As if I needed any more reasons to dislike Crosby’s character.
Although my antipathy toward Crosby had been softening — especially after the scenes a few episodes ago when he was trying to discipline his son — his latest stunt with Gaby, his nephew’s therapeutic aide who quit working with Max because of their affair, made me annoyed with him all over again.
To cap it off, there was that killer final scene: As Crosby and Adam were loudly arguing about Crosby’s stupid move, Crosby tried to downplay Gaby’s role with Max by calling her a “babysitter,” to which Adam corrected him, saying Gaby’s a “behavioral aide,” “Get it through your thick skull, your nephew has Asperger’s!”
“I have Asperger’s?” Max, who’d just ventured down the stairs. There was a long pause as everyone held his or her breath. “What is Asperger’s?”
Knife. Through. Heart.
This set up what’s certain to be an emotional episode next week when Adam and Kristina have to sit down with Max and explain Asperger’s to him. I have no idea how Max will react.
In the meantime, the only person in the Crosby-Gaby-Jasmine situation for whom I feel badly is Jabbar who just wants his family back. That kid’s been through a lot of uncertainty.
When it came to the Seth story, I liked how they underplayed Drew’s disappointment when Seth bailed on their Alcatraz trip; and how Amber refused to just get all warm and squishy, just because Seth had been hanging around for a short period of time after he’d missed their childhoods and never made an attempt to get to know his own children. She wanted Seth to earn her love and trust back, make him hurt as he’d hurt the kids by abandoning the family through his haze of substance abuse. She wanted him to prove to her that he could take facing the brutal truth and still stick around. But he failed as we, and the wise-beyond-her-years Amber, knew that he would. However I’m expecting that for as much as Drew tried to act as though he wasn’t surprised that his father flaked out, he’s going to act out. Soon.
The Sydney-is-a-vegetarian story is a familiar one to anyone who’s ever had a kid suddenly declare that some food or food category is repulsive. It’s not unusual for kids to go through a food phase at some point and it usually passes … unless the kid has Zeek Braverman as a grandfather, a guy who doesn’t respect the way his grown daughter wants to raise his granddaughter. With Camille watching his back as they babysat Sydney, Zeek’s decision to try to force Sydney to either eat the meat lasagna or the special vegetarian meal Camille made was heavy handed. I know how infuriating it can be to have a kid sit there, arms folded, and refuse to eat something you’ve worked hard to prepare, believe me. But forcing the kid rarely works or convinces the kid to change his or her mind. (I’ve tried. It was ugly.)
Therefore, to watch Zeek and Camille later berate Julia for allowing her kid to have too much “power” was highly irritating. (Instead of forcing the child to eat one of those dishes, they could’ve opted to tell Sydney that she could choose not to eat anything for dinner if she didn’t like what was offered.) It’s one thing for grandparents to offer unsolicited advice when they disagree with how their grandchildren are being raised, it’s another for them to flout their grown children’s authority and undermine them with the grandkids.
Overall, this was a really strong episode of Parenthood which touched on a number of hot button issues. However when I tune in next week, I’ll be sure to bring a box of tissues with me.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Feb 23, 2011 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I loved the episode. I saw in the preview for next week that they start explaining Asperger’s by telling Max it’s a form of autism. He then says, “What is autism?” Do you think they’ll remind him of that walk for autism they did last season? Also, I would have thought he would have remembered the word, at least. I am excited and nervous for next week.
I agree, I would’ve figured that since he has very good memory recall, that he’d instantly remember the walk and realize that it was the motivation behind the family supporting the cause. He’s supposed to be a pretty smart kid, not as smart as Sydney, but sometimes he just seems too spacey. I personally have Asperger’s, and while each individual on the spectrum is different, I think that there’s more that they could do to show a more realistic picture of the syndrome. Either, way, we’ll get to see this week how he reacts, which I believe will go one of two ways, either he’ll not understand, despite his parents explaining it to him, or he’ll feel upset that they knew and didn’t tell him. There’s also, the slight possibility that he’ll understand, feel relieved that there’s an explanation for what’s been happening to him, and want to work to improve his progress…that’s what I did, but with the way the writers are in regards to the condition, I doubt that they’ll have Max react in such an adult way. :)
This was one of the best episodes to date!