Parenthood: Election Day (5x09)

Alright, it's finally Election Day. And that means that finally one of the stupidest plots on Parenthood ever has come to an end. Kristina will not be Mayor, which I'm happy about. Let's take a look at all of the different plots. To be honest, I don't have a very firm opinion about this episode. Some things seemed to work really well, but when I step back and look at the plot as a whole, there was a lot of simply ugly, bad behavior in this episode. People did things that they really shouldn't have done, and it made it hard for me to sympathize and feel connections to some of these beloved characters.

Let's start with Amber and Ryan. So, Amber gets to record demo backup vocals for one of the band's songs, and they end up loving it so much that they're going to use it in their actual album. Amber is really excited, and they all go out for drinks. However, Ryan knew that Amber was getting off early from work, and thought that they had made plans to spend time together. When he calls Amber and she answers drunk, he comes to pick her up. Ashes of Rome's drummer (I think he's the drummer... eh) has been a bit flirty with Amber, and when Ryan witnesses this he goes ballistic, beating up on the guy. In the end, we see Amber at the police station as Zeek shows up to comfort her.

So, what do I think? Well, the acting was superb from Mae Whitman as always. That's sort of a given at this point. And I like how you can sort of see both sides of this, in a way... while Ryan is in no way excused for his actions, Amber did choose to go out partying instead of spending time with her fiance, and she didn't even call him to let him know. Now, Ryan is clearly sick, and still struggling with his PTSD. I wish there could have been a bit of a better buildup for this. As always, I'm not sure how we, as the audience, are supposed to feel about Ryan. I thought maybe the vagueness was intentional, but even if it is I'd like a bit more of a definitive feeling. Is Amber going to leave him now? Is she going to stay with him? What is Zeek going to say? Although I wasn't certain how to feel about this plot thread while it was happening, at the same time it opened up a lot of questions that I'm excited to see answered.

Then there's Hank and Max. So, Hank's daughter Ruby shows up to visit, acting moody and uncooperative as usual. She and Max have one antagonistic exchange, after which Max tells Hank he intends to ask Ruby to be his girlfriend. Hank tries to discourage Max, because he knows Ruby won't say yes, but Max simply says that she meets all of the criteria, so he's going to go for it. When he asks, Ruby of course says no. Hank calls Ruby over and tells her to be a bit nicer, and even says she could just pretend to be Max's girlfriend, since she lives so far away. Ruby is horrified, as I would be too if my dad said something like that to me. Hank asks Sarah what he did wrong, and she explains to him that he can't just cater to Max. Max needs to understand that having a girlfriend isn't that simple. Hank then has a talk with Max, where he reveals that it was really hard for him to find a girlfriend growing up, since it's hard to have conversations with people and all of that. Max is worried it will be too hard for him, but Hank assures him that his time will come.

Now, most of this thread I loved. I like grumpy Ruby, I liked Max's logical decision to ask her out. I love the awkward scene with Hank and Sarah. I don't know where they're going with these two, but I always enjoy watching it. And Hank's talk with Max was really beautiful. He's becoming such an important father figure in this kid's life, and I love watching their relationship grow. Actually, Hank's role in Max's life is highlighting the extent to which Kristina and Adam have been absent parents lately. They've been so caught up in the run for mayor that they haven't really been spending any time on Max or Nora. I wonder if that's going to be addressed at all. However much I did enjoy this thread for the most part, there was one thing I hated: what Hank said to his daughter was NOT OKAY. I mean, I get that it's supposed to show Hank's awkwardness, and his sympathy for Max, but seriously? You just basically prostituted your daughter out to a kid she doesn't even know! Ugh. I really hated that.

Crosby and Jasmine had probably the silliest of the plots, but there still managed to be some rather offensive moments in it. Basically, Jasmine and Crosby are helping Kristina campaign, and Crosby wonders whether Jasmine is insulted that the family sent Jasmine to the black part of town. Jasmine says she's not insulted, and that she's really excited to be getting in on this process. She shares with Crosby how important it was to her when she voted for Obama and helped to elect the first black president. Crosby gets caught up in the moment and says that the moment was special for him too, and that he cried when he voted. Later, when Crosby tries to go vote for Kristina, he brings Jabbar with him. It turns out he hasn't registered to vote, so he instead votes "publicly," just telling the woman who he votes for. Jabbar says something about it to Jasmine, and Crosby has to tell the truth that he's never voted. Later, Crosby bribes a guy to vote for Kristina instead of Bob Little.

