This episode is a little different than the usual ones because is focused on Kirsten, and how she and the family deal with the wedding plans. So, following last episode, where she and Charlie got over the last obstacle to their marriage, unofficially signed, now it's time to decide the place, wedding dress, flowers, food, bar stuff, photographs, etc. Dudley makes plans for the engagement party at the house, catered by Salinger's, which is funny for Bailey and Julia. He invited old friends from Berkeley, couples who remember Charlie as a bachelor (it's curious how both, Charlie and Kirsten went to Berkeley and hadn't meet there). Then, Kirsten arrives earlier from a trip to Chicago, and tells everyone that her mother, Ellie, drove her crazy, rejecting her choices for the bouquet (gladiolus) and each wedding dress she tried, even one she loved. She tells Charlie to call her parents so they send her suitcase and to tell them to keep their money. Then, the siblings meddle in the wrong way for all the stuff, driving the bride to anxiety. Bailey suggests using flowers from a another wedding the day before, to avoid spending 450 dollars more, and Charlie dismisses the idea (yes, it's tacky). Claudia wants to see china patterns at Macy's, but Kirsten prefers paper plate type using many the beautiful dishes, cups from the breakfront in the dinning room. Julia wants her to use Diana's wedding dress, but Kirsten has an specific idea of what she wants. Steamed about all this, and for Bailey latest idea to charge people for parking, she goes to the backyard to count to 10, 100 and 1000. Charlie tries to calm her down, saying that his siblings are just happy about the wedding, but she tells him that they are acting like her mother or worse. He thinks she is overreacting but she wants him to put them off the case. In the night, she can't sleep (second time) and while watching a china patterns magazine, she apologizes saying she was having condition response because her mother's anxiety from Chicago. She wonders why people care so much about the ritual stuff, so Charlie comforts her, telling that the rest are not so lucky as them so they have to "feed" them with all the prime (nice scene for them). But in the next family dinner, the siblings again make her nervous and anxious when Claudia suggests they have the wedding at Salinger's. The three are crazy about the idea, so a desperate Kirsten calls Charlie, who just shows her Owen (their now official adoptive son) smiling from the bar. Later, she tries Diana's dress (Julia's bad idea), but it doesn't fit her at all because it's too big, upsetting her even more. When Charlie comes and sees her she tells they are way pass bad luck as she won't wear that dress. She remembers how she dreamed about her wedding day for years since she was little, using her dad's white shirt like a veil, picking flowers for her bouquet, pretending the driveway was the aisle and for the reception, she imagined a ballroom. Highly irritated, she blasts all the current plans and thinks these are signs, that God is trying to tell them something (maybe to postpone it?) so he agrees in not having the wedding at Salinger's. But when he says she is just a little anxious, she jokingly suggests using a straight jacket, white, classic and fits better than Diana's old dress (I admit, the "little anxious" Kirsten was kind of funny, Paula really seemed desperate). The next day, to avoid all the fuss, they take Dudley's advice, so the couple decide to get married in Reno. Claudia tells Julia and Bailey to videotape the wedding, as a present for them and for Owen, but then the happy couple sneak out in the middle of the night, leaving a note in the fridge. Kirsten feels guilty about disappointing them so Charlie says he'd marry her anywhere, at Macy's or in a bus, just so she doesn't have to spend more time of aggravation. He tells her "Let's go Mrs Salinger to be", she doubts so, "Bennett-Salinger?", and she answers they'll negotiate, and they leave to take their flight. Next morning, Bailey and Julia are obviously pissed, but the most affected is Claudia, who says she won't talk to them again. She shows how much means to her this wedding, for her Charlie is much more than a brother and Kirsten is much more than a sister-in-law, they are like her adoptive parents. She wants to hear the vows, the mushy stuff, and she wants to throw rice, to see them dance, she wants to dance. Also, Claudia says for once, she would like to have a happy event because so far, it's been always sad stuff, sad events. Thanks to Lisa Melamed for writing all this, for proving my point, how things were meant to be from the beginning. Anyway, Dudley says the show must go on so he maintains the whole party preparations despite Bailey's doubts. A saddened Claudia spends the day playing the same violin piece over and over