Party of Five 5.1, Moving On: Growing Up Is Hard, You Guys

July 12, 2014

Party of Five 5.1, Moving On: Growing Up Is Hard, You Guys

This is Josh. How could Julia be mean to him? He’s like a puppy!

Summary: It’s been a few months since “Fools Rush Out,” judging by the size of Daphne’s stomach, and everything is going well with her pregnancy. She’s annoyed that Charlie’s so overprotective. Bailey and Sarah look at a new apartment, which he offers to pay for; apparently the restaurant is doing well. Owen helps Julia and her horrible new haircut pack up to leave for college. Owen has been recast and now speaks in full sentences. Griffin shows up and notices that Julia’s still wearing her wedding ring. They say an awkward goodbye.

At Stanford, Julia quickly becomes everyone’s object of affection. Her roommate Maggie and Maggie’s boyfriend Ned aren’t very concerned with modesty. Bailey calls Charlie to the restaurant to talk about light fixtures that need to be fixed. Charlie laughs at him for being such an adult, then tells him he’s starting to lose his hair. Back at his new apartment, Bailey freaks out about his hair while Sarah tells him he’s in his sexual prime, which I guess means they should do it a lot before his upcoming birthday.

Julia gets a call from a guy who saw her picture in the freshman facebook and wants to show her his lizard collection (apparently not a euphemism). She and Maggie meet a delivery guy named Josh, and though he’s cute, Julia doesn’t seem interested. Maggie wonders why she’s not attracted to any guys at Stanford. Kirsten helps Claudia pack for boarding school while Charlie continues to be overprotective of Daphne. She’s disappointed with the way their new living arrangements are working out, and how their relationship has changed.

Julia admits to Maggie that Stanford is different from the way she pictured – basically, she imagined dating someone. Her future isn’t clear. Charlie wants to go back to being the guy Daphne was first attracted to, so he tells her to pick out something for them to do today. It’s a nice gesture, but she already has plans. She didn’t see the point in keeping their original plans, a tour of the hospital where she’ll be having the baby.

Bailey has a check-up with his pediatrician, like, if you’re old enough to be convicted of drunk driving, you’re old enough to see a grown-up doctor. His pediatrician agrees. “What if I don’t wanna?” Bailey whines. Somewhere downtown, Kirsten comes across Daphne with some of her friends, being loud and drinking wine. The Salingers (plus Jamie and Kirsten) have a goodbye dinner for Claudia at the restaurant, and Jamie gives her the address of his webpage. Awww, so ’90s.

Julia’s in town for the goodbye party and agrees to cancel her plans to spend Claudia’s last night with her in their old room. Daphne arrives an hour and a half late and Charlie yells at her for drinking. They have a fight and Daphne storms out. Sarah tries to lighten the mood with a limerick. You’re weird, Sarah. In bed that night, Claudia tells Julia that in her 16 years of life, she’s only had three rooms. She’s mostly only ever slept in their house. She’s not sure she’ll be happy in a new place. Julia reminds her that the family will always be there for her.

Daphne spends the night with a friend, and Charlie stays behind to talk to her instead of going with Bailey to take Claudia to Boston. (Nice brother, there.) Charlie wants to give Daphne what she needs, even if she needs him to shut up and leave her alone. In her first ten minutes at school, Claudia meets people she has things in common with, so she’s more than ready for Bailey and Sarah to leave. They head to a parents’ mixer, where Bailey is reminded yet again that he’s a grown-up now.

Josh runs into Julia again, but she’s not interested in being hit on. She’d like all the guys at Stanford to leave her alone and let her get an education, since that’s why she’s there. Jetlagged from the trip to Boston, Bailey falls asleep watching football in his and Sarah’s hotel room, then tries to prove his youth with sex. Claudia interrupts and Bailey goes on a rant about getting old. You’re 20, Bailey. Sit down. Charlie and Daphne go on their hospital tour, but it freaks her out and makes her announce that she can’t keep doing what they’ve been doing. She’s moving out.

Julia learns that she got into a writing class she didn’t think she’d get into. Oh, and Josh is in it, too. Just sleep together already. Bailey’s goodbye presents to Claudia are a credit card and a diary. He recognizes that the diary is something kind of young, but he doesn’t want her to feel like she’s getting old fast like he does. He gives a sweet, emotional speech about how much he’ll miss her. “Promise not to change without telling me,” he says.

Charlie tries to stop Daphne from moving out, saying he has a right to know what’s going on. She tells him that if she hadn’t gotten pregnant, they would have grown apart and broken up. Having a baby together has put pressure on them to work things out even though they’re not in love. She thinks they should break up now instead of continuing to drag things out. Charlie reminds her that the baby is his, too, but he can’t exactly make her stay.

Julia apologizes to Josh for picking a fight with him; she gets now that he was trying to connect with her as a fellow writer. He says she can make things up to him by going out with him. Charlie worries to Kirsten that Daphne won’t let him see their baby. He wishes he hadn’t tried to make things work with someone he didn’t love.

Bailey has to spend his birthday working late at the restaurant, so Sarah comes by to keep him company. She falls asleep while he’s cleaning up, but he enjoys dancing around to “Young at Heart” by himself. Julia visits Griffin, mentioning that she still has a line on her finger from where her wedding ring used to be. He assures her that it’ll go away. The Salinger house is now strangely quiet, since Charlie and Owen are the only ones who still live there. Charlie’s so sad and alone, waaaah.

Thoughts: Josh is played by Parks and Recreation’s Adam Scott. Maggie is played by Heather McComb, the ex-Mrs. James Van Der Beek.

Me: “Hmmm…Scott Bairstow is playing Ned. His name sounds familiar. Did I see him in something else? What else was he in? Did he do anything after the ’90s?” (Googling) “‘Scott Bairstow Sentenced’? Aaaaaaaaand no more questions.”

Did anyone else see Scott Wolf on Hollywood Game Night this week? The man hasn’t aged since this series. He was also delightful and came across as someone you’d want to chat with at a party.

Why, exactly, does Claudia want to go to boarding school? Before, it was because everything in the house was so crazy, but that’s not really the case anymore.

I can see why all the guys like Julia. I mean, she’s just so pleasant.

Normally that “you can apologize by having dinner with me” thing is annoying, but Josh is pretty charming and nice, so I’ll give him a pass.

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