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

Steven, by the way, your little imagined excerpt from Kitty's book was one of the funniest things I've read this year!

I pretty much hated this episode. Usually with any decent episode of Brothers & Sisters I feel the urge to watch it a second time just to absorb it better.  Not this one!  No desire to ever watch this stinker ever again!

Can I also say that Robert's self-righteousness is really revolting?  Before he goes issuing any criticism of the Walkers he should maybe take a look at that deranged pack of hooligans he calls a family!  I can only imagine what this little social worker suck up party would have been like if the hard-partying, artichoke-loving crowd had been there instead!

BTW: Kitty secured all the electrical outlets, but the house appears to still be packed with what appear to be poisonous plants and potentially deadly chotchkes. 

I've been griping elsewhere that this show has become way too Kitty & Robert centric.  They more or less dominated last season with their relationship, the presidential campaign and her fertility problems.  If I were patient enough to sit and time it all I'd wager that at least 50% of the show is Kitty and/or Robert, or something supporting their storyline.  It's like this is their show and the rest of the cast are playing supporting characters.

Sarah's tragic decline is depressing, because after Kevin and Scotty she's my favorite character.  We just seem to get little fragments of her looking frumpy and acting morose.  I want the sassy Sarah with the great shoes back!

Scotty was a no-show and I am soooooooo not happy about that. Even Julia got to put in 30 seconds worth of appearance.  Kevin didn't get to do anything except be bitchy as well.

Meanwhile, Justin and Rebecca were just plain annoying.  If they want the 18-25 demographic they're going to have to do better than those two. Since the younger crowd will have gotten their fix off of Gossip Girl earlier in the evening, the impossibly dull Justin and Rebecca are going to look even more lame.  Why did they even try to create this romance?

I'm also sick of hearing about Ryan and he damn well better be smoking hot or I am going to be irate.

Holly is deteriorating to being just an irritant and I hope she proves interesting soon.  Because she's just a bitch now.  And as you point out, it's highly improbable that she could be the one in charge at Ojai given that she was a professional whore for 20+ years.

Hopefully the writing will get better, because this episode was a stinker!

It's disappointing to have back to back episodes at the start of a new season be so weak. Even with the writers' strike last season, one would think that the scribes would open a new season with their best material, but they are going to the Robert and Kitty well yet again. Robert needs a beating. He's no different than the people that he's criticizing and the show seems to be using his arrogance as some kind of "manning" up for his wife and relationship. Bring back his gay brother and ditch the tired politico as his "character" would have been more pissed than all the Walkers combined at Kitty's "betrayal."

And to have Nora get all gooey just because of the dedication does not address that there is no way that anything was read was so grossly taken out of context that they just needed to read it twice to appreciate its brilliance and whatever else the writers put in Rob Lowe's mouth to describe these diary entries.

The show has such a winning cast that it's a shame that it's turned into the argument of the week over food. I used to like the unlikablity of the Holly character, but her show ending shtick only needed a close-up freeze frame to finish off the Dallas-like over the top snarkiness of whoever wrote and directed that scene.

The little that I enjoyed was the Rebbecca-Justin bit as at least it had Justin in a situation that did not feel like a re-run. I get why so many are not into them at all, but I like their chemistry. I also miss the old Sarah and wanted to see more of Sal as his scene with Holly reminded me that there is so much to explore there.

Kitty/Robert/baby? Yawn.... This was only the 2nd show of the 3rd season yet in so many ways felt like a show that has told all that it had to say. I hope that I am wrong as there are no other adult family dramas around and it's a genre that I think offers endless possibilities. The focus on the second of who knows how many Cousin Oliver's daddy Walker sired is not a good sign, esp. if this Ryan starts to get too close to Justin when he rears his head.

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i said it elsewhere, but i'll say it here.... this episode just plain sucked. I am so sick of robert and kitty constantly being painted as angels. Kitty wrote about her family without letting them know....fine, maybe kevin shouldn't have gone through her bag...but they read it, and either way...what she said in it was not gonna change whether they read it that night or another night.

