Season 5, Episode 6: Forgive and/or Forget



Sarah tells Bailey
she can't have sex with him


The credits: scott bairstow, jennifer aspen, jacob smith, dori brenner, and heather mccomb, kris iyer, jeff michalski, edited by dave dworetzky, costume designer scilla andreen-hernandez, 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 steven robman.
Transcribed by Rachel

Hospital
The whole family (plus Kirsten and Sarah) is at the hospital visiting the baby. Diana is still in the incubator. Owen asks to be held up which Bailey does. They have to wait a little bit longer to hold the baby, she needs to gain a little more weight to reduce the chance of catching an infection. She needs to start eating and then they can take her home. Claudia asks if Daphne is dying to hold the baby. Kirsten points out that it must be good to rest after major surgery which Julia seconds. This all overwhelms Daphne who asks Charlie to take her back to her room. He does and tells the others to stay away so she can rest. They say good by and then all rush back to look at the baby again.

Hospital
Sarah and Bailey are talking about the responsibility of a baby. Bailey says he wants to do it some day and he would never act like Will, but if there was a choice of when... Sarah points out that was the point of her question because if there is an accident then they have to deal with it. Bailey says he's really lucky to have the things he does, a great job and Sarah, but that's all he has room for right now. He doesn't want to be a father right now. He reassures her that it has nothing to do with them.

Stanford
Julia tries to get into her room. Maggie's laundry is blocking the door. Julia offers to do it with hers. Maggie asks if that will mean she's her friend. Julia doesn't respond. She went to the housing office and there is already a waiting list for transfers. It's too late for a refund so one of them can move off campus, but sometimes someone in the dorm is willing to trade. Maggie tells her to shut up. Julia counters that she was just answering her question. Maggie wasn't looking for the answer to an essay question. Julia apologizes again and wishes this could all be over, she could move and get out of EC-12. She offers to stay out of the room part of the time. Maggie agrees. Julia asks when she should start. Maggie says now. And when can she come back. Never, Maggie responds.

Hospital
Owen and Claudia are visiting Charlie and Daphne at the hospital. Owen and Charlie are watching television while Daphne and Claudia play craps. The nurse comes in with the baby. They are all surprised to see her out of the incubator. The nurse says she weighs 3 lbs. 8 oz so she brought her down. Owen wants to see the baby, but the nurse says he might have a lot of germs. Claudia takes Owen out of the room while Charlie holds his daughter for the first time. Daphne is very uncomfortable. She's scared that she'll break her. With coaching from the nurse and Charlie, Daphne takes the baby in her arms.

Claudia tries to amuse Owen in the waiting room. Owen wants to watch the 3 Stooges with Charlie. Bailey comes in and asks Claudia why she hasn't left for school. She sidesteps his questions by saying that Charlie needs her to be with Owen. When he presses her further about calling the school she tells him the baby is out of the incubator. This news diverts Bailey's attention and he heads down to Daphne's room.

Stanford
Julia is in Ned's dorm room. He had the same reaction from Maggie. They don't really blame her for acting or feeling the way she does. Ned tells Julia she can stay over. His roommate comes in while they are lying on the bed. They quickly move away from each other. Ray is wearing a "God's Varsity" t-shirt and says that he's not sitting in judgment of their behavior, but it is his room, too. Ned says nothing has happened, well practically nothing. Julia is very uncomfortable so she packs up to go to the library. Ned goes with her bringing a blanket and two pillows.

Sarah and Bailey's apartment
Bailey comes home. He tries to cuddle up with Sarah, but she has work to do. She packs up for the library. Bailey questions why she's going at 9 pm. She tells him not to wait up.

