A Couple of Close Calls For the Bravermans

Pretty sneaky, Parenthood. Fans have known/dreaded for quite some time now that a Braverman is going to die in this the final season, and during Thursday night's episode "The Waiting Room" they made us think that Zeek would die, then that Crosby would die, then back to thinking that Zeek would die. Yeah, this was a draining episode to say the least. Thankfully, neither of those Braverman men died, but that still leaves fans wondering who it will be, which is no fun either.

It certainly felt like this was going to be Zeek's final act. He had a sweet moment with Amber in which he looked at her ultrasound photo, he got sentimental about his wedding ring, and he had a very human, heartbreaking moment when he told his wife Camille that he was scared while being rolled into surgery. Yes, the odds were in his favor (as Adam repeatedly reminded the family, there was a 96% success rate), but those Parenthood writers kept viewers on the edge (and knee-deep in Kleenex) during the entire hour.

Heck, they even had poor Camille have a breakdown outside of the surgery room and come to terms with a life without her husband. Her speech about not being "ready" for death, no matter how much you prepare for it or try to stay strong, was one of those gut-punch, on-the-nose Parenthood moments. It also felt like we were bracing for Camille's inevitable grief. Instead, Zeek survived his surgery and Camille brought him back to life (literally and metaphorically) by putting his wedding ring back on his finger in the recovery room. Oh, those sweet happiness Parenthood tears instead of those damn sadness Parenthood tears.

But before we breathed a sigh of relief over Zeek, it looked like Crosby — who had to take off to deal with Oliver Rome, the Parenthood character who is actually going to kill us all — might bite the dust in the dust. Crosby got into a motorcycle accident (you could just sense that another vehicle was coming when he drove erratically to begin with) out on the open road, but shook it off and headed back to the hospital to check on his dead. While we were all bracing for Zeek's death, Parenthood tried to fake us out with a possible Crosby death. You're better than that, show! Besides, the last thing we want to do is spend the next few weeks thinking, "Okay, just end the tension and kill someone already." Please don't let it come to this.

Image: Colleen Hayes/NBC