Parenthood
Episode 14: One Step
Forward, Two Steps Back
By: Carlos Uribe
Parenthood
is a show about the Braverman family.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
A
plot that is proving to be surprisingly entertaining is Renee having
moved in with Crosby and Jasmine. Crosby's mother-in-law has created
tension in the household simply by being there. She has a tendency to
be a nuisance when it comes to the time she spends in the bathroom
and she's been picky in her job search. Crosby's complaints about her
have been legitimate but he's been able to survive. That is until
Renee judges Crosby and Jasmine on their parenting skills. While he
might understand her stance on church, he's not happy that she
disproves of Jabar's lack of discipline. It doesn't matter if she's
in the right or the wrong because she's not the parent. Crosby and
Jasmine are the ones raising Jabar and they should be able to do that
how they wish, as long as they're not abusing him. Which they aren't.
Crosby isn't happy about this judgment and he tries to get Jasmine to
stand with him and lay out some boundaries. This falls apart because
Jasmine isn't able to confront her own mother on any issue. This
simple issue is complicated for multiple reasons. The first is that
Crosby is completely right in all of his complaints. It isn't Renee's
place to judge their parenting skills and she can be very passive
aggressive. He's correct in his assessment that Jasmine doesn't seem
to want to stand up to her. He might be right but it's also a fight
that's not really worth fighting, which is what Jasmine believes.
Renee might judge them but correcting her will only lead to more
problems. Which means that Crosby has to be the one to be the bigger
man and apologize. Overall, this is a plot that is being handled
surprisingly well partly because it takes all sides into account
seriously. That it doesn't get resolved means that this tension will
go into the season finale.
A
plot that seems to largely get resolved in this episode is the Victor
adoption story. Julia has been having second thoughts about going
through the adoption because she doesn't know if Victor will ever
have a positive relationship with her. All she sees from him is
hatred or indifference and that has made it difficult to bond with
him. Making matters complicated is that Joel doesn't share the same
concerns and he's in a completely different page than her. It even
comes to the point where he's inadvertently shaming her into trying
to go through with the adoption. The person who manages to give Julia
the conviction to through with the adoption isn't Joel but Crosby. In
the episode's most powerful talk in an episode filled with “talks”,
Crosby relates how he use Julia as an example of how to be a good
parent and how he hated his own mom when he was Victor's age. It's
basically the perfect thing he could have stated. Julia might still
not be sure if Victor and her will have a good relationship but at
least she has the strength to take the leap and find out. Her entire
crisis with the adoption story has been handled rather delicately
with the season and it's one that it had been building up to. It
makes sense that a character who has gone through with something
similar, Crosby arriving late at Jabar's life with no instructions on
how to be a dad, was the one who helped her through it. Overall, the
highlight of the episode but it' a bit of a surprise that the series
largely resolved this very serious story in the episode right before
the finale. I mean, the adoption technically has to still go through,
but the actual drama it was causing appears to be over.
Ryan
returns this episode when he calls Zeek in the middle of the night
because he can't sleep. Zeek's advice is to get a task to occupy his
mind. This convinces Ryan to go and ask Joel for his job back but
Joel refuses it. Joel has every right to refuse considering how Ryan
had been a terrible employee who had just walked out on the job. This
is when Amber gets involved when she encourages him to try again but
this time with a bribe of food and an actual apology. In other words,
guilt Joel into giving a job. This manages to work. It's nice that
he's back on the show but it seems a bit odd to suddenly reintroduce
him in the episode right before the finale. It wouldn't surprise me
if Ryan and Amber get back together, especially since Ryan now seems
serious about getting his life back together. It's just that his pill
addiction remained unreferenced and this seemed more like a
mid-season move rather than a late-season one. The reason this is a problem is because I at least know what the other plots are exploring, what they're about, and where they could potentially lead. Kristina's cancer goes away or she dies, Sarah chooses somebody or nobody, Renee moves away or not, Victor is adopted or ditched-those are all the possible outcomes because they are stories that have been moving forward. Who knows what the season finale plans to explore in regards to Ryan.
Sarah's
love triangle story is heating up to a hopefully great climax for
next week. This week has Mark having coffee with Sarah where he
learns that Hank had kissed her while they were still engaged. This
frustrates him but he announces his intention to Hank that he's going
to try and win Sarah back. Hank's response is to tell Sarah this and
that he's not happy with this situation because he's emotionally
committed to their relationship. The problem is that Sarah doesn't
know if she should pick Hank or Mark. Hank possibly sums up every
love triangle when he states that he wants Sarah, Mark wants her, and
Sarah doesn't know who she wants. She might be with one person or the
other but she needs to make a choice. She has to search her feelings
and make up her mind on who she's going to be with. It might have
been predictable that she's given this choice but it works because I
myself don't know which one she should go with. I really like her
with Mark but she seems to be perfect with Hank. It wouldn't surprise
me if the choice she makes ended up being neither because it's simply
too hard to make.
In
the “light” story of the week, we get to resolve the vending
machine plot! Max had run for student council president on his
promise that he'll bring back vending machines. He has collected the
signatures and done his work only to be denied by the PTA. He's angry
but he would eventually have gotten over it. He doesn't have to
because Kristina decides that Max's cause is just. She goes to the
PTA and she manages to convince everyone that the vending machine ban
isn't good. It not only cuts the arts program budget but the students
are buying more junk food at convenience stores. Rather than making
the kids healthier, it's done just the opposite. Kristina's solution
is to have a new vending machine that sells healthy snacks. This
happens and Max is delighted when his friends show him a vending
machine. There's a slow-motion scene where kids throw skittles at him
as he's named the savior of the school. Okay, it's a little bit
cheesy but it still works because we know how important this is to
him and how hard he's fought for this.
We
are now nearing the season finale of Parenthood. Kristina's cancer is
still there as her bald head reminds us, there might be a last hurdle
at Victor's adoption, Sarah's love triangle is coming to an epic
climax, and Renee is causing problems at Crosby's home. There is also
whatever Ryan's season finale drama is going to be-whether that's his
pill addiction, getting back with Amber, or both is difficult to
tell. Whatever the case, the penultimate episode of the season is a
pretty fantastic one that had a pretty insanely powerful talk between
Crosby and Julia. I mean, it made me tear up for some reason it was
that good.
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