Brothers & Sisters
Recaps

There were six separate story lines intertwining on Brothers & Sisters last night, which always seems appropriate for such a huge family. Also appropriately, some ended well, some did not, while some featured plenty of drama and some none at all.

A lot like real life. Click here for a full recap of "The Wine Festival." Below, we've written a brief review of each of the characters' story lines and why they worked or didn't ..

Kitty & Robert: Kitty's rocking a shaggy, blonde wig these days and Robert is all over that. She worries it's all about the wig, and that he's pretending she is someone else.

But he's not. When she shows him her bald head as a test, he doesn't bat an eye. He loves her for so many reasons that have nothing to do with her hair, he says. Swoon.

Sarah & Luc: Sarah wants Luc to design the label for the Walkers' new wine. Because he is so laid back, he can't fathom why she wants him to commercialize his talent.

Sarah being Sarah, she asks where this is going, how he will get a visa to stay in the U.S., etc. Luc being Luc, he paints ... to paint. He doesn't want her to be his agent.

In the end, she tells him she loves him and will support him no matter what. But he goes back to France anyway. Bad move, Luc. You don't know what you're missing.

Gilles Marini's run came to an end last night as Luc returned to France.

Kevin & Scotty: They're researching the perfect egg donor. Predictably, Scotty wants a healthy kid and that's it, while Kevin goes OCD trying to craft the perfect child.

Saul puts it in perspective with a great metaphor: Like wines, all children are unique, unpredictable and shaped by their caretakers. Kevin lets Scotty pick at random.

Nora & Simon: Our favorite story line of the night, and one you don't see addressed on other shows: Widowed mother of five Nora struggling on the dating scene.

She and Simon are going well, but the age difference clearly bothers her. He tells her it's not going to work as long as she lives in a safe little box. That one hurt.

In one of our favorite Brothers & Sisters quotes, Nora insists to Simon that she doesn't live in a safe little box, but she could embrace more of his attitude as well.

Justin & Rebecca: Justin is stressed over a med school test and can't make time for Rebecca. She can't find the time to tell him she's pregnant. He's, like, so busy.

Please. You're marrying the guy. He has a right to know. Okay, so he said he doesn't want kids three weeks ago. That'll change in two seconds. Man up, Rebecca!

The Walkers' wine won big ... until shady Ryan ruined everything.

Saul, Holly & Ryan: After Saul actually loves the new, inexpensive wine and wants to enter it in the local wine festival, Holly is thrilled. This is her last chance to succeed.

She's even more excited when it does really well, and it's looking like her business and personal financial prospects are finally turning around. But Ryan is not as thrilled.

He wants the company to fail, after all. The annoying little sleaze.

After the success of the festival, Ojai is planning to roll out the wine ASAP. But Dennis York tells Ryan if they do, he'll never gain control of Ojai. Ryan needs to fix this, now.

Oh, and fix it he did. Holly and Saul find all the wine drained out of its tanks. Holy crap. Kid better skip town and change his name. It's gotta be obvious who did it, right?

Seriously, that's got to be at least somewhat difficult to pull off, right? This isn't just a box of Franzia where you leave the tap open. Oh, and are there no cameras in there?

Logistical plot holes aside, it was a solid story and episode.

As we've been reporting in our Brothers & Sisters spoilers section for weeks now, Tommy Walker (Balthazar Getty) returned to SoCal last night, and certainly made an impact.

He also made mole. Dude is totally Zen now, having lived on a vegan commune in Mexico since the last time we saw him. But you knew Nora would bring out the old Tommy.

It was only a matter of time.

Follow the link for a recap of "Zen & the Art of Mole Making." Now, some thoughts on what was vintage B&S and what could have been improved on last night's episode ...

Tommy was kind of a jerk last night, but then again when was he ever not, and his return to the Walker household rekindled old memories (good and bad) in typical fashion.

As much as he's tried to turn his life around and find himself, the guy is a total mess, which was kind of the point, and Baltahzar Getty certainly looked the part last night.

First off, the opening scene in the kitchen (above) where Kitty and Nora were both terrified by Luc (Gilles Marini), who went on to attack "intruder" Tommy was just hilarious.

Next, the Walker phone tree that happens the morning after Tommy comes back was adorable and hilarious. Less adorable but equally real was Nora's subsequent freak-out.

Learning that Tommy plans to divorce Julia set his mom off, which set him off, accusing her of having impossibly high expectations and saying he gave up on meeting them.

The truth hurt, as it has a way of doing, for both of them. Ultimately, they worked it out, or at least took a step in that direction. Nora apologized for "giving Tommy away."

He went to Seattle to try to be a father to his daughter, if nothing else. Speaking of being fathers, Kevin wanted surrogate Michelle to sign a contract. Scotty freaked out.

Like Tommy and Nora, they were both right, and both wrong. Brothers & Sisters captures the nuances of complicated issues like this so brilliantly, week in and week out.

Scotty admitted Kevin was right to try to protect them. Kevin asked Michelle to reconsider bailing on them. Meanwhile, at Ojai, Holly's financial problems keep escalating.

We're not entirely sure where this story line is going, but sensing her weakness, opportunistic Dennis tried to get her to sell her shares of the company and she did not.

Way to go, Holly. We'll see where this leads. We hope.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• It was nice that Gilles Marini was still featured this week but on the outskirts. A sexy Frenchman he may be, but Sarah does have a life. This week, we saw that dynamic.
• Sarah's kids, Paige and Cooper, got really big! The show is in Season 4, we suppose, but still. Kids. They grow up so fast. Before we know it they'll cast teenage Evan.
• Matthew Rhys, who plays Kevin, is Welsh. His first language is Welsh. He may win Best American accent on TV (FlashForward star Joseph Fiennes being the worst).
• Much as we love Robert (Rob Lowe), it was overdue that he would miss an episode for believability. The man is a U.S. Senator. He works in Washington sometimes.
• Roxy Olin does a nice job as Michelle, Scotty's friend and would-be-surrogate. But given that she's an aspiring actress - and her folks, Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig, both star on Brothers & Sisters, it's impossible to take her seriously on The City.