An entertaining episode with four stories full of jealousy. Charlie and Claudia are the most affected by this. First, Will feels left out by Bailey, who now only spends time with Jill. Will is abandoned by him at a party, left out of a concert and ignored in studying for a test. After Jill steals the test and delivers it to Bailey, Will realizes she's a bad influence, and Bailey tries to convince her that she crossed a line, but she gets all offended. Later, in the coffee house, she convinces him that they break rules all the time (Will "steals" desserts from the cafeteria), so it's no big deal. Then, Will realizes that Bailey finally used the test, and confronts him when he was playing basketball outside the school. He yells at him for following Jill's criminal behavior, for getting to be like her. He thinks Bailey's going crazy for her because she puts out. Bailey tells he never criticized his girlfriends, like Isabel, so Will says she wasn't a "juvenile delinquent". He even says she is a "disaster waiting to happen", and Bailey, enraged, sends him away. I can imagine what Will'd say if he knew that Jill stole a pair of gloves in the last episode and made Bailey steal a pair of glasses for her. But Bailey didn't listen. In this case, Will was right (it's revealed Jill is using drugs), but I think he was worried about Bailey rather than jealous. He is a very good friend so far and was trying to help him. Still, he doesn't know how serious is Jill's problem. As for Julia, she is stuck with Justin in car driving lessons and the teacher makes sexist comments (girlie, little girl, etc) about how Julia drives. This was a very funny scene, I know Julia is right but the issue used to be very common in life. When Justin defends her in the car, and they threaten to inform the comments (they learned in civic class), the teacher apologizes and they proceed, though her driving doesn't improve. Anyway, Julia starts to like Justin and is glad that he is not mad at her anymore (for using him in 1x04). Then, she crosses Libby in the bathroom door and she is glad that she still has problems with mechanical things, like in her 10th birthday. Libby reveals that now she has a boyfriend, and Julia is disappointed and a little jealous when she learns later that her childhood friend is dating Justin. Still, Julia asks Justin private lessons in his mother's car, and he accepts but in the "non date" he sends her away when she says that she knows he is great, implying that she likes him. Despite that minor argument, they cross later in school and kiss at the end. I know they make a good couple but there was no need in hurting Libby (was not a good choice writers, especially knowing what happens in season 3).
After the deep happiness for Charlie and Kirsten in the last episode, now they face an obstacle: trust. While Charlie is ordering Owen's bottle and other stuff, Kirsten arrives home with the advisor for her dissertation, Ben, who turns out to be interested in her. Charlie meets him and the three have some talk about the topic for her dissertation, and she seems oblivious to Ben's interest. In the morning, Charlie gets obviously jealous after learning she has to spend a lot of hours with this guy while going to daycare centers (and not because Kirsten needs her advisor, only because he wants to spend time with her). She thinks he is cute for feeling that way, and gives him a goodbye kiss. He is initially patient, trustful, and in the night, he tells that Joe would let them use his cabin in the mountains to go skiing, but she is distracted with her dissertation to think about skiing (and she doesn't know how to ski). When he gives her a kiss in the neck, she teaches him that they don't have to make love every night, so he goes to sleep moody. The next morning, he asks her to go to the firehouse at 8 pm, aware that schools close by 6, but she says she can't because she must study with Ben what they've seen in each place. He does laundry while the rest of the family leave for school (and Kirsten for work with Ben), and Bill makes pancakes (which everyone except Thurber, refuses). Charlie finds a movie ticket and when she returns, he waits for her in the backyard and confronts her for doing a social thing with Ben. She defends herself saying it was a break between daycare meetings and that she never gave reasons not to trust her. She also says that with his track record, it's funny he accuses her. I guess they slept in no good mood, because he apologizes just next morning. He tells that he is a little confused, as they are in early stages of living together, and he would like to learn from her about the movie thing and not know after that she ommited it (pretty reasonable). She says that the movie was terrible but that she would see it again with him if he wants to, so they almost kiss in peace but then Bill comes with Owen and tells Ben's message to get pretty for a faculty dinner (Bill even says, his words, not mine). When Charlie reacts, Bill leaves to give them space. He can't understand Kirsten's position, and he tries to stop her from going, knowing Ben's intentions, telling it's "textbook" what he is doing. She ignores him thinking the dinner is innocent, saying it might help her academic career, and leaves. Then, Charlie almost screw up everything again, and gives to a waitress a lift home. Still, this time his love for Kirsten is strong enough to resist temptation and leaves. As for Kirsten, there's no doubt she's a loyal woman, she simply rejects Ben when he tries to skip the dinner to go for a jazz date. She tells him that she loves Charlie, that he met him and makes him drive her home. A classic picture follows, when Kirsten waits for Charlie at home, who comes after leaving the waitress. She called the restaurant and knows that he left with a waitress, and he assures that he just gave her a lift, that he thought about doing the wrong move, but he couldn't ruin things again, that nothing happened. Still upset thinking she went to the dinner with Ben, he refuses to talk more, even when she wanted to. Finally, the next day she tells him that she has a new advisor, Dr Kass, that he was right about Ben, but that he was wrong about her. She tells he has to trust her because this won't be the only time that guys will be interested. She trusts him (it's implied given that she forgave him), so she asks the same in return. As almost always, she's right, they have something great here, and there's no doubt that Kirsten, without the chance of having children for now, would want to lose Owen and Claudia, not to mention the man who loves her, probably as much as she loves him. Then, the story tells something else. Kirsten never forgot the early infidelity like Meg thought, she was cautious and called the restaurant knowing he wasn't at home in time. This tells she'll be always watching his work hours, she loves him, but she won't tolerate another cheat on.
And the last story, Claudia is jealous of Artie because he's playing Oliver Twist in school, after the first boy got sick, and she was left behind. Like almost every Claudia's story this season, it's hilarious. She even says that she has in common with Oliver being an orphan for a year, unlike Artie. Angered, they fight because he doesn't know the lines and she leaves him alone outside under the rain so he gets sick. But the next night, full of guilt, she herself goes outside under the rain to get sick, so first Bailey, Julia, then Charlie and Kirsten go to question her. She tells what she did to Artie, and "like the bible says, an eye for an eye". That scene was wonderful, she described exactly how bad jealousy can be, "it turns you into a someone different, mean, selfish". Everyone felt identified there, Julia seemed to know, and Charlie gave a look to Kirsten, like sorry for being what Claudia said. Then, he rescues Claudia from the bucket while she says "I'm a sinner". Next day, Artie visits her and says he got jealous of her first and they reconcile. Finally she plays Oliver, at least the first week. In the play, Artie, Julia, Bailey and Jill are present, Charlie and Kirsten hold their hands together, implying their are fine now trusting each other and all happy enjoying Claudia's singing voice. That part was great and finally implied that they could sort out the jealousy and trust. In some ways, Claudia's play helped Charlie and Kirsten to get through it, he realized how great is everything he has, and that trusting her is one step closer to happiness. The happy family moments, like Claudia's play, are memorable, unites them all. And considering how dramatic and sad will be the future of the series, will be missed. When I watch season 2, 3, 4 or 5, I remember moments like this, the best times of the series. To finish, I highlight Bill's two scenes in the episode (the first one with the pancakes was funny) and Owen's short appearance, is always good to see the younger Salinger present.
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