'Brothers & Sisters' recap: Justin cuts the cord. (Kevin, too.)

There was a time when I wasn’t a fan of Scotty. (That would be when I had a crush on Kevin’s ex, Rev. Boyfriend.) But Kevin’s husband officially won me over last night when he helped nurse my favorite Walker back to health after the liver-transplant surgery that saved Kevin’s niece/biological daughter: “You look great,” Scotty told Kevin, as the latter sweated through a mound of Nora’s linens. “All shiny and mussy. Like a wounded World War II soldier in a bombed-out French cathedral. Male nurse-wounded soldier, it’s always kinda been a fantasy of mine.” (Scotty later showing up in a WWII uniform, in one Kevin’s dream sequences, was the only thing that made that trite device tolerable.)

Personally, I find it difficult to believe that Kevin would have agreed to recuperate at Nora’s house — even under the influence of pain meds — but it set up the theme of this (and every) episode: Is Nora suffocating her children? After she and Scotty fought over who was better qualified to remove Kevin’s pants for a shower — and Kevin had a dream about making love to Julia, Tommy’s wife — he bolted Casa Nora for a fancy beachside hotel with the help of Justin, who had some thinking of his own to do. (More on that later.) Justin calling Kevin’s ill-conceived escape “amateur hour” (he forgot to let the shower run, lock the door, and bring his meds) was classic, as was Justin’s attempt to distract Nora by promising gossip on Saul (he’s got a boyfriend). How cute was Sally Field when she ran back into the kitchen to hear it? Nothing makes a Walker run like family gossip (except maybe for an open bar).

Kevin blurted out that he was having these dreams about Elizabeth to Tommy before he’d had time to process them — something that I also doubt Kevin would’ve done even under the influence. Tommy’s reaction — have Kevin sign papers that say he’ll never reveal that he’s Elizabeth’s biological dad — was equally impulsive. But Kevin finally signed them after realizing that a dad puts his child’s needs before his own. I’m happy that Kevin wants to have a child someday (because that will make for good TV), but I don’t think he’s as selfless as he thinks he is. Yet.

Going back to Justin, the show finally dealt with the issue we’ve complained about mentioned repeatedly: Justin does nothing. Sarah’s son, Cooper, took Justin to his first grade class, to show him off as the person he admires most. The reason wasn’t because Justin served in Iraq and “Afghanistan.” It was because “Justin gets to live with his mom, and he doesn’t even have a job, and he doesn’t have to go to school or everything. He gets to hang out and play video games all day.” Sarah knew that suffering such humiliation was the perfect time for a sibling (minus Kitty) intervention at Kevin’s hotel room. Justin agreed that it was time he moved out, but admitted that he was scared to because he wasn’t sure he’d stay clean without Nora’s watchful eye and safe zone. (That does make sense.) He manned up and told Nora he was moving out, and she handled it better than, well, anything she’s ever had to deal with on the show before.

I almost wonder if we’ve put the nail in the insecure Nora coffin with last night’s episode. (Let’s hope.) An acquaintance that she’d hit on 30 years earlier at a party (just to feel wanted when William was ignoring her) came back into her life as an architect who wants to design the center for her foundation. Seeing him made her feel like that dependent woman again, and she ended up like most Walkers do when they’re feeling low: drunk. I seriously hope that this year’s Christmas episode involves a quick shot of those CDs Scotty said he wanted to make of Nora’s apology in people’s stockings. I also hope we get to see more scenes with Nora and Saul. That one of them sitting in the pantry, talking about Saul’s boyfriend — something they would’ve done 40 years earlier, if Saul had lived the life he wanted to — was so sweet. And, well lit.

The final storyline was Kitty’s. With Kevin out of commission, she momentarily stepped back into her old role on Robert’s team. I had to rewind, twice, to follow their conversation about that immigration bill that she didn’t want him to back, but really, the only moral of that scene was that Robert and Kitty miss their “brain sex.” I suppose I did, too. It was great to see them go at it — in his office. With Kitty starting the publicity tour to promote her book though, the writers will have to think of another way to get those two hot and bothered.

So, do you think Nora has finally put the past behind her? Do you think Kevin and Tommy have fully resolved the daddy issue? (Kevin telling Elizabeth that she’d have to get over the drooling before she got interested in boys — or girls — was a nice end note.) What do you want to see happen to Justin now? And looking ahead to next week’s episode, any theories as to what financial trouble Sarah has gotten herself into now, and what borderline illegal thing Tommy will do to get the family business back from Holly?

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