Sarah hasn’t even had time to read. When Nora presses her on this, she sort of loses it, wigging out about how stressed she is with the kids, and dealing with Holly, and learning about the latest family bastard courtesy of her insatiably horny dead father.

Nora tells her she doesn’t want to talk about “this Ryan person,” then orders her to read the letter and forget they ever had this conversation. “Okay, Muddah Hari,” Sarah says, as Saul comes in and ushers her into a meeting with Holly and Tommy.

Cut to Holly’s icy office. We can see that, unlike Sarah’s, Holly’s office is cool enough to erect nipples.

When Sarah wonders about why it’s so cool in there, Holly announces she got herself a spanking new a.c. Sarah asks how that’s possible, given the cost-cutting they’re trying to hash out. But the price of a new a.c. is a drop in the bucket compared to the piles of money they’re hemorrhaging in legal fees to Kevin’s firm. Which is why Holly is all for firing him.

Saul and Sarah are appalled, especially when it sounds like Tommy is willing to go along with Holly. (Balthazar Getty, BTW, is sporting this sad little strip of caterpillar fuzz under his nose, like a 14-year-old punk trying to convince his dad he’s man enough to drive the pick-up.)

Tommy makes like he’s got no other choice, given how much the company owes on their outstanding loan, and promises they’ll re-hire Kevin when they’re back in the black. Kitty sarcastically snaps back that she’s sure Kevin will be delighted to hear the news, and wonders if Tommy will have the cojones to tell him personally.

End of scene. And buh-bye to Uncle Saul. Have a good rest of the episode off, Mr. Rifkin. Call us when they finally figure out what to do with you.

Cut to some swanky attorney’s office, where Kevin is meeting with one of the senior partners. Hey, it’s Agent Skinner from The X-Files! Remember how Mitch Pileggi spent the ’90s locked in a heated battle with Patrick Stewart over who would be crowned “Sexiest Bald Guy” on TV?

Agent Skinner compliments Kevin on his work on the Ojai merger, which put him over the top in billing, and lawyers looooove billing. Skinner says he has a special reward for him and slides a set of keys across the desk.

They’re the keys to his beach house in Laguna, and Kevin can feel free to use it for the weekend as a “token” of the firm’s appreciation. There’s something vaguely lecherous and creepy about this whole thing, although that might be because I’ve seen The Apartment too many times. I’ll just say that if Kevin shows up in Laguna to find a red-headed tramp with a heart of gold passed out from too many sleeping pills, I wouldn’t be all that surprised.