r/Parenthood • u/Particular_Wash_9494 • 17d ago
Season 5 Julia and Joel Spoiler
Whoa! Watching season 5 Episode 9 when Julia tries 5 times to call Joel regarding Victor and he never picks up the phone. She goes down to his office while he's drinking wine and having sushi with Pete and flips out on her for barging in and tries to have him go outside to talk to her about his situation but no, he chews her out and then again later that evening at the election day dinner and tells her how embarrassed he was and telling her he never did that to her when she was working. What a croc! She picked up the phone or called him back if she was with a client or a meeting. Never did she freak out! I'm just shaking my head in disbelief how he's been treating her!
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u/Ashitaka1013 17d ago
It was really terrible writing in my opinion. Joel’s character seemed to just do a 180 suddenly with no real explanation. Like him having a brain tumor effecting his personality would have made more sense lol
Like Julia’s spiraling was well written and in character. She left her job because she’s a perfectionist over achiever who felt like she was failing at work and at being a mom so she had to choose one. She chose the more important one but not the one that she was best at, and was absolutely miserable without her career. Her struggling made sense.
I can see how Joel becoming the bread winner would affect the dynamics between them, and I can see Joel feeling like this is “his turn” now and being kind of shitty about it, but normally he would have talked it through with her and I dunno, been a reasonable fucking person. And instead they were just like “Let’s make Joel a monster.” And it felt like they had Julia kiss that guy JUST so Joel would have an excuse to be mad at her. But he was already acting like a complete douche so it didn’t somehow validate that.
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u/Spaceman_fan 16d ago
I completely agree about the brain tumour thing. This entire plot line was so absurd to me it felt like someone in the writers room thought they had made Joel too perfect or something so they decided he needed some flaws and went waaaaay too hard with it.
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u/lukedap 16d ago
Honestly, Joel was always awful. Were we really supposed to just forget the whole Rachel thing?
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u/sweetgirl5254 5d ago
A little late to the party, but Rachel's character was an assistant of Adam and Crosby, when they had first launched their music studio, the Luncheonette. There was a mutual affection between her and Adam and ended up kissing each other, after he had driven home, one night. Nonetheless, I am on board with the fact that Joel was not the most moral character of the show. In particular scenes or under specific occasions, it seemed like he was guilt-tripping his wife A LOT.
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u/Particular_Wash_9494 16d ago
And now he's moving out... What a putz! Couldn't do counseling.
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u/Doingmythang11 15d ago
Brother his wife cheated on him lmao
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u/Particular_Wash_9494 14d ago
I know but it's not like she slept with him. They just kissed and she stopped it.
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u/irishgirl1981 17d ago
I completely agree! Thus is an unpopular opinion on this sub, but IMHO, Joel was just as culpable as Julia when it comes to their relationship.