Previously: Kitty and Robert were getting married, Tommy and Julia were spending time apart, Sarah and Joe were divorcing, and Justin and drug abuse were reuniting, but on the sly.

It's morning in Sarah Whedon's America, which translates to a lot of bustling around the kitchen, trying to get breakfast ready, while answering Paige's questions about her math homework. Sarah says that Paige is almost as good with numbers as she is, and Paige says that Sarah gets to use calculators, which Mrs. Fletcher says is cheating. "Yeah, well, Mrs. Fletcher doesn't do cash-flow projections with seasonal variables," says Sarah, which I guess is supposed to remind us that Sarah is a Working Mother, despite the fact that that's Sarah's entire character, to the point where she's wearing a t-shirt that reads "I Am A Working Mother, Ask Me How...Never Mind, I Don't Have Time!" Sarah then has to hustle a be-costumed Cooper (he's a pirate) downstairs, sign his permission slip, assure Paige that she can be seen with her little brother without dying of embarrassment, and get them to the front door, where Joe has come to pick them up. The camera, by the way, cuts to a hey, looky here shot of the signed permission slip forgotten on the kitchen table, so you know that's going to come up later. Sarah thanks Joe for taking the kids to school this morning; she had to reschedule a meeting because of their "thing" this afternoon, and Joe assures her that it's fine, since he likes taking them to school. Once the kids are out the door, Sarah tells Joe that she got Kevin to represent her in the divorce proceedings. Joe says he assumed she would, and says he'll see her at 2. Sarah exhales after he leaves, like, "Awkward, but not awful." That feeling will not last.

At McCallister headquarters, Robert is going through debate prep with his staff, giving the kind of too-perfect answers that he's become known for. Kitty's trying to play the part of an opposing candidate (opposing Republican candidate -- they're preparing for the GOP debate, the better to differentiate Robert from the other, scary kind of Republicans, also known as actual Republicans), but she keeps getting distracted by the "rancid-smelling" shrimp pizza on the table. She looks like she could hurl any second, and anybody who didn't immediately know exactly where this was heading right at this moment: you need to give away your TV. Travis tries to get everybody on track with a question about faith-versus-science that Rob deftly hair-splits (coming down on the side of believing in God, that maverick), but Kitty finally lurches across the room and ralphs into a wastebasket. "What is she, an atheist?" Travis asks. OH SHUT UP, Travis.