Life Unexpected (s1ep10): Family Therapized – ****

SPOILERS BELOW

Previously: Cate and Baze had a kid named Lux while in high school. Unknown to Baze that she even existed, Cate gave her up for adoption. Lux has been in and out of foster homes all her life and was trying to get emancipated, but instead Cate and Baze were granted joint temporary custody. Cate is also engaged to Ryan. But sadly, Cate slept with Baze again since getting Lux back and thus Ryan broke up with her. Lux has been living with Cate, but wanted Cate to also take in her friend Tasha. When Cate refused, Lux moved in with Baze in protest. And Baze is now stupidly sleeping with Cate’s sister, Abby.

…Cate and Ryan are on their radio show discussing bed sharing. Intercut with Lux and her bf Bug sharing, even though they probably shouldn’t be. And Baze and Abby sharing, but she pushes him off the bed. And Ryan and Cate are being cutesy and now talking about her “ice cube feet” and his “hot legs”. And Ryan is clearly still so in love that he dreams about her cold feet when they’re not even sharing a bed anymore.

Baze goes to make Lux breakfast and offers to make Abby some, too. But he’s so oblivious that Abby has to tell him Lux isn’t even home. We see she’s been sleeping at Bug’s who has a new job passing out fliers at a nightclub. She wants to support him, so she thinks sneaking out at 1am to go with him is the way. Which of course gets her social worker’s attention. Oh wait, or maybe it was three of them arguing about all their recent drama that got her attention. Incidentally, it’s ok to be bad parents if you’ve never given away your child, otherwise you risk losing her at any moment. The social worker threatens that it’s “temporary custody” and she decides to move their evaluation to Monday instead of next month. Dun dun dun.

Funny enough, Cate and Baze tell Lux she needs to change if they want to pass the evaluation. But as Lux tells them, she’s not the only one with a problem. Bug is again looking for a job, but unfortunately he doesn’t have enough experience or education for, well, anything. But hey, Cate is trying to get Lux to forgive her, so she offers Bug a job at the radio station. But of course speaks too soon, because without a diploma they’re not hiring him. Which just pisses Lux off even more. Gah, Cate. Don’t promise anything until you’re sure.

So, instead Baze now tries to get on Lux’s good side. He hires Bug for his bar. Is Bug even 21 to work there? Does Baze have patrons now to even be able to hire Bug? And Baze breaks up with Abby…just as Cate calls her for help:

Cate: “I need your help, as a therapist.”
Abby: “Narcisstic borderline personality disorder. That’s what you have.”
Cate: “I meant with Lux.”

Cate calls on Abby to help her out with Lux, which everyone is doing lately, but it ends in flames as Lux storms out. Cause as I said, Lux can be a brat. But Baze comes in to add triple the trouble:

Baze: “Cate, Abby, hey. Long time no see.”
Abby: “Yeah, it’s been…what…since dinner at your parents, I think.”
Baze: “Definitely. I definitely haven’t seen you since then.”
Cate: “Didn’t she help you with the sex talk? Lux?”
Baze: “That’s right…That was awkward…Block that out.”

And Baze and Cate are notorious for screwing things up. Bug overhears them saying they don’t really care about him, they just want to make Lux happy. Poor, Bug. Then the three of them plot ways to not fail the evaluation, and decide pretending is easier than working out their problems. Well, until they all tell the social worker a different version and she catches them in the act:

Social Worker: “And what is the truth?”
Baze: “In short…we suck.”
Cate: “But not for lack of trying.”

The social worker grills Lux about what is really her problem with Cate. And the truth comes out. Lux is upset with Cate because she wasn’t there for her throughout her life. And I totally cried at this scene:

Lux: “Where were you? I was out there my whole life. Where were you all that time? You never even checked. You never wondered what had happened? If I was ok?”
Cate: “I never thought I had to worry. They told me you’d be adopted. That you were going to have a better life. I really thought that I was doing what was right for you.”
Lux: “It wasn’t for me. If it was for me, you would have checked. No, you did the right thing for you.”
Baze: “Lux, it’s not all on Cate. I wasn’t there either.”
Lux: “Yeah, but you didn’t know. And no one who knew you would’ve expected you to be there.”
Cate: “I was 16 years old. I didn’t have anyone to turn to. My mother she was drinking her way through another divorce. I even wrote a letter to my father, but when I realized I didn’t know where to send it… That’s when it hit me, I had no idea what a good parent was. There was no way I could be one, not at 16.”
Lux: “Then what about a few years after that? When I was 3 and stuck at a hospital where no one visited? Or two years after that when my foster mom shoved me into a wall and told the social worker I fell off a swing? Where were you? We used to make up these stories about why we were given up, because we didn’t want to believe that our parents…our mothers…could hold us…their babies…and just give us up. But you did. You gave me away to nothing. Like I didn’t matter, because I didn’t.”

And Lux walks out again. The social worker tells Baze and Cate they’ve had a breakthrough with Lux. She’s decided to leave Lux in their care and suggests they should legally adopt her. Cate stops by Bug’s and slips something under the door when Lux doesn’t answer. Cate then goes to Ryan’s and admits she never held Lux as a baby, because she knew she wouldn’t have been able to let go. She asks him for help again with speaking to Lux. And at some point in the last couple of episodes I became a Ryan/Cate shipper. Baze goes to make amends with Bug:

Baze: “I see a lot of potential in you. You’re a lot like me. Minus the whole neck situation… So I might have hired you on for all the wrong reasons, but I want to keep you on for the right ones.”

Ryan goes and talks to Lux and tells her Cate has changed and she should forgive her. Lux calls him out on it and says if that’s so, then why hasn’t Ryan forgiven her. Lux then goes and talks to Baze and she wants to be his friend again without all the ‘dad stuff’. Cause really, what kid wouldn’t want their parent to just be their best friend? Unfortunately for her, they can be friends, but Baze says he’ll always try to be her dad.

Baze goes to see Abby for advice about Lux and she suggests that maybe if he dated her for real then Lux would be ok with their relationship. Good luck with that. Ryan goes to see Cate and it seems that she doesn’t lock her front door. Better get that fixed, since it turns out he’s brought Lux with her bong lamp in tow. The show made me cry again:

Lux: “I know that I may seem like I’m ok. But I’m more messed up inside than you realize. And the truth is, I don’t forgive you. I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to forgive you.”
Cate: “Lux, you don’t have to. You don’t ever have to be able to forgive me. I’m never going to be able to forgive me. I just want a chance to make it right with you. Please, tell me what I have to do to make it right.”
Lux: “Let me come home.”

Baze goes back to his bar and since Bug’s dad is in jail, he asks if he can try ‘being his father’ as practice. Strange request, but Bug agrees. A good idea I think as Baze and Cate not only need to learn to be parents to Lux, but they need to learn to be parental figures in general. Lux goes to unpack her stuff. Ryan tells Cate he forgives her and understands why she lied. And he wants to come back home, too.