Parenthood Review: \"The Waiting Room\" (4×03)

This week’s Parenthood gets off to a pretty sluggish start. Everything before the title sequence feels like an unnecessary recap of last week’s episode. That redundancy is especially egregious in the scene where Amber shows Zeek her ultrasound, which is the exact same emotional beat as their conversation at Zeek’s party.

Fortunately, the episode quickly shifts gears, turning its focus to Zeek’s surgery, and more importantly, on the Bravermans’ day-long waiting room vigil. For a few scenes, at least, “The Waiting Room” treats us to a mini-bottle episode, letting the various Bravermans’ personalities bump up against each other. Unfortunately, the show doesn’t really take advantage of this opportunity, instead choosing to highlight once again the conflict between Adam and Crosby, in a story that largely repeats the beats of the previous episodes. Even the bits with Sarah, Hank, and Ruby reestablish existing conflicts rather than forging ahead. Much of the episode feels like it’s in a holding pattern—a waiting room, if you will. (Sorry.) The next phase of Zeek’s story is his recovery from surgery, and his continued struggle with his own mortality. Parenthood is not the sort of show where Zeek will die on the operating table, and so there is no suspense as the family waits in the hospital. That’s just not the dramatic mode it operates in. Jason Katims is interested in much smaller moments of drama than that, and while there are a few great moments in this episode, there’s no avoiding the fact that narratively, for the bulk of this episode, we’ve been there, done that.

That’s not to say that the episode is devoid of merit. While some moments feel obvious, like Amber’s talk with Zeek, or Crosby’s interminable motorcycle jaunt, others are intimate and well observed. Bonnie Bedelia, particularly, kills it this week. The shot of Camille steeling herself before returning to her kids in the waiting room is captivating, and director Patrick Norris smartly holds it for a long, long moment. And Amber’s impromptu road trip with Drew may be poorly timed (seriously, the same day as Zeek’s surgery?), but their scene in the Pontiac is great, especially considering it’s the first major pairing of these two this season.

Julia’s story is also pretty interesting to me this episode. Chris is viable contender for Julia’s heart, and while on the one hand it’s a little unbelievable that Julia would manage to land the perfect guy twice, on the other, it makes for a conflict not often portrayed. By not outright villainzing either Chris or Joel, Parenthood presents a legitimate and difficult decision for Julia. There are very good reasons for reasons for her to pursue either one, and that means the story becomes about her and her agency, and not the particular actions of one or the other guy. It helps that Chris’s “Waiting Room Survival Kit” is such a sweet surprise, one that manages to avoid seeming too saccharine or too sentimental.

The other major plot of the episode concerns Amber’s attempt to tell Ryan about the baby. It’s not clear if this will be the last we see of Ryan or not, but it’s heartbreaking to watch Amber come so close to repeating Sarah’s mistake. This is a meaty story for Mae Whitman, and she does a lot of great work with the material. It’s also great to see her and Drew bond, and to see the way that Drew has her best interest at heart. His real talk to her outside Ryan’s house is inspired, and show just how much his freshman year has matured Drew.

It’s a fine episode, but it takes too long to cut to the chase, and too many of its stories run in circles for the week. It’s what Alex Epstein calls “shoe leather”—just the necessary setup to get us to the last scene of Zeek in the hospital bed. There are some nice moments in it, and some of the episode’s supporting plots are more interesting. But shoe leather is rarely the most exciting part of any story, and that’s true here, as well. Hopefully the lull is brief.

Stray Observations:

– Of course Adam sent out an email of bypass worst-case scenarios. OF COURSE.

– Julia tells the surgeon “good work,” which also feels very character-specific.

– So does Drew’s new room mean there’s no more Berto? That would be pretty disappointing.

– This is a Kristina-free episode, and Adam appears only briefly. Adam is insufferable enough this week for the two of them, though—he follows up his email by sitting in the waiting room and reminding his family of all the ways their father could die. Growing up with Adam must have been terrible.

– Sarah tries to bond with Ruby, but Ruby ends up shoplifting, and Hank has to tell his ex about it. It’s all very familiar, and Jessica Goldberg’s script doesn’t really offer any twist on this standard, “troubled child of divorce” setup.

– Has Drew Holt Gotten a Haircut Yet? Maybe? It looks like it may be shorter in the back now. But it is still a literal mop, so we’ll be reviving this feature and keeping it around.