Loveday Writing

The episode kicks off with Julia and Donovan taking a dance class with Mark. While they are trying their best, clearly dancing is not one of their natural talents. When Donovan asks Julia why she chose this dance studio as it’s not near her part of town, Mark comes over and introduces himself to Donovan and Julia lets it slip that Mark is her biological father, to the surprise of both Donovan and Mark. Mark and Julia talk afterwards, where Mark explains that when he met and fell for Sarah, he was in denial of his sexuality, labelling that period of time as his “heterosexual phase”. They quickly bond and Mark couldn’t be more different to Leon.

Meanwhile, Amanda goes on a morning talk show to talk about the case, with Edie, Tim and Leon watching it from the conference room at Edie and Tim’s law firm. Chad comes to see Leon after Edie and Tim leave and tells him he does have another approach he can take in getting a deal, but needs him to approve it. When Amanda returns to her office, with her coworkers praising her television appearance, one of them gives her an envelope. When she opens the envelope at her desk, it contains a photograph of her and Edie hooking up at Edie’s hotel, with a note asking her if she’s ready to come back to the negotiating table.

Meanwhile, Isaac comes to see Roxy and asks her if she’s sure she wants to marry him, pointing out that it would be fraud. She tells him she’s sure and he gives her an engagement ring that is a family heirloom. He also mentions the interviews that Immigration will subject them to, which Roxy clearly didn’t think about. Roxy tells Julia and Edie about the engagement and they reluctantly support her. The engagement and wedding are accelerated throughout the episode, with Julia and Edie going wedding dress shopping with her and going to her bachelorette party, where Diane is also in attendance and Nina badly sings her heart out along with the karaoke machine. While all of this accelerated engagement and wedding planning is going on, a possible romance between Isaac and Julia is hinted at and Diane reveals to Roxy that Ron has left her, when Roxy tells her about the engagement at the diner.

Amanda tells Edie and Tim about the blackmail and they immediately identify Chad as the blackmailer, which I really found odd because, surely, he would be disbarred and arrested for blackmailing a prosecutor? When Edie informs Julia about this, she knows Leon would be a part of it and confronts him when they’re on their way to court. She tells him that it’s not fair for Edie and Amanda to pay the price for his freedom. Meanwhile as Roxy makes her way to court, she finds Nina in the crowd of protestors outside the courthouse. Nina tells her that Leon is like Nick, Roxy disagrees with her but Nina convinces her to join the protestors due to her advocacy. Leon and Julia see her with the protestors, Leon is shocked but Julia subtly nods in approval.

Eventually, Roxy leaves Nina and the other protestors once they say that Julia is just as bad as Leon. Julia asks Edie and Tim to have a word alone with Leon. She tells Leon that he can cheat his way out of a conviction by outing Amanda but she won’t have anything to do with him if he does. Mark then comes in looking for the courtroom, Leon and Mark are introduced to each other, and Julia leaves to take Mark to the courtroom.

Meanwhile in the courthouse hallway, Edie tries to comfort Amanda from a distance, only to throw up in a nearby garbage can. Isaac witnesses this and helps her out. He asks her if there’s any chance she’s pregnant, she says no, but then remembers her recent hook up with Tim. I honestly found Edie’s pregnancy symptoms showing and her realising she’s pregnant this way to be cliché, it’s been done too many times in other TV shows and movies.

Back in court, Leon stands up and declares he wants to change his plea to guilty. He gets on the stand and gives a testimony, stating that he genuinely wanted to help people but got carried away, his intentions were never cruel or sexual and he wanted to see how his genes faired out in the world. He admits his actions were wrong and that consent matters. Afterwards, Julia tells Leon that she’s proud of him for taking responsibility, and he chooses to leave via the front of the courthouse to face the public.

While they’re all outside the courthouse, Edie tells Tim that she will be resigning from the firm. Tim offers to draw up her resignation and their divorce paperwork. He also tells her that he’s happy for her. Later, shortly before Roxy and Isaac’s courthouse wedding ceremony, Edie reveals to Julia and Roxy that she’s pregnant, and Roxy and Isaac get married moments later.

After the wedding, Julia hosts a wedding reception at her apartment, with Natalie, Izzy, Nate and Rivka in attendance. Natalie reveals to Roxy that Izzy has been offered a spot at a gymnastics training ranch in Dallas and they’ve been offered enough money for Natalie to move there with her. Leon doesn’t attend but sends Roxy garlic knots (a throwback to when they first met) and Isaac wine. Leon is revealed to be in his apartment, playing his piano, alone.

