I was reluctant to give a review here because I gotta say, this is one of the worst episodes of the whole series. Sarah's story was ok and it's worth a little. Justin and Julia, well, their part was acceptable. But what Charlie and Claudia did here shadows everything else. No one knows what to do after the disaster and probably neither the writers did. Bailey and Julia, instead of cleaning up the mess, throw the cake away and take out all the damn chairs, they ask Charlie what to do. He's clueless and wants to escape to Mexico, to not see the house, the bed and the backyard everyday, and wants to take Claudia, who hates him. Bailey and Julia say maybe she can go, but they actually think that Claudia will never forgive him. What happens next, Thurber eats the cake and the rest is history (horrible turn out 1). Then, Bailey and Sarah spend time with her grandmother who remembers Sarah's deceased grandfather. While checking old letters, Sarah discovers that she is adopted. She asks for an explanation to her mother, who tells the truth. Sarah, mad and shocked, leaves and decides to stay in the Salinger house for a while. Bailey tries to comfort her but she is insecure feeling that she doesn't know who she is and which was her birth name. Mrs Reeves visits but can't help her daughter and explains to Bailey that there's no right time to tell the truth about adoption (they tried when Sarah was 3 and she couldn't handle it). Finally, Sarah realizes that she doesn't feel in "home" at the Salinger house, and decides to return to her house. Anyway, Bailey tells her she will always be welcomed in his house. About this revelation, it was good to introduce a character as adopted, but Sarah shouldn't feel so lost. Like Bailey said, the Reeves are her parents and always loved her. As for Julia and Justin, they start having meaningless sex after getting drunk in the disaster. At some point, Justin's father confronts him, but Justin tells that he saw him with another woman in 2x08. Justin's father regrets it and says it didn't mean anything. Julia tries to comfort Justin about this, but he doesn't want to, because he feels that he can't trust her after what happened with Griffin. He also thinks that he doesn't want sex to mean something with her. Anyway, later at the coffe house, they reconcile definitely, recognizing how much they know each other and what they mean to each other. It's like they get back together because they know each other so well, and to make it easier, Julia suggests taking baby steps. This was an ok plot, their reconciliation was built in 3 episodes, but it wasn't really really enjoyable. For the record, in a meeting with her gynecologist, Julia says she hates pills, so this gives a hint for the future (one contraception method less).
Anyway, for the horrible and unbelievable part of the episode: instead of suffering like they should, Charlie and Claudia have a holiday in Mexico and meet persons to avoid the supposed pain. Charlie meets a girl, Courtney, who talks about traveling, etc. They spend some time and Claudia sees them, along the kid she met, Enrico. Incredibly, the two siblings feel crushed on these persons. Probably in the second day, Charlie's worried about Claudia because she disappeared, and when he finds her, he tries to ground her, so she tells she won't obey him. She says she saw him with the other woman, so for being so selfish she hates him even more, she won't listen to him. Then, Claudia shares her first kiss with Enrico after talking a little about what happened with Charlie. It's unclear how many days pass, and I'd like to believe that Charlie wasn't spending day and night with Courtney because he had to watch Claudia (and maybe she made him feel guilty). Besides, the woman tells Charlie that they don't mean anything to each other, that he's just confused. Then, in the travel back home, Claudia can't believe how he could be so cold and painless to be with another woman just a week after losing Kirsten, that he already moved on (horrible turn out 2). He thinks she doesn't believe he has a heart at all, so he says that he wanted to ignore his feelings but that he was an idiot because he still misses Kirsten. Claudia misses Enrico too (really?). When they arrive home, they seem in better terms (horrible turn out 3, Claudia still should hate him), and find Kirsten carrying her last box from the house. She says she's sorry for being there, and Charlie tells her no to apologize. Like me and probably the viewer, she can't believe that they went to Mexico anyway. She says she didn't plan to see him and just wants to say goodbye to the kids later. After she leaves, he finally understands that he deserves to suffer, sees a dried bouquet he bought her after their first fight (1x05?), picks it up and gives it to Claudia, so she gives it to Kirsten, and he goes upstairs to be alone and feel the pain. I don't understand how the writers decided to send Charlie and Claudia to Mexico after the disaster. Besides, if Claudia disobeyed him without reasons in 1x20 when Charlie was being a true and responsible father, why she'd have accepted to travel?? The most logical would have been that Claudia wanted to stay away from him. So that travel should have never happened. They should have been in the house or the restaurant, suffering. Because Kirsten is suffering with her parents, so which right Charlie had to go to Mexico? Why they had to write Charlie to be so cold and heartless here?? There's no logic reason to believe this, the true Charlie Salinger would have never done this. He wasn't a bad person, so there's no way for this storyline. I don't get how they made this part of the episode, I'd like to know that Matthew hated the job he made here. If there was an episode to erase from Party of Five, I'd choose this one.
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