Call this the episode where nearly everyone on Private Practice had to own up to their bad behavior, ’cause nearly everything questionable or controversial they’d done was brought up in court during the custody hearing for Pete and Violet’s baby Lucas.
It reminded me a tad bit of that series finale of Seinfeld where all the characters had to listen to people recite, under oath, their every selfish move and misdeed, and no, the Private Practice version wasn’t funny either.
This was such a sad, sad episode, pitting Violet and Pete against each another while their friends said things about one another that they would’ve rather have remained unsaid.
Dell was asked whether he’d forbidden his heartbroken daughter from saying goodbye to her dying, drug-addicted mother.
Cooper was asked whether he’d met his girlfriend Charlotte on an internet sex site.
Naomi was asked about her estrangement from Maya, her 15-year-old daughter who’s pregnant and married, with whom Naomi’s not currently speaking.
Addison was asked whether she’d cheated on her husband with her husband’s best friend, whether she had an affair with a patient’s husband and if she was simply saying that Violet wouldn’t be a fit mother so she could act as a substitute mother for Lucas because she can’t have her own baby. (“I’m a cheater and a husband-stealer, and on top of all that, I’m barren, so, good times,” Addison said dryly.)
The two protagonists — who, despite their anger, are clearly still deeply in love with one another (something which Addison can plainly see but has yet to admit, just recall Pete’s testimony about what it’s like being loved by Violet, “the best feeling in the world”) — were also put on the hot seat in the witness box.
Pete was asked whether he’d ever said he hated his wife and felt nothing about her death. Violet was asked if she’d ever had abortions and whether she considered aborting Lucas. Violet’s case (and character) took additional shots when Sheldon said she initially didn’t know who Lucas’ father was because she was sleeping with both him and Pete at the same time. Charlotte certainly didn’t help matters when she quipped that she and Violet hate babies.
It was ugly, rough stuff, not to mention the heartrending flashback scenes of Violet during her therapy sessions in New York, where she vividly discussed Lucas being ripped from her womb and the guilt she felt about directing her attacker how to go about safely cutting Lucas out of her body. (That finale gave me nightmares for days after I first saw it.)
I also must mention that, while I appreciated what the writers were attempting to do — with the jumping back and forth, mixing scenes from court testimony from various days — however the time jumps were jarring and oftentimes confusing. The only way I could discern WHEN we were in the show’s timeline (such a Lost thing to say) was by the clothes people were wearing. This was Private Practice, I shouldn’t have to work so hard to figure out WHEN we were in the custody hearing.
That being said, this episode set the stage for the remaining episodes of the season with the characters having to atone for what went down in court, for their past actions and for how they treated one another. What’d ya think?
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Apr 30, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
