Party of Five: Gimme Shelter (1996)
Season 3, Episode 9
5/10
Forgetting Who They Are
21 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This is the worst episode of the season so far. The only character that didn't change is Sarah. A forgettable episode overall. Bailey tries different sports to practice in college (football, hockey, etc) but only is accepted in wrestling. He sees the team is bad and there's no motivation so he wants to quit. He also criticizes Sarah's job, where she has to sing with a different voice, so she reminds him how he used to be and convinces him of trying wrestling, working hard. There, Bailey meets his coach at wrestling, Russ Petroccelli, who encourages him to practice, as he has the body type for it. This story was the best here because of Sarah. She tries to keep things how they are meant to be and is trying to save Bailey from losing himself in alcohol.

On the other hand, despite Owen's short presence, the stories of Charlie, Julia and Claudia are not good. The roof is being repared, so Julia, who has to study in the attic (her current room), deals with the construction workers, Sam and his brother Alec. Alec gets stoned in the job, so she pleads Sam to put things under control. He's not that kind of guy but eventually starts to react, fires his brother (?!?) and at the end shares time with Julia, who is falling for him. Julia starts to lose herself for love.

Charlie tries to keep things under control in the restaurant when homeless people are invited by a customer, but all turns out bad for him. He didn't want to lose customers so he mishandled the situation by kicking out one of the homeless who was making a scene, scaring people in the restaurant. All his siblings start to criticize him, the local newspaper and Grace call for a boycott to Salinger's. Claudia was nowhere to be found, as she even answers some questions for the newspaper, blasting Charlie for not being like their father (and so far in this season, he is doing ok running the family). She is the opposite person I saw two episodes ago, angered at him about the violin, when in Going Home she said she deserves to be punished (even in Personal Demons she felt bad about it). And Grace accuses him of being a selfish rich man who doesn't know how to take care of people. Finally, when Grace finds out that Charlie's parents died and that he is in charge of four orphans, she accepts to help him, taking volunteers to Salinger's after lunch to serve free food for homeless people. After solving the problem, she asks him for a date, and the idiot, totally forgetting he is a "Husband", a Father and all the things that happened in the last months, said yes. Charlie Salinger is not here, he's missing too. If Kirsten knew this, she would be mad at him, not to mention her parents. I can't believe how the writers kept making in Charlie's storyline. There's no way he could have accepted a date here, not only because he is waiting for Kirsten, also because Grace was horrible to him boycotting the restaurant and turning the whole local media against him.
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