again. Meanwhile, in Reno, the happy couple is waiting their turn with number 12, in a small 24 hour chapel and laugh about how they'll tell this story to Owen one day (surely they will). They wonder if they have to pay for a camera but a fellow guy tells them it's free. Their turn comes and they happily go to the aisle. When the party is starting, a saddened Claudia is "boycotting" by tasting the cake while Bailey collaborates and jokes about Dudley's words of "wedding reception", saying they weren't invited to the ceremony. Anyway, finally, to Claudia's joy, Charlie and Kirsten reconsider and return to their dearly beloved family. When the siblings confront them for eloping (Claudia calls them major creeps), Charlie and Kirsten happily tell that when they were at the aisle, the judge said "Dearly Beloved", they didn't see their family there, so there was no point. So they didn't get married yet and the 3rd weekend in november is still the planned date. This comforts the siblings and Dudley arrives saying that he knew they wouldn't do it. Dudley introduces them to all the guests, saying "false alarm" and jokingly asks everyone who thinks if Kirsten is too good for Charlie. Many people raise their hands and laugh, including the happy couple (frankly, Kirsten looked beautiful with that dress, even prettier than usual). They all share a joyful engagement party, with everyone toasting including Bailey and Claudia. This main storyline was the best part of the episode, including Claudia's joy and her dreams for the wedding, Charlie and Kirsten's anxiety (which were like 10 scenes). Here, was showed their true and full happiness, that they are perfect, wonderful together. Like the ending of the last episode showed, they never had any doubts, they want to spend their whole life together. Today, they had and held each other in joy, with Charlie willing to do anything to stop her anxiety, irritation and make her happy, prioritizing her over his siblings. But finally they accepted that their family deserved to be with them in that special and unique moment. The ending scene was perfect, one of the most happy, joyful moments of the entire series. In the first impression, this episode might not seem excellent, but after watching the next seasons, I realized it's underrated. There's so much drama, so much misery in the next years for the Salingers, that an episode like this, with all of them happy waiting for Charlie and Kirsten's wedding, especially a very young and hopeful Claudia, makes this special. For Claudia, for me, they are the true parents of the house, and they deserved these happy moments.
Meanwhile, Bailey is oblivious to Sarah's crush on him and ignores her motivation to help him in the aplication for college. She wants him to run for vice president in the students election to add it his transcript, but he doesn't care much and lets her do the whole job like writing the speech, put posters in the wall. The next day, Julia notices Sarah's feelings but tells her not to expect the same from Bailey because he didn't show any interest in the election. Sarah finally confronts him with open eyes, and when he says he didn't read the speech yet (he left it in the locker), she accuses him of treating her like a puppy "Go fetch" and refuses to help him anymore. Still oblivious to her crush, he calls Will (who was incredibly absent today) to do the election job, and apologizes to Sarah in a phone message. In the engagement party, she comes to check on him, and noticing that he's still clueless, she finally tells she's in love with him. He's stunned, without words so she leaves. Considering all what Bailey's been through, he had reasons to do this, anyway he treated her unfairly. That's why their love story didn't begin well, initially love went in one direction. And it's hard to believe he was so naïve for not noticing her feelings, but well, seemingly a relationship was the last thing on his mind in those moments. As for Julia, she initially tries to push Griffin away, but soon after she forgets Justin and cheats on him. Justin realizes she's up to something, and recalls a memory from their childhood when she accidentally hurt him in San Diego (they were with their parents), when she promised not to ever do it again. Griffin is totally selfish, he doesn't care about the damage made, and goes to the engagement party. There, when Justin learns the truth, he breaks up with Julia because she didn't want to stop the affair. It's really bad what happened because Justin's more than a simple boyfriend, is a childhood friend of Julia and the Salingers. At least in Libby's situation he was decent enough to break up with her before dating Julia. The older sister is proving to have no moral code, if I compare her to Claudia's future self, Sarah, and Kirsten.
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