Rating: 7.7
The 1995 Golden Globe Award winner returns with romantic complications.
Last season, Charlie and Kirsten's wedding fell apart at the altar. Now, the senior Salinger son and his former fiancee are together again -- minus marriage plans. Cupid's arrow is also aimed elsewhere. Julia's brooding ex-flame Griffin is back in town; and Claudia returns from camp with big news: "I met a boy and I fell in love." Meanwhile, Bailey and best friend Will have a disastrous road trip to Mexico.
Rating:
Kirsten gets a job teaching at Cal State Monterey and the commute begins to take its toll on their relationship. Griffin, temporarily living on the Salinger's floor while looking for an apartment, doesn't measure up to Julia's expectations of responsibility. Claudia becomes angry at Julia when her boyfriend develops a crush on her. And, Bailey and Will part ways when Will drives off to college with his new roommate, Tucker.
Rating:5.9
Bailey starts college and meets a new friend who already has him taking short cuts his first few days on campus. Julia and Justin enter an essay contest hoping that by winning the prize they weill boost their chances of getting into a good college next year. Kirsten's professor discovers that she has plagiarized part of her dissertation, and even though it was done unintentionally, Kirsten refuses to ask the committee to reconsider her Ph.D., and as a result, she could end up losing her teaching position and everything she has worked so hard for.
Rating:6.5
Bailey's new college friend, Cooper, and Julia are attracted to each other, but Bailey forbids them to date. Meanwhile, Bailey, anxious to move out of the house, takes an apartment with a roommate, a roommate that Sarah doesn't quite approve of since she is very attractive. Claudia takes on the household repairs herself, and Charlie must grow up fast after he realizes that Kirsten's depressed state is much more serious than he thought.
Rating:
Bailey finds himself playing rescuer for his new roommate, Callie, who has gotten herself in over her head with a slew of boyfriends. Cooper wants his relationship with Julia to become a sexual one, but Julia is still affected by her recent miscarriage and isn't ready to sleep with anyone. Claudia's best friend, Jody, confides in Claudia that her mother's new boyfriend made sexual advances towards her. And, when Kirsten tries a new medication she becomes compulsive about neatness. Charlie tries to convince her to stick with it.
Rating:
Bailey and his new roommate are becoming good friends and start to confide in each other -- Callie about her distant relationship with her father, who is having a sixtieth birthday party, and Bailey on his strained relationship with Charlie. Julia and Sarah head back east to interview at colleges but Sarah becomes worried and homesick and wants to go back to San Francisco almost as soon as they land . And, Charlie is furious at Claudia when Kirsten's parents arrive threatening to take her back to Chicago -- with a court order if needed.
Rating:7.0
It is Halloween and Claudia is convinced that a curse is the cause of all the bad things that have happened to the family, and so she hires an exorcist to cleanse the family dwelling. Bailey is beginning to feel the constraints of his celibate relationship with Sarah. Julia has to deal with the fact that Justin is beginning to date other people. And, Charlie puts his trust in a man who claims to be an old friend of his father's, and meets a new woman who runs a local charity which feeds the homeless.
Rating:
In the aftermath of sleeping with Callie, Bailey realizes there must be something missing from his relationship with Sarah, and gets pointers from Charlie. After approaching a resident novelist at Stanford to read her admissions essay, Julia receives an unexpected scathing critique. Lastly, Claudia meets Avery, an old musician friend of ther mother's, who wants to enroll her in a school for gifted children - an opportunity for her to be in an environment where she will completely fit in. With Charlie feeling like his parental role is being replaced by Avery, he objects to Claudia making a decision that is way over her head.
Rating:
The press paints Charlie as the bad guy when he mishandles an incident with the homeless -- and so does Grace; Bailey opts for Plan C after he's rejected by the hockey team. Julia, trying to finish her college applications but disrupted by construction noise, begins to befriend the contractors - two brothers, Sam and Alec. Claudia begins acting out, asking Sam to paint the room black while also declining help from Julia. Julia and Alec commiserate about their siblings while Sam is angry because they are behind schedule. Julia attacks Sam for being uncaring.
Rating:
Bailey rescues Callie from a near date-rape, she becomes increasing more dependent on him, and he breaks a date with Sarah to stay with her. Julia's attraction grows for Sam, one of the construction workers fixing the roof. Claudia writes an "Advice to the Lovelorn" column for her school newspaper and begins to analyze everyone's problems, and Charlie finds himself in an awkward position when Grace wants to be more than friends.
Rating:
Bailey is on a downward spiral, sowing his long lost wild oats in college. The Callie and Bailey relationship intensifies while Sarah becomes increasingly resentful. Charlie is feeling a continued attraction to Grace as Joe sweeps into town announcing he is getting married and wants to do it at the restaurant. Julia confesses her infatuations to Sarah.
Rating:
Charlie flies to Chicago to see Kirsten and is surprised to see her doing and looking so good. But he soon realizes that her illness is something that can't be easily fixed. Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, Claudia is admitted to the hospital with an appendicitis; and, Bailey tells Sarah that he slept with Callie.
Rating:
Carroll O'Connor returns as Grandpa Jake. He shows up claiming that he just wants to spend the holidays with his family. Julia suspects there might be something more going on. Attempting to overcome his own depression about Kirsten, Charlie throws himself into work. He takes on a project to feed the homeless at Christmas time and becomes attached to a homeless man who he later finds out suffers from mental illness. Alone for the holidays since Callie has left to see her own family and Sarah has gone with her parents, Bailey bonds with his wrestling coach. Claudia's attempt to prove to Stuart that she considers him nothing more than a friend backfires when the lame Christmas gift she buys him turns out to be something he really wanted.
