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Cut to backstage at Red, White and Blue. Kitty is meeting Senator McAllister for the first time just prior to her interview with him. The Senator is played by a still impossibly handsome Rob Lowe. Has that man made a deal with the devil, I wonder? He will shortly turn 43 and looks just as pretty as he ever did. If anything, the few wrinkles around his eyes have improved upon his looks.

If the show is setting up Rob Lowe as a possible love interest for Calista Flockhart, then the lighting crew and cinematographer clearly have their work cut out for them. I mean, let's face it, Rob Lowe is just too darn pretty for Calista Flockhart. She should have objected to his casting. As my dear, late mother used to say, “If it's prettier than you, then you best leave it alone.”

But I digress. The Senator and Kitty get into a discussion about federal stem cell research funding. He's against it. She's on the fence. He's eating a carrot stick and keeps stabbing the air with it to make his point. Nice prop, Rob.

The Senator is nervous about the interview. He asks Kitty to refrain from grilling him about his scandalous divorce. Me, I'm hoping she'll go for the real dirt and ask Rob Lowe about that sex tape he made way back in the 1980's. For me, it's the Holy Grail of celebrity sex tapes—spoken of only in legend. Any surviving copies out there I wonder? With my luck, it's probably only available on beta. But again I digress.

Senator McCallum offers to buy Kitty an espresso if she'll go easy on him during the interview. Espresso is not much of an incentive to Kitty, but there is one thing the Senator can do. Kitty shuts the door, leaving them alone in the office. Kitty could be asking him to pull strings on Justin's behalf. Either that or she's giving the Senator a private lap dance to loosen him up a bit before the interview. Sadly, the audience never knows what exactly goes on between Kitty and Senator McAllister behind that closed office door because…

We cut to a ramshackle auto repair shop somewhere in Nevada. Kevin's BMW has been towed there. The mechanic quickly diagnoses the problem with the car

Mechanic: The engine's flooded with water – must have put it in the fill hole.
Kevin: (Embarrassed, to Tommy & Sarah) No gay jokes please.

What gay jokes is he worried about? I'm wracking my brains to come up with a clever one and I'm coming up empty-handed. The best I can do: “That darn Kevin. Always putting things in the wrong hole!” Pretty pathetic, huh?

But I digress. Tommy, Kevin and Sarah learn it's going to be a few hours to fix the car. The mechanic suggests a nearby diner that “makes a mean patty melt.” I hope it's not a Cracker Barrel.

Cut back to the Red, White & Blue soundstage. Kitty is just finishing up her interview with Senator McAllister. Apparently, she went easy on him and didn't ask about the divorce or the nanny. Interview concluded, Senator McAllister exits, but not before shaking her hand and saying “good luck to your brother.” Warren overhears this last exchange and rushes over, indignant.

Warren: What was that? Did you completely forget about the divorce? Oh, and your brother? How does he even know about your brother?

Warren draws the obvious conclusion. He accuses Kitty of jeopardizing her integrity (what integrity is he referring to, I wonder?) by asking the Senator for a personal favor. Kitty flatly denies it.

Cut to yet another 2001 flashback. Nora is in the kitchen in her bad wig. She's chopping tomatoes. (She should be ducking tomatoes. I'm so bored with these flashbacks by now I'd like to chuck spoiled produce at the TV screen.) Kitty walks in. (Brief aside, but 42 year old Calista Flockhart is hard enough to believe as 38 year old present-day Kitty – she's even less believable in these flashbacks as a 33 year old.) Kitty asks her Mom about a letter laying on the kitchen table. Nora tells her she has downloaded a form letter off the internet. It's a formal document that acts as an enlistment renunciation. If Justin will only sign it and send it in to the recruitment office, he can get out of joining the Army. Nora asks Kitty to convince Justin to sign the letter. Kitty refuses and gives a heartfelt though misguided speech about how important the war is and how it might actually help Justin find himself.

Kitty: He just wants to be a part of something, Mom.
Nora: He is a part of something. He's a part of this family and even if you don't appreciate that, he does.

This hurts Kitty. She already feels alienated from her family, and this scene is probably meant to highlight the rift between Nora and Kitty. It also points out Nora is a little bit clueless when it comes to the mentality of many males. Being “part of something” usually refers to a sports team, a gang, or one of the regulars down at Cheers.

Back to the road trip and Sarah, Kevin & Tommy waiting outside the old timey mechanics shop.

Sarah: Is it hopeless?
Kevin: Justin or the car.
Sarah: Both.
Kevin: There's a fix for the car.

Tommy asks about the rehab resorts the doctor suggested to them earlier. Can't they send Justin to one of those places? Kevin explains that the military insists on treating Justin themselves, and the military psych program Justin can look forward to will hardly be a luxury spa resort. Still, what counts are results. I hear the new Army-approved waterboarding treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder has recruits out of Army psych wards and back on the Iraqi front lines in no time. But I digress.

The mechanic comes out and tells Sarah, Tommy & Kevin that the BMW is repaired. But when they go to pay the $400 mechanic's bill, they discover the garage is a cash only establishment. The nearest ATM is hundreds of miles away – though strangely, a car rental place is only a short walk from the garage. Seems highly suspect to me, but then I gave up expecting this episode to make sense about twenty minutes ago.

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