“Rewinding ‘Parenthood’: What’s Goin’ on Down There?”

This week’s episode of Parenthood opened at the parent/child yoga class that Crosby was attending with his son. While he ogled the woman in front of him, reminding me of why I never do yoga in public, Jabbar befriended her son and the two quickly planned a play date. There was no mention of Kate in the whole episode, as Crosby drooled over this rich divorcee until she actually made a play for him. In an astounding show of bad parenting, the two left their kids alone with a seemingly dense pool boy. Crosby had enough sense to note that was a mistake, however, angering the yoga mom. Later on, Jasmine chastised him for using her son as “chick bait” and revoked his babysitting privileges.

He wasn’t the only Braverman that couldn’t catch a break. Adam kept trying to make quality time with his family, but Max’s tight schedule with Gabby prevented it. Then he had to impress two obnoxious clients from work at a “hip restaurant” (a Mexican-themed bar surrounded by red Christmas lights), when all he really wanted to do was spend some time alone with his wife. It didn’t much help matters much that he saw Gabby at this same bar, drinking a large quantity of alcohol. Not to mention, Kristina called him to bring home some cornflakes, because she accidentally bought the kind that comes with strawberries, which Max thinks looks like toads. (My guess is that they got “Special K: Red Berries”?) All of this led to a hung over Adam shouting at home that he has a schedule instead of a life and that he feels “like a household appliance”. Kristina just calmly told him to “take a break”, which he did at the end of the episode, by surfing. Ironically, my mom noted that he looked like a big toad then.

When Kristina wasn’t consoling Adam, she obsessed over helping Haddie with her career day assignment, following Julia at work in the law firm. Unfortunately, Haddie’s raving review of Julia’s glamorous yet meaningful work depressed Kristina, who felt that her accomplishments were ignored. Adam noticed this and took Haddie to a local park, which was only there because of Kristina’s efforts. After Haddie compared her to Erin Brockovich, she played personal assistant by bringing her mother a cup of coffee home.

Haddie’s career day assignment also got Julia thinking, as she remembered why she wanted to be a lawyer and her promise to give back. When she told Joel her plans to work in legal aid, however, he laughed them off as a good-intentioned pipe-dream.

As Mr.Cyr and Sarah started their romance, Amber crushed on her teacher by repeatedly listening to a SAT word prep playlist that he downloaded onto her i-pod. After Mark (Mr. Cyr) held her hand, sent her flowers, and kissed her a lot, Sarah giddily told all of her siblings about her new relationship. Adam realized that Amber was infatuated with Mark, so he broke the news to Sarah. Though Sarah doubted and criticized her brother, she recognized that Amber needed to know what was going on. Amber’s tearful reaction to that news painfully led Sarah to break up with Mark. But while that was happening, Amber blew off her SAT test to run away with Damien, her boyfriend from Fresno.

Finally, next week’s preview says that we’ll see Zeke make a fool of himself at Jabbar’s birthday party and that Sarah catches up to her daughter and Damien.