Season 5, Episode 1: Moving On


Julia and Maggie


The credits: scott bairstow, jennifer aspen, adam scott, ross malinger, jacob smith, and heather mccomb, edited by stephen potter, production designer bill eigenbrodt, director of photography joe pennella, co-producer valerie joseph, producer daniel attias, producer paul marks, supervising producer steven robman, consulting producer p.k. simonds, co-executive producer tammy ader, executive producer ken topolsky, executive producer john romano, written by p.k. simonds, directed by ken topolsky.
Transcribed by Rachel

Opening scene:
Charlie and Daphne are at the obstetrician. She's doing just fine, but Charlie is being over-protective. The doctor says they could ease up a little bit, even have a cup of coffee now and again. Charlie continues to nitpick Daphne's behavior as the doctor tries to intercede. She implores them to trust each other.

Loft
Sarah and Bailey are checking out a new loft apartment. He states that the mirror on the ceiling will be the first to go. She can't afford it, but he says he will. She accuses him of being very "1950s", but he points out that the restaurant is doing well so he would like to share that success with someone special, the girl he loves. She agrees as long as he lets her pay some of the expenses. She then points out that if the mirrors are the first to go, they should give them a try. They have 20 minutes until the Realtor comes back.

Outside the Salinger house
Owen is helping Julia pack her car to go to Stanford. Griffin shows up to say goodbye. Julia says he looks different, does he have new jeans? No, he just washed them. Griffin comments on how little she's taking with her. She doesn't want to be weighed down with a lot of stuff. He points out she still has her ring on. She forgot. She takes it off. He asks if she'll be home much, she doesn't know. He goes to leave, but she pulls him into an embrace. He tells her not to get too smart, he barely knows what she's saying now. She watches him walk down the street.

Opening Sequence: scott wolf, matthew fox, neve campbell, lacey chabert, jennifer love hewitt, paula devicq, jeremy london, created by christopher keyser & amy lippman

Stanford
Julia arrives to a chaotic Stanford dorm. Students are in the hall, loud music is playing and people have already been noting her face in the freshman pictorial directory. She goes into her room to find a man dressing. She apologizes, but he tells her he's her roommate Maggie's boyfriend. They are both barely dressed. Julia offers to leave, but Maggie says they should all get used to living together. Julia is a bit taken aback. Ned (the boyfriend) has a born-again roommate that wouldn't approve of them sleeping together.

Salinger's
Charlie apologizes to Bailey for being late. He's doing some remodeling work on the restaurant. Bailey is completely harried. He has a health check, a life insurance physical and a meeting with the merchant's association. Charlie teases him that he's becoming old before his time, he even has some chrome up on his dome. Bailey looks back into the restaurant trying to figure out what Charlie is talking about. He finally gets it and Charlie continues to tease until Bay pulls out a knife to check it out.

Bay and Sarah's apartment
Sarah is talking about her sexuality course while Bailey continues to look for bald spots. He doesn't find any, but he thinks he spots a gray hair. Sarah reassures him while she expounds on the difference in ages when men and women reach their sexual prime. Women do at age 35. She makes Bailey guess, but he doesn't have a clue. It's age 19 and he only has a few days until his 20th birthday.

Stanford
Julia gets a phone call. The guy is trying to pick her up, but she lets him down easily. He wanted to show her his lizard collection. Maggie agrees with her decision. A guy delivering food is looking for "Lisa". Maggie tries to get Julia to say she's Lisa, but she won't . After he leaves Maggie asks why she is acting that way. Is there a guy back home? Julia looks uncomfortable, but says she just came there to study and to learn.

