A drunk Bailey has an accident in the Jeep and hit a post. And this makes him to vision a world where Nicolas and Diana could avoid Walter Alcott 6 years ago. They pondered going home where Charlie was with Claudia and Owen, so I guess Julia and Bailey were somewhere else in the moment of the accident. And then, Bailey's vision jumps to 6 years later. Julia and Justin have been together the last 5 years and recently they got engaged. She didn't have any other boyfriend and they live together in their own place. Still, they have a weekly dinner with their parents as the Thompsons and the Salinger parents are friends. They also plan to travel in the summer. Seemingly, Claudia has been a prodigy violinist since she was 11, I guess her mother accompanied and supported her when she was a child, and then she started touring around the world and the country on her own. Also, she has been with guys, and more than one. Charlie returned to college for Architecture but never graduated and now he still is a womanizer. He refused to work in the restaurant and had a life apart, angering his dad. Bailey has been in college the last few years but failed recently, he is probation, same as Will. He got his own place with his friend and they plan to leave town with a rock band. Also, he has been working in the restaurant 3 nights a week, with Nick and Joe, he is an alcoholic (yes, incredibly he drinks a lot and no one is worried) and smokes. Owen plays the piano and seemingly his mother took care of him the last years. As for Kirsten, she is working in a clinic as a therapist and usually offers help to pregnant women. I guess that when she found out that she couldn't have kids in 1994, Charlie wasn't there to make her stay, so she went to Chicago with her sister and then she decided to switch from Child Psychology to a different career, focused in therapy, pregnancies and maternity. Now, is the 31th anniversary party for Nick and Diana, so the siblings (mostly Julia) have to plan the celebration. But each one has his own issues. Charlie is having dinner in his place with a woman, who tells him about his unfinished career, but another woman, Felicia, visits him saying she is pregnant. She tells him to go the next day to a clinic, and meet Kirsten. She tells Felicia that she can choose to have the baby for adoption or if she chooses to not have the baby, she can go to a doctor for an abortion. Charlie arrives late and when he hears about the chance of adoption, he tells Felicia that he is not ok with that as she can change her mind, have the baby and demand something from him. Kirsten, obviously angered, lectures him about how irresponsible and selfish he is, without thinking in consequences of unprotected sex. Felicia stops the discussion, thanks Kirsten for her help and kindness and leaves. The next day, she goes to a doctor in the same clinic, while Charlie waits outside. Kirsten finds him and apologizes for yelling at him, telling that her own emotions intefere in her judgment, but he says it's ok, probably recognizing how bad he behaved. He wonders why nobody asks if he could raise the child alone, he wants to have kids, and she tells him that he could. He tells that his parents doesn't trust him to take care of his siblings, they don't see him as a father. She says parents know nothing, as hers wants her to marry the first doctor who asks (this proves what happened in 4x06). He answers that his parents know more than him. The next day, he looks for her outside the clinic, and tells her that Felicia will have the baby, he will assist her and they'll follow track of the baby and the adoptive parents. He also says they won't be back together. Kirsten tells him that is great and that the clinic doesn't mind if the parents are together or not. She asks if there is something else, he says that he just wanted to thank her and let her know the turn out. Then she leaves, but he stays looking at her, probably thinking in asking her for a date. This one was their nicest scene today and I wonder why the script didn't say: Charlie asked Kirsten: Do you want to go for a coffee?, Kirsten: Yeah, that'd be nice. Those lines were missing. Then, Julia has her own problems when her mother wants to spend more time with her and Justin, also, she sends her to a garage to fix her car. There, Julia meets Griffin, she is nervous but gives him the phone number to call about the car. After Julia learns Claudia's record with guys in her tours, she meets Griffin again in a bar. He says he was in the same highschool than her, Grant, but he dropped out. He asks her to go to his place, but she declines and leaves. The next day, she visits him telling she remembers that he was in a band and played the guitar. And then, they sleep together. Later, she tells him that she has a boyfriend, he feels used and lets her go. Finally, Julia tells Justin that they should wait to get married and not