Brothers & Sisters – 4-21 Review

After exclusively focusing on season plot lines for weeks now, “Where There’s Smoke” introduces some new drama in a great episode. While I appreciate the shake-up, leaving out the entire Ojai/Narrow Lake ordeal was way too abrupt, and incredibly irritating. They are probably saving the resolution of that complication for the finale, but still, they left viewers completely hanging. At the very least mention Narrow Lake or Ojai’s financial troubles in passing.

That said, I did enjoy some of the refreshing material this week. While the focus on Sarah and Luc’s relationship is nothing new, an unexpected twist is thrown in – Sarah might be pregnant. Personally, I liked this plot because the whole time I was holding my breath, hoping beyond hope that it wasn’t so, and wondering if the writers would really throw yet another pregnancy storyline at us. In this season alone, we’ve had Kitty’s adoption, Rebecca’s miscarriage, and Kevin’s surrogate. That, and we haven’t seen the kids Sarah already has much this season. Needless to say, I was relieved by the outcome.

It was also nice to see another, insecure side of Luc, instead of just more constant worry from Sarah. And, of course, Luc won the visa lottery comes as a surprising twist at the end of the episode. But then I learned today that Gilles was hired to be a series regular, so I guess it isn’t so surprising after all.

Speaking of actor contracts, Robert and Justin both start making their exit this episode. Rob Lowe asked for his character to be killed off, so this shady position he’s in might be the cause of that, rather than the lingering health problems I’d assumed. And Justin is hearing the call of duty again after a friend of his is killed, so that will most likely be more season finale material.

Along with Luc’s visa, another long-standing plot line of the season was resolved this week – we finally find out that Kevin and Scotty are pregnant! I’m happy for the guys, though I’m curious to see what other drama this pregnancy will bring. As for their trip to the psychic, I have to agree with Kevin, as she seems totally vague on every prediction.

Meanwhile, Nora’s sick and injured mother comes to live with her. Nora’s relationship with her mother was definitely realistic, as most families have it where the grandmother favors one child much more than the other. Nora won my sympathy, then got the explanation she deserved when Ida inadvertently defended her actions in the end. Though was Ida simply faking so that she could tell Nora her feelings, without actually dealing with the emotional consequences…or was that supposed to be obvious? Either way, I’m happy for Nora. It’s also worth noting that Ida had one of the best lines of the episode, after Nora tells her that she’s in Los Angeles, not Chicago: “The show, you morons, the musical Chicago.”

Even without Ojai, this turned out to be a great episode with some cute moments mixed with continuations of swiftly building story lines. These hints of what’s to come are just little tastes of the real drama to hold us until what will surely be an explosive finale.