Rating:
Justin, Julia and the school are shocked when one of their classmates commits suicide, and Julia tries to find out the reason why Libby would end her life when, by all appearances, it looked so promising. Charlie attends his high school reunion and begins to think that the best time of his life is behind him. And, Sarah decides to end her relationship with Bailey.
Rating:
Bailey throws himself into his wrestling competition -- and the after-match drinking celebrations; Grace accepts a date with a politically connected guy who arouses jealousy in Charlie; and Sam becomes more attentive to Julia after encountering his old girlfriend.
Rating: 7.0
Charlie and Grace finally have a real date. They kiss at her apartment, but they agree to take things slow. They have trouble resisting their urges, so next time they see each other, Charlie brings Owen and Grace brings her grandmother in order to curb temptation. Julia: The family is ecstatic when Julia is accepted at Stanford, but she is conflicted. Sarah resents Julia's reluctance to send in her letter of intent because Sarah didn't get into Stanford. Julia tells her guidance counselor that she is not going to college. Bailey is failing a class and needs to finish a paper in order to pull his grade up. He refuses alcohol at Julia's acceptance party. Claudia's outing of a teacher at her school impacts Ross's personal life.
Rating: 7.3
Bailey's drinking comes under scrutiny from friends, including visiting pal Will; Grace moves into the Salingers' house after a fire destroys her apartment, and not everyone is happy to have her there. Julia decides she can no longer live under Charlie's rule, and moves into Sam's apartment, upsetting the "quiet little life" Sam had going.
Rating: 7.6
Grace begins to think that moving in with Charlie and his family wasn't such a good idea after all after going shopping in her new neighborhood. Claudia, sensing tension at home between Grace and the family, offers to volunteer at Grace's office as a way for the two of them to get better acquainted. Sam is looking for an extra guy at work and Julia recommends Bailey -- a bad idea. After a disastrous night with Bailey at a club, Sarah compares notes with Julia and discovers she's not the only one worried about him. And Bailey, having spent all his money on alcohol, is short on rent money.
Rating: 7.7
Bailey's siblings finally realize the enormity of his drinking problem after witnessing his embarrassing actions at Owen's birthday party; Grace is unsettled by a surprise visit from her parents, who seem to warm to Charlie; and Julia is planning for a future with Sam until she realizes that they hold different views about certain people.
Rating: 8.9
Grace and Sarah join the Salingers for a family intervention to confront Bailey about his drinking, but Bailey is so stung by everyone's accusations that he goes on the attack, slinging cruel comments of his own. Joe joins in at the end an reveals that Nick, the Salingers' father, was also an alcoholic.
Rating: 9.6
While last week's family intervention with alcoholic brother Bailey was traumatic for the Salingers, its aftermath proves to be even more so. This poignant episode finds Bailey still drinking, and his increasingly erratic behavior alienates roommate Callie and Coach Petrocelli, who learns he can't rely on his former star. Bailey is also still angry with ex-girlfriend Sarah. It shows when he disappears with baby brother Owen, and later, when he gets into an auto accident and injures Sarah. Meanwhile, Claudia directs her anger toward her late father; and Griffin returns when Julia needs him most.
Rating: 8.4
The family, having not seen Bailey since the Owen incident, is relieved when he shows up at the house. Bailey goes to his first AA meeting and discovers that Walter Alcott, the man who killed the Salinger parents, is a member and a big participator in the meeting. Griffin is trying to figure out how to spend his lawsuit settlement money. Julia convinces him to go see his father, despite their rocky relationship. When they arrive, Griffin's father picks on him incessantly and tells Griffin that he is having financial problems. Grace is approached to run for a local elected office.
Rating: 8.2
Sarah tries to move on by dating an attractive medical student, but her efforts to remain supportive for Bailey are met with dissaproval from Callie. Elsewhere, Claudia schemes to prove that Grace is too self absorbed to care about the family; and Griffin voices his concern over Julia slacking off in school after she skips school to be with him.
Rating: 7.8
It's Spring Break. Sarah goes away with her parents and Bailey volunteers to chaperone Claudia on a trip to Los Angeles in order to distract himself in her absence. While in L.A., Bailey falls off the wagon but learns a valuable lesson. Julia and Griffin decide to take a motorcycle trip, but when the bike breaks down and he decides to buy the shop where it gets fixed, Julia has to come to terms with the fact that she is suddenly the footloose one in the relationship. Grace has a pregnancy scare, which although false, brings up the whole issue of kids with Charlie. It turns out they feel very different on the subject.
Rating: 9.1
Bailey tries to make amends to all the people he hurt while he was drinking. Although he takes heart in the fact that Sarah breaks up with Drew, Sarah tries to make it clear that she's only interested in being friends. Justin gets accepted to Yale and invites Julia to go to Europe with him for the summer. When she brings it up to Griffin, he tells her there's only one way he'll be comfortable with that. So they get married. Charlie realizes that although he loves Grace, she can never love his kids like Kirsten did, and like any good parent, he has to put the kids first.
Here are the other Seasons!
Season 1
Season 2
Season 4
Go Back to Party of Five Homepage
Get your own Free Home Page