I was dreading this episode because of what I saw in the teaser trailer the previous week. I was not excited about watching the least interesting character, Drew, go through emotional-non-emotional drama. Sorry, the guy can’t act his way out of a box. So let’s not talk about that cluster… but Amber cried… with her brother and Sarah continues to be the worst mother in the world with the biggest heart. Despite Sarah’s heart, her actions are telling. I can only think that the resurrection of Mark is because we know off screen that Ray Romano’s character is temporary. Still, it makes no sense what Mark is doing. He got burned pretty hard. Unless he’s the type that needs to ‘fix’ the significant other, which I don’t think he is.

I think there is an interesting dynamic going on within the Crosby household, now that Jasmine’s mother, Renee has moved in. I’ve witnessed a very similar scenario in my past and understand Crosby’s perspective. All I can say is Crosby needs to walk on eggshells, because of the mother-daughter dynamic. He knows it, but we also know how Crosby reacts to things. I think this will be a learning experience for everyone in that house.

I think the most interesting powerful moments, like a tip of an iceberg, are ahead with Julia, Joel and Victor. I can only speculate the emotional feelings associated with adoption. And at best speculate a woman’s feeling about motherhood. What was Julia wanting when she decided to adopt? I see Joel totally invested and devoted to making the adoption and parenthood work… because of Julia’s wants in the beginning.

But… Joel works during the day and like most Dad’s has less time concerned with children, unlike Julia quitting work, something I thought she enjoyed. So not only has Julia’s daily purpose significantly shifted, she just might be thinking her reasons are completely wrong. So emotion again is driving some folks to do some radical changes. I think there a lot of women like Julia that the idea of parenthood is Utopian. She is fortunate Sydney has been damn near the perfect child, with minor problems. So the thinking continues, let’s have more of these because little effort and lots of rewards are associated with being a parent.

Until the child becomes a problem. Then all bets are off on whether they should even be parenting. In Julia’s case, she did not get to go through the natural evolution of raising an infant. Julia and Joel are faced with this little strange young person suddenly be part of their life. I think Joel fully understands his emotions, reasons and actions. Adoption is a BIG deal and it significantly affects another person’s life. I was actually surprised there is this ‘trial’ period. I thought once you get the machine rolling, the decisions are final. Then again, I guess it makes sense… because of what we are seeing played out here. But good gawd, they are playing with lives here almost like a car deal. I know, I know, the process is under the microscope by the agency, but still…

… It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

My fear, is because this is network television, they are going to steer the story to most common denominator and not irritate people. Like Julia reneging on her decision and making adoption look bad. Let’s see what happens though.  I’ve been actually quite surprised with the some of the discussions in the last two episodes. “How big is his ****?” and the barrage term for ****. I thought it was great. Just surprised to hear it from this show.