TV Recap: Parenthood, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” (5.4)

10/17/13, 10PM, NBC

After the steam that had been building up over the last few episodes, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” was when the momentum of the season so far has slowed down a bit, as if to turn a corner without going off the rails. We begin with Sarah joining Amber and Ryan as they show her the spot by a lake where they want their wedding to take place. And while Sarah says that she loves it, the screaming at a spider (no really, that happens), the swatting at mosquitoes and the fact that Grandma Blanche has zero accessibility at this location are just more excuses for Sarah to not feel great about Amber’s decision. As the episode progresses, we find out that Ryan’s family won’t be coming to the wedding at all. And while Amber seems to be initially OK with this, Sarah sees it as a red flag. And Ryan’s reluctance to talk about why he doesn’t want them there is only making things worse between Sarah and Amber as they end on an argument between them with Amber asserting that she is not like Sarah and that Ryan is not like Seth. You sure you want to be saying that there, Amber?

Over on the campaign trail, Heather is putting the screws on Kristina and Adam to go out and get the bigger donations that they need in order to keep campaigning. As Kristina is pimped out to a real estate developer looking to cut through the red tape to get a high rise built in downtown Berkley, Adam is forced to go hat in hand to Mr. Ray, a rapper who was also a former client at The Luncheonette whom Adam met the day Nora was born. As embarrassing it is for Adam to do this, at least he doesn’t look like Justin Bieber’s mid-life crisis the last time he was over. Interestingly enough, his initial trip to Mr. Ray has an impact on The Luncheonette as well. After dealing with a rock band’s particularly douchy lead singer (Tyson Ritter), the band was dropped by the label who had contracted The Luncheonette to record their album. But inspired by Mr. Ray’s DIY set-up, Adam goes back to Crosby to pitch him on turning The Luncheonette into not just a recording studio, but as a label/one stop shop of recorders, producers and distributors. And for once, Crosby comes off as the level headed, responsible one while Adam is the crazy, reckless one. And even though Mr. Ray ends up writing the 20K check and Adam seems to have finally come around to Kristina running for mayor, I think that when it comes to Adam and Kristina, we should stick to one potentially bankrupting endeavour at a time.

Drew tries to take things with Natalie, the girl he met last week in the co-ed bathrooms, to the next level when he finds out that she’s into one song by Joni Mitchell. After getting some embarrassing coaching from Adam, Drew admits to not being into Joni as much as he thought she was and that he likes her. And over at Julia and Joel’s, Julia punishes Sydney and Victor by taking them over to Zeeks to help him with the engine for the car. This dovetails nicely with both Zeek’s and Victor’s storylines as Victor takes a shining to working with Zeek on the car and Zeek sees Victor struggling to read the instruction manual for the vehicle. Thus we see the two characters connect and their storylines intertwine.
All in all, this was an OK episode. While it didn’t have the momentum of the last two episodes, it felt like the different plotlines we’ve had so far were starting to make the corners before ramping up again. And next week’s episode, with Julia and Joel’s marital strife and Ryan telling Sarah about his family, looks to see the show pick up the proverbial steam.

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