Season 3, Episode 21: Hitting Bottom


Transcribed by Julie Gumm

Sarah is waiting for Julia. No one has heard from Bailey. Sarah said she called but he wasn't there. They all start quizzing her. Callie said Bai never come home. They had agreed that they weren't going to call him. Even it has been four days. The girls think they should call Grace but Charlie says they're doing right. "Is this because of what I said?" Claudia asks. It is, but she's not so sure that she was right. Charlie says they can't keep cutting him slack because Bai will keep making and breaking promises. "This is what we're doing. We're drawing a line and sticking to it," Charlie says.

Coach is waiting at the gym for Bailey. They hold up the match until the ref says they have to go on. It was the divisionals.

Julia is standing on the steps outside of school talking to some girl. She sees Griffin sitting on his motorcycle. They make their way to each other. "You're back?" she says. He gives her a hug.

Bai is sitting in his jeep. He's completely out of it. Definitely tired, I'm not sure if he's hung over or drunk. The coach comes out and Bai goes up to him and tries to make an excuse. Coach tells him that he really let the guys down, they felt like Bai had taken them to divisionals. Coach thought this was going to be his year to win divisionals. "We had an ace in the hole. We had you," he says. Bai tries to say something but the coach says no and leaves.

Claud & Charlie are cleaning up from dinner. She wonders if it was like this for their parents; if it was that bad. "Did he threaten her, or hit her?" she asks. Charlie doesn't understand why she needs to know all this stuff, but she does. Charlie tells her he doesn't remeber anything.

Griffin and Julia are in the coffeeshop. She's telling him all about Bai and how they keep checking up on him. She notices that Griffin's limping. He says it was just a little fall on the boat a couple months ago. He didn't want to tell her. They fired him. "I wanted to come back with all that stuff--job, a purpose," he said. She tells him she doesn't care about all that stuff anymore. "Last time I saw you you practically had a 20 year plan," he says. She tells him that she's not planning so far in advance and right now she'd be happy to just spend some time with him.

Bai comes in, kicking in his wrestling stuff. He goes to check the machine. Callie tells him that there aren't any message, his family doesn't call. He says he doesn't want to hear from them. Callie asks how the party was and he says there was no party, he was celebrating because today he won another match. "Well, congratulations," Callie says and walks into the bedroom. He follows her and tries to make small talk, then he starts trying to seduce her. She tells him no several times. "This is supposed to be a turn on. You crawl into bed and slober all over me?" she says. "They are right about you. You've got a problem."

Claud goes over to Avery's house to quiz him about her father's alcoholism. He says he doesn't remember, but you can tell that he knows something. Avery wants to know how it helps her to think bad things about her father. She says she wants to remember good things but she's not even sure that the good memories are real.

Julia goes over to Griffin's hotel room. She says he could do better but he doesn't even have a job yet. She says maybe getting a job isn't the only way. She suggests that he file a claim against the boat because it was their fault. She says she'll help him find a lawyer and the money could buy him some time to find a job he really liked, or travel. "I want to get out of here, don't you. I want to go someplace great with you. I want you to take me someplace great," she says. "You want me to...okay," he says.

Charlie goes to pick up Owen but he's not at daycare. She tells him that Bailey came and picked him. Charlie asks how Bai seemed and the lady says OK. Charlie's about to tell her not to let Bai pick him up, but he doesn't.

Bai and Own are at the boardwalk eating cotton candy. "I feel sick," Owen says. He warns him that he'll be back on brussel sprouts back home. Bai goes to take him to the bathroom to clean him up. "Who's your favorite brother?" Bai asks. Owen doesn't respond so Bailey says, "Bailey, stupid" and Owen repeats him.

Julia and Griffin go to see a lawyer. He's kind of a sleaze and after he calls Griffin Gavin, Julia suggests they sneak out. Griffin kind of likes him. I feel like he's selling me a used car. I feel like he's selling me my car, Julia says. "I hate when you do this. It's always the same. Give Griffin something to do and he'll screw it up," Griffin says. But he says he already promised him the case.

Julia comes home and Sarah is over at the house and she wonders why. Bai picked up Owen four hours ago and it's getting dark. They called all the hospitals. Julia suggests they call the police. Claud doesn't want Bai to get pulled over in case he's drunk. Charlie calls the police and says he needs help finding his brother. Owen is on Bai's shoulders running through the parking lot to the jeep yelling at him to stop. "That's the sign of a good ride, when you can't wait for it to end," Bai says.

