With this episode ends Charlie's cancer storyline when he finds out at the end that he will be ok, after a call with Dr. Rabin. For me this was the last greatest episode of season 4. The development was the best without doubt, and the acting was brilliantly touching. First, Charlie, Julia and Bailey are with Dr. Rabin, who tells them that she will call him next day to give the latest test results after finishing radiation treatments. Julia confronts Griffin over Rosalie's note when he arrives home near 2 am, he initially lies so she assumes the worst. He says unconvincingly "I didn't sleep with her", so she guesses something happened and storms out the shed. Although Griffin didn't sleep with Rosalie yet, the fooling around is not a minor theme, so Julia was obviously right in getting mad at him. Later, he tries to talk to her in the house but she can't even be in the same place than him, so she goes away leaving their marriage with a sign of ?. Next day, he visits Rosalie again and finally cheats on her in one of the worst times of her life (no excuse for him). Anyway, when Griffin stole Julia from Justin showed the kind of guy he is. Meanwhile, Bailey can't deal with Annie and Charlie's situation at the same time, as she begs him to be there for her, that she needs him to stay sober, so he leaves her temporarily alone, saying she can't depend so much on him. It's a little strange Bailey's behavior here because seemingly he forgot how dependant he was on Sarah a year ago. Anyway, the best moments of the episode and some of the best of the series come next. While Charlie plays with Owen, and teaches him the knock knock jokes, phone rings, the kid takes it, and talks with Dr. Rabin (Owen talking to the oncologist, funny scene). Charlie takes the phone and later at the hospital, he learns the doctors found something, an irregularity, can mean getting well (scar tissue) or a road to chemotherapy and maybe death (if radiation didn't work and cancer is still there). Dr. Rabin promises to run a gallium scan and that she'll call him as soon as she knows what means. So he, Bailey and Julia go away to Tahoe's cabin to escape their problems, while Kirsten stays with Owen and Claudia in the house (Claudia wanted to stay, once again needing Kirsten). In the snowy Tahoe, the three find some games they played, like Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, and some books. They divide their chores: Julia does groceries, Bailey prepares the beds and Charlie picks up firewood. He goes outside and has a flashback from the past, where he sees how the three as kids built once a snowman. Then, they play with snowballs near the woods, with Charlie and Julia attacking Bailey from behind. Then Bailey responds and the snowball war begins, and they even attack Charlie who thought he was safe because he has cancer. Honestly, this was one of the best scenes for the three in the entire series. Then, Bailey prepares the fireplace, they read, and Charlie thinks about calling home, but they say if needed, Kirsten would call. In the night, Bailey and Julia remember how Charlie babysat for them in Tahoe when their parents went to see a movie, and how he entertained them with food and snowballs, because there was a blizzard and they couldn't reach Nicolas and Diana. They want to distract him playing risk, but Charlie refuses, and saddened, reveals the irregularity and the gallium scan, saying he wish he could be a kid and be afraid only of dark (emotional scene with a great soundtrack). Later, Bailey and Julia confide in their troubles, Julia admits that turning down Stanford and getting married were two big mistakes she did without thinking. She thinks that their parents death made her want everything now, act impulsively because tomorrow who knows (and seeing Julia's actions in last seasons, even her words in 1x02, makes sense). Also, Bailey tells her about Annie's relapse in alcoholism, being dependant on him and that sometimes he wishes he could be more selfish (blaming their parents), instead of helping people in trouble. They realize that the three are running away. When the phone rings at 3 am, Charlie is scared to pick up so Bailey does: it's a wrong number. So a saddened Charlie, watching the snow falling through the window, tells them how the March 22th of 1994, at 23:45 he received the news of their parents death, how everything changed since then, and what phone calls in the middle of the night mean for them. He mentions some scaring cases, "don't see your brother when you pull up to daycare, he's been kidnapped", "your sister gets home late from a mussic lesson, she got hit by a bus", "Dr. Tells your test results turned up an irregularity, you're gonna die". Bailey tells "don't do this to yourself", but he says that since their parents died, he finds hard to believe things always are going to be ok. This was one of the best scenes of the series, amazing, sad and emotional, with a perfect soft piano theme. Means a lot, and says how Charlie feels, so many bad things happened since their parents death, that he lost faith, hope in life. In the morning, while Charlie makes a last check up on the cabin, Julia convinces Bailey to not blame their parents for their decisions. Then, with another perfect piano theme playing, the three leave in Julia's car while Charlie remembers themselves as happy kids there making angels in the snow, saying they won't return, thinking that the good times are forever gone. But in Charlie's memories from the past, I see the shape of his future, because I'm sure he'll return to Tahoe's cabin one day, with his beloved wife and their children, to relive the same happy moments he had as a kid. He'll regain hope and faith in life, he'll be the father, his wife the mother and Owen will be the "older brother" for their children, spending time in the snowy cabin, just as his parents did with the Salinger siblings.
