Private Practice aired back-to-back episodes last night, and while one primary story arc - involving Addison's parents - continued throughout, they were very different.

In the first hour, Sam and Naomi's parenting struggles actually brought them closer together, while in the second, Dell's world was turned upside down by Heather.

If you missed "The Parent Trap" and "Blowups," follow the link for our full recaps. Now, a look at the developments of each, and why they worked for us (or didn't):

PART I: Addison and Pete treat a 60-year-old pregnant woman with a 30-year-old husband and work hard to save their at-risk baby, which they do ... at least for now.

This case was a plot device to keep Addison and Pete close after Violet stunned them both by jumping into the sack with The Captain after meeting him for 12 seconds.

Rather than worrying about Pete's feelings, or Addison's (her dad is married), Violet is pretty psyched she had sex, overcoming deeply-rooted issues the attack caused.

While we try to be happy for Violet, this is quite upsetting at the same time, and Addison and Pete are both irate, particularly the latter, who says he's "done with her."

Addison loses it with her dad, who had just come around and seemed like a decent guy, too. She wants to know why he's so wonderful to all women but her and Bizzy.

But perhaps his cheating ways aren't all what they seem. The Captain calls Bizzy and tells her if she doesn't come out to L.A. and tell Addison the truth, he's going to.

Umm ... yeah. To be continued until 10 p.m.!

Addison's father, The Captain, slept with Violet. But his marriage isn't what it seems.

Meanwhile, Violet crosses the line on the professional front as well in this episode! She, Cooper, and Charlotte work to try to help a Jewish couple practice birth control.

Their faith prohibits it ... or at least their interpretation of it does. In the end, Violet convinces the wife to take birth control ... without implicitly saying it's birth control.

Violet says the woman is iron deficient and needs the pills for (undiagnosed) "anemia." Wink, wink. Was this unethical or savvy? Quite a morally ambiguous hour for V.

Our favorite part of the first hour was Sam and Naomi disagreeing over how to handle Maya. The teenager is making out with a guy named Dink and Naomi is irate.

Sam offers to take Maya for awhile and tries his Mr. Cool Dad approach. That doesn't work either, as Maya runs roughshod over him. Sam and Nae are both at a loss.

What really worked about it, though, was that instead of pointing fingers, or lamenting their respective failures, they made a pact to stay together and work harder.

Perhaps soon they'll work harder at something besides parenting, too.

PART II: As the second hour begins, we see that Dell and Heather are living together ... but not for long. Their house blows up and Heather is on the brink of death.

Betsey is unconscious and Heather's badly burned from the explosion. Dell's little girl is going to be fine, but her mom isn't. When Dell learns why the house blew up?

Let's just say he loses control and rightfully so. But going in and telling Heather - who was cooking meth at home - that he hopes she dies slowly and painfully? Wow.

Bitterness and guilt aside, Dell doesn't want Betsey's last memories of her mom to be a mangled mess. Pete tries to bring Betsey to Heather, and Dell lays him out!

In a moving scene, Pete says "he" forgives her as she slips away, so delirious from the pain meds that she thinks he's Dell and apologizes profusely for what she did.

Violet finally talks Dell into showing mercy, but Heather dies just as he comes to see her. Addison convinces Dell to tell Betsey the truth ... no matter how bad it hurts.

Addison learns a shocking secret about her mother.

Addison's drawing from personal experience there. She wishes she'd known ... that her mother's been having a lesbian affair with her assistant for the last 20 years!

She catches both women in a kiss after they arrive in L.A., and is so stunned that she can't face them, spending the episode holed up at Sam's. It's pathetic and sad.

Sam sends her family away so Addison can go back to being herself. In the end, Addison shows up at the airport to see them off, and can only make WASPy small talk.

We can't decide if we feel bad for Addison for being lied to all this time or whether she was being too mopey, especially considering the events Dell was dealing with.

Meanwhile, Charlotte and Cooper are still fighting about her lying (through omission) about being married more. She thinks she was protecting him by lying ... is she?

Is her not mentioning that she was married that big a deal? On the flip side, why wouldn't she mention it? Doesn't it become a bigger deal because she withheld it?

Cooper still hasn't let it go by the end, but perhaps Charlotte's passionate plea for forgiveness will give him a little bit of a nudge. Drop it, Coop. Time to let it go, dog.

Chris Lowell really shined in this two-part event, as did Taye Diggs, in our opinion. Not perfect Private Practice, but we were pretty invested in it throughout the night!

What did you think? Comment away and let us know!

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.