Parenthood, “We Made It Through The Night” (6.12) - TV Review

Parenthood, Season 6, Episode 12, “We Made it Through the Night”

January 22, 2015, 10:00 p.m., NBC

After last week’s pause for reflection on the family history and past decisions of the Braverman clan, “We Made It Through the Night’, written and directed by series creator Jason Katims, gets things going again plot-wise before the narrative and emotional climaxes of next week’s finale. A massive wrinkle occurs with one of our longstanding plots while another finally gets to the heart of the issues of another long running plot, we get a set-up for what I hope will be the resolution needed for one of my favorite characters, another character becomes the man we hoped he would become and one of the major plotlines of the season is resolved with a nice bit of coming full circle.

While we have two scenes that start us off on a lower key (Adam and Crosby hanging a Career Week banner at Chambers Academy as they argue over new sound equipment and Edgar, one of the students, asking Adam if he can be his mentor in French cuisine and Joel telling an excited Sydney and a skeptical Victor that he’s moving back in and that he and Julia are back together), the episode truly kicks off with Amber feeling sharp pains, which leads to nearly the whole family arriving at the hospital ahead of her in anticipation of the baby. As Adam, Crosby and Hank are loading up on stuff at the gift shop, Jasmine and Kristina are in the waiting room. While Jasmine is glad Crosby and Adam are on good terms, Kristina is pissed at Jasmine for inserting herself into the situation and guilting Adam into keeping the Luncheonette open. In the ensuing argument (thus giving us one final grand Braverman argument for the series), Crosby finds out about Jasmine going to Adam. This upsets him and he decides to walk away from The Luncheonette, not wanting Adam’s “charity”. Outside the hospital, he’s angry at Jasmine for going behind his back again and that what made The Luncheonette special was him and Adam working together. With that gone, there’s no reason to do it anymore. And this all could’ve been avoided if Amber’s pains weren’t in fact gas.

The only ones not at the hospital were Julia and Joel. As Joel puts his clothes away, he discovers new panties in Julia’s underwear drawer. And a call from Chris the next morning as Joel makes chocolate chip pancakes for Sydney and Victor breaks the newfound tranquility of Julia and Joel’s reunion as Julia’s assumptions and Joel’s jealousies rear their ugly heads as Sydney and Victor give each other doubtful expressions. Later on that evening, after Julia finds out the big news about Zeke (which we’ll get to later), Julia and Joel sit down and finally have The Argument which Joel is too scared to have and Julia is too scared not to have. And thus in oddly one of the more touching moments of the season, Joel and Julia sit in their car in the driveway and air out their grievances and issues to each other like they should have done a year ago.

Moving over to Sarah, Amber and Hank, Hank and Sarah debate over where and when they should get married. And in a fantastic scene in the dark room, Hank shows her a picture of Santiana Del Mar, the place where if he ever did get remarried, that would be the place. And it’s here that Hank looks her in the eyes and tells her that she’s a beautiful person both on the outside and the inside. Now, in regards to Sarah’s love life, I’ve always been indifferent about who she’s with, since it’s never as interesting as her with her kids and the extended family. And I know one Hank-hater on Twitter who won’t watch the last two episodes of the series because of him. But I have to say, after that scene, I am officially on board with Hank being Sarah’s new husband. He’s shown time and again how much her and Amber and Drew mean to him and they’re much better with him in their lives. It took a while to convince me, but I am now on board. As for Sarah and Amber, after the false alarm, Sarah checks in on Amber whose having a last minute panic over whether or not having this baby was the right choice. Sarah assures her that once she holds her baby that something will shift in her and that she’ll figure it out. Amber tells Sarah that she’s her hero and in a moment that might have been a bit indulgent, but fuck it since we’re so close to the end, Sarah takes the guitar that Amber was playing around with and they both sing along to Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game”.

Over at Chambers Academy, Adam helps his protégé Edgar with baking a soufflé. As Max takes pictures of the proceedings, he mentions that autism has an 85% unemployment rate and that with the exception of Dylan, they’re all screwed. Later on, Adam and Kristina have another late night chat with Max and tell him the usual platitudes (talented, smart, funny, etc.) as well as that they’ve seen him grow so much and that they can see his future and that whatever happens, they’ll be there with him. Max is non-responsive as he usually is, but I really hope that this leads to something with him in the finale next week. Max’s journey with Aspbergers is the long running plotline of the series that I’ve always had the most emotional investment in. And whatever happens in the finale or the character’s fates, what I want the most is for Max to know himself that he’s going to be OK.

And finally, we get to Zeke and Camille. During a hike up a hill to get a view of the San Francisco Bay, Zeke tells Camille that he’s tired and that he’s decided to not have the surgery and to just enjoy what little time he has left. In this scene, Katims wisely focuses just as much on Camille as he does on Zeke and her tearful acceptance of Zeke’s decision. Later on as Camille paints his portrait, Zeke tells her that they should have a family dinner of just “The Original Six”. But as the dinner turns into another argument amongst the siblings, Zeke gets up from the table and lies down. Sarah follows him and she tells him about her engagement with Hank. “I can hardly wait to walk you down the aisle.” he tells her. And while we don’t see him tell the four kids the big news, it obviously hits them hard as we see with Julia and then with Sarah as she asks Hank if they can move the wedding up to next week so that Zeke in fact can walk her down the aisle.
And we end the episode on two montages, one better than the other. The first, set to who I think is Aaron Neville’s cover of “Ave Maria” (which The Newsroom did last month to better effect in that it was at least in tune), follows Career Week at Chambers Academy as Jasmine lead’s a dance session with Dylan in attendance, Kristina gives her the thumbs up, Max takes pictures and Adam and Edgar succeed with the soufflé. The second starts with Amber finally going into labor and calling Sarah asking her to come alone. We fade to black in between the various parts of it as Amber gives birth, Julia and Joel cuddle in a post-fight sex haze, Adam and Crosby pack up what little there is left of The Luncheonette and Zeke and Camille are the first family members to meet Zeek Holt, thus bringing the total number of generations of Braverman’s we’ve seen on the show to five.

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