What I’m Watching: Parenthood (Penultimate Episode)

Parenthood: Season 6, Episode 12 “We Made It Through the Night” (B+)

It’s sad to think that this show is so close to being over, but, truth be told, it’s lasted a solid hundred episodes and covered a decent amount of ground. I like where everything is headed, and the fact that Zeek didn’t die before the end of this episode means that everyone should have a relatively happy ending. I love that Sarah accidentally summoned her entire family to the hospital for false contractions with a confusing text, and that Hank’s efforts to calm his pregnant stepdaughter-to-be in the car failed miserably. Hank getting married at a volcano was never going to happen, but I like that they’re going to do something small in Berkeley to make sure that Zeek can be there and fully present in it. Zeek telling his kids that he’s not going to have the surgery was emotional enough without the actual words having to be said on screen, and it’s good to see the whole family rallying to support her rather than arguing among themselves about what course of care is best for the patriarch. The Luncheonette business was resolved after an unfortunate revelation that threatened to ruin it all and get Jasmine and Adam in plenty of trouble. It was fun to see Adam decide to be a French chef mentor for Edgar, simultaneously debunking Max’s statistic about autistic people getting jobs. Julia and Joel fighting again was discouraging, but at least they were good enough to go into the car to do it so that they wouldn’t upset Victor. The scene with Sarah playing guitar and singing with Amber was a nice treat, and hopefully we’ll have similarly sentimental moments in the series finale later this week.