Brothers and Sisters recap: The Gay Divorcee

Last week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I wrote a PopWatch post asking people to name the TV character they’d date in real life. I should also have written one asking which character you’d most like to befriend. For me, it’s Brothers & Sisters‘ Sarah Walker, and this episode is the perfect example why.

So, Sarah’s divorce papers were ready for her to sign, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Not even after finding out that her ex, Joe, was whisking his new girlfriend/first wife off to Paris for her birthday — which had always been Sarah’s dream. Naturally, liquid courage was needed. Since Kitty was out of town for the Michigan primary (more on that later), and we’re apparently not allowed to see Tommy two weeks in a row, Kevin was called upon to ”do what Walkers do best” (otherwise known as ”commiserate with a bottle of tequila”). He picked the gay bar where Scotty and his friends had gone for karaoke night so that he could prove that he wasn’t, in fact, as uptight as they thought. Now at first, I was upset that Kevin had said he wasn’t the ”karaoke type,” but after much thought over a drink of my own (see, BFFs, Sarah!), I accepted that he is too much of a control freak to risk looking like a fool. The scenes with Kevin, Sarah, and Scotty’s ”girls” were exactly the scenario I’d hope to find myself in if I ever had to sign divorce papers (or have a bachelorette party). Keeping with the realism, Sarah tried to get Kevin to duet on Dolly Parton’s ”9 to 5,” because he’d once said Dolly’s were the only pair of breasts he’d ever noticed, and when he refused — he needed something ”less corporate” — she killed with a solo rendition of Cher’s ”Believe.” I sincerely hope that the actor playing Scotty’s friend who said, ”What man in his right mind would divorce you?” while looking at Sarah so adoringly gets more work. Loved him. Of course, Kevin had his best pissy face on until he took the stage to murder ”What’s New Pussycat?” His sad-sack rendition of ”Always on My Mind” was endearing, and rightfully won Scotty’s friends over and gave my new favorite bit player another moment for his clip reel with ”Girls, I never thought I’d say this: I don’t hate him.”

Scotty’s pals persuaded Sarah to have someone at her office messenger her divorce papers to the bar, and Graham (guest star Steven Weber) delivered them himself. I guess because we saw Sarah warming to his advances last week — and because she insisted she knew what she was doing despite the Patrón — we’re supposed to think it’s fine that Graham took her back to his place. And I suppose it is. I’ve got more of a problem with Sarah saying that she was going to strut out to her car. How did her car get to Graham’s place? Is their office close enough to the bar that he just walked? Doubtful. Did he drive her car and leave his at the bar? Impractical and unlikely. Regardless, I finally started to see a little chemistry between Rachel Griffiths and Weber, which was nice. Sarah said she likes to be ”on the market,” which I’m hoping means she won’t rush into a relationship with Graham and we’ll get to see her dating other hot guest stars while occasionally boinking Graham when one of those evenings goes wrong.

In other Walker news, Nora was frustrated that she wasn’t getting enough phone time with Isaac (guest star Danny Glover). It seems Robert’s lock on the Republican nomination was being picked by a dark-horse candidate, and the campaign had to make a stand in Michigan. I was surprised that I didn’t mind seeing Robert’s kids, who spent most of their time in a king-size bed with Kitty nursing the flu and making cracks about her chest size. Anyone else panic that the hotel would leak to the media that a porn movie had been purchased in Senator McCallister’s suite?

NEXT: Past loves, past wrongs

Kitty also flew in Reverend Ex-Boyfriend, Jason, whom Robert hadn’t seen since Jason returned from Malaysia. I’d forgotten that Isaac had been the one to out Jason during Robert’s first campaign. We never got to see Jason confront Isaac, which is a shame, but it caused a rift in Jason and Robert’s relationship for, oh, about 10 minutes. Honestly, the McCallister men are so decent I want to smack them sometimes. I guess a minister would be able to forgive Robert for hiring Isaac and understand that sacrifices have to be made when your calling is to serve the public. Although Jason’s sacrifices seem to hurt only himself, while Robert’s hurt Jason…But still, as much as Robert’s extreme levelheadedness bothers me, I’ll admit to getting chills when he won Michigan and gave his speech. It could be because Calista Flockhart made you believe that she was watching a man she was proud of. Or that I’d had one Magners too many. Personally, I’m ready for Kitty to come back to California so she and Nora can have more than ”suck it up” tough-love phone calls.

At least this week brought us the return of Saul. Nora nobly tried to get him to open up about his past with Milo, but to no avail. Saul went to visit Milo (former guest star Michael Nouri) but found his housesitter (Veronica Mars‘ Enrico Colantoni) instead. This story line still isn’t going anywhere, but we did get a few more details: Saul and Milo never had a romantic relationship, which broke Milo’s heart, and Milo never cheated on his wife. Where do you think this should go next?

The most satisfying moment of this week’s episode, for me, came at the beginning when Nora tried to persuade Rebecca to pursue a career in the culinary arts or photography, and Rebecca responded, ”Apparently, everybody thinks I’m an aimless loser.” Yes. We do! The whole David (guest star Ken Olin) subplot seemed a little unrealistic to me: So Rebecca, who clearly still thinks he could be her dad, sees that one photo of her mother has a date, 1985, on the back of it but doesn’t think to ask what year the other photos of her mother were taken? And Holly, who seemed so uncomfortable with this man suddenly reentering her life, goes over to his place to thank him for spending time with Rebecca? I thought for sure she was doing one of her classic Holly psych-outs, where she looks like she’s going to say something nice and then turns on you. But she didn’t. She let the man kiss her. Maybe she’s keeping her enemies closer?

Since we’ll all be watching the Oscars next Sunday instead of a new Brothers & Sisters, you’ve got some time to ponder this week’s final questions: Which actors would you like to see guest-star as a potential love interest for Sarah? Is there any way this series could survive if Robert actually wins the presidential election and Kitty moves to Washington? And do you think ”What’s New Pussycat?” would be a good karaoke song?