Begins with the siblings, Sarah and Grace staging a plan to talk, confront Bailey about his drinking. First they try a family dinner, but Bailey doesn't appear, aware of their intentions following the awful Owen's birthday party. But then, the rest force Claudia to call Bailey, to tell him that she is alone with Owen, and that the kid had an accident, and is not breathing. She doesn't want to, she is not that cruel, but forced she does, and tells them Shame on You (excellent scene, I agree with Claudia, maybe there was other way). Callie takes Bailey to the house, Julia manages to take their keys with an excuse, and when Bailey finds out about the lie, he obviously chastises everyone around. He says that he is taking care of himself for once, that he is fine and attempts to leave using the back door but Sarah convinces him to stay and give his explanation (the back door wasn't closed??). Callie leaves with the car keys, telling Bailey is a family thing (so I guess Grace is there only as a social worker, because she is not Bailey's family). And then, the battle begins. Julia, Sarah and Charlie tell the stories: Will noticing the drinking all the time, Sam's job where liquor was stolen, Owen's party, Sarah's concert. He defends himself, arguing with college life of partying and drinking, and after Julia calls him a thief and liar, he starts lashing out her flaws about the pregnancy and her refusal to go to college. Then, he mentions to everyone Charlie's biggest mistakes, the affairs he had (including 1x05), the failed wedding and the trip to Mexico, when he was with another woman 2 days after losing the love of his life (Claudia told him). And at last, he says the most horrible things to Sarah, that he doesn't love her and that he would be turn off with her and not with Callie. But when he looks at Claudia, she says "what?", and he leaves the room, realizing that Claudia is the only person he can't hurt. Later, Sarah, heartbroken once again, realizing is useless to wait to see a glimpse of the guy she fell in love with, decides to leave, as she is not family, but Julia convinces her to stay, to keep fighting for his sake. Also, Charlie assures Grace that he is not a womanizer anymore, and the thing about Mexico wasn't like Bailey said (so, he didn't slept with the woman? They just fool around?), but she has doubts. Anyway, when Joe arrives, Charlie tries to stop Bailey from leaving, forcing him to enter rehab, but his brother almost hit him and breaks the door's glass instead, hurting his hand. So then, Joe reveals the truth about Nicolas Salinger that remained hidden in the family tree all this time: Nick was an alcoholic, who got sober 18 years before dying. At first, no one believes him, but Charlie's memories of some yelling, Julia's knowledge of never seeing their dad drinking, not even a glass, a toast, verifies it (excellent scene). Joe comforts Claudia, saying that Nick got better thanks to Diana, who said she'd leave him if he didn't stop, and that's how they were good parents to her and the siblings. So finally Bailey tells Sarah what he inherited from his father, answering the key question of 2x13. She tells she is sorry, and doesn't know how to help him (another great, emotional scene). Realizing that he is turning into his father, Bailey says the drinking it's his dad's fault, so he just has to be an alcoholic, like him, refusing any help. So in a brilliant last scene, Claudia tells that she loves him more than anyone (only Sarah's love can be compared) trying Diana's solution, of leaving him alone, taking away her love for him to make him stop drinking. But that doesn't work, because at the end, Bailey leaves the house anyway.
In my review of Shortcuts I wrote that Fall began and obviously this leads to winter, where there are only dried trees. This is it. Right here, all the leaves are gone and only the naked truth remains. Bailey lashed out all the biggest flaws of Charlie and Julia, and his darkest and hurtful secrets to Sarah. But the only person that Bailey couldn't hurt was Claudia. He couldn't throw one single mistake from her (her only slip up was calling Kirsten's parents but that doesn't matter to Bailey). That proves why Claudia is the best character of the series. She was the only one who went to the wrestling competition in Significant Others. And during the last two seasons, especially in the first, she had the best relationship with him, unlike Julia and Charlie, who usually had fights with him. Also, Claudia was the only one with a heart, the only one who knew that telling Bailey that horrible lie about Owen was wrong and the only one who didn't want to deal things this way, leaving Bailey alone. Lacey's performance here was excellent, worth of nominations, her scenes were tearful, especially remembering the scenes with Bailey in the past. As for the rest, I praise Julia's words, she put Grace in her place (of not talking much, as she doesn't know Bailey), she cried to help Bailey (great Neve) and convinced Sarah to stay. Sarah's role was perfect too, especially in her scene after the alcoholism was revealed. Charlie didn't help much, and that was a little flaw today, I wonder how different things would have been with Kirsten around, she knows how to get the best of him and she loves Bailey as his "sister in law". Joe did the right thing by telling the truth and comforting Claudia. About the revelation, in Have No Fear, at the end is mentioned when Charlie talks to Kirsten, that Nick made the restaurant his life, that he stayed late with friends, including Joe, I guess this was a a hint. To finish, the beginning was not great, but the development and performances were very good. It was intense, sad, emotional. The problem is that there was no solution.
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