Parenthood Recap (Season 2, Episode 19): ‘Taking the Leap’

Parenthood Brings Richard Dreyfuss Into The Braverman’s Lives

Welcome back from the break. Parenthood took a few weeks off and in the interim, there was no news of a renewal. However, I’m fairly confident that in the next few days NBC will make some sort of announcement regarding a Season 3, most likely sooner if the ratings for this week’s episode were fairly good. This week, a couple of new characters joined the show in the form of guest stars, while one major character made the first strides towards perhaps leaving the show and/or maybe even being written off. Read on to find out who…

Julia and Joel: Julia is still not pregnant, so she asks Joel to get himself checked out to see if he is infertile. At the doctor’s, Joel can’t seem to – ahem – provide a sample, so he calls Julia and she offers to try phone sex. Tries and fails. In the end, Joel learns he’s fertile; the problem lies with Julia: her doctor tells her she has intrauterine scarring, which makes it next to impossible to get pregnant. Crying, she apologizes to Joel, but Joel tells her there’s nothing to apologize for.

Adam, Kristina and Max: The principal of Max’s school calls the Braverman home to set up a meeting about Max. Adam and Kristina are worried, and Kristian takes Max on a walk, something they rarely do together. Max has to pee and so runs into the Lessing’s home uninvited to use their bathroom. Kristina sees Gaby (guest star Minka Kelly) inside the house, working with the Lessings’ son Noel as his new aide. Kristina gets really mad about the whole Gaby/Crosby/Max issue, telling her, “You left us high and dry,” and “I hope my brother-in-law was worth it because he wasn’t the only one you screwed here.”

The meeting with the principal reveals that Max is too smart for the classroom and they feel he needs to be challenged. She tells Adam and Kristina that they need to decide whether Max should go back to being in a regular school, not one that has only students with special needs. Adam wants Max to do it, to go mainstream, but Kristina – surprise, surprise – doesn’t, and their talks stall out. Adam goes ahead and calls the school that Jabbar and Sidney go to to try to get him in there and when Kristina finds out she is upset. She thinks if they put Max back in a ‘normal’ school, he’ll have no friends and will be bullied; it’s a huge risk. Adam says that he wants what’s best for Max and that she shouldn’t be afraid of making this decision. Kristina tells him she’s not and that he’s wrong.

Gaby confronts Kristina outside her house, wanting to know how the meeting with the principal met. Kristina is at first reluctant to talk to her, but she eventually lets her inside and tells her they want Max to go mainstream. Gaby thinks that’s great, but Kristina’s still concerned. Over coffee, Kristina tells Gaby of Adam’s excitement versus her worries: the bullies, and Kristina wanting to be done explaining to other kids’ parents why Max is different. Gaby, in her soothing, Gaby-voice, gives a great little speech to Kristina about the benefits of taking the plunge. She thinks that Max would do extremely well in the public school setting. She wishes there were guarantees, but there just aren’t. Kristina asks Gaby what she would do if it were her child and Gaby says she’d do it. Kristina apologizes to Gaby about yelling at her earlier and Gaby admits how much sleep she’s lost over the whole Crosby affair, then the two hug it out.

In the evening, we see the whole family together — hey, it’s Haddie! — and Kristina tells Adam he was right, and she’s ready to move Max, 100%. They see Max in the other room, watching Cash Cab and getting every question right, schooling the not-so-bright contestants.

Zeek and Sarah/Amber and College: Amber starts her internship at Julia’s law firm. She’s waiting to hear back from the two colleges she applied to, Berkeley being the one she really wants to get in to. She meets a cute guy, Gary (guest star Scott Michael Foster) and they start to flirt. Amber gets a rejection letter from her safety school – not Berkeley – and begins to stress. She refuses to talk to Sarah about it. Amber gets a message from Julia’s friend who has news from the Berkeley Dean, and that she should call her back. Gary asks Amber to come to happy hour with him and the other interns but Amber, still a ball of nerves, gives him a rain check. Amber calls back Julia’s friend and gets the crushing news that Berkeley has rejected her, too. She has no college to go to now. Offscreen, she talks to Gary about it, and he gives her pot and lets her hide from the world in Julia’s boss’ car. When Julia finds her there, she’s pissed, saying she vouched for her to get her the internship. Amber tells Julia about Berkeley and how embarrassed, upset and confused she is, that she has no one to talk to; Julia tells her that she really needs to tell her mom. She won’t be mad, she says, she’ll be supportive and you’ll feel better. However, Amber later has a chance to tell Sarah but she doesn’t take it.

Zeek reads Sarah’s play and thinks it’s fantastic. He introduces her to Gilliam T. Blount (guest star Richard Dreyfuss), a big-time Broadway producer who served in the war with him. As Zeek saved Gilliam’s life in the war, Gilliam offers to read Sarah’s play and give her feedback. Before leaving, he tells Sarah not to judge him by what she finds out about him online. What Sarah finds is that there’s a ten year gap – the 2000s – where no one knows where Blount was or what he was doing. Gilliam comes back and says he sort of likes what Sarah’s written, but really, he basically trashes her work. What you have is not enough, he says.

Crosby, Jasmine and Jabbar: Jabbar is Star of the Week at his school and needs to create a poster with photos of his family and his parents in turn need to come into class for the presentation. Jasmine seems OK with that happening despite Crosby’s misdeeds. When Crosby and Jabbar work together on the project, the photos they use recall happier times when Jasmine loved Crosby and all was well. When Jasmine and Jabbar work together on the project, Jasmine wants Jabbar to find photos of just the two of them doing things together. Jabbar asks Jasmine when Crosby’s going to move back in. Crosby and Sarah are hanging out and Sarah sees that Crosby is trying to use this project to make things right with Jasmine and get back together, and she tells him she thinks it might work. At the presentation, Crosby tells the schoolchildren the story of Jasmine and Crosby’s meet cute at a wedding years ago. Jasmine looks on impressed. Later that night, she stops by Crosby’s boat, and Crosby thinks he’s done it. But… Jasmine tells Crosby that, despite what he did today, she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to forgive him for what he did with Gaby, then: “I think I need to move on. I’m sorry.” Oh boy.

Next week: It’s Prom night, and Adam and Kristina are mighty worried that Haddie and Alex (guest star Michael B. Jordan) are going to do the deed post-dance.

Image credit: NBC

Comments