On tonight’s episode of Parenthood, Sarah and Julia both make decisions regarding their relationships, and Adam and Crosby decide whether or not to give the Luncheonette another chance.
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The Fate of the Luncheonette
Previously on Parenthood, The Luncheonette was robbed, and Adam and Crosby contemplated whether to take the insurance money and walk away from their business or try to save it. In tonight’s episode, Crosby is all for continuing with his dreams, but Adam is more practical and decides, after talking to his father about his choices, that maybe cutting their losses is the better option.
Even after Crosby hangs a photo of the two brothers at the Luncheonette and goes on and on about working together there, Adam tells him he thinks they need to let the place go. Crosby is understanding about it, but clearly devastated while talking to Jasmine about it later.
Later on in the episode, Jasmine goes to Adam privately and asks him to reconsider. She explains how much the business has meant to Crosby and their family, and Adam is clearly affected. He’s going over the numbers again when Kristina walks in, and she’s very confused when he tells her he’s rethinking his decision. Which is fair, since he seemed pretty set in it before.
But, as Adam explains, he feels Crosby saved him with the Luncheonette opportunity when he lost his job, and he feels that now it’s his turn to help his brother. Eventually, Adam returns to the Luncheonette just as Crosby is taking the photo of them down, and he lets his brother know he wants to give the place another chance. They hug, it’s real cute, all very Parenthood-y, you understand.
Joel and Julia Sittin’ in a Tree
Early on on tonight’s Parenthood, Joel and Julia talk on the phone, and that leads to him coming over to talk, which really just leads to the two of them sleeping together. He spends the night, which creates a very awkward situation when Sydney knocks on her mother’s bedroom door the next morning! Luckily, Joel pulls the old “hide under the bed” routine, and they aren’t discovered — yet.
They have coffee later, and talk over just a few of the complications surrounding the two of them possibly getting back together. These include, but are not limited to: communication, the nature of Julia’s job and the fact that she’s still working with an ex, etc. She’s clearly nervous getting back together won’t work, but Joel promises her he will never leave her again. That’s a win for the Joel/Julia camp! Are they the J/J shippers? Joelia? Juel? Anyway.
By the end of the episode, Joel shows up at the ice rink where Julia and the kids are skating, and in front of God and everyone, they share a couple of kisses. The kids of course see this, but instead of the more complicated reactions I was expecting, they are pretty thrilled about it. Guess that just about wraps up that storyline for the season/series!
Sarah’s Decision
On last week’s Parenthood, Hank asked Sarah to marry him rather unexpectedly. This week, she wants to talk about the proposal, but Hank feels he’s already said what he needed to: he loves her, and wants to marry her. Sarah takes the better part of tonight’s episode to answer him which, while responsible of her, is still not much time considering. But the writers do have a show to wrap up, so might as well throw everything into the pot, right?
Julia and Sarah talk a little about the proposal, and Julia encourages Sarah to make a pros and cons list about Hank and the decision. Sarah names off all sorts of lovely things about him, but we never do hear any of the bad things she mentions to her sister. Interesting.
In a cute moment, Sarah and her mother talk about the possible marriage as well, and her mother only asks whether she knows Hank and whether he makes her happy. Both answers are yes, so Camille thinks Sarah has her answer.
The Crib of Confusion
Amber’s Dad sends his daughter a very nice crib for his impending grandchild, which she acknowledges is a very nice gift, but one that kind of fits his usual behavior — he’s not exactly around to do the hard part of putting the thing together, after all. Sarah and Amber struggle with it for most of the episode, and Sarah runs into Hank for one of their discussions about his proposal while she’s retrieving a hammer from his studio.
Hank goes over to Amber’s to help her put it together, much to her delight, and pretty much ends up doing it himself when she falls asleep. That’s how Sarah finds them — Amber fast asleep on her couch and Hank hard at work on the crib. That’s the moment that convinces her, at last, to marry Hank, and she says “yes.”
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Blast from the Past
While looking for an old, treasured baseball to give his great-grandchild, Zeek and Millie find a bunch of undeveloped film that they bring to Max to work his magic on. He develops the rolls in Hank’s dark room, and they are full of never-before-seen family photos. Hank and Max bond a little bit in the dark room, Millie and Sarah bond a little bit while looking at the photos, everybody’s happy!
It should be noted that the photos they found? Appear throughout the Parenthood opening credits. Planned from the beginning? Or crazy random happenstance? You decide.
Zeek and Drew get to bond a bit too when they go to Zeek’s storage shed in search of the baseball. They don’t find it, but Drew brings up feeling badly about spilling the beans about the France trip. Zeek tells him all is forgiven and forgotten, and they hug a bit. Parenthood does love to bring the touching moments.
Finally, Zeek remembers that he hid the ball in the rafters of the old barn once while being driven crazy by younger versions of Adam and Crosby, who had wanted to play with it once when they were little. Zeek and Millie make a trip back to the old house to retrieve it, and catch a glimpse of the new family now living there: two kids playing in the yard, a pregnant mother, and a dog to boot. Zeek decides to leave the “treasure” of old baseball things for the new kids to find one day, and they leave their old home behind once more.
That’s all, folks! Just two episodes of Parenthood left to go. What do you think is going to happen? Did Parenthood show us Zeek coming to terms with letting go of something he loved to help us prepare to let go of Zeek too? Leave your predictions in the comments below.
Parenthood airs every Thursday night at 10pm on NBC.
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
