Rewinding Parenthood: “The Deep End of the Pool”

Parenthood seems to be doing well, its ratings are okay and Entertainment Weekly put it at the top of their “must list”. So now that we know it’ll probably stick around for a while, let’s review what happened in the third episode, in case you missed it.

Everyone keeps describing Zeke as “the patriarch” of the Braverman clan, but I disagree with that. He may be the oldest member of the family, and he occasionally serves as comedic relief, but it seems like Adam’s in charge instead. For example, after Julia complained to him that her daughter was getting too attached to the dubious Racquel during her daddy-daughter “Zen swimming class”, it was Adam who told her to just try to teach Sydney how to swim herself.

Julia, an expert swimmer, took the whole thing too seriously, but she was only normal person at the pool. As the other mommies, including her husband, looked on, she tried to coax the kid into “swimming like a fish”. Sydney got scared and cried, “You drownded me!” in front of the shocked crowd. Perhaps Racquel isn’t as bad as she seems, though, because she gave a “Tibetan praying stone” for Julia to give to Max’s parents.

Max needed the help. After breaking the class aquarium, his school dropped him as a student. This warranted a trip to Dr. Pelikan, who got them an interview with an expensive private school who specialized in teaching similar kids. Adam and Kristina grew to love the place, so when teacher, Dr. Robertson told them “Footpath Elementary” wasn’t accepting any more students; they somehow convinced her to meet with Max. While his parents nervously compared his teacher to Oprah and packed a hilarious amount of snacks, Max calmly won over his teacher and then reminded his parents that they were missing Haddie’s big soccer game. Even though they missed Haddie’s winning championship game, Adam still apologized several times. Later on, during a heart-felt conversation, she revealed that she always knew something was wrong with Max and Adam said he was proud of her.

Crosby still sees himself as more of a baby-sitter than a father, and he certainly doesn’t know much about children. He didn’t know how to clean Jabbar’s lactose-intolerant related vomit out of his car and he didn’t know that you never leave a kid alone in a room with buttons. While his Dad worked with the band Happy Hollow, Jabbar was left alone in the mixing booth at the recording studio. After accidentally breaking off a knob, he ran off to the lunchroom, where he met Crosby’s girlfriend, Kate. Crosby told her he was watching the kid for one of his co-workers, but she’s still wondering how he knew Jabbar couldn’t drink chocolate milk. I grow tired of Crosby’s spoiled man-child ways, and so does his brother. Adam told him to “deal with it” as helped him clean up the vomit.

By the way, the Happy Hollows are a real band, based in Negahdariland, California. They have an album out, called Spells.

Sarah broke up with Jim, much to the chagrin of his co-workers at the coffeehouse. Instantly afterward, her car broke down. As she went to find a phone, because her cell phone wasn’t working and she was too embarrassed to ask anyone at the coffeehouse for help, Jim’s co-workers defaced her car. Wow. I have never had co-workers who liked me that much. Anyways, her broken car gave her the opportunity to bond with both her neglected son and her father. While at a junkyard that had an incredible amount of vintage cars, she finally got up the courage to ask her father if he was having an affair. Zeke just side swept the question, but later on admitted that he and her mother were having some problems but that they “were going to be okay”. So I’m not sure if he did or didn’t.

Zeke’s wife, Camille, is a little-seen character on the show, but that may change. After she offhandedly told Sarah that she talked to Jim on the phone for hours, Sarah went to his house. For now, they’re eating lasagna, but they’re probably back together as a couple.

The episode ended in what has become Parenthood’s trademark, the whole family gathering to do something fun. In this case, the Bravermans went swimming. Julia beamed as her daughter started to really swim, and everyone celebrated the news that Max was accepted by the school.

When the clip of upcoming scenes from the next episode came up, we heard a voice-over of Zeke saying, “Sheesh, everything with this new generation is so instant.” I can tell you that next week, somebody goes to the hospital and Haddie has a boyfriend.