I think the family had a right to be upset and i didn't get robert's need to defend her. plus, the way he defended her was so lame. "she's opinionated and that's why i love her" (or something like that) i think the family was mad because she wrote about them pretty rudely without their consent robert, but sure, ok dude. whatever.

 of course at the end of the episode, Nora happened to be okay with what kitty said simply because what....kitty dedicated it to her? WHATEVER.

everything else was a bore too about this episode....i am sick of rebecca and justin...i don't care whether they have sex or not....but when they do finally do it, i shall turn the channel...they're still brother and sister in my eyes. ICK.

...and Holly is annoying. i don't understand her weird obsession with Ryan. if she contacts him or whatever, what? "tell me about your mom. was she hotter than...me? Do you think that's why william was all over her?"

ok, my negative review is over. i'm out

I can only stand so much of Kitty and her sad attempt at being of any importance to the world... On a lighter note, if there ever was a book written by the fictitious Kitty and it followed the format as mentioned in this recap, I would definitely buy it if only for amazing extended metaphors involving dud missiles!!

...and we will, we will not be kind! Heck, we're not going to be kind now! I had thought the show's "Jump the Shark" moment was when they discovered that Rebecca really wasn't a Walker, after all; turns out, the real "Jump the Shark" moment was earlier, when Rob Lowe joined the cast and it became The Robert and Kitty Show.

I almost turned the TV off, I was so disgusted with this episode. Instead, after I was so appalled with Robert's unnecessary and demeaning tirade against Nora (why didn't Kevin or Tommy or Justin or Sarah punch him in the face as he deserved?), I immediately emailed ABC, begging them to get rid of this smug, unpleasant character.

And no Scotty? Bah! I'd give the episode an F, but I'm raising it to a D, thanks to Holly's channelling of Alexis Colby in the final scene--that was fabu!

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..... and I wonder what the point was of making Scotty a regular if he isn't going to appear in the episode or basically do nothing in the ones he is. Then again, look at the other Walker spouses (Julia, who has been an non-entity for the entire series) and Joe (who got the ax after the first year). Though, unlike a lot of people, I was never keen on the Scotty/Kevin marriage to begin with.

You do realize we have new people running the show... I don't like what I'm seeing so far.

I HATE what has been done to Sarah. What happened to that strong, independent, tough woman? I don't like seeing her so weak and helpless and unable to take care of business. It's terrible.

And yes, there's too much emphasis on Kitty and Robert, but I fear there always will be as they are the 'stars' of the show. But their storyline is boring and I am not looking forward to a season long adoption drama. Blech.

The whole book thing was ridiculous. I found it hard to believe Kitty would put her family and her husband out there like that. It seemed out of character for a politician's wife to do something that could hurt her husband's career. Even if the book was 'great', what she did was wrong and out of line.

I'm bored with the Rebecca/Justin romance. The actors have chemistry, that's true, but I just don't care. It simply isn't very interesting.

I DO like the Holly scenes. That's the only time there's been some real life. However, she is tad over the top at times. I expect her to slink into a room with shoulder pads gloating that she has all the shares to Denver-Carrington at any minute. And I am interested the Ryan storyline.

Saul? Kill him along with Tommy. I'd miss neither of them.

Even more than Sarah smack down Holly, is for Tommy and Holly to have a split, only to have Sarah throw Tommy's "it's business, not family" back in his face and side with Holly. I guess I'm alone in liking Tommy. That is, in the the "enjoy the character" sense, as right now it's vary much a "love to hate him" sense. While he's not a favorite character of mine, I've liked the way he always feels distant from the rest of the family. It's nice to have someone who isn't so touchy-feely. I'd really love to see more scenes with Tommy and Saul. In some ways, their ambivalent feelings about their place in the family gives them more in common than Saul and Kevin. And while more than one character thinks of him- or herself as the black sheep of the family, I think Tommy really is. I hope he's not the rumored death, not just for those reasons, but also because I think he lifts out a little too cleanly - I want the death to be someone who's absence will really shake up the show. After a couple of mourning episodes, I think most of the characters would be back to exactly where they were before.

