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

But Senator Prettyboy has a plan! They can just quietly glue everything back together, prop it up like nothing happened, and hope nobody will notice. This is a plan only a politician would come up with. With this kind of crisis-solving acumen on display, I’m surprised McCallister wasn’t actually elected president.

Talk of things being shattered and swept under the rug inevitably leads to secrets, which leads to one of those juicy Walker blow-outs where everybody bitches at everybody else, and all their dirty laundry gets to come out for some fresh air. We simultaneously see …

… Kitty railing at Nora for writing the letter for Sarah.

… Nora railing at Sarah for telling Kitty she wrote the letter.

… Kitty telling Tommy and Justin about Ryan.

… Justin telling everybody about him and Rebecca.

… Justin ratting out Cooper as the whale-breaker.

… Sarah ratting out Tommy as planning to fire Kevin.

The best part of all this is that nobody is surprised or even really cares about Justin and Rebecca snogging. There’s even a funny throwaway moment where Kitty kicks Robert in the leg with this “I told you so” look on her face. I’m thrilled, because it means the tedious storyline about their clandestine coupling I thought would be drawn out for weeks is quickly nipped in the bud. And given that they’ve barely got a brain between them, it’s also completely realistic that they wouldn’t be fooling anybody.

Amidst all this, there’s also a heated group discussion about whether or not they should contact Ryan. Almost everybody is against Sarah and Kevin on this, thinking it best to leave well enough alone. Tommy rather indelicately says something about what happened when Rebecca made a similar “claim,” leading her to run out in a snit. Then Kitty tells Sarah she might try being a better sister to her before dragging somebody else into the mix. I must say, it’s all highly entertaining.

Later that night, Tommy joins Kevin out by the pool. Apparently, Agent Skinner and his family are practicing Satanists, since they’ve installed this huge open fire-pit clearly designed for animal and/or human sacrifices.

Tommy apologizes for not telling Kevin the news about his imminent downsizing himself. Then he tries to explain how he’s just looking out for the family’s best interests, saying it was important to their father that they all have the security of the business to fall back on. Kevin responds that it was also important to their father that he be a part of the business, something that never occurred to Tommy.

Kevin: You can go on about him all you want, but this is not what he would have wanted … If you want to draw a line in the sand, please do, and put me on one side and stand on the other. But if you do, there’s absolutely no going back.

You tell him, Kevin! I am totally with you on this one. Why don’t you go ahead and draw that line in the sand — and then freaking bury Tommy underneath it? I’ve never liked him, and this show could certainly stand to lose a sibling or two.

Meanwhile, Rebecca lays into Justin for blabbing about their relationship without checking with her first. He says he knows from experience that it’s better to break news like that when his family’s distracted. I think he makes an excellent point and highly recommend this strategy. Take it from me, there’s really no better time to come out about something sensitive to your family than when they’re already angry, confused, highly emotional, and hurling accusations.

Rebecca says she’s scared that if they break up, she’ll be the “ex-girlfriend” everybody wished would just disappear. He insists that all the Walkers love her. But she thinks they’re too wrapped up in wondering about her “replacement” to think about her. I can’t speak for them, but it’s certainly true for me.