Parenthood, “Let’s Go Home” (6.11) - TV Review

Parenthood, Season 6, Episode 10, “Let’s Go Home”

January 15, 2015, 10 PM, NBC

After last week’s hour of suspense and literal life and death, “Let’s Go Home” (written by star staff writer Sarah Watson and directed by Allison Liddi Brown whose past episodes include classics such as “If This Boat Is A Rockin'”, “Nora” and “Tales from The Luncheonette”) shifts into a slower gear and becomes one of the more reflective episodes of the final season. While things happen for three of the major plotlines so far this season, much of the episode takes a breather and looks back at not only the progression of the characters over the series, but over the lives of the Bravermans in general.

The episode opens with Zeke huffing and puffing as he tries to get up a step ladder to pull out a shoebox buried at the top of a closet. He calls Camille over and she grabs the shoebox he was looking for to find a legendary baseball that he caught hit by Reggie Jackson that he wants to give to Amber’s baby. What they find instead are 7 rolls of undeveloped film from across the decades. Zeke brings these rolls to Max, who then develops the film and in one of the more touching moments of the series, all the pictures are on display, including the pictures of Peter, Lauren, Dax and Erica that are in the opening credits. This trip down memory lane and quest for the baseball leads to yet another great moment at the end of the episode, but we’ll get to that later.

After last week’s break-in, Crosby decides to hang a new picture up on the wall of The Luncheonette of him and Adam to replace the Janis Joplin picture that was stolen. This leads to Adam asking Zeke if it’s the right thing to tell Crosby that he wants out and that they should fold the business. Surprisingly, Zeke is on Adam’s side as he tells him that Crosby isn’t a boy anymore and that dreams can be put on hold. Adam decides to bite the bullet and tells Crosby that they should close up shop. And while Crosby understands and agrees to go along with it, he comes home completely devastated by this decision. This leads to Jasmine going over to Adam’s place and interrupting his tea party with Nora to plead to him to give The Luncheonette another chance. And after looking at the numbers yet again and realizing that Crosby coming to him with The Luncheonette is what got him out of his own downward spiral a few years ago when he was between jobs, Adam hangs the picture of him and Crosby back up on the wall and tells him that they’re back in business.

Moving over to Julia and Joel, Julia decides to call Joel and asks him to come over so that they can talk. Of course by the time he gets there, they do a lot more than just talk. The next morning, in a moment of actual comic relief from them, Sydney knocks on Julia’s door and Julia and Joel scrambles to hide him from his own daughter, lest she gets the wrong idea about them. And after a close call involving Joel under the bed and some very loud text message noises from his phone, they decide to sit down and talk for real. At a coffee shop, they have an actual civil conversation where Julia says that there is hope, but that there is a lot of work to be done before they tell Sydney and Victor that they’re back together. They need to know that they came come to the other side of this and make it. Julia brings up her new life working again as a lawyer and Joel admits that he’ll have to deal with it. And she admits that she was not thinking clearly two years ago and was unravelling. And while Joel says that he’ll never leave her side again, she can’t say that she won’t unravel again. Later on as Julia takes Victor and Sydney skating, Julia calls Joel just to tell him what’s up and Joel asks her to stay on the line just to hear her voice. This leads to Joel ditching work to come surprise them at the rink. He holds out his hand, Julia takes it and they kiss in front of their kids.

As Amber tries to assemble the crib that Seth bought for her (thus confirming that he does know), Hank is waiting on Sarah’s response to his proposal to her from last week’s episode. Sarah goes and discusses it first with Julia (as she mock’s Julia’s breathing and sit-up methods) and then with Camille as Hank talks about Sarah with Max as they develop the rolls of film from earlier. And after Hank comes over with his toolbox to help Amber assemble the crib (“You got the receipt, right?”), Sarah tells Hank yes.

And after a trip to the storage unit Zeke has with Drew, who apologizes for spoiling his surprise trip which Zeke accepts and assures Drew that he’s not angry at him anymore, Zeke has an epiphany and realizes that the shoebox he’s looking for is in the rafters of the barn back at the old house. And when he and Camille return to the iconic home of the series, they discover that it’s repainted (“I never would have thought of that color, but it looks good.”), the grass is somehow greener with toys and playthings strewn all over it, two boys playing in the yard, a golden retriever running around and a pregnant mom at the door telling them to come in. Upon seeing that, Zeke changes his mind about the baseball. “Cause some day those kids are gonna be playing Hide and Seek or messing around in the barn and they’re gonna find an old shoebox full of baseball stuff and they’re gonna think they found a hidden treasure. It’s gonna be the best day of their lives.” ; “You sure?” ; “Yeah. Yeah let’s go home.”

It’s always a sobering thing to see the childhood home you grew up in no longer your home but someone else’s. And even though there’s a twinge of sadness to seeing new things done to the familiar, at the same time it’s comforting to know that it now a home for another family that’s going on the same journey that you went on. So between this and the recurring motif of pictures within the episode, it helps to make “Let’s Go Home” another great episode to bring this incredible series to a close.