Hospital
Charlie and Daphne are sleeping when the nurse comes in with the baby, a doctor and a lactation specialist. They shove the baby at Daphne's breasts without explaining how she should breast feed. Charlie also gives her advice, but it all serves to make Daphne more uptight and upset. The baby continues to cry, never beginning to feed. She asks if they can try the bottle. The nurse says if they put her on the bottle, she won't want to try the breast. As Charlie pushes her she asks for some privacy. She can't do this with everyone looking down her chest. She gets more privacy twirling pasties as a shore leave party. Charlie points out that they can't get her off the IV until she starts eating. Daphne asks them to put her back on the IV because this isn't working. The nurse takes the baby. They'll try again later. Charlie and Daphne are both frustrated and upset.

Sarah and Bailey's apartment
The alarm clock goes off. Sarah reaches over to turn it off. Bailey starts kissing her, but she cuts him off. She was pushing the snooze because she needs a little more sleep. She rolls over on her side with her back to him. Bailey offers to make her something greasy for breakfast. She says that would be nice, later.

Stanford
Julia is discussing her spreadsheet with the group from her economics class. Everyone is impressed with her work until Maggie, also a group member, starts to shoot holes in it. Suddenly the mood in the group shifts and they decide they have a great deal more work to do.

Hospital
The nurse is back with Charlie trying to feed the bottle to Diana. She still isn't taking it. The nurse offers to give his wife another try. Daphne doesn't understand why she would take it from her if Diana won't do it with Charlie. The baby starts to cry and Daphne asks Charlie to take her. She stops crying in his arms. Daphne comments that the baby doesn't like her.

Stanford
Julia follows her economics professor out of class. She wants to switch out of her group. The professor asks why. In front of several other people Julia tries to explain about the situation with Maggie and Ned. The professor doesn't even grace her with an answer.

Owen's bedroom
Claudia and Owen are packing up his things. Claudia tells him he's being a big help. Owen comments that he's a big help at moving himself out of his own room. Griffin comes in and asks Claudia why she hasn't gone back to school. She again uses the excuse that she needs to help Charlie. She has to organize Diana's clothes and hang up her mobile. Julia comes in looking upset. She's surprised to find Claudia and Griffin there. She's says she's fine, but walks into the door frame as she leaves the room.

Griffin follows her down into the basement. Julia is crying. Griffin takes her in his arms and says that he's sorry. He doesn't know what for, but he's sorry. She pulls away. She's such a waste of oxygen and nutrients and tuition. It's not that big of a deal, but it's the first grade on her brand-new transcript and she can't believe that it's going to be an incomplete. She's dropping the course not because of a death in the family or cancer or a premature baby. She's doing it because of this awful thing that she did. She looks at Griffin's face which is filled with "I told you so." She can't talk to him about this because she knows how he feels about it and he won't understand and it'll only make her feel worse. She walks out of the basement.

Hospital
Charlie and Daphne are watching the baby through the window. The doctor comes out and tells her she's free to go. She can stay an extra day if she wants, but Daphne is ready to go home. Charlie asks if she wants to keep the room. They have to be there every two hours to feed the baby and she might want the bed. She says she wants to go home. He asks why she would want to ride back and forth from the house 12 times a day with her stitches. Daphne asks if he'll do the feedings, they don't need her if they're going to bottle feed her. Charlie asks if she would feel bad if he stays. She says it's okay. He says it's okay for her to go home as long as that's what she wants. She says it is.

Nursery
Claudia comes in to find Diana's clothes strewn around the room. She notices the window is open and a sleeper is hanging out. She looks out the window into the backyard. Claudia walks outside to find a pile of Diana's clothes and her mobile lying on the ground.

Sarah and Bailey's apartment
Sarah crawls into bed with Bailey. He tries to nuzzle her, but she keeps reading her book. He tries to kiss her again, but she makes him stop. He asks if she had a long day. She asks if he remembers when he wanted to go to Oakland to see the fires and she was scared because she thought an ember would get in her hair and start her on fire. The idea of sex is the same thing. There isn't much of a chance, but she is still scared and he isn't listening to her concerns. If she got pregnant and the father was somebody who didn't want to be...she knows that Bailey would support her, but she would still be going through that alone and that would be scary. It really scares her and makes her feel not safe. Sex with him feels really not safe.

