Parenthood Review: “Happy Birthday, Zeek” (6×02)

About two thirds of the way through this week’s Parenthood, Jabbar asks Crosby a deceptively simple question: “How old is Grandpa?”

And yet, it’s a question that gets to the heart of this final season. The show is called Parenthood. Confronting the reality that your parents get old is the perfect way to bring everything to whatever conclusion it is that Jason Katims has in store. In fully committing to the question of Zeek’s health, as well as to the various Bravermans’ reactions to it, the show creates a strong emotional center around which everything else can orbit. When “Happy Birthday, Zeek” features the titular character, then, it’s a quietly powerful episode of television.

Take your pick of scenes: Adam’s confrontation with Zeke at the birthday party, particularly, is powerful. A 72^nd birthday celebration is tinged with a notion of mortality anyway, and here it’s even more so, since it’s all anyone will talk about. Zeke takes offense at the healthy food, Kristina’s offhand comment that he’s “not in the best of health,” Julia’s gift of a pedometer; but it’s Adam’s tearful, fearful plea for his father to not die that finally hits home for the audience. Peter Krause nails the desperation of the moment, the plaintive cry of a man who, though grown, is still a child coming to grips for the first time with the fact that his father will die. Each man demonstrates his own, unique brand of stubbornness, and the way the conversation stops without any real resolution is both true to life and dramatically effective.

But in the end, it’s Amber’s revelation that she’s pregnant that finally convinces Zeek that he might actually need the open-heart surgery his doctor recommends. Mae Whitman is a superstar even on this show’s deep bench, but any scene pairing her with Craig T. Nelson is always a pleasure to watch. There’s no denying she gives good cry, but she also keeps Amber’s pregnancy from becoming too maudlin or sentimental. In truth, the whole party sequence is wonderful; I love how deftly it turns on a dime from fraught with drama and tension to a light-hearted celebration of this family’s love for each other, complete with a soundtrack that sounds like Fauxsplosions in the Sky. Such moments were a regular occurrence on Friday Night Lights, and have been on Parenthood as well, and when used to the effect they are here, they can be the lifeblood of the show.

In the same vein, this episode features several small scenes between Sarah and Amber, another potent dramatic pairing. Their discussions throughout the episode are lovely, small and dramatic in the very best way. Sarah is watching Amber go through the same struggle she did at Amber’s age, and her greatest fear is that Amber will also make the same mistakes. It’s another story where the stakes are rather higher than the execution, and it’s that discordance that Parenthood excels at. This is a show that makes even the small moments seem epic—and isn’t that what life is, at the end of the day?

I’m making such a fuss out of these storylines because the episode’s third major storyline features Kristina’s attempts to run Chambers Academy, and it is absurd. On the one hand, I’m happy to see the show address actual difficulties in the process of opening and running a charter school over the course of one summer. On the other hand, it’s presented as such a goddamn cartoon that it’s impossible to take with a straight face. This woman’s quest to find a food vendor who will make individual meals for over forty kids is absolutely insane, and Adam’s determination to appease her just makes him seem ridiculous. Parenthood can get laughs out of almost any character combination on this show, so detailed is the writing and so nuanced the acting. When they put various characters in these wacky sitcom situations, it’s not only dumb, it’s completely unnecessary and avoidable. The scene at the end of the episode with Adam and Kristina is actually quite sweet, but the way we get there is, well, I can’t think of a better word than silly.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Sydney’s woes at schools, which force Joel and Julia to come to terms with the impact their separation has had on the daughter. The most interesting thing here is the way the show equates Julia with Sydney; they both have the same deflecting approach to challenges in their lives, the same quickness to blame others, and while Julia has grown of that a little, she certainly hasn’t as much as she’d like to believe. I’d be concerned I seem to remember Julia being more complicit in the separation than she herself does, if I didn’t the show wants me to think exactly that. As ever, the aftermath of her conflict with Joel last year is infinitely more interesting than the actual happening of it was, and the show finds continued new twists on the post-separation, pre-divorce dance.

As far as Parenthood goes, 3 for 4 on Braverman storylines isn’t a bad deal. Certainly there have been episodes that struck out way worse than that. “Happy Birthday, Zeek” isn’t firing on all cylinders to the extent that last week was, and it does also repeat a lot of the same conflicts. But there are some tremendously strong scenes, almost vignettes here, that demonstrate some of the best that the show has to offer. Saying goodbye to the Bravermans was never going to be easy, especially not if our last go around with them is this engaging.

Stray Observations:

– I was typing it “Zeek” for a while but spell check kept suggesting “Zeke” instead and eventually I just gave in. Apparently I was right the whole time!

– Kristina gave out the house number to every single parent and invited them to call at any hour. Kristina is a fucking idiot.

– “Why did we found this school?” “To be a fascist institution.” Max is perfect.

– Jasmine lives! But Haddie disappears overnight, never to be heard from again (until the finale, maybe).

– I see we will be treated to another season of insanely overwrought episode previews. There’s a very fast-paced drinking game to be had here.