Rewinding Parenthood: “The Big O”

While the episode opened with a “previously on” clip show, there wasn’t really much of a reason for it. This is especially true for last Tuesday’s episode, where most of the show was spent dilly-dallying around with useless information instead of advancing the plot lines.

The useless information I’m referring to is Adam and Kristina’s love life, which has been suffering because of the stress of keeping up with Max. Way too much time was spent on Kristina’s accidental complaining about her lack of romance to her husband and Max’s understanding behavioral aide, Gabby. This resulted in Adam discussing the same matter with Sarah, for who knows what reason. However, progress was made in showing Gabby’s complicated job of not only figuring out what makes a child with Asperger’s tick, but also counseling the parents involved. Gabby essentially taught Max discipline here, by using a book about lizards to get him to change his plans and convincing him to play foursquare with a little girl at the park through promising him another pet lizard. It seems as if she is just bribing Max, but I’m not going to question child psychology through a TV show’s interpretation of it.

Meanwhile, Amber is beginning to develop feelings for her teacher and she is not the only one. As she volunteered for a “literary magazine group” that he runs, Sarah was contemplating on whether or not she should go out on a date with him. Mr. Cyr showed up at her place of work and strangely gave her a note that read, “Will you go out with me? Check yes, no, or maybe.” This made her ask Crosby, of all people, for advice. He said, “You asked me because you want to hear yes. If you wanted to hear no, then you would’ve asked Dudley Do-Right or Julia.” which is the smartest thing he has ever said. Later on, Sarah told Mr. Cyr yes and they kissed.

This was a big episode for Crosby. After receiving the results of the positive DNA test, he finally told his parents about Jabbar. Though Zeke asked “What kind of name is Jabbar?” and the two seemed a little shocked about the boy’s race, they quickly warmed up to their grandson. In the funniest moment of the episode, Zeke presented Jabbar with Crosby’s former bicycle, saying, “Don’t do any wheelies, your father broke some teeth and lost a lot of brain cells with it.” Considering that Crosby described Jasmine as “a dancer, but not with a pole, like ballet” and he cheats on Kate with a yoga instructor in next week’s preview, the brain cells part is 100% accurate.

However, even a moron like him could see that Racquel was all over Joel. When Julia got him and Jabbar invited to a “play group”, he talked with moms who gushed about Joel. After Crosby told Julia about it, she became suspicious enough to start questioning her husband. When Joel admitted that Racquel once kissed him, but he “stopped it”, Julia told him that she wanted her “out of our lives”. Joel’s fumbling response that her daughter and Sydney are best friends struck me as an excuse, especially considering how spoiled Harmony treated her last week. All of that was unnecessary, however, because Julia changed her mind when she saw Harmony and Sydney sitting together at the puppet show that the whole family had gathered at.

What do you think? Was Julia wrong to extend the olive branch to Racquel? Will Crosby ever stop lying? Will Sarah and Mr. Cyr make a good couple? And did Max really get whatever lizard he wanted?