This plot was straight out of a sitcom. That doesn't necessarily make it bad, but it does make it perhaps a little too silly. I thought Jasmine's character was weirdly portrayed, too... she was very passionate about the democratic process, but when she figured out Crosby had totally lied to her, she played it off like it was a mildly annoying character trait of his, rather than something truly bad. And what was up with the bribery thing? That never really went anywhere. Are we going to see the consequences of that? Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, but I just thought everything with Crosby was a tad off-kilter from what this show ordinarily tries to do.

Now let's get to Julia and Joel. I actually got into quite the discussion with my parents about what's going on with these two. They say that Joel was a complete ass in this episode and that he behaved terribly. I tend to think it's a lot more complicated than that. Yeah, Joel wasn't at his best behavior, but Julia hasn't been a saint! Let's look at what happens: basically, Victor is really struggling with moving back to the 4th Grade. He's slamming doors, yelling at Julia, and just generally in a really bad place. Meanwhile, things are still really tense between Julia and Joel. He comments on the fact that she's been texting a lot with Ed, but she doesn't really answer for it. Then, when Julia tries repeatedly to call Joel at work because she's having a really hard time with the kids, Joel doesn't pick up. She comes down to his work to talk to him, but Joel is meeting with Peet and doesn't want to talk to Julia. She then yells at Peet, and Joel angrily says they'll talk about it later. Later, when everyone's waiting to find out about Kristina's campaign, Joel and Julia have a talk, wherein Joel tearfully asks Julia how she could do something like that to him. Julia says she doesn't think Joel has been there enough for her and the kids, and he angrily storms off.

I feel like I could write a whole essay on their relationship and all of the complicated stuff that's been going on in their family. Basically, I think Joel is in some ways justified in his anger at Julia. For the first several years of Sydney's life, Joel was at home dealing with crisis after crisis, and he never would have marched into Julia's job and messed things up for her. On the other hand, Julia has been expressing how hard it's been for her to deal with the kids and life at home. She doesn't have as much experience doing this as Joel does, and it makes sense that she's looking for a bit more support. But on the other other hand, she's been leaning a bit too heavily on Ed for help during all of this, and it makes sense that Joel would be uncomfortable about that. I keep going back and forth. Point being, I think they've both made mistakes. I have to admit though, Julia is trying a bit harder to patch things up, and Joel just keeps pushing her away. To look at the bigger picture, I'm still really enjoying the Julia and Joel plot, despite how complicated it has become.

Finally, we've got Kristina. She's campaigning like crazy as they come down to the deadline, and the race is really close according to the poles. She kisses babies, shakes hands, and gives out her phone number to almost everyone she talks to. When it comes down to it, everyone gets together to await the results. Although the race is close, Kristina loses to Bob Little. She's okay, though. The entire episode sets up that she "already won" because she pursued such a big dream and did really well.

What did I think? Thank goodness this plot is over, I suppose. I have mixed feelings, because on the one hand I think they ended it as appropriately as they could. She shouldn't have won, and she didn't. So that was good. But on the other hand, they spent so much of their time on this when it was never a good idea to begin with, so I can't exactly give it high marks just because I'm relieved that it's over. I will say one thing, though - the highlight of the entire episode for me was when the Deaf girl came over and thanked Kristina for getting her into a better school. That really warmed my heart. I know ASL, so I always love to see Deaf characters portrayed on TV, however briefly.

And there you have it. A mixed bag of an episode, with unfortunately a lot of character failings. I'm mad at Ryan, Amber, Hank, Julia, Joel, and Crosby right now. They've all done some bad stuff, and I don't really think it was all properly addressed. That being said, it wasn't like this was awful or anything. Now that Kristina's mayor thing has been wrapped up, I hope we move on to something better.

6/10