Salinger Living room
Kirsten is helping Claudia pack to go to Hanover. Charlie is staring out the window watching for Daphne. She walks in from the kitchen. She was hungry. She was hanging out with some friends who are in a band. Charlie asks if it was fun to hang out in a smoky garage. Were they using amps? Daphne tells him to come out and say it, she shouldn't be hanging out in a smoky place with loud music. Kirsten gives them a look. Charlie says he's just curious. Daphne leaves the room. He follows her to their bedroom. They get into a fight about her friends. He asks if they are together, but she says she doesn't know. She asks him if he knows why she agreed to have the baby. It was the look in his eyes. It meant so much to him. They used to have so much fun together, he was a totally relaxes fun guy. She knew this wasn't going to be easy, but now she can't remember how she got to this place. All the things that made her say yes, she doesn't know where they went. She takes her pillow and goes to sleep downstairs.

Stanford
Maggie and Julia are sitting out on a bench in the dark. Julia asks if it's like Maggie thought it would be, everyone all coupled up. She thought she knew who everybody would be, but they are all different than what she expected. She still knows what she's there for, but what's going to happen and with who . . . she doesn't have a clue. Maggie tries to get Julia to go get coffee with her and Ned, but Julia needs to redo her creative writing sample.

Salinger Kitchen
Daphne comes down to find Charlie making her breakfast. She's amazed to see bacon, it has nitrates. Charlie says his mom raised him on the stuff and it isn't going to hurt their baby for her to eat it. He was thinking about how much fun they used to have playing air hockey. They haven't played since she got pregnant and she's really good at it. He canceled their tour at the hospital and they will do whatever she wants to do for the day. She feels bad, but she already has plans. Charlie is surprised to realize that she didn't plan on going on the tour, but she says she figured she would just go to the hospital when it was time. He can come with her, it's just a bunch of strippers. He tells her to go, that was the whole point anyway.

Doctor's office
Bailey is having his physical with Dr. Bob, his pediatrician. The setting is quite juvenile. The doctor says they have to talk. Bay wants to know if it's about his hearing test, it isn't, but Bay has lost about 10% in his upper range. Also, his blood pressure is a little high for his age. Bay is getting worked up now. But, the thing Dr. Bob wants to talk about is Bailey finding a grown-up doctor, someone who deals with the issues of a man his age. Bailey doesn't want to switch, but Dr. Bob offers him a lolly and tells him it'll be okay.

Street
Kirsten stops to get some change from a street vendor for her parking meter. While she waits she notices Daphne at a sidewalk cafe. She has a glass of wine and appears to be slightly drunk.

Salinger's
The whole family is meeting for Claudia's goodbye dinner. Jamie gives her a disk with an applet that will take her straight to their web page. He put a violin for her and a lectern for him. Bay offers to serve the dessert even though Kirsten hasn't shown up. She comes in, she couldn't find a place to park. Charlie worries about Daphne having to park a long way away and walking. Kirsten says she saw her and Daphne won't be coming. Sarah asks Bailey about the limerick she wrote, but he's busy. Claudia asks Julia about her first day. She says it was great and there is a freshman mixer that night. Claudia is disappointed. She hoped Julia would spend the night in their old room with her. Julia says she'll skip the party. Daphne comes in. She's in a very exuberant mood. Charlie asks where she was, how could she be so late on Claudia's last night in town. He pulls her aside and asks if she's been drinking. They get into a shouting match. Everyone is uncomfortable. Daphne tells him not to push her. He asks if she's testing him. She walks out. Bailey says this is a good time for the limerick. Bailey goes to check on Charlie. He isn't okay, he has a really big problem here.

Claudia's room
She and Julia are laying on their bed. Claudia was thinking about how in 16 years she's only had 3 rooms, Owen's room, the tent and their room. She's spent most of her life looking up at that ceiling. She asks Julia how she'll be happy there without anything she recognizes and all those new people. Julia says it won't be that way, she'll meet nice people and get to know the place in no time and if she misses stuff, it'll still be there . . . all of them and the house. She can lie on her bed and think of all of them. Claud says she wishes she could take the ceiling with her.

Salinger Front Porch
Charlie goes out on the porch to look for Daphne.

