This episode shows the second time that one of the siblings was really close to death. In last season was Bailey, now it's Charlie's turn. Begins with Kirsten in the house, trying a snorkel equipment for a vacation. Charlie has a cold, sneezes, and is obviously cold towards her for wanting to go for vacations while he has cancer. She tells he insisted in offering the equipment and he says she didn't have to say yes (I think he offered to see her and how she reacted, if she was worried about him or not). Claudia arrives and wants him to sign a note for a exam, and Kirsten notices she got an F. So Charlie realizes but, congested, he just tells her not to do it again. When Claudia leaves, Kirsten finally realizes how bad are things in the house for Claudia, and implies to Charlie that he should be worried too. Next day, he still is congested and sneezy and asks Julia and Griffin how much they can get for the shop. Griffin says not much, but Julia sees the bright side: they'll be debt free. In the night, aware that the cold is getting worse, Charlie calls Paul for a medical question (because Dr Rabin'd charge him), Kirsten attends, and after they listen his symptoms, like headache, fever and painful breathing, he tells him to go to the hospital. She asks Charlie if he needs someone to take him, but he says that he can drive there, so then, she rushes to meet him. Turns out that he has pneumonia (good that he didn't took that fishing cold trip two chapters ago) so he is inmediatly hospitalized. Kirsten is the first to reach Charlie (she surely told the doctors that she was his fiancee), and calls the rest of the family. There, she informs Bailey and Julia about the diagnosis, what the doctors told her, that he's heavy on anitibiotics and they hope they caught it early, and that they don't know yet if he'll be ok (great scene, if she was Charlie's wife, it would have been the same). Then, the three older siblings and Kirsten watch him sleeping in a tragic state. Claudia is devastated by the image so she leaves quietly, continues skipping classes and exams, and lies to Bailey about this, refusing to go to the hospital. This proves what Grandpa Jake said in 3x13, Claudia couldn't handle lose him little by little in a hospital, and now, considering it's Charlie the one near death, for her it's even worse. She goes to see movies or anywhere, with a saddened face, clearly depressed. Also, when she returns alone home, she erases the messages from the school saying she skips classes. I remember Much Ado, that she couldn't enter the hospital to see Owen, so that's how Claudia deals with this cases, her story was very well written here. Following the story here, next time, Bailey, Julia stay as long as they can with him when he wakes up, and tell that Claudia's at school or doing homework (?), and Owen is with Sarah. Kirsten and Paul visit, so the three ask him to read his chart, and Charlie wants to know how long he's gonna be there. Paul tells them that he's doing better, he's not that bad. Later, Dr Rabin tells Charlie that his treatments will be postponed while he's hospitalized, and that more radiation weeks will be added if he doesn't recover soon from the pneumonia, so he gets mad because he didn't expect this. Julia and Bailey are there and try to comfort him, but they can't. Then, Julia takes Owen to see Charlie, because the kid misses him, but he, still depressed, doesn't want to (Kirsten behaved the same way with Owen in 3x03-04). At home, Julia tells Bailey that Charlie is really depressed but he thinks it's no big deal because he has pneumonia. Next day, Kirsten visits and also tries to cheer him up, telling about the Three Stooges marathon on TV. She knows well he has the DVDs, but she mentions Stooges around the world in a daze, which he surely never saw (that's great, who doesn't like the Stooges?). Noticing that he hadn't eat anything, she offers him peanut brittle and then Bailey arrives with latte, both knowing the food he likes. Paul goes there too, surprised that Kirsten was in the hospital so early, and when Bailey asks, he tells them he's getting better, as the oxigen level is ok. Kirsten already noticed Charlie's depression, as he refuses to eat or do anything, not even smile, so when Paul tells a nurse he wanted to be in vacation, she has an argument with him in the hallway. She tells him that she sees Charlie's depressed, and she knows how depression feels, so she understands Charlie and wants to stay close to him. She's in tears so he comforts her. Bailey is still in the room and wants to close the door, probably knowing that if Charlie sees the other two together he'll get even more depressed, but he tells to close the door behind him. Bailey is reluctant