announce an engagement. She wants them to be together but away from their parents, to feel that they have to be together because they love each other and not because of them. Of the 4 stories today, the most real was this one, Julia's. It's clear that with her parents alive, she would have had Justin as her stable boyfriend and not one guy after other. Also, I bet that Libby would be alive, so Julia would have never wanted to rebel herself. And yes, today she had a one night stand with Griffin, but it didn't mean much. As for Claudia, she confides in Ross, telling him that she misses her home and her family, so she wants to stop the tour and arrived two days earlier than expected. But later, she feels sad when she finds her room all occupied with other stuff, and sees that nothing is like it was before, each one has a life, and she doesn't belong anywhere. At last, Bailey is totally lost with Will. He is afraid of leaving SF, and of telling his dad that he wants to quit Salinger's and go to work for a rock band. He seems to enjoy a crowded recital, but when the band leaves and Will waits for him, he can't. Finally, everyone is reunited for the party, and all the siblings congratulate their parents, except Bailey. He stays in the bar, avoids Joe's questions, and says he won't go anywhere. His vision disappears, he is in the Jeep and no one got hurt and then he returns to the house. Charlie, Julia and Claudia are waiting for him, so I guess that Kirsten is with Owen upstairs or in the apartment. Bailey tells them he won't blame his parents for his problems and that he will check into rehab. Charlie offers him a ride and his sisters join.
This vision is very bad, except for Julia's part. The siblings, and especially Charlie, always talked about how great were their parents. In 3x21, he would defend his dad against anyone, telling Claudia how good he was and how much they loved him. In 4x19, they all were really sad, thinking how much affected them the loss, and how many bad things happened because of that. After watching the whole series, it's very hard to believe the story of this episode. The message is: if their parents were alive, the siblings lives would be a disaster, much worse than in the reality. So I don't buy it. Let me tell you how things would have been. Mrs Kelleher retired in 1994 so Diana had to hire another nanny for Owen. Option 1, she tried to make Bailey a more responsible person for Claudia and Owen, so he had to hire the nanny, and ended up hiring Kirsten. Diana accepted because she was good with kids and had references, and one day, Charlie met the new nanny, they fell in love and they got married. Option 2, Diana hired another nanny, and Charlie met Kirsten one day after he returned to college in Berkeley. They fell in love, and he tried to change from his womanizing not only for her, also because his mother was a good influence on him (he hinted this in 2x06). Kirsten met the whole family, and probably Diana let her and Charlie babysitt Owen and Claudia, in a way to make him responsible. And the day of the wedding, Charlie would have been ok, because his parents would have been there not only to let him live his own life with Kirsten, also to clear his doubts about marriage (and tell him that he can adopt a baby with Kirsten until they other way, like IVF or the surgery). Then, to stop Bailey from getting in trouble, Nick made him work in the restaurant. Sooner or later, he would have noticed the alcoholism, and with Diana they got him help. They would have lectured him about how to stay sober, so Bailey one day would meet Sarah or other girl, and that way he could get over the alcoholism. Also, he would make his own life, under his parents watch, knowing that with a good girl like Sarah or other one, he would be ok, responsible and sober. Julia, was ok her part today, no changes. And Claudia, she would have been a very good violinist but I think that she would have never left home for a long time. She loves her family so she would have stayed. It's impossible to believe that the child of season 1-2 would have left home so young without caring about anyone. Diana wouldn't want that. And that's why Bailey's vision is so bad. It says that his parents were terrible people, who wouldn't notice his alcoholism, who wouldn't care if their 14-15 year child was traveling around the world alone, or if Charlie was an irresponsible womanizer of 30 years old. I believe in the true message of the series and Charlie, who always said how wonderful were his parents. The message has to be that if their parents were alive, all the bad things, like Charlie's first failed wedding, Julia's miscarriage, Bailey's long problems with alcohol, Kirsten's depression, Charlie's cancer (probably), Claudia and Owen's neglect in season 4, and Julia's bad relationships, would have never happened.
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