Just as the last episode, this one has little time for Claudia and focuses on the three older siblings. Julia, Adam, Justin and Laura go to see a movie (American Beauty?) and the two childhood friends seem to be the "clicking" couple. On their way, Adam tells her that Justin and Laura are a not a good couple, but she and Justin are. Then, they attend Justin's engagement party, and Laura already is suspicious of Julia. Adam tells Julia to do something, considering they both know Justin and Laura's engagement is a mistake. Julia tells Justin, to slow down things when he asks her, but he gets mad and confused. Then, Julia confides in Griffin about this and he says that when they were together, he always was afraid of losing her to Justin. Later, she talks to Adam and kisses him but he doesn't want to get hurt and begs her to talk to Justin. She does, telling him she feels jealous of Laura and he says he will wait and see what happens. This story was interesting, it's clear Justin and Laura are making a mistake, but maybe the writers want to keep this going, so Justin and Laura don't break up yet.
Following Daphne's request, at the morning in some park, she explains to Charlie a scheduled a plan of taking Diana to Texas, where Luke already found a place close to an infirmary, until march, when she will return to visit SF, and Charlie and Kirsten will be much less busy with their jobs. He doesn't want to lose Diana and refuses to let her go, saying that her plan is not good given that she and Luke are not married and she is not settled in Texas yet. He thinks he, Kirsten and Diana could visit them in a month. Daphne is stunned and when Luke comes with Diana, Charlie says everything is ok. But later on the evening, she goes to the apartment to tell she doesn't agree with his decision (surprisingly, Charlie was alone at home, and that's weird considering Kirsten is working less hours than him). She wants to take her daughter to Texas, he says that she can't take that decision alone, he's the father. She responds "And I'm her mother!", knowing he doesn't seem to realize that now. She threatens him saying she won't do what he wants, not anymore. The next day, he and Kirsten go to a lawyer, and while waiting, she says she can't believe they are in this position again. He wants to be ready for an eventual custody fight, so Kirsten tells him that he has to keep talking with Daphne, judges and lawyers are not the solution, he already faced that situation with Owen's case last year. He just wants to protect himself and Diana, so she tells she'll always support him but is also realistic and tells the truth: he created this situation, he had a child with a woman who's not his wife (an out of wedlock child like Gene said), so he had to know this could happen some day. He must find a way to deal with this to not lose Diana for good. In this excellent scene, Kirsten told Charlie what she realized since Daphne's return in 5x24: Daphne is Diana's mother and she wants to raise her daughter. That's why Kirsten has been trying so hard to have her own child, she knows that Diana could have been like a daughter, but since 5x24, she will never be. And Charlie has to accept that, he chose Kirsten 5 years ago, and Diana will never be Kirsten's daughter. I know he seemed to accept that when he was eager to have a baby with his wife (6x09), but then Diana wasn't 2000 miles away. Now he had a condition response because a year ago he lost Owen. Anyway, later, Charlie visits their place and Luke tells him that Daphne decided to stay in SF for Diana. The next day, she goes saddened to spend time with her, Kirsten opens the door and tries to be kind, same as Charlie, but she gives cold looks to them, refuses their help with Luke's moving and leaves with Diana. Then, she returns her to their place to Kirsten and when Charlie reaches her outside, she says what she has been feeling since season 5 finale: she did everything he asked for and she had to see him and Kirsten together, she pretended to be ok and happy, but just when she was starting something with Luke, Charlie is taking that away from her. She knows she'd be taking Diana away from him but he can't expect her to see his life and not suffer for losing the man she loves, Luke. In the night, a sleepless Charlie confides in his wife about what to do, saying he wants to be fair but he doesn't want to lose his daughter. He thinks he doesn't have much legal stand and fears Daphne still could take Diana away. She says Daphne is not that kind of person, and when he keeps doubting about what to do, she simply snuggles next to him, showing her support. He finally chooses to give up Diana and they pack her stuff in the morning. He goes to tell Daphne this, that Kirsten is waiting downstairs, so she cries in joy. He says that Diana will be happier with a full time parent anyway, that he wouldn't like her to miss Owen and Claudia's birthday, but well, later they'll see if they divide months or seasons to take care of her. In the car, Charlie has a heartfelt farewell with his daughter, telling he loves her and that in one month the three will be together again. With some hugs and then waving hands, they say goodbye to Diana, Daphne and Luke, who leave to Texas in their car. A great scene with Lyle Lovett's theme, showed one of the greatest moments of the season. Then, considering that Daphne wanted to abort Diana and thanks to Charlie she is alive and taken care of, seems pretty unfair the situation. But at the same time, Daphne did what Charlie wanted and now she is happy being a mother for Diana. And Charlie has his beloved wife and only now they can have kids, so in some ways, this is probably the best for Diana. Charlie can say to himself that he did a selfless act: he helped a woman with an attachment disorder, former stripper, who had a terrible mother and any lasting boyfriend, by giving her a daughter and showing how to love her. Now, Daphne can return to Texas (where she was born) with a man who loves her, Luke, and her daughter. Charlie had to give up Diana because now he has his own family, with Kirsten and their future children. And they'll see Diana again in a month, they love her, but maybe the best for Diana is to grow up with two parents, instead of divided four.
