Parenthood Recap (Season 2, Episode 20): ‘New Plan’

Season 2 of NBC’s Parenthood Enters The Home Stretch With Another Fantastic Episode

This week’s Parenthood was the rare episode to both juggle over 4 subplots involving the entirety of the cast (save for Max, Drew, Jasmine and Jabbar) and not suffer in excellence because of trying to include everyone. After this episode there are only two entries next in the season and it would be a shame if NBC were not to renew the series for another year. Recap time!

Crosby decides to sell his houseboat and buy a house in the suburbs in the hopes that he will win Jasmine back. It’s a dumb decision, for sure, and all of his siblings tell him that, Adam in particular being really vicious about it. He still wants nothing to do with his brother for sleeping with Max’s behavioral aide and causing this rift in the first place. Zeek tries to tell his son that he needs to mend things with Crosby, but Adam just brushes him off. His sister, Sarah, is the one to finally get through to him, telling Adam that he may be really angry at Crosby, but being his brother, he doesn’t have the choice that Jasmine has of not being able to forgive him for his misdeeds. Crosby is in a lot of pain, she says, and needs his brother more than ever. Adam hears what Sarah is saying, and comes to Crosby at his new home, which is sort of a dump, and says that he and Crosby will fix up the house together. (Methinks it is the house that will fix them, hehe.)

Haddie and Alex (guest star Michael B. Jordan) go to the prom, and while Haddie initially isn’t even considering ‘doing the deed’ with Alex post-dance, because of Adam’s insistence to Kristina that prom is all about sex, this leads to Kristina posing the question of “Are you having sex?” to Haddie while she is trying on prom dresses, thus planting the idea in her mind as a possibility. Haddie and Alex have a lovely prom, but afterward, she tells Alex that she thinks she’s ready to do it, and they get a hotel room and indeed have sex. Haddie gets home just before curfew and while she tells Kristina she had a good time at prom, a final scene of Haddie alone in her room reveals that maybe what happened after wasn’t what she’d wanted it to be.

Sarah finds out about Amber not getting into Berkeley from Julia, and tries to talk to Amber about it. Amber dodges the situation by deciding to go to prom as a guest of Haddie’s and make believe that things are OK, at least for a little while. She initially has fun at the dance but after bumping into old friend Cassie (guest star Zosia Mamet) and learning that she got into Yale, everything hits home again and she leaves the prom early. When getting back to the house, she tells her mom, teary-eyed, that nothing is working for her right now, that she never listens to her, and that she needs to do what feels good for her, not her mom: “Stop trying to fix my problems. It’s my life, not yours. Understand that.” Sarah can see that Amber is clearly not in a right state of mind, but is too hurt to talk further with her daughter, and it looks like it will only get worse for Amber judging by the scene’s from next week. Sarah does use the situation to write what will hopefully be a powerhouse scene in her play, which should delight Mr. Blount (guest star Richard Dreyfuss), who was wanting for Sarah to put her real life into her script.

Julia occupies herself with doing a number of activities with daughter Sydney to avoid talking to anyone about the results from her doctor about probably not being able to have any more kids. When Zeek and Camille come to visit, though, Julia realizes what she’s (not) doing, and breaks down silently in her mother’s arms. Superhusband Joel continues to be an amazing, supportive husband in these trying times.

Next week: Kristina and Haddie have The Talk, and Amber spirals out of contol

Image Credit: NBC

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