Claudia's 12 birthday party is coming, but the rest of the family will be busy for the that day. She feels it's the last one she'll have as a kid and shares this with Owen while playing with puppies. She tells that Kirsten is at a conference in Chicago and spending some time with her family, but she knows she'll bring something cool from there. Julia is studying and doesn't want to hear Claudia's questions. Meanwhile, Bailey won't be present because he will go to LA looking for Jill, as he got an address from a friend in the coffee shop. Charlie tries to stop him saying that she won't listen him, he tried everything but she she is a drug addict and is out of reach. Bailey thinks that if he tells her that he will stay with her no matter what, she'll change her mind, but even Julia thinks his plan is kind of crazy, it won't work. Mad at them for the lack of support, he leaves anyway and promises to make amends with Claudia later. The next day, Charlie is busy with carpentry work, and his business partner, Gwen, visits the shed and tells him that they got paid enough to keep the business (pay back the loan) and now they have an order from Cromwell, a furniture company. They need to prepare more sample tables and brochures for the business. Claudia and Artie think Charlie is working on a big birthday present (like a bike) in the shed. In the meantime, Julia finds Danny singing in the coffee house while she was with Nina, and he asks her to write more songs as the last one was succesful (1x08). When he pushes her, she feels has to help him as he recently found out that he is HIV positive. She confides in Charlie, who agrees that she can help him with lyrics. Claudia asks them about plans for her birthday, like going to the zoo or renting a sailboat, so they pretend they prepared something great. Knowing they'll be busy, they decide to hire a party planner. In the morning, Julia asks Charlie help with the lyrics, but he can't give her nothing good, he can't express that way how he feels about Kirsten or about the work. Before he leaves for a work meeting, he writes a check so she buys Claudia an expensive present. So when the birthday cames, Claudia is upset because Charlie and Julia hired a party planner, Jane, and the only gift is a camera. She can't believe it and screams "Today" when Jane asks when the birthday is. Julia buys a cake with a violin (Claudia said it was a cello), and they sing happy birthday, only for Artie to realize the cake says Cladia instead of Claudia. After eating, Charlie goes to the shed to work with Gwen, as they have a deadline for Cromwell's order for March 1st. While Julia and Artie struggle with the camera, Claudia says to herself that she hates her family. The day after, Julia managed to write some lyrics but Danny doesn't like them because they don't fit with the melody he hums. He pushes her to write and tells her to ignore Justin's calls or school tests. But while trying to record a song, she finally gives up and tells him that she can't save his life or write like if she was an expert, she is just 15. Upset, he sends her away to his "important life problems" like school and her boyfriend. Then, Kirsten arrives from Chicago and hears how Claudia fires the party planner. She is stunned, probably thinking that she can't leave home for a few days without the family being a mess (and frankly, that's the truth, the times she left the Salinger house, the family was usually a total mess). So she decides to take care of Claudia's party for the weekend, but she finds all the places already booked. With only Salinger's available, Kirsten goes to the shed and blasts Charlie for not thinking about it, for not taking the time and not being responsible, sensitive for Claudia. He defends that he has work to do and says that his dad was never around for his birthday parties, as he always had to work at Salinger's. He tells their mother always gave the birthday presents at morning before school, and that they ate the cake after dinner, but their father couldn't be around. He also says that his dad wasn't selfish and people said "Nick worked so hard for those kids".
About Bailey's trip to LA, it didn't seem right at the beginning, the start was rare (he found Jill in a second), but the development was great. First she wants him to leave and ignores him, so he spends the afternoon waiting for her, and buys something for Claudia. Then, with a good speech, he tells he loves her and that they can start over, so she agrees to return to SF, but deep inside she wants something else. Jill would like to live in a holiday with Bailey and never return to reality (a hard working mother, a seemingly absent father and the rest of the people judging her). The first days are good, they drive by the coast, pretend to live a movie life like "James Dean" and "Natalie Wood" and they visit (off screen some nice places in their road back). At night, they are stopped by a cop, and Jill tries to downplay the issue crying about a shark that killed her brother. They reach a motel and happily spend the night, still dreaming but in the morning, Jill hears how Bailey calls Charlie and tells everything is great and that he'll deal with the drug problems in SF. When Bailey wants to return, Jill can't handle it and orders too much wine in a bar. She plays with a stuffed bear and jokes about changing their names, but he's serious and wants to leave (he didn't pack many clothes, underwear). Later, they have a fight in the motel, where she, drunk, blasts him for trying to "save her" and be like the cartoon guy, Dudley Do-Right. She tells about the phone call to Charlie, how he wants to be the hero and calls him "Bailey Do right". He gets mad, throws a shoe to the wall and refuses to talk anymore until the morning. She seems scared by the violent reaction and doesn't say a word, so seemingly they go to sleep quietly. But when he wakes up, he stretches his arm on the bed and realizes she's gone. That scene was emotional, perfect and sad, Bailey really wanted to save her but the drug problem is out of reach. He didn't mean to fight, but the situation surpassed him. He returns home alone, and tells Charlie was right.
Julia helping her humble friend was a very good story. Danny can be considered far away from Justin's life (a higher social level), so it's good that Julia tries to make him feel better. Of course that he pushed her to write a song with an insane deadline, but his apologize was well written. He reaches Julia at the house (and admits Claudia is cool), and tells her that he wants to be missed and thinks that by himself, he couldn't achieve anything. When you start looking forward to death, everything changes. So later, Julia takes advantage of her connection with the school radio station, and puts Danny's melody (without lyrics) on the radio. She invites him to dance in the coffee house, and tells that he can write beautiful music, and when it stops, people will miss him. That ending was somehow emotional, and proves that when Julia wants to, she can do amazing selfless actions. Many times during the series, she is selfish, focuses on guys, her writing, whatever. But today, was the opposite, and that's something wonderful about season 1, showed the great side of Julia. As for Charlie, he just followed his father's example (and that what he has been doing the last episodes). He told this to Kirsten when she returned, he works for his family, not only for himself. Still, I wished there was one more scene between them, making amends, because he was harsh on her today, she simply was acting like a good mother, thinking that the kids are more important than work. However, Kirsten's words may have helped him to make time for Claudia, considering the ending. Finally, all the family celebrates Claudia's birthday at Salinger's with her friends. Bailey bought her a traditional gift from LA, a little palm tree to add the collection of charms that their mother gifted her every year. Charlie and Julia comfort him over Jill's situation. Kirsten praises Julia's job with the cake she made and they all sing happy birthday to Claudia. Many of her friends, and obviously Artie give her presents, so Claudia is totally happy, also with her family present. Charlie promises his little sister that when he finishes the work at the shed, he will do something nice with her. At the end, Artie, and Kirsten decide to check the manual to manage well the camera, and finally he takes a picture of the five. Surely they took more pictures with the six members of the family, and maybe some with Artie too.
For the record, Claudia's birthday is in mid-late February, Bailey's in mid september, Charlie's in early December, Owen's in february too. I'm not sure but probably the birthdays of Julia and Kirsten might be in the summer (june-july) because I don't remember a single episode when they were mentioned. To finish, I didn't like the episode as much as the last ones, but still remains in "the best times of the series". The happy family ending in Claudia's birthday, shows who are the Salingers, in a time of relative peace and joy, which will be missed in the next seasons of the series. The fact that the six are living in the house together is what makes this episode, this season amazing, the family moments are arguably the best of the show.
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