When Nora and Sarah fly out to D.C. for Evan’s birthday, they have ulterior motives in mind, as "Home Is Where the Fort Is" finally confirmed why Kitty has been MIA.

Truth is, it's for the same reason many Brothers & Sisters fans expected.

What has she been doing there for six weeks? Is she sleeping with a famous man? Working for the CIA? While there were typical Walker family hijinks, this was serious.

A complication with Kitty’s bone marrow caused her to see a specialist. It looks like everything is back on track now, but why see a specialist and not tell anybody else?

This was a necessary segue into a discussion of worst case scenarios. Being a mom and cancer survivor, she just doesn't want to think about it. But she always must.

Brothers & Sisters is at its best when it takes on real topics such as death, parenthood, adoptions, etc., while letting its characters and their unique individuality shine.

Some episodes this year have felt borderline sitcom-y, but this plot line is right up the show's alley. Kitty announces that it’s time for her to come home. We can't wait.

Another serious, true-to-life and wildly unpredictable issue? Kevin and Scotty's adoption of Olivia. It's official, but Olivia is still a little insecure about it to say the least.

Again, the show did a nice job of this, having her act like a kid in her situation really might. Rather than throwing a fit or going completely off the rails, she built a fort.

A pretty awesome one, too. We'd go to Geckotown to hang out sometime. Still, it's time for our walls to be taken down sometimes if we want to move forward in life.

The writers don't seem to know what to do with Justin these days.

Dave Annable is always great, but it seems like Justin is all over the place lately. Maybe we're being too hard on the show, because that is sort of the character's M.O.

His homeless vet friend is now working at Scotty’s restaurant and also crashing at Justin’s place. Since he moved in, J's been having nightmares and PTSD flare-ups.

He can't save everybody. His biggest fear, on the surface or deep in his subconscious, is that he won't be able to save everybody. That applies to family and Zach.

While PTSD is a very real condition, and something Justin no doubt would struggle with, this seemed more designed to give Justin something to do in this episode.

Zach's moving out, so it'll be interesting to see if this issue lingers for Justin. Will he be able to keep it together at work? Is this the first of many bumps in the road?

Finally, we examine parenthood, or stepfather-hood as it were.

After Paige is asked to a dance by a boy she really likes, Luc won't give her the $50 she wants, and she gives him the cold shoulder because she won't say what it's for.

A bra. It's every dad's nightmare, and every teen girl's too.

Paige was too embarrassed, and later heartbroken when the boy breaks their date. Not the best episode for poor Paige. Luckily, Luc made her feel better in the end.

Not sure if that's setting the best example, taking a spin over to the kid's house armed with eggs, but you do what you have to do in these kind of situations, right?

Luc's got work to do as a parent, but with that kind of effort, he'll work out the kinks. We just hope they show them at the father-daughter dance. That would be so cute.

What did you think of last night's Brothers & Sisters? Discuss!

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