At last, there is Bailey's sad storyline. Julia and Claudia learned how he used his own money to keep the restaurant open, so they tell him to relax while they handle Owen and Joe manages the restaurant. So he goes partying with Evie, but all turns out bad when he has a few beers, she realizes, asks for a tequila and he can't stop her from drinking, so they both fall in temptation and sex. The next day, he visits and finds her unconcious (alcohol poisoning) and calls an ambulance. In the hospital, to make things worst, Evie's sponsor blasts him for what he did while he was talking to Holly. Alone, broken in sadness, he gives up in drinking again and visits Holly to explain how normal people have problems, that she'll never find someone with everything sorted out, but she closes the door on his face. Later, he's shown at Salinger's in the afternoon, drinking again. In the final scene, Claudia discovers his relapse after seeing his Jeep parked in a funny way and while seeing him drunk in his room. Julia comes, realizes what he did and they confront him but he blames their parents. Although that moment was great, I disliked that he lied (bad the script): he said all is because their parents died and all their responsibilities fell on him, that he has been behind the wheel for 6 years (what a huge lie, Charlie did the main job since the accident and Bailey only replaced him a year ago). The truth is that Bailey relapsed because Sarah left, that's all. He tried to live a life he wasn't ready to live and wrongfully chose to replace Charlie in taking care of Owen and running the house. That decision pushed Sarah away and since she was the only crutch to stop his drinking, he relapsed. The picture in his bedroom was perfect, he sitting alone in his room after living with Sarah for a whole year. Claudia says she can't believe what he did, his lies and wants to call Charlie. Julia says it's the alcohol speaking. So before his sisters can stop him, he leaves the house drunk in the Jeep and has an accident (another amazing scene). This story was great, almost excellent, yet Bailey's lies at the end were unbelievable. Also, it's strange that Will didn't appear, seemingly he was living in the house. By the way, talking about Sarah, in the episode 1x06 of Time of Your Life, she explained to her friend Romy that while living with Bailey, she was always afraid everytime he arrived late or when he acted weird that he was having a relapse. She said she got tired of it, she couldn't go through that again. And seeing Holly's reaction today, Bailey's story is simply sad. He's an alcoholic, he lost a lot of people and the chance of a relapse will always be there. But there's no one to love him beyond that, Sarah was the only one but she left. So it's hard to tell if he'll ever recover one day. He may get over his parents death, but he may never recover of his alcoholism, of the idea that not even Sarah could accept him completely, that no one will be there everyday of his life to help him. And that's one of the biggest debts Party of Five leaves. Scott Wolf was one of the cast members who didn't want to return as a regular for a season 7, he agreed only as recurring. In latest years, he said that by season 6, the show fulfilled the purpose, that the siblings recovered themselves. Charlie obviously did, Claudia in some ways, Julia remains to be seen, Owen maybe. But, honestly, Bailey never did.
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