This episode was good, but I noted that the screen time for the cast was unbalanced. The whole episode was mainly focused in Julia and Bailey's stories, Claudia was slightly behind, and Charlie-Kirsten had much less scenes. I counted: Julia 10, Bailey 9, Claudia almost 6, Charlie 5, Kirsten 3, Griffin 4, Daphne almost 3, Evan 5, Brian 3, Holly 6, etc. My point is that, overall, in the series, the cast had the screen time well distributed, even in the last episodes the differences between all the characters screen time was smaller. That is what makes the series Party of Five, so is not fair or good to limit the time for Claudia, Charlie and Kirsten today, and elevate Bailey and Julia like if they were more important. Besides, personally, I prefer Claudia, Charlie and Kirsten. For those reasons, has been hard to rate the last episodes and this one, I know that probably they don't fully deserve a 9, yet in some ways yes and in other ways not. Finally, I stay with the best moments, the ones that raise the score, and decide to "forgive" or ignore the ones that don't make the difference.
About the plot, Julia is confused by Brian's attitude and Evan's lack of reaction/show of feelings towards her (she compared Evan with Ned, one with no reactions and the other with full reaction), so she decides to finish the relationship (Finally!! Goodbye Evan, Brian). Still, Julia is the one who make mistakes, Evan's past with his deceased wife changed him, it's not his fault. Besides, she forced the relationship. Meanwhile, Bailey is on a date with a girl who only laughs at everything he says, so he asks Joe for help. Tracy visits and tries to lure him away but he says he can't leave this time. Later, at home, Holly, a pre med british student, visits the house and he begs her for a date even though she rang his doorbell by accident. The date goes well until Franklin (Tracy's husband) finds him at the restaurant and hits him because the affair. Holly dumps him with good reasons, but mistakenly calls him a "kid". Then, they meet at the hospital where he is rude to her for judging him without really knowing him. It was a good way for Bailey to meet a nice girl? Yes. It was good that he begged until she said yes? Probably not. And considering the future of this relationship, I'm not sure if It was meant to be. Then, about how ended the affair with Tracy, Bailey got what he deserved, even though Franklin surely was cheating on his wife. Still, how Bailey could be so dumb by leaving Salinger's matchbooks in Tracy's place? In the morning he should have thought about it.
As for the rest, Griffin still is with Daphne (not a good idea, she is almost 8 years older and a single mother), and convinced by Julia, wants to talk her about how they are, the feelings. But Daphne doesn't want to talk about it and prefers taking a ride. Griffin has only one helmet, that she uses, so when the accident happens (Daphne lost the balance of the motorcycle), he is badly injured. In the hospital, all the family is present, Julia and Claudia decide to authorize inmediatly the surgery for him (for his hands), although Charlie express doubts about the expensive procedure. Anyway, Kirsten gives him a look of support, so he accepts. As for Claudia, she decides to stay away from Alexa, Cameron and Derek, considering their popular life goes on, like if she didn't suffer almost a rape. Alexa tells Claudia that she chose not to report Derek so now she can't ask her to punish him. Later, at the homecoming party, Claudia accepts that everything went right in the situation with Myra, and asks her for bottles to drink. After getting drunk, she bothers Alexa, Cameron and Derek. She doesn't reveal Cameron's secret (that he doesn't like Alexa's superficial personality) or Derek's assault, but she gives some hints telling them how they act like if nothing bad ever happened. Claudia did the best she could do in this situation, she blasted the "popular people" from school for pretending life is perfect, for ignoring problems, even their own. Still, it's hard to see how Cameron or Alexa could be so "casual" with Derek, what the guy did was terrible and seemingly they didn't blast him for it.
Anyway, the best of the episode, and the main reason of why I rate 9 and not less, were the lonely scenes of Charlie and Kirsten. Finally was revealed when is Charlie's birthday: one of first days of December. He tells Kirsten that it's no big deal, it's "the same old me". She says that he's not so old, and he wants something simple and humble, just dinner with family or something. She supports his idea, suggesting to invite only his siblings, loved ones and have pasta or to ignore it. He doesn't want to ignore it so seemingly accepts having only his loved ones. Then, they start trying IVF again so she hands him the hormone injection for her. Later, Charlie visits the house to take some of his drafting stuff because Will needs room to sleep in the basement. Bailey tells him about dating two women at the same time and Charlie feels that his brother is better than his old past womanizing side, like he put his old self to shame. After that, he checks with Owen some boxes in the basement, where the kid asks if he needs a teddy bear and he accepts, probably thinking he might need it for his future child. Owen also finds papers, rulers and pencils, which Charlie says he'll take too. When Charlie finds an old design project from school that he did, he shows it to Owen, who can't believe that he did it himself (what a miracle Charlie sharing a nice moment with his "first child" this season). Before Griffin and Daphne's accident, Bailey invited them and Victor for Charlie's birthday, but for the first conversation, it's obvious that Charlie didn't want so many people. Later, in the roof of the hospital, Kirsten brings him a pancake with a candle, to celebrate his birthday. With the wind blowing and the landmark view of San Francisco, Charlie tells her that he saw Griffin lying in the hospital bed, making him remember himself almost 2 years ago. She says she remembers (and yes, she is the only woman who can say that), and he tells that he will quit teaching, and gain more hours in the factory, because they need money for the baby. He says that when he was in the hospital bed close to death he promised himself that if he lived he wouldn't waste time in things that doesn't matter. He says that he had to put his life on hold many times, when his parents died, when she went away (when she was taken away), when he got sick, so he trusts fate, that the all the things he wanted most, always returned to him, she did and so the designing will. He wants to focus on having their own baby and wait for the rest. This was a really nice and touching scene (with a great sound), the best of the episode, because somehow gave Charlie what he wanted, he didn't want a big birthday party or any celebration, he just needed his beloved wife with him, with a cake, nothing else. In that beautiful speech, he implied that for him, she is the most important in his life, so that's why he'll place having their own baby on top of everything else. Then, this episode implies Charlie was born in early december of 1969, considering he was 24 in 1x13 when he invited Kirsten to move into the house and that he was 28 when cancer treatments started in 4x10. All those birthdays were not showed, partially because he downplayed them, he had nothing to celebrate because this is the first birthday since 1994 that he could spend together with Kirsten. I would have liked to see much more scenes with them today, they are somehow the best of the season. Also, recently passed their 4th anniversary of their failed wedding in season 2, the first one that they spend together and married. It would have been good to know how they behaved that third weekend of November 1999, because the date is unforgettable, and yes, it's in the past, but they'll live with it forever. It reminds them that they could be 4 years officially married now, instead of 2 months. Maybe they ignored it or maybe not. Something is sure, they are glad to be waking up everyday together, and happy to be working for having their own baby.
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