Then next morning he walks out to get the paper. Daphne comes up the steps. She stayed at Dusty's. He says she doesn't have to explain anything. She accuses him of staying outside the house waiting for her, but he says he was out saying goodbye to Claudia. She asks why he isn't halfway to Boston. He sent Bailey instead, he wanted to stay and see if they could work things out. They can't just avoid each other, she's having his baby. She has to tell him what to do and he'll do it. She tells him he should have gone with Claud.

Hanover Academy
Bailey thinks Claudia is a little nervous, so they should stay for awhile until she gets settled. He offers to go play volleyball and go to their party, but Claudia has met some people who seem nice. She tells them to go to the parents' cocktail party at the Headmaster's house. She'll be fine.

At the cocktail party Bailey and Sarah are talking to another set of parents. As the man talks about financial aid and bills Bailey looks around the lawn. All of the men are bald. He tells Sarah he needs to leave. He needs some hair, he means air.

Stanford
Julia is sitting on the steps outside a building when the delivery guy walks up. He tries to make conversation but she ignores him. She asks him what about her sitting there alone working says that she wants him to interrupt her. She's a student and she's working and maybe he doesn't understand that, but she just wants to be left alone. He gets it and leaves.

Motel
Sarah comes out from the bathroom to find Bailey asleep. He can't believe it. He only has 8 minutes until he turns 20 and he fell asleep. He kisses her and starts to make out. There is a knock on the door and Claudia walks in on them. Bailey is all worked up that he's getting so old that he falls asleep with his beautiful girlfriend in the room waiting for him. Who needs sex and volleyball when you have early bird specials and bingo!

Hospital
Daphne and Charlie are on the tour with several other couples. They all look happy except Daphne. She says she can't do it anymore. She's going to stay somewhere else. He can't believe it.

Stanford
Julia doesn't think she'll get into the writing class. Maggie checks the list, she made it. The professor comes by and asks if Josh Macon. The delivery guy raises his hand. He wrote a really great story and she wants to talk about it in class. Julia can't believe it.

Hanover Academy
Bailey gives Claudia a credit card for emergencies. He also gives her a diary. He realizes it might be way too young, but when he's been having anxiety dreams about getting old and even though he knew it would be right, he wanted the diary to be right, her to be right for it. He wanted her to not be so old. He can't figure it out, nobody loves birthdays like him, but now they seem to be coming too fast. He was never a big brother until she came along, he's going to miss her. She hugs him. He asks her to promise to not change without telling her.

Charlie's bedroom
Daphne is packing. Charlie demands an explanation. She asks him if he knew what would have happened if things had been different. They would have had a great couple of months, but then one of them would have started taking a few extra days to call the other one. But, she got pregnant and they moved in together. Now they have all this pressure to iron everything out, but they are wasting their time because they aren't in love with each other. Why drag it out? He says he won't let her. He doesn't care about what she said because it isn't just about them. There is a baby, his baby and he won't let her take him away. She says she has to get out of the house. He asks where she will go, to her family, to Texas? She doesn't know, but she'll tell him when she gets there. She leaves.

Stanford
Julia walks up to Josh and tries to apologize for presuming that he was just a delivery boy. She was wrong for assuming that he was hitting on her. He says he knows a way for her to make it up. She can go out with him. Maybe she wasn't so wrong after all, but they might have a good time. He likes to know the writers whose work he's reading.

Kirsten's apartment
Kirsten tries to make him feel better. He knows her friends, he can call her family. Charlie is upset. She has his baby and he has no way to find him. What was he thinking? He got a woman pregnant who he had dated for a month and got her to move in with him. Why did he think that would work? Kirsten assures him that she'll call.

Salinger's
Bailey is working on his books. It's almost midnight and Sarah shows up. She couldn't wait at any longer. She's so passed jet-lagged, she's jet-logged. She wants to give him a birthday party if it's over pretty soon. She's totally exhausted, but Bailey has gotten a second wind. He turns up the music which is playing "Young at Heart." He has a little dance-type sequence while he sweeps the restaurant.

