Everwood "Connect Four" Review

Two season one episodes took Andy and Ephram into the wilderness. Ephram wanted to help a lost deer find his home in “Deer God.” In “Fear Itself” Irv took Andy and Ephram to his cabin. Both times father and son fought. Each episode had an emotional apotheosis for father and son. Ephram tearfully revealed how much he missed home and his mom in “Deer God.” Ephram, then, nearly died in “Fear Itself” after taking Irv’s boat out on the lake.

“Connect Four” closed the unofficial nature trilogy for the Brown boys. Andy agreed to go with Harold and Bright for weekend camping because he wanted to spend time with Ephram. Andy decided to play the weekend cool with his son because Delia suggested he play it cool. So, there’s no near-death or moments of emotional breakdown. Their one scene takes place at the campfire and shows the shape of their relationship to come, which non-dramatic, free, and honest.  Andy learned about Kyle, Ephram’s Ephram-like piano student (who gets his own father issues backstory near the end of the episode), and Andy learned why Ephram returned home. He still loves Amy.

What follows their conversation back on the homestead is a short scene at Sam’s where Andy overhears Amy tell Hannah about the kiss she shared with Reid. Treat put on the saddest face for Andy as he left the shop. It’s an unintentional comical scene.

The Abbott boys barely interact in the mountains because Tom Amandes directed the episode. Harold and Bright have had a fraught relationship, but Bright’s too preoccupied deciding whether or not he wants to continue dating his premarital believing girlfriend. In their lone scene together, Bright’s honest with his father about not liking to camp as much anymore. Harold, a bit sad and disappointed, listens to his son’s wants and ends the getaway early. Ephram inspired Bright to tell his dad what he wants, but following Ephram’s advice about father-son relations is like following Bing-Bong through the abstract thought “short cut.”

Amy’s crush on Reid resurfaced in a Halloween themed storyline, Everwood’s only Halloween themed story in the entire series. He seemed taken in “Put on a Happy Face”, what with greeting the girl in the library with a kiss and then walking off with her with his arm around her shoulder, but what do I know? Reid now thinks Amy pretty and kissable because his roommate, Ephram, Amy’s greatest love, admitted he still loves her.

Edna seems to be the subject of the C story, but it’s more about Jake and his increasing stress. Edna contributed to his stress by refusing to learn new things and acquire new certifications, but Jake’s working non-stop. Edna urged him to spend a Sunday in the park with Sam or be home for dinner with Nina. Everwood plays loose with time. Night and day goes by in the mountains during Amy’s bad night as a dead scarecrow in a haunted house, so one isn’t sure how much time passed between “Pieces of Me” and “Connect Four” but Jake was all about nightly dinner with Nina to Hannah. Edna, after agreeing to learn new things to help the practice, left Jake in his office, still drowning in paperwork.

Season four’s doing well by the end of “Connect Four.” It’s the second great episode in a row, which puts season three further and further into the dim past where it has a place alongside the last four seasons of HIMYM and the final two seasons of Dawson’s Creek.

David Hudgins wrote the episode. Tom Amandes directed it, and it was the second and last episode of the series he directed. He directed one episode of the Berlanti produced series, Brothers and Sisters, which starred Emily Vancamp in later seasons, and he directed two episodes of The CW’s WB-esque small town quirky series Hart of Dixie.