"Brothers & Sisters" Episode 302 Recap: “Book Burning”

Later that night, Kitty enters the kitchen to find Robert doing the dishes. She’s all mooney-eyed and lovey-dovey over how her brave knight stood up for her in front of her terrible family. Then she gives him her book to read for himself. Jeez, Kitty, hasn’t the poor guy suffered enough for one night?

Cheap Motel Room of Hot Young Love. I wonder if this is one of those kinky theme motels, and Justin specifically requested the very special “Avoid Having Sex at All Costs” room.

Justin is desperately looking for a way to avoid going to bed with Rebecca, but she seems determined to get them both on the bed ASAP. She sits him down and says, “Justin, there’s something that I’ve been thinking about. And it’s kind of difficult for me to bring up because it’s kind of awkward and there’s never really been the right time.” Hey, I’ve heard this speech before! She’s about to ask him if it’s OK to experiment with butt play. My bet is he’ll say yes.

But before she can finish her sentence, he blurts out that he doesn’t want to have sex at all with her. She says she doesn’t want sex either, at least not right now. What she wants is to talk about the two million dollars her mother arranged for her to get from her trust. Justin, with his typical eloquence, says, “Two million dollars! Like two million dollars?” Rebecca goes on to say that her mother spent twenty years of her life being a mistress for this money, which in Rebecca’s mind makes it blood money, and if she takes it then she feels she’s no better than her mother. Justin’s response: “Wow.”

Seeing what an invaluable font of advice Justin’s proving on the money front, Rebecca goes back to the sex issue. She admits that she has in fact been thinking about sex with him. “A lot,” she says. You and me both, Becky. You and me both.

She goes on to say that she’s been relieved he hasn’t pushed it because she wants things to be “different” with him. Presumably she means different than they were with the scores of old married lechers on whom she pulled her Lolita routine in the past.

Ojai-Walker Food-Landing. Sarah’s been summoned for a visitation with her Hollyness. Holly launches into a rather unattractive, self-pitying whine about having been there since 6 a.m. and staying every night until 11. She blames the mess Sarah made with the China deal for all the work they’ve had to do busting their asses to save the company. Sarah says Holly’s just pointing fingers at her as an easy target.

Sarah: Your daughter won’t talk to you, my mother just told you about Ryan Lafferty. It’s pretty clear you’re taking your self-loathing out on me.

This is so excellent! We’ve apparently expanded beyond Nora-Holly catfights and are now branching out to other members of the family. I’d pay money to see a Kevin-Holly smack-down.

Holly tells Sarah she has no idea what she’s talking about, then flings another report at her to do by that afternoon.