Meanwhile, in home, Kirsten takes care of Owen and Claudia just as if she was Charlie's wife and all the wrong things didn't happen (shape of the past). She checks on the mail, asks Owen if he wants to help, and sees that Claudia applied to a boarding prep school, Philips Academy, in Massachusetts (the shape of Claudia's future). Claudia comes and retrieves the letter, not wanting to talk much about it. Then, they play hide and seek, Owen counts to 50, so she and Claudia hide under the parental bed. There, worried, she talks to Claudia asking why she applied if they doesn't know yet if Charlie will be ok. Claudia says that now it's when the applications are sent, and that Charlie'd want her to go to a good school, but Kirsten says "not one that is 3000 miles away", and thinks she might want to run away. Claudia doesn't answer and reveals their hideout to Owen, who was getting desperate. In the night, Kirsten gets up (I wonder which bedroom she chose) and in one moment checks up on Claudia who is sleepless. Likely with the Child Psychology in mind, she tries to convince her of seeing another therapist, maybe to accept things if Charlie dies, but Claudia refuses saying that after her parents death, she tried that and was getting good at it, but that's over. Now she won't try to be ok with people leaving her ever again (Kirsten felt touched by this, probably because in some ways, though she didn't want to, she left her too). So in the morning, after Kirsten reads Tahoe's snowy weather saying that must be very pretty up there (this means that she would like to be there one day), happens the greatest scene between them today: Kirsten, almost in tears, tells Claudia she sometimes imagines Charlie is dead to prepare herself, and tries to live the day with that feeling (Claudia says she does the same), but that then she can't deal with it, she just wants to know he will be ok. Claudia says they don't know if he will, and Kirsten agrees, sharing their sadness. This scene has a deep meaning: Kirsten realized that the scientific side (her 5 years of study in Child Psychology) is useless for this cases, for Claudia. Instead, she reached Claudia with her own feelings, sharing what would mean for her losing forever the love of her life, her lost husband, so that's how she could understand Claudia today. Then, for the message in the machine, Kirsten takes Owen and Claudia for chinese food, planning to return to the house 7 pm, Charlie arrives home and laughs while hearing how Owen was playing and Kirsten had to stop him. In the final scene, is showed the shape of Kirsten's future too: Charlie happily sees Kirsten holding Owen asleep in her arms, with Claudia next to her. That picture was perfect, showing how things always should have been for them, the four as a family, like in the good old times. Soon after, Dr. Rabin calls, and though they want to be with him to hear the news, Charlie tells he'll go upstairs. There, he cries while he learns that he is going to live.
On the other hand, after returning from Tahoe, Bailey finds out that Sarah helped Annie to go to rehab while she watches Natalie. All the scenes of Sarah were also great, proving how good person she is. With her experience in from season 3, she tries to help Annie to stay sober because she knows she can't do it alone. Annie knows that Bailey went to Tahoe, she called the house and Kirsten told her (Annie knows Kirsten), so she pushes Sarah away. But in the night, after a worried Natalie tells her that Annie passed out, she wakes up her in the shower, and comforts her, convincing her of checking into rehab for Natalie's sake. Here there's a hint of a future between Bailey and Sarah too, because they are going to take care of Natalie the next two episodes and another kid in season 5. Julia also returns to try fixing things with Griffin, saying she trusts him, the only problem is that she is not aware it's too late. To finish, I have to praise the score, the set and the snow, all gave a special tone to the episode, dark, touching, sad, and hopeful at the same time.
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