Later, Julia goes to the backyard where she finds Isaac alone fiddling with his wedding ring. Isaac questions if he made the right decision, Julia tells him everything will be okay and that life throws you curveballs and you’ve got to roll with them. Isaac then kisses Julia and admits to having feelings for her. Moments later, Donovan arrives and tells Julia that he is now open to having kids with her. The next day, Roxy and Isaac head off on their honeymoon, with Isaac looking at Julia, which Edie notices.

The final moments of the episode, season and series show Leon being sent to his prison cell.

Overall, despite the finale’s best efforts to wrap up the season, I felt this episode had the highest amount of flaws. Leon’s narcissism has been hinted at throughout the season, but in this episode it’s on full display due to the reality of a prison sentence finally hitting him, only for him to show true remorse and take responsibility when Julia threatens to cut him out of her life. In all honesty, I didn’t know what to think of Leon throughout the episode and I felt his character was inconsistent in this episode.

Another flaw was the reveal that Ron has left Diane. It came completely out of nowhere and there was no prior indication that their relationship was in trouble, if anything they seemed to be getting closer with Roxy getting clean and supporting Roxy when she went public with the sexual abuse she endured from Nick. I’m guessing they wrote this in because Timothy Busfield wasn’t available. Speaking of availability, considering that Genevieve has been shown to, most likely, be Leon’s only true friend, it was surprising that she didn’t make an appearance in this episode. I’m guessing Tamara Tunie also wasn’t available for the finale.

I also felt that Donovan’s change of heart about having children came completely out of nowhere and was only written in because the season was ending, and to possibly add conflict if the show had been renewed and the writers explored the Julia-Donovan-Isaac love triangle they established in the finale’s final moments.

In regards to the show as a whole, I appreciated that the writers were loyal to most of the material established in the original series, without being a complete carbon copy. The original series was only seven episodes long, whereas this season was almost double the size, which allowed for deeper character development and more story arcs. One thing that both this and the original series have in common is only lasting one season, which frankly didn’t surprise me, as the premise is limited. Once Leon’s trial is over and he’s in prison facing the consequences of his actions, there’s nowhere else to go with him, and you can only meet so many Bechley siblings for so long before getting sick of it, and it did get old very quickly in this series.

Overall, despite its flaws in its writing, I did enjoy reviewing Almost Family and appreciated the efforts of the cast and crew to remake an Australian television series. If you’re interested in reading my reviews on the original, Australian series, Sisters, you can do so here.

Stray Observations:

-Julia’s birthday is on February 19, Leon’s birthday is on July 28.

-Leon establishes during his testimony that he used his own sperm to impregnate his patients from 1987 to 1996. While he did mention in a previous episode that it was partly due to a lack of storage capabilities and the limited technology at the time, he doesn’t make clear why he started using his own sperm in 1987 and why he stopped in 1996.

-According to Julia, a year has passed since the pilot.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I’m always open to new experiences. I shouldn’t say always, I don’t like heights or hallucinogenic drugs.” (Donovan to Julia on taking a dance class together)
• “Did you steal a ring?” (Julia to Roxy when Roxy shows off her engagement ring)
• “It’s a marriage of convenience between two people in a casual relationship, it’s no biggie!” (Roxy to Julia and Edie on marrying Isaac)
• “Can you give me one minute of joy before crapping on my parade!” (Roxy to Julia and Edie on marrying Isaac)
• “You have weird ones, you’re like Michigan.” (Isaac to Julia on boundaries)
• “Isn’t this all a bit much for a Green Card wedding?” (Julia to Edie on going to a bridal dress store for Roxy’s wedding to Isaac)
• “It’s kind of ‘if a mullet was a dress’.” (Edie to Roxy on one of the wedding dresses she tries on)
• “We can’t let this happen.” “What, the dress or the blackmail?” “Both.” (Julia-Edie-Julia on the second wedding dress Roxy tries on, and Edie and Amanda being blackmailed over their relationship)
• “I’m only getting married once…as far as the government is concerned.” (Roxy to Julia and Edie)
• “I guess impulsiveness runs in our DNA…I don’t know what your excuse is.” (Edie to Roxy and then to Julia)
• “We’re going to work on thinking before we speak.” (Nate to Julia on her babbling)