but accept to leave him alone. When Bailey and Julia still want to cheer him up (they're making the same mistake than Charlie at the beginning of 3x04), he explains that he's done with being optimistic. He doesn't care anymore, he gave up and just wants to let happen whatever happens, if he dies, he dies. While discussing in the house, Bailey tells Julia he is overwhelmed by the restaurant, college and as apartment manager, so he decides to quit college, despite her protests. She suggests she could take classes for him but he refuses. Finally, Charlie gets better from the pneumonia and Dr Rabin tells his schedule for radiation won't change, no extra weeks will be added. Still, he accepts what he should have accepted weeks ago, he still may die from cancer, so he wants to write a will and asks his siblings to call Emmett. For personal experience I did it, and even now, with tests each certain years, I do, when you have this kind of disease, accepting death is a step you have to take. In the meantime, Griffin sells the bike shop to the owner who put him out of business, after learning he had no choice. Then, the owner offers him a job there because he needs it and knows the place, and he accepts only because Julia tells him to. The episode ends with Kirsten and Julia holding Owen's hands and taking him to see Charlie along Bailey. They open the door, and Kirsten lets Owen run to Charlie's arms. He happily holds him while the three smile and see. Charlie also asks for Claudia but Bailey says she's busy with school. Charlie shows to "his son" the bed tricks Bailey mentioned, and they all spend a nice time together.
What happened here was an excellent idea. Hodgkin's stage IIA with 6 weeks of radiation was too simple to be it. The complications were needed, the viewer had to feel that even though this is a type of cancer with great chances of surviving (over 75%), Charlie had to be in some moment really close to death. Then, Kirsten acted perfectly in this episode. She has an unbreakable bond with Charlie and the Salingers, she loves them so much, so she has no doubts in supporting Charlie, not only for him, for the rest of the family too. For Kirsten, Charlie is still the love of his life (she knows it deep inside), they spent two years happily together, so she can't see him close to death and go to vacation. Besides, considering all what he did last year for her when she was sick, all his caring and deep love for her, this was the least she could do now. Charlie stayed with her during her suffering of manic depression as long as he could, and he was willing to save her, to wait for her forever. She owes him to stay, be there for him when he needs her so much. So how can anyone expect Kirsten should leave him now? When he's close to death? Paul has to understand this, he knows the whole story, her depression and the cause of it, why she is on medication, so at some point he has to allow her to love Charlie and his family, it's just the way it is. In their last conversation, she told him that she simply loves Charlie, she can't help it (still, it's obvious that she would never be unfaithful to Paul). Anyway, I think that now he started to realize what he would say in 5x20. Bailey also did everything good today, he made the right choice in dropping out of college, it's not the time for it. He also got worried about Claudia, but he couldn't know she was lying about school. Julia was there for Charlie as much as Bailey and Kirsten, and also sent Griffin to the wrong place inadvertently. She sent him to work for the buyers of his shop, without knowing about Rosalie, who will cause damage in their marriage. Thinking in Dr Rabin's scenes, I wish could have been showed some moment when she visited Charlie, and Kirsten or Claudia or Owen were around. Today seemed that she only met Bailey and Julia, and as the oncologist, it's not fair to not show the moment when she mets all of Charlie's most beloved persons. I'll guess it happened off screen. Then, about Charlie's depression, since the beginning of this season (or since Desperate Measures) he had all the reasons to feel that way, now he has even more. It's good that Kirsten understands him, now they have another thing in common added to the list. I have to praise the soundtrack here, Stephen Graziano did an excellent job. The moments with Claudia at the movies or the depressed Charlie were great, with a very nice dramatic original score. To finish, the last scene of the episode was perfect, I wished that Claudia was there too, but still is emotional and touching: Bailey, Julia and Kirsten taking Owen to see Charlie, just like if were the good old times, as a happy family.
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