Hospital
The nurse comes out into the hall with Diana. Charlie is asleep in a chair. She asks where his wife is. Charlie tries to explain that Daphne isn't there. The nurse doesn't understand why she isn't there, doesn't she understand how important this is? Charlie says she doesn't know the first thing about Daphne. She's scared. His...wife is scared and so is he. The nurse interrupts him. Diana is feeding from the bottle. She starts to give him advice about holding the bottle, but Charlie asks her to be quiet. His baby is trying to eat. The nurse just smiles and leaves them alone.

Stanford
Ned finds Julia in the library. She is hiding from Maggie, mostly, but also from him. He asks why. He asks if she's blaming him for leading her down the road of temptation. He thinks she's doubting them and herself because this is how it started with Griffin. He knows that she was the Yale guy, Justin, when she started dating Griffin. Just once she'd like to start things up the way you're supposed to, both people free. That's exactly what she's thinking. Well, he would have liked it to be that way too. He asks if she wants him to leave, but she says no.

Salinger house
Charlie comes in with the baby. She ate every hour all night and her weight is almost up to 4 lbs. He's having a minor overflow crisis. He takes her into the nursery with Claudia, Owen, Kirsten and Daphne trailing behind. He asks for diapers and wipes, but they are still in the car. He requests Kleenex which Owen goes in search of. Claudia offers up a t-shirt. It's Charlie's "Earthquake Series" t-shirt, but he decides it's a worthy cause. Claudia and Kirsten help him put the t-shirt on the baby while Owen and Daphne stand back ignored and feeling a bit left out.

Sarah and Bailey's apartment
Sarah comes in late. With everything happening with the baby, she's just let things slip and has a lot of homework. Bailey says that he's going back to the restaurant since she has work to do, unless she wants to say anything. She says she doesn't. He'll see her after closing. She tells him to not be late.

Dining Room
Charlie is walking Diana around. Claudia comes in and tries to talk to him about Owen. She doesn't know what to do about it. Charlie asks if he's acting jealous. She says he is. He points out that he acted the same way when Bailey was born, bailey when Julia came along, etc. Claudia thinks it's worse than that. He says he can't deal with it right now. Whatever it is, it happens all the time.

Stanford
Julia and Ned are in bed together. He's snoring pretty loudly. She wakes him up and comments on it. He is the loudest sleeper she's ever known. He asks if she hates him now. She laughs. She finally has met someone louder than her, Julia "Hacksaw" Salinger. Her last... Ned asks if he was harsh on her. Julia realizes that she just said "her last." She just realized that Ned is her first since Griffin and she used to really worry about that and now it's done. She feels good. They kiss.

Sarah and Bailey's apartment
Sarah wakes up to find Bailey sitting in the corner of their room. She asks if everything is okay. He says that when he got into bed she reached across and put her arm on his chest. She was just being sweet, but when she does stuff like that it does things to him. It makes him want stuff. She apologizes. It's okay because he wants stuff to happen. She asks if the sex is that important. He says it isn't just the sex. It's all the other stuff that goes along with it, the feeling that she wants him, that she trusts him. Without that it's just not enough. He thinks they should take some time apart. She can't believe it. He's going to go back home and stay for a while. She still can't believe it.

Charlie and Daphne's bedroom
Charlie wakes Daphne up to feed the baby. She asks him to give her the bottle. He points out that Daphne hates the pump. It's the only way if she's going to learn. Daphne doesn't think it'll work. Diana starts to cry. Daphne thinks it means she doesn't want her. She doesn't feel the mother stuff. Charlie takes the baby back. She stops crying. When the baby came out of her belly, she was supposed to be her heaven and earth, but the first chance Daphne had she ran away. She felt glad to be gone. Charlie points out that she's tired and she has postpartum. It happens to mothers. Daphne asks him not to call her a mother, because she isn't . They named the baby Diana after his mother not because she squeezed him out, but because she loved him and she wanted him and stuck around his whole damn life. That's not her. Someday, maybe, but not today.

