"Brothers & Sisters" Episode 424: “On the Road Again”

This recap is a love letter to Geoffrey Nauffts.

Nauffts co-wrote this week’s episode, along with David Marshall Grant (currently B&S’ showrunner). Like Grant, Nauffts is an actor turned playwright, and the fact that his very first play, Next Fall, not only was produced but made it to Broadway AND is up for a Tony would normally be the kind of success story that would have me seething with envy. Except I saw Next Fall and could only admire it.

Next Fall explores how a gay couple grapple with their religious differences, and I was impressed how it depicted a very real issue (I know many gay people who have struggled over aspects of their religious affiliations) that we’ve never seen addressed on stage before.

This week’s Brothers & Sisters does something similar, bringing up very real issues that I can’t remember another show addressing in quite this way before. And it all has to do with Uncle Saul. Yes, Saul.

Those of you who haven’t seen the episode yet might think I’m being sarcastic here, given that for the past year and a half I’ve griped about how the show’s been wasting Ron Rifkin’s talents. It’s true that Saul did have some compelling material back when he first came out, but then was quickly reduced to being a shoulder for Nora to cry on each week.

This finale, though, makes up for that big-time, giving Saul (and us) a storyline that’s a real emotional powerhouse.

We first see Saul with Scotty in the kitchen cooking up a storm. And, awesomely, we learn that they’re both total Gleeks. Because they’re totally rocking out to Olivia Newton John’s “Physical,” and the only reason anyone would actually be doing that is because they saw last week’s Glee. (Personally, I’d have opted for “Run Joey Run,” which is much better music to cook to.)

They’re in the kitchen of the now-famous Ojai House, preparing items to be featured on their restaurant’s menu. They’ve finally decided on a theme! The restaurant is going to be called “Colonel Saul’s Ojai Fry-All,” and everything on the menu will be deep fried in donut fat – the entrees, the desserts, the salad, even the soup.

So the two of them are busily dipping Twinkies and hot dogs in the oil vat, and Scotty’s all, “Hey, Saul, I think I figured out a way to fry the napkins!” when a grumpy Kevin comes in complaining about all the noise.

He snarks about Saul wearing a nightshirt, calling it a “muumuu,” and Saul snarks back that that’s rich coming from a guy wearing a sleep mask. If you ask me, either one of them is a turban and cigarette holder from morphing into Auntie Mame.

Scotty explains that they’re preparing a “test” meal to feed the family and get their reactions, and Kevin jokes that this makes it an “oral test.”

As he says the word “oral,” he shoves a zucchini toward Scotty’s mouth, and I nearly fell off the sofa. That was totally a b.j. joke, right? On primetime network T.V.! I think I can confidently say we’ve never seen a vegetable put to such salacious use on a primetime network show before, right? I mean, even the cast of Spartacus is a little embarrassed for what this zucchini had to do in this scene.