When Life Unexpected creator Liz Tigelaar says episode three would jump right in, she was not kidding. We meet not only one family, but two! If last week, we were introduced to Lux's (Britt Robertson) New Age let's-go-to-Mexico-and-sip-piña-coladas family of weird names (Tasha, Bug), this week we got to meet Baze's (Kristoffer Polaha) and Cate's (Shiri Appleby), and boy was it ugly.
Cate's family
First off, crazy sister Abby (Alexandra Breckenridge). What kind of a crazy person calls her sister's radio show to confront her about her unexpected daughter (Lux) and losing her virginity to Dewey the Wasp (the school mascot whom everyone thought was the father)? As it turns out, Baze, then quarterback, was Abby's high school crush, and she insists that Cate slept with him "behind her back." We learn, however, that Baze doesn't even know her.
And the mother. We finally found out where Cate got her commitment-phobic genes. Her mother has been married four times, which doesn't exactly set the best example of lifelong commitment. She also drinks a lot and shows way too much cleavage than she should.
Baze's familyIf Cate's family are crazy and a little weird, Baze's is just annoying. Speaking of Wasps, they've been described by Cate herself as elitist snobs, and they are. Self-righteous, too, because they don't think anyone can raise Lux as well as them. Turns out, his parents invited Baze and Lux to dinner just to announce that they're raising her because they don't think he could.
And the building from father dearest. One would think generous parents, rich dad. Wrong. Not only does he never let him hear the end of it, Baze's father is also disappointed that his son didn't turn out like him. Money's nice, but that's not the only way to show support.
Fortunately, he gets a major b-tch-slapping from Lux toward the end of the episode, when she used her life savings plus the money from selling his daddy's bong lamp to pay for rent for the building, something that the father constantly yakked about. Lux also gave her grandpa a quick lesson on parenthood. Way to go, Lux!
The good thing that came out of all of it is, you know what they say about people with a common enemy: they stick together when under attack. Cate and Baze finally talked things out without Cate shouting, and they realized that Lux really has a family prior to them. In the end, Cate and Baze spent some time with Lux's family atop Bug's apartment grilling hotdogs. Once again, happy ending on Life Unexpected.
(Image courtesy of the CW)