Kitchen
Charlie is getting ready for work. He's already taken 4 extra days off work. Daphne points out that one more day without shop is not going to put a dent in anyone's education. It's his job, he likes it and he would like to keep it. He tells her she'll be fine. She's concerned about staying home alone with the baby. Finally he agrees to call Kirsten and have her come over and stay with them.

Sarah and Bailey's apartment
Bailey's bags are packed. He'll come by to pick up his mail. Sarah will leave his messages on the machine. Sarah doesn't understand why he has worked so hard to have grown up things in his life like the apartment and his business, but the one grown-up thing she needs from him he can't handle. It's really sad because otherwise he comes so close.

Kitchen
Bailey comes home to find Claudia sorting the garbage. He can't believe she still hasn't gone back to school. The school costs a lot of money. She knows, but Charlie needs her. Bay asks if Charlie has asked why she hasn't left yet. She says he's too busy. That's exactly the problem. She's only making it worse by staying. She has to go back. He tells her to go get her bags packed, he'll call the airline.

Stanford
Julia comes into their dorm room. Maggie comments on how Julia slept over at Ned's. She doesn't care because she knows that they just had to get away from her and Griffin, but the sex is all they have. They don't have what she and Ned had, two years of being friends and then one night when you break down and admit how much you love each other. She tells Julia to have fun, she gives it a month. Julia leaves without a word.

Salinger house
Kirsten comes in and calls for Daphne. There's no response but she hears the baby crying. She comes upstairs to find Daphne standing by the crib. She's telling Diana that Kirsten will be there soon and she will know what to do. Kirsten eases back from the door and listens while Daphne finally breaks down and picks the baby up. Daphne starts to sing to the baby, "Hush little baby" inserting Daphne instead of Momma. Kirsten sneaks back out of the house undetected.

Airport
Griffin brings Claudia to the airport. She can't believe she's leaving again, going so far away. Griffin points out that Christmas is right around the corner. She asks him to take a picture of Diana every now and again and send it to her. He agrees. She also asks him to keep his eye on Owen. He also agrees to that.

Living Room
Owen comes in wearing his pajamas. He asks why Bailey is there. Bay says he's going to stay at the house for a while because there isn't really room for him at his apartment right now. Owen says there isn't room for him either.

Charlie comes up the steps after his day at school. He goes in the dark nursery, but it's empty. He goes into his room to find Daphne rocking a sleeping baby. He asks if everything is okay, did she and Kirsten do okay? Daphne tells him that Kirsten couldn't come. She had an emergency with her cat. He asks if it went okay. Daphne says that if she cried as much as the baby did she would need surgery on her vocal cords. Charlie points out that she stopped. Daphne says that it was 10 straight hours of rocking and changing and begging and oh yeah, breast feeding. Charlie is so happy she did it. Daphne just stuck it in her mouth to shut her up, but once she started it was like a breakfast buffet. Charlie asks if he should take her, but Daphne says she's fine. Charlie kisses Daphne on the head and looks at them with awe.
Notes:

When I talked to my mom tonight she asked me what was going to happen on the show, should she tape it since she was teaching a class tonight. I, of course, told her she had to. I felt like last week's episode was really strong and this story line has so much potential. I am sitting here at my computer really blown away. I did feel that last week was one of the better episodes, but this follow-up was everything I look for in Party of Five.

I always wait expectantly to see who the scribe for the evening is. Tonight was a treat because P.K. Simonds is one of my favorites. Chris and Amy do a great job, but all of my favorite episodes have been penned by P.K. or the now-departed Mark B. Perry. P.K. knows this family and he has a wonderful grasp on Daphne. With characters as complicated as the Salingers, the supporting characters often are foils for the family. The biggest exception to this has been Daphne. She is so complicated that I never quite know what to expect and I wait each week to see which new side she is going to reveal to us.