But I liked that Robert slammed the family and defended Kitty. That's what a husband should do! Marriage is thicker than blood.

As well, Steven, I gotta say thanks for your intense efforts! -- but -- this recap seems too long and too late. The idea is to recap and rehash, like at the water cooler the next day -- a 10-page recap on Wednesday is just too late to keep the momentum. If you had to do only 5 pages but get it out on Monday or Tuesday it would make more sense, no?

But I liked that Robert slammed the family and defended Kitty. That's what a husband should do! Marriage is thicker than blood.

As well, Steven, I gotta say thanks for your intense efforts! -- but -- this recap seems too long and too late. The idea is to recap and rehash, like at the water cooler the next day -- a 10-page recap on Wednesday is just too late to keep the momentum. If you had to do only 5 pages but get it out on Monday or Tuesday it would make more sense, no?

He'll be hot and Kevin will be attracted to him, and be all weirded out the way Justin was over being hot for his supposed sister Rebbecca. He'll feel guilty too 'cause now he's married to Scotty. Then we'll find out that Rebbecca really is the sister (that DNA test was mixed up with another)and lucky for Justin he didn't bang her after all. Then we and Kevin will discover Ryan in bed with Scotty, much to Kevin's dismay, but Scotty will point out to him that he wanted to snog him too and Kevin will be all "yeah, but I thought he was my brother so I couldn't". Scotty and Ryan will point out that now he can and they'll have a hot threesome. Kevin will be all mixed up about it afterwards and go talk to Nora about taking it from both ends. At least that is how it happens in my head.

Was it just me, or did Kevin throw Kitty a very pointed look when she was complaining about all the hoops she has to jump through to adopt?

Holly has now passed from irritating know-it-all to potential actual cruelty. There is absolutely no reason for her to contact Ryan except to make herself feel better. He already has a family, and likely doesn't know about William being his father. It's just going to hurt a lot of people and cause no benefits.

Argh, this episode made me so mad!

First off, I'm pleased to see I wasn't the only one who was seriously annoyed with Robert's self-righteous speech at dinner. There's a decidedly subtle (or maybe not so subtle) shift in the tone of the series this season. It began after the writer's strike last year, and it's spilling over into this season: the Fairy Tale Republican viewpoint is starting to dominate.

For a show that started off unabashedly political, with VERY heated discussions, there was always a sense of balance. You had Nora and Kevin making very passionate and compelling arguments about their viewpoints, and there was Kitty and Tommy making passionate and compelling arguments about theirs. Not anymore. Nora, Kevin and anyone else with a liberal viewpoint has been shunted into angry whiner mode, while the conservatives are presented as innately correct and misunderstood.

I call bullshit.

 And don't get me started on the lack of Scotty. Seriously... and they didn't even show his name in the credits, even though Paige and Cooper were both listed and also did not appear. Is he a contract player or not?

I agree, the Robert/Kitty story is overwhelming this show, and I don't know why. I have very little understanding or sympathy for their situation. "People think that just because of who we are, we can just go out and get whatever we want." Um, because you CAN. Seriously, are we expected to believe that a man with Robert's connections CAN'T pull strings to adopt a baby? Yes, it might not be fair, but life rarely is. Again, I call bullshit. This is a fantasy, and not a very good one.

And, please, please, PLEASE can we stop with the nonsensical "let's get the Walkers together and create chaos" scenes? SURELY there's a richer dynamic that can be played out in smaller groups?

I worry for the future of this show, and it bugs me because I really do love these characters. (Well, except for Robert... he's NEVER fit in.)

