January 24, 2015

Parenthood: We Made it Through the Night (6x12)

Ohhhh boy. My current prediction for the finale? Sarah and Hank get married, yadda yadda, and then we show a flash-forward to when Zeek has died and we watch them all move on from their grief. That's what I think is going to happen. And it's gonna hurt. But I'm getting ahead of myself - let's look at what happened in this episode.

Hank and Sarah are debating where they should get married. Hank wants to do something outlandish and creative, but Sarah thinks he's taking it too far. Their conversation gets interrupted when Amber feels a sharp pain, and believes she's going into labor. Sarah sends out a text to the family, and everybody rushes to the hospital. It ends up being a false alarm - gas - and so Amber has yet to give birth.

However, the gathering of the family at the hospital does have another consequence: Kristina and Jasmine get into a huge fight about the Luncheonette. When Crosby finds out that Jasmine went and talked to Adam about it, and that that's why Adam wanted to come back, Crosby angrily says that he quits. It looks like the Luncheonette will not be reopening after all. Crosby is a little angry at Jasmine for talking to Adam about things, and he says that the Luncheonette isn't special to him anymore because he can't work there with his brother as his willing and enthusiastic partner.

Chamber's Academy is having a career week, where every student gets an adviser to help them explore a passion that could turn into a career. Max is obviously working with Hank, while one of the other students wants to have Adam as his adviser. This kid wants to be a French chef! Although Adam is hesitant, because he's no expert, the two of them do manage to make a great souffle together, and all is well! Jasmine teaches some of the kids dance, and Kristina and Jasmine share a silent moment of apology for their earlier fight.

Amber tells Sarah that she was really relieved when she didn't have the baby - she's starting to question if this child was a mistake. Sarah tells Amber that she'll be with her and help her, and that once she has her child, something will shift and she'll never think of her baby as a mistake.

Meanwhile, Julia and Joel announce to Sydney and Victor that Joel is moving back home. Sydney is ecstatic, but Victor is skeptical - he has some questions. What happens when they fight again in the future? Julia and Joel have a fight about Julia's relationship with Chris, which Victor and Sydney overhear. Both the kids are obviously very worried. Joel says he doesn't want to fight, that he's too afraid of what will happen. Julia says she's too afraid of what will happen if they don't fight. They end up having it out inside of the car, so the kids won't overhear. Joel is upset to learn that Julia actually slept with more than one person, while he didn't have any other relationships. However, fighting ended up being a good thing for them, and it looks like their relationship is truly on the mend.

Zeek and Camille think about the surgery, and Zeek decides he's not going to get it. They have their four kids over so that Zeek can tell them all his decision. At dinner, Crosby and Adam get into a stupid argument about a childhood incident, each of them still upset with the other over the whole business with the Luncheonette. Zeek leaves the room, upset by the fighting, and goes to lay down. Sarah finds him later and tells him that she and Hank are going to get married. Zeek says he's so excited to walk her down the aisle.

Sarah later tells Hank that she wants to get married in the area, and soon, like next week, to make sure her dad will be able to be there. She knows Hank was looking for something adventurous, but this is what she wants. Hank immediately says that they can do that - he wants her dad to be there, too.

Amber starts having contractions in the night, and she calls her mom. She wants it to be just Sarah, so Sarah leaves Hank and goes to get her daughter. Amber goes through delivery just fine, and delivers a healthy baby boy. Zeek and Camille show up, and Zeek gets to hold his new great-grandson, also named Zeek.

So. Only one more episode to go, and knowing this show it's going to be a real tear-jerker. I don't think I have any major complaints... well, maybe just one.

They're all acting like Zeek's death is inevitable. That he's going to drop dead any second, because he's decided not to get the surgery. I mean, I get that, but at the same time it takes something away from the finale of the show. If they don't kill off Zeek, it's going to feel anticlimactic. If they do kill him, it's predictable. I'm not sure what I would have changed, but something about everybody's pessimism was just bothering me.

Okay, also... I just knew that Amber would name her baby Zeek, and while I get that it's adorable, it might be just a tad too adorable. Gosh, that's cheesy.

Mostly, though, everything was great.

Sarah and Hank were really cute. I love the way that Hank's enthusiasm for the wedding makes Sarah happy, but at the same time, she has her father to think about. Hank tries so hard to comfort her and talk to her about her dad, and even if he's a bit awkward about it, he does a pretty good job with it all. I loved Hank's insistence that their wedding would not include a gazebo. It reminded me of Gilmore Girls, where the gazebo in the middle of town played an important role in more than one wedding-planning situation.

Julia and Joel! They told the kids! I was surprised by Victor's reaction, but very quickly I realized that it makes perfect sense - of course he would be suspicious of this good news. He has a lot of abandonment issues, after all. Julia and Joel do need to fight, though. They aren't going to repair their relationship by keeping their feelings bottled up. I think my favorite part of this plot thread was when Joel talked about how he was too scared to fight, and Julia replied that she was too scared not to fight. Ultimately, I'm sure we'll get a happy ending for these two next week. I'm glad to see they are working so hard on their relationship.

Adam and Crosby! Noooo. Okay, at first I was a bit annoyed at the wishy-washy Luncheonette thing. I mean - now we're back on? We were on, off, on, now off again?! But ultimately I like the larger questions that this is raising. What is this going to mean for the relationship between these two brothers? The Luncheonette is what brought them together - as Crosby said to Jasmine, that was what made it special. I hope that the finale spends some time dealing with their relationship so we can see how things shake out. I love Adam and Crosby's brotherly bond, and I hope that they will be okay!

Jasmine and Kristina's fight was also pretty epic - I liked seeing these two women at odds, as I could easily see where each of them was coming from. I particularly enjoyed the silent, simple apology - Kristina merely mouths "sorry" to Jasmine from across the room, and gives her a thumbs up, which Jasmine returns. The thumbs up was all the more sweet because Max had recently told his dad not to make that gesture in a picture, because people don't really make hand signals like that.

Max didn't have a ton of stuff to do in this episode, nor has he for these last few episodes. I did enjoy the moment when he talked about how people with autism have an 80% unemployment rate, and Adam and Kristina decide they must talk to him about it. Max has always been uncomfortable expressing his feelings, so he was none too thrilled when his parents started talking about his future, and about how proud they were of him. Still, it's part of what makes Adam and Kristina so wonderful - they know that Max needs to deal with these things, even if he might not want to.

I also liked the Chamber's Academy plot - we haven't seen much of the school lately, so I enjoyed seeing what everybody was up to. It was hilarious to see Adam and that one kid make a souffle together. In the middle of all of Adam's anxieties about his father, and about Crosby and the Luncheonette, it was fun to see him win at something.

Finally, we have Amber. She had her baby! Even though her cheesy choice of name made me roll my eyes a bit, I still ultimately like it. I'm glad there was no over-dramatic medical emergency with her delivery, but that we still understood the full fear and pain of such an experience. I was a tad bit miffed not to see Drew in this episode, but I suppose he'll get a kick out of being an uncle next week in the finale.

Oh boy, I think I rambled on a bit. I liked this episode, and I'm ready to see what the finale brings us!

8/10

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