San Francisco
Julia has driven up to see Griffin who is house-sitting for a couple of weeks. She's lucky to have caught him, he was headed out to see a movie. He asks why she came. She says there isn't anybody like him at school. He says he thinks that's the point of the place. She keeps noticing that her ring is gone. It left a mark where it was. He tells her that eventually it will disappear.

Salinger house
Charlie tucks a sleeping Owen in. He looks into his empty room and then walks down the hallway into Claudia's room. It is very empty as well. He picks the pillow up off her bed and holds it and listens to the silence of the empty house.
Notes:

My very first thought . . . Paula's in the credits!!! I am so pleased to have Paula Devicq back as part of the regular cast. Her presence has always been a most welcome one in the Salinger family.

My overall sense . . . not the best, not the worst. As the cast and the canvas has grown the story has moved away from the Salinger family and that has always been the strongest aspect of this show. It was great to open the show with Owen actually having a thought and doing something mildly natural for a 4 year old. Jacob Smith was good in his limited presence, but to my mind he has already had more to do than the Cavernos did all last season. Speaking of limited appearances, I sure hope we're going to see a lot more of Jeremy London than we did tonight.

To run it down:
I've been watching the Lifetime syndicated episodes every day for the past four weeks and I have a whole new take on Charlie. Poor guy, he used to not care quite enough and now it's too much. When did he turn from the careless brother to the smothering one? He was riding Daphne awfully hard, but then again he has become pretty single-minded the past year or so. I tend to agree with Daphne about where their relationship was headed, but I have to admit my heart was breaking for him as he tucked Owen into bed and walked through the now empty house. Imagine suffering the pain of empty-nest syndrome at age 28!

Speaking of age, we'll jump to one of my favorite criticisms . . . lack of continuity! Claudia must have really, really grown up because when we last saw her she was 15, now she's 16. It's amazing. Maybe in a few months she'll realize she got confused on her date of birth ala Bailey last year.

Not to continue to be critical, but sometimes it's best to get it out of the way! I felt that the whole decision for Claudia to go away to school was drastically underplayed. We never saw her discuss this decision with Charlie and I would anticipate that if he didn't want her to go to the conservatory a couple of years ago he wasn't terribly excited about her going to the East Coast now. I thought the good-bye party was pretty chaotic, but then again so many things in their lives are. The entire event was saved by Claudia's goodbyes with Julia and Bailey. I loved the conversation Julia and Claudia had in their old room. One of the hardest things about a new situation is missing those old familiar places. I also thought Bailey's goodbye was very honest based on the way he had been feeling and the close relationship he and Claudia have always had.

Bailey. Funny story line. He has always been old before his time and now he finally is realizing it! I found this whole set-up to be a lighter take on the usual Salinger angst. He even seemed pretty happy most of the time and very pleased with his relationship with Sarah. I must admit though, I had a little ick factor going on with the whole scene in the loft with them on somebody else's bed!

Julia packed for college in a back pack? I took a vanful each year I moved in. Now, I realize I travel pretty heavy, but that was more than a little ridiculous! I was amused by how much she had built up what Stanford was going to be for her. She has now decided to go back and do those things she's been missing, but what she doesn't realize is that in taking the path she has in her life, she's ended up in a wildly different place than the rest of her peers. I'm still waiting for the "I have a husband" conversation with Maggie.

On the whole, it was a pretty good episode. I may be feeling more critical because of watching the first season again recently, but the show has changed. It's grown and some of that is good and some of it is bad. I continue to trust that the powers that be know what they are doing. It's good to see names we recognize like writer P.K. Simonds and my personal favorite, director Ken Topolsky. Their work has been consistent over the course of this show and what can I say, they made me cry. They always do.

Copyright Rachel Vagts, 1998.
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