Given that Tommy feels so different from the rest of the family, maybe it should turn out that William wasn't the only one to have an affair and Tommy isn't William's son. Of course that would totally change the concept of Nora being the perfect wife and mother.

This show at it's best has always been inconsistent and this episode was a waste of our time, the actors time and the writer's efforts. They all seemed so selfish and self absorbed. Where's my Scotty at? He always seems to bring such levity to these type of episodes. I watch Bros & Sisters only for the Kevin and Scotty relationship, I hope they get their own spinoff one day.

I have to agree that this episode was really disappointing--and combined with the last episode I'm really worried for this show, which I've enjoyed since the beginning. I think the last two episode have basically the same plot, someone does something to hurt the rest of the family, they get together, engage in passive-aggressive banter, blow up, Rob Lowe sanctimoniously puts the family down. I wonder if it has to do with Jon Robin Bates no longer being involved with the show--also, is Berlanti still working on it? A few things relating to this episode; 1. When Rob Lowe comes in he says "the emissions bill will pass" and Calista says "good" (or something like that). He's a Republican--is he voting to increase emissions? 2. Calista lives in Santa Barbara? It's about 2 hours away from Pasadena in good traffic--how are these people getting back and forth so quickly? Is there a Walker Family Helicopter somewhere? (I know people outside Southern California probably don't care). I'll keep watching for awhile, but I'm not happy with the direction the show is taking.

which makes them move at will faster than any of Samantha's relatives on Bewitched. Calling Dr. Bombay...

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Unfortunately I have to admit the latest episode was not good. I expect Kevin & Scotty will have happy life and also I hope they will show us a good story for Saul.

Can't the writers think of anything for the character of Saul to do than sit behind a desk and have only slightly more function in the company than the window-unit A/C which was broken last ep? Yes, he did give Holly a good verbal joust about the Ryan debacle, but what happened to his coming-out process, his private life, even having a life at all? Kevin and Scotty are great when they're on screen and being given interesting conflicts to resolve or simply enjoying being a married couple, but Saul seems to be there for mere window dressing. And add me to the list of viewers who will walk if B&S doesn't turn away from the Robert and Kitty show and get back to its roots: the Walker family. Get Sarah out of the office and up from the pits of emotional and fashion frumpery, take Nora beyond the safety of her kitchen, and just plain get rid of Tommy and Julia.

I was really questioning for  the longest time if I wanted to get involved with watching Brothers and Sisters. The whole arguement about watching something just because it has gay characters has been debated elsewhere on this site. However, Saul's coming out to Kevin and Kevin's proposal to Scotty convinced me to give it a try and start watching. It was my intention to watch the first and second seasons over the summer, but if the road to hell is paved with good intentions then I'm certain to burn. Now after two recaps I'm starting to believe that Brothers & Sisters is something I can live without watching (or at least just watch the Kevin and Scotty bits) and that it worked out for the best that I did not waste my time with the previous seasons.

 

I've never been a fan of the actress playing Kitty and character of Robert is just too unbelievable. A republican with an openly gay brother (who's a priest no less) to even consider running for any elected position (let alone president or being considered for VP) without being crucified by the religous right ? ? I have a better time believing in the science fiction fantasy worlds of Doctor Who / Torchwood than I do this bizarre reality of Robert still being in office.

 

Hopefully something will be done with Saul, and soon. After all he accidentally outed himself at Kevin and Scotty's wedding to the rest of the siblings. Where's the reaction / developements from that ? I worry that the writers will give Saul the start of a relationship and really start to open up and explore this character only to kill him off leaving us to grieve over the lost potential this character had.

 

Steven, great job as usual with the recapping. Love your sense of humour and I'm always guaranteed at the very least at least one LOL moment per page of recap. Hopefully ABC will be kind and get screeners to you ahead of time so we can get our dose of snark fresh on Sundays. Extra pressure on you for now as the jury is still out on watching B&S and recaps will have to do for now until we get more Kevin and Scotty, the old Sarah back and less of Kitty and Robert.

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