This was one of the best episodes of season 5. What has to be said was said and finally there was some kind of family moments, some union between the siblings. The only bad points were that the struggles for Owen's custody didn't change despite Julia's situation, and that Kirsten had to be ausent, left out again.
Claudia, as the only Salinger who cares about the whole family, is the first one (after Griffin) to notice Julia's strange and elusive behavior in this last months. She calls so many times that Ned allows her to visit the house one day. After realizing Owen's problems, Julia confronts Bailey, taking Charlie's side (because Charlie did the biggest job the last five years) but Bailey, angered, coldy dismisses her considering her latest absence and how miserable she was with Owen in season 4. Then, Julia talks to Charlie, now taking Bailey's side, but he dismisses her too because now she is against him. Julia, saddened, returns to Ned's apartment. Claudia still worries about Julia and confronts her in Stanford, while Maggie overhears. Maggie realizes Julia's troubles and finally opens Charlie's eyes to the truth about Ned. Charlie, Bailey and Claudia now know about the hitting, so the brothers travel to Stanford to take Julia back. In a great and intense scene, they throw Ned to the floor (he was having a shower) and try to convince Julia to leave the guy, but she is trapped and in tears says she can handle it (great Neve's performance). In their way back, Bailey blames Charlie for Julia's troubles but the guardian says the truth: if Nick and Diana Salinger in 1994 would predict where the siblings would be in 1999, Charlie's life is not far off but Julia's life is unbelievable: married and divorced to a motorcycle guy and now in a hitting relationship, not to mention her miscarriage. So Charlie was always right about Julia, he wanted her to be what Diana and Nicolas wanted, but she just made her own decisions, ignoring Charlie's wishes, and now she is who she is. In the last scene of Julia, she secretly asks Maggie how many times Ned hitted her, and both girls say they sorry.
As for the rest, Claudia reads bedtime stories for Owen and comforts him over the fights between Bailey and Charlie. Also, Sarah starts acting like a mother to Owen and Charlie doesn't accept it (it's clear he knows that the role of Owen's mother was mainly played by Kirsten, so now he struggles to see Owen happy with Sarah). In the last two seasons, Sarah become a member of the family and Charlie and Sarah's mother struggles to accept it. And what Sarah said to him was right, she told that she much more than a babysitter for Owen, despite not being married to Bailey, and he should know that better than anyone. She implied that he always treated Kirsten as family and Owen's mother, despite not being married, so she expects the same treatment after 3-4 years. Although I know that Charlie treated unfairly Sarah in this episode, he's right that she can't make a commitment to Owen, she is too young and she will realize that she is making a mistake in this season finale. On the other hand, Sarah's mother will get married again to a divorced man with 3 childs, and tries to bring Sarah into the new family. But Sarah tells the truth, her mother chose that new family, not Sarah (and no one will replace her dad). Overall, this episode was great, intense and sad. The last scene just shows how depressing is all the situation, with Charlie still unhappy, as he has been basically since mid season 3, sleeping alone in a common bed (not the parental) with Diana on the crib.
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