The season finale of NBC’s Parenthood did not run short of cliffhangers, leaving a lot of exciting loose ends to be tied up in the upcoming season.
The biggest and most bittersweet subplot comes when the Braverman family’s grandparents, Camille and Zeek, finally muster the courage to sell their family home.
Packed chock-full of precious family memories, the home was a real treasure to the aging couple, who was apprehensive of entrusting it to another person. However, with encouragement from their realtor and ambitions of starting their next chapter in life, they commit to selling to an eager buyer. What remains to be uncovered in the next season is how Camille and Zeek will approach their next chapter: Will they embrace it head-on, or will they shy away at first with uncertainty?
On a similarly positive note, the Bravermans’ eldest son, Adam, and his warmhearted wife, Kristina, finally get approval to open a school that caters to students with learning disabilities. This comes after their years-long, unsuccessful struggle to mainstream their son, Max, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, into a public middle school.
Inspired by both this struggle and the educational platform that she ran on during her mayoral bid in Berkeley, Calif., Kristina, especially, is very eager to provide disadvantaged students with superior schooling opportunities.
Adam and Kristina may have gotten the city’s approval of their proposal, but how are they going to make it a reality? All signs point to their success in renovating their proposed school building, including that they have the support of many local families, but are they going to run into any road bumps along the way?
The romantic storylines in the finale are not necessarily bad, nor are they necessarily good. They leave the audience with feelings of both uncertainty and hopefulness.
Take, for example, the rocky relationship between Julia Braverman and her husband, Joel. Earlier in the season, their marriage took a turn for the worse when she admitted to kissing another man, and he subsequently moved out of the house. For most of the season, they have spent their time in different living situations, shuttling their two young children back and forth from one house to the other. Joel has remained largely unwilling to repair their marriage, while Julia has sat on the sidelines with regret, waiting for the love of her life to return to her.
With this last episode, during which they are brought together at a school function, it finally looked like things had turned upward for the two.
Knowing glances and physical chemistry proved that they still love each other. However, is that just wishful thinking, or will they actually work together on getting back together?
Another up-in-the-air romance involves Drew, Sarah Braverman’s son, and his on-again, off-again, sort-of casual college girlfriend, Natalie. The show seems to paint Natalie in as negative a light as possible. She is portrayed as a stereotypical, sexually promiscuous, partying college girl. However, there are times when she seems to have another side to her, one that does in fact care for Drew and wants to be with him.
As for Drew, he wants to like Natalie, but does not like neither her casual hookups with other guys nor the duplicity of her character. Even so, there is something about her that he is attracted to, and finally — and successfully — he asks her to be his exclusive girlfriend in the season finale. Of course, viewers are rooting for Drew and want to see him happy, but is Natalie going to be the making or breaking of him?
Drew’s mom, Sarah, likewise leaves the audience in limbo regarding her own love life. Flattered and humbled by ex-boyfriend Hank’s efforts to make himself worthy of her after their breakup, she finally comes back to him and kisses him in the photography studio where they work together. As sweet as Hank has been to better himself for Sarah, he appears to be an unusual match for her.
Given her disastrous past relationships, Sarah seems to need stability and maturity in a man, and Hank’s personality flaws and possible Asperger’s diagnosis do not point toward any of these qualities. Sarah has been successful in launching her photography career and has gotten her act together. Naturally, viewers want her to find love, but Hank may or may not be able to provide her with what she needs in the long run.
As for Sarah’s daughter, Amber, she seems to be headed for either happiness or yet more heartbreak after being reunited with ex-fiancée Ryan. Called to his bedside after he survived a car crash, Amber arrives at the hospital and is at a loss for words when she confronts the man who unexpectedly broke off their engagement.
The logical side of her probably would not have come to the hospital, but she clearly still has feelings for him. The two meet again and painfully embrace; he grimaces from lingering physical pain as a result of the accident, and she breaks down in tears from heartbreak.
The audience does not see the entirety of their embrace, but based on a final scene in which Amber is seen buying a drugstore pregnancy test, it can be inferred that she may or may not have gotten pregnant that night. Like Hank, Ryan is a ticking time bomb, and if Amber finds out that she is expecting a baby, she will have many tough decisions to make.
Ranging from joyful and promising, to sorrowful and uncertain, the plotlines in Parenthood’s season finale leave fans with a lot to mull over in the weeks to come. It will be hard to be patient while the beloved series reboots, but what is certain is that the show will maintain its stellar acting and funny, clever and astute writing. The show’s track record indicates that the next season will surpass the most recent one, as amazing and unforgettable as it was.
Stay tunes for Parenthood’s upcoming season return on the NBC network.
