This season hasn't exactly placed all of the attention on her, but towards the end of Season 5, Parenthood's Sarah Braverman started to come into focus. But then, as Sarah's life started taking off — a hot neighbor started showing interest, her children seemed to level out, and she started working as a paid photographer — her star started to shine a little brighter. While we thought this new success might manifest itself in a relationship with said hot neighbor (or even Mark Cyr, who returned for a cruel few minutes earlier in Season 5), it actually turned into an opportunity for Ray Romano's Hank to reconcile with the most free-spirited Braverman. And that's exactly how she ended up with the best solution in the season finale, which could be the series finale if NBC doesn't renew Parenthood.
After Hank became a superhuman, driving Amber to San Diego to see Ryan (and later Sarah to visit Amber visiting Ryan), he and Sarah finally addressed the "tomato in the room." Sarah came right out with it: the potentially Autistic part worries her because she absolutely needs full communication. (Hey, when you marry John Corbett's Seth, you learn how important communication is.) It's a tough conversation, because she's got the weight of Adam's "if Hank can find love, then maybe Max can too" comment on her mind, but she and Hank both seem to take it in stride.
But without warning, Sarah shows up at Hank's studio the next day and simply kisses him. The "tomato in the room" is still alive, it seems. They embrace and that's about all we get, but it seems that Sarah has gotten over her abandonment fears (Hank did leave her for his daughter in Minnesota as Seth had done over and over for his own terrible reasons) and her own hangups and misunderstanding about Autism to let go and give this ol' softie a chance.
I've been against Hank as a romantic option for Sarah for some time now, but with so much attention spent on Hank's growth and his intense and incredibly sweet bond with Max, he's wormed his way into my cold heart — and apparently, into Sarah's cold heart as well.
And if this is Parenthood's final episode — after all, NBC has yet to renew the fantastic, indispensable, incredible (take the hint, NBC execs) series — Sarah is one of the few people whose stories got something of a satisfying ending. She's happy, making money as a photographer, and she's learned enough about herself and Hank to just let go and see how things might be with this surprisingly wonderful guy. Plus, Sarah's resolution is sort of a resolution for Max: if Hank found love, then we can assume that sometime down the line, Max might find someone as loving and open-minded as Sarah.
If Parenthood never gets another episode, at least we know Sarah Braverman is riding off into the slightly more realistic sunset.
Image: NBC
