Everwood "Lost and Found" Review

“Lost and Found” originally aired after “Ghosts” in a two-hour block, but it’s not the second part of “Ghosts.” TheWB loved its “WB Events” which were no more than a two-hour block for one show. The network kept Everwood off the air for so long in 2006 because of its poor ratings; so it was anything but a WB event. Between “Ghosts” and “Lost and Found,” the latter is the better episode. This episode brings things back from the past. Andy and Edna had a subplot all their own. Amy learned about the abortion her father performed in season one. Ephram rediscovered the piano. The episode title suggests the theme of the episode. Julia’s words, in her letter to Ephram, the one he read at the end of “Good to Go”, urges her son to retreat into the past should he ever feel lost, to the purest place in the heart, because it is there he’ll find his way again. It’s true of all the characters in “Lost and Found”.

When Harold doubted his ability to be a father again, especially to a child from a different culture, a different race, with unknown medical records and an unknown age, Rose brought to him his own children’s problems on paper to show him he already accomplished what he thought himself incapable of accomplishing.

Ephram found happiness when he returned to the piano at the memorial for Will after feeling uncertain he’d find such joy playing again. He told Reid of his worry that he used the piano as a crutch for his happiness. If he played and it made him a sick a second time, what thing, aside from Amy’s love, would make him happy? Such a worry’s not limited to eighteen year olds. Some experience it all their lives. But he found it, the joy, when he played in tribute of his mentor.  A one-night stand with a girl whose name he couldn’t bother to remember didn’t cure his lonely ache, but a whirl with the piano did. Better still, Andy watched Ephram play at the end in a mirror image of the end of the “Pilot”. This time, father and son were at peace and past the move to Everwood and Madison. They made it. What a lovely ending.

Elsewhere, Amy’s in her Joey Potter arc. So, characters that experience a self-discovery arc always find a new passion and a new mentor. Joey found art and Jack (well, she re-discovered art after her Dawson period). Buffy found Professor Walsh. Amy finds a professor mentor. The writers gave Amy the ‘obnoxious freshman’ storyline. She has experienced a wider world than she knew in high school. Her newfound knowledge and causes drove a wedge between her and Hannah. She doesn’t want to talk about Ephram, but Hannah does, because it’s the only common ground they have now. Self-discovery arcs rarely last. Joey forgot art and tried to seduce Dawson later. Buffy learned Walsh was a villain. Nothing dramatic happens for Amy. She doesn’t know she’s in a phase.

The Andy/Edna subplot is my favorite part of “Lost and Found”. It’s a return to the early seasons when they worked together, when she was the first person to welcome and embrace Andy, and their story is poignant because of the connection they still share.  Edna met Andy and Delia when she was his little girl, but she’s older, growing up, lashing out at her father, and she sees that Andy needs to loosen up with her. Instead of disciplining her, he needs to try to understand her. It’s also about Edna’s deep love for Irv, a love so deep she doesn’t realize the physical toll his absence has on her. Maybe Andy never forgot the image of them embracing in the falling snow outside his office as he realized what’s possible in Everwood.

The writers didn’t know their episode would be held until late March nor that it’d begin the show’s final run. It’s funny the way things work.

Nancy Won wrote the episode. Perry Lang directed it.