'Parenthood's Sydney: Still A Machiavellian Genius

Bustle's own Kelsea Stahler wrote late last week about how Parenthood 's nailing the kids' perspective on what it's like to be a child of divorce. On the show — and I guess in life, too — the story is ongoing, of course, and NBC just released a new clip from Thursday's Parenthood episode "The Enchanting Mr. Knight," that fits rather seamlessly into that narrative.

We see that troublemaking Ed fella again in this clip — the first time we've glimpsed him since he essentially exploded Julia and Joel's marriage with some inappropriate smooching. Ed's presence isn't the focus here, however, as much as it is the awkwardly eavesdropping elephant in the room. No, the focus is Sydney, trying to convince her mom to let her spend the night at the house when it's Joel's night with the kids. Julia tries to talk her out of it, but before she knows what's happening, it's a tantrum situation and all the kids in proximity — and Ed — know she's separated. Oops.

Let's all hope Ed feels really, really bad for his part in all this and doesn't just try to get in Julia's pants now that she's arguably more single.

Of course, The AV Club has a theory that this whole thing was actually orchestrated by Machiavellian genius Sydney to get back at her parents for taking away her only child mojo, in which case . . . well played Sydney. Well played.

Image: NBC