The series of scenes between Daphne and Charlie were wonderful. Matthew Fox is one of the finest dramatic actors on television today and Jennifer Aspen keeps up with him famously. Her trepidation with the baby is not surprising. We haven't heard or seen much about her family, but her comments about Charlie's mother being more than just the person who gave birth to him tell me there is more to this story. Again, Kirsten understands the delicate place she has in this relationship and she backs away to give Daphne the room she needs. It nearly broke my heart when Daphne started singing to the baby and inserted her own name instead of "momma" in the lullaby.

The breast-feeding. I have a ton of opinions here! Years ago when my siblings and I were young my mother chose to breast-feed in the face of completely uncooperative medical staffs. Now that the medical community has chosen to recognize the great health and nutritional benefits of breast milk there is a presumption that mothers will chose to breast feed. That's great, but in the move someone forgot to remember to talk about the bond between the mother and the child and how to help the two make the move to a relationship that allows for this wonderful thing to happen. I don't think it was out of line that Daphne was scared and unsure and it was hard for her to bond with Diana. She thought she was going to have 8 more weeks to get ready for this baby. She's just lucky that she lives in TV land where a baby will still breast feed after eating from a bottle because that one doesn't work very often. (Gratuitous plug...if you're an expectant or new mother, check out La Leche League. They should be listed in your phone book.)

I thought Charlie's speech to the nurse (when Diana finally started to eat) was totally on the mark and classic Matthew Fox. Charlie gets it. Daphne is so scared, they both are. They're so scared they don't even bother to correct people who all presume that they are married. Diana's birth has been completely overwhelming and there hasn't been much support for them as very young, new parents.

I find it interesting how Po5 juxtaposes story lines. Last week we had Hannah abort a pregnancy as Diana was fighting her way into this world. This week we had Charlie rejoicing in his fatherhood while Bailey deals with the ramifications of not wanting to be a father. This is painful for both Bailey and Sarah, but they each feel strongly about their position and there isn't a lot of middle ground. I don't know what is going to happen with this pair, but they may have finally run their ship aground for good.

Julia is really growing on me and in a good way. This week I could actually feel her pain and instead of my usual opinion that she's getting exactly what she asked for, I felt a little sorry for her. I can't decide what's going on. Part of me feels bad because she really did just want to go to school and her crying jag in the basement was something I could relate to, but on the other hand she pursued Ned. I hate to admit it, Jule, but part of me really agrees with Maggie. I don't think we're in it for the long haul with our good pal, Ned.

Thank you, Griffin, for giving Julia a shoulder to cry on and thanks for taking Claudia to the airport. I've said it before and I'll say it until my fingers bleed...give Griffin something to do! This is a great character portrayed by a gifted actor and I want to see more of him!!!

Nice to see Claudia at home, but it was also good to see Bailey on her case. That school is expensive and she chose to go there so she needs to get back. I do sympathize with her feelings that she should be at home. It's really hard to feel like everything is happening where you aren't and you might miss out on something big. It was a great device to use Claudia to notice Owen's behavior and how classic it was of Charlie to sweep that under the carpet right where he put Bailey's alcoholism and Claudia's truancy.

It looks like Owen is going to get his big story line. His behavior is a little beyond the usual sibling rivalry. I'm glad that we have an older actor, but I have to admit I'm still getting used to Jacob Smith's portrayal. He's doing a good job, he's just a lot older than I think of Owen. It's a difficult position for the show trying to get someone who can do a good job portraying a 4 and a half year old, but this might not have been the best solution. I guess I'll reserve my final judgment.

Last thoughts...great job on continuity. Charlie does still have a job and it was great to see that he actually had to go to it. He even mentioned that he's missed more work than he should have. Did you notice the jeep in the background at the airport lot? I guess someone thought it wouldn't be feasible for Griffin, Claudia and her suitcase to go ripping down the freeway on his bike. I also like the fact that Daphne isn't instantly thin again. It takes a while to lose that pregnancy weight and she looks like she just gave birth.

This was promoted as the 100th episode. According to Keyser/Lippman folks next week actually is the big one. It doesn't matter to me, I still think this was one of the best.

Copyright 1998 by Rachel Vagts. All rights reserved.
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