Jacob Gordon finally appears in the Salinger's lives. First, he reaches Bailey and offers to pay a scholarship for college, and introduces himself as Mr Williams to him and the school. In a dinner, Bailey meets him, Williams says that when he was young he realized he wasn't cut out to work for other people, so he started a company which became successful in marketing ads. Later, a bigger company bought him out, so since then, he has been assisting people, different business, hunting down "people with future", like Bailey. He asks why he chose him. "Mr. Williams" says that he heard what happened to his parents, so he got interested on his case. He also starts asking questions about them, especially about Diana. Bailey isn't uncomfortable with this, just surprised, so he tells that his father was a person loved by many people, and that her mother would be grateful to someone who offers a scholarship for her son. Bailey also tells that his mother was someone you had to win over. After these answers, they proceed to dinner, and Bailey still can't figure out the reason of the questions. Later, with Sarah's help and support, Bailey visits his parents grave (2nd time), and tells her that they barely ever visit the cemetery, but after last night, he felt he had to. She says it's nice the place, and when they look at the stone, they see yellow flowers right under Diana's name. This was a very nice scene, it made me think of why the Salingers never were seen again in the cemetery since 1x10. If Bailey took Sarah, would have been great to see Charlie and Kirsten there before, with Claudia and Owen of course, or Julia and Justin. Then, Bailey asks his siblings if they left the flowers. Claudia says she didn't, and asks why he didn't tell that he went, saying she hates when someone goes there and doesn't tell her (this means how much Claudia would love to go there if her siblings took her). Julia says she'd remember if she took flowers for mom (obviously). Charlie denies and doesn't seem to care, being distracted by certain stuff (what a terrible guy he was written to be here). So Bailey finally realizes that his benefactor is his lost grandfather. When he confronts him at the hotel, Mr. Gordon explains his recent story: he thought about making amends because he's getting old, so he went to the City Hall looking for his lost daughter, and there he learned that she was deceased. He says it shouldn't hurt losing someone you never had, but for the look on his face, it's clear it hurts. Anyway, he found out that he has five grandkids. Bailey guesses that he never met Diana as an adult, so tells that Julia looks like her. But Jacob says that he doesn't want to meet the rest of the siblings, he can't be a grandfather, give them what they need from him, he only can provide money. In crossroads, Bailey decides to reject the offered money unless Jacob meets the family. He explains that is not fair for him to get the benefit alone because all of them need him, especially Claudia and Owen. He also remembers that Diana barely talked about her father, and when she did, she said he was someone who made things worse. So at the end, Jacob finally decides to do the right thing: he shows up surprisingly in the family dinner (last seen in the good old times), and introduces himself. Obviously this was the best story of the episode, Bailey managed the situation very well, Claudia and Owen have been miserable lately, they really needed this. Carroll O'Connor did an excellent job, Jacob Gordon was the person expected to be. Bailey was the responsible sibling here, the good guy, in a similar way than in 1x02, where he was the one who comforted Claudia when she went looking for their grandfather.
The opposite happens with Charlie, who, without Kirsten, is back to his womanizing ways and starts cheating on Emily with a wealthy TV producer named Kathleen. Claudia realizes this when her teacher gives her some soup for Charlie thinking he's sick. She knows he spent a night in somewhere else, and now she knows it wasn't with Emily. She gets mad at him, so he says that his personal life is not her business, so she tells it is because Emily is her teacher (besides, since he's the guardian, so his personal life obviously affects the family one way or the other), and tells him to dump the other woman, since that has been something easy for him in the past. By the way, Owen was present during the argument, and Charlie jokingly said to him "what are you looking at?". It's sad, or bad how the writers turned Charlie into a completely different man, a selfish immature jerk, he's still the guardian of the family, and has been a great father and somehow husband in the good old times. This storyline only shows how many steps backwards Charlie was forced to take, in my opinion, the wrong road taken for the development of the character (as I explained before). For the record, he's 26 years old, the only father Owen knows, and the writers did this. That's the main reason of why this episode deserves a lower rate. As for Julia, she helps "nerd" fellow student Miller to improve his social image, while he helps her to pass a computer test given that Justin couldn't help her. For some reason, Miller teaches her about the computer problems in a perfect way so she understands. Although first reluctant, Julia accepts going on a date with him in exchange for helping her because he explains he needs it. Miller said that his only date went wrong so he just wants for someone to tell that he's a nice guy. He knows what his classmates thinks of him, he sees the jokes they write in the bathroom, so he wants to change that image. At the end, Julia somehow enjoys the date so he's glad of feeling "different, but in a good way". Julia is proving to be good at helping needing people, she helped PK, Danny, Alison, Griffin, Justin and now Miller. This is one of Julia's best qualities so far.
The opposite happens with Charlie, who, without Kirsten, is back to his womanizing ways and starts cheating on Emily with a wealthy TV producer named Kathleen. Claudia realizes this when her teacher gives her some soup for Charlie thinking he's sick. She knows he spent a night in somewhere else, and now she knows it wasn't with Emily. She gets mad at him, so he says that his personal life is not her business, so she tells it is because Emily is her teacher (besides, since he's the guardian, so his personal life obviously affects the family one way or the other), and tells him to dump the other woman, since that has been something easy for him in the past. By the way, Owen was present during the argument, and Charlie jokingly said to him "what are you looking at?". It's sad, or bad how the writers turned Charlie into a completely different man, a selfish immature jerk, he's still the guardian of the family, and has been a great father and somehow husband in the good old times. This storyline only shows how many steps backwards Charlie was forced to take, in my opinion, the wrong road taken for the development of the character (as I explained before). For the record, he's 26 years old, the only father Owen knows, and the writers did this. That's the main reason of why this episode deserves a lower rate. As for Julia, she helps "nerd" fellow student Miller to improve his social image, while he helps her to pass a computer test given that Justin couldn't help her. For some reason, Miller teaches her about the computer problems in a perfect way so she understands. Although first reluctant, Julia accepts going on a date with him in exchange for helping her because he explains he needs it. Miller said that his only date went wrong so he just wants for someone to tell that he's a nice guy. He knows what his classmates thinks of him, he sees the jokes they write in the bathroom, so he wants to change that image. At the end, Julia somehow enjoys the date so he's glad of feeling "different, but in a good way". Julia is proving to be good at helping needing people, she helped PK, Danny, Alison, Griffin, Justin and now Miller. This is one of Julia's best qualities so far.