They're all pacing around in the kitchen. Claudia tells them that Dad used to do this to. She said Nick used to go on fishing trips and instead of coming home on Sunday, he would show up on Tuesday and be drunk. "Just in case you think this is bad, it gets worse," she said. Julia sees Bai come in through the back gate. Julia rushes out and

that he was just spending the afternoon with his little brother, he does it all the time. Charlie says that he doesn't; Bai's been completely AWOL for the last two months. Charlie can't believe that he would endanger Owen. Bai said he's only had one beer but won't let Charlie smell his breath. "Owen's my brother too," Bai says. "No he's not," Charlie screams. "Just when I thought my family couldn't love me any less..."

Sarah thinks they have to go after Bai because he's been drinking and now he's going to drive. "Right," she says. None of them answer her so she runs after Bailey.

Julia comes over to Griffin's hotel room. She barely gets in the room when she bursts into tears. "I'm right here," he says. Then they start kissing and she starts unbuttoning his shirt. "Are you sure?" he asks. She says yes.

Charlie goes over to Avery's and wants to know why he's telling Claudia all this stuff when she's already upset. "She's going to think that whatever happened to Dad is going to happen to Bailey," he said. Charlie said that his dad wasn't that bad and he got it together pretty quickly and Bailey will do. Charlie thinks that Avery just did it because he was in love with Diane. "That's not it; because there's so much worse I could have told her," Avery says.

Sarah runs into Bai's apartment building and bangs on the door. No one answers, not even Callie. She sits down to wait.

Charlie comes home; Owen and Claudia are watching TV. Charlie's late for the restaurant and wants to know if Claudia and Owen want to come. But Claudia doesn't. She blames Nick for Bai's problem and she doesn't want to go to the restaurant because that would mean she forgave him and she doesn't.

Bai staggers up the stairs. When he sees Sarah he turns around and heads out the door. She runs after him and yells at him when she sees that he's going to get in the Jeep. She says she'll drive him anywhere he wants to go, even to a bar, but he won't give her the keys. She runs around to the passenger side and gets in. "Think about what you're doing," she screams. She tries to get the keys but he tells her to get out. She doesn't and he starts the car and takes off. She tells him to be careful but he yells at her to shut up. Then she screams his name and her looks forward to see a cab coming through the intersection (his light is red.) He slams on the breaks and swerves. Sarah hits her head on the windshield (I'm not sure how this is possible since she had her seat belt on, but oh well.)

Charlie's running down the hall in the hospital. The nurse says he can't go in but tells him that she's got contusions and she's in observation for a concussion. "Wait, where's Bailey?" he asks. The nurse says that Bai just gave them her parents number and left.

Bailey climbs in the jeep with a bottle. He goes to start the car and looks at the spider-web crack in his windshield. He grabs the bottle and takes a couple swigs, make that gulps. He turns the engine off and keeps drinking.

Julia wakes up. Griffin is sitting staring out the window. "Something on your mind?" she asks. He says not really, he was just afraid to fall asleep. "I was afraid that one of us was going to suddenly wake up and realize that last night was a big mistake," he says. She tells him that it wasn't a mistake. "Now it's like we're together in a different way. Really together, together and I want that, don't you?" she says. "It's weird. I didn't really know it until you got here. Last night was so what I need right now. I really want things to work out for us," she tells him. Griffin says he doesn't want it to be like that. "You can't second quess everything I do, you got to trust me every once in awhile," he says. "Whatever you're going to do, wherever you're going to go, we're going together," she says.

Julia comes in in the morning and Charlie blows up at her and says she can't just disappear like that, especially now. He tells her about the accident. Julia asks where Bailey is and she figures that he must be ok if he drove Sarah to the hospital. "I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought I could just draw a line somewhere and it might hurt us but it would mainly hurt him and he would come around," he says. But there's other people involved. Claudia comes in and says that it's no ones fault, their dads. "Would you cut it out. You're not helping anyone with that," Charlie yells at her.

She runs up to her room and Charlie comes up and apologizes for yelling. He says he doesn't understand why Claudia is so upset at Nick. "Because of what he did to us," she says. Charlie says that he's made lots of mistakes, things that have hurt the family and what if Owen looks at Charlie someday like Claud is looking at Nick. Claud says it's not the same, but Charlie says it is. "He was a good father, Claud. And if he was still around he'd be a good father now," Charlie says. "Is Bailey going to be OK?" she asks. Charlie says he hopes so, but he doesn't know. He wipes a tear off her face and kisses her on the forehead.

Sarah is asleep in her hospital room. Bai is standing in the dark in the corner of her room when she wakes up. When she looks at him he starts to cry. "Will you help me?" he asks.


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