Warning: SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

Episode Title: “Walker Down the Aisle” (Season 5, Episode 22)

Original Airdate: May 8th, 2011 at 10:00 PM

Synopsis: Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) gets married to Luc (Gilles Marini) in the season finale of Brothers & Sisters.

Review: If this was truly the last episode of Brothers & Sisters, it ended on a good note. There weren’t too many plot points in the episode except for the wedding, but the episode as a whole felt like the “feel good” episodes of the first season.

The main things that I was happy about was the return of Tommy (Balthazar Getty) and the fact he didn’t have his annoying “wife-to-be” Rose around. I was disappointed we didn’t see much of Tommy, but if this was the last episode, it was good to have the whole family around one last time.

Speaking of family, how long has it been since Cooper (Maxwell Perry Cotton) has been in an episode? Paige (Kerris Lilla Dorsey) has been around a lot this year, but it was weird to see Cooper so grown up.

The episode truly brought the focus of family to the core of the episode as Sarah finally starts bonding with Brody (Beau Bridges) and seeing that her mother (Sally Field) still loves him. This helps her get over the fact that she isn’t the daughter of the late William Walker, but realizes that she still has family.

I think the creative team behind the episode knew that this COULD be the series finale as well and it didn’t have too many cliffhanger moments. The major ones were Kitty (Calista Flockhart) telling her family that she is pregnant, and that one of Brody’s other daughters came to the wedding to meet Sarah.

The ending scene of the entire family dancing while Nora having a final voiceover was nice, but if it was my series finale, I would’ve ended it around the dinner table – possibly after the wedding. There haven’t been as many “big” dinners since the cast was trimmed, but it would’ve really made for a nice touch.

Season five was nowhere near perfect, but I do think the show has one more leg to stand on if it came back for a final 13-episode season. I would like to see Beau Bridges in a full-time role next year and see how the Walker family has changed after all of this merging.

Final Grade – 8.5/10