PARENTHOOD’s Jason Katims, Erika Christensen, and Sam Jaeger on What’s Next for Joel and Julia

NBC held a 100th episode cake cutting celebration event in Los Angeles last week to celebrate PARENTHOOD’s major milestone. To kick things off, series creator and showrunner Jason Katims spoke about his journey with the show and what the family the show created — both the Bravermans and the behind-the-scenes group — meant to him. He wrapped things up thanking the “incredibly passionate and loyal” PARENTHOOD fans, without whom he felt the show would not still be here. But he also apologized to those same fans for one very key two-season story.

“I apologize for making you so mad about Joel and Julia,” Katims said. “I definitely want to bring that storyline to a resolution by the end of the year… The thing is, I didn’t want to, in the beginning of the season, have them just be like ‘Oh, now we’re back together.’ I don’t know if they would have really gotten through what they needed to get through [in their time off-screen], so that’s what I am trying to explore this season [and] to have the ending earned.”

The dissolution of the youngest female member of the Braverman’s family’s marriage has been a hot button issue on the show since the beginning of season five. Admittedly back then, the cast didn’t think the storyline was going to be that big a deal.

“I thought it would just be fun. I thought ‘Oh, flirtatious things with other people, and it’s going to be funny,’” Erika Christensen (Julia) admitted. “[But] it went so much further than I expected it to go.”

This final season of PARENTHOOD has seen Julia dating a colleague, Joel finally decorating his divorced dad apartment, and as of the last episode, “These Are The Times We Live In,” divorce papers being delivered and signed.

But just as Julia was signing on the dotted line and coming to terms with living in a big house surrounded by memories, Joel showed up on her doorstep. So, where do the characters go from here?

“Well, nothing’s easy for Joel and Julia!” Sam Jaeger (Joel) said. “Joel’s put himself out there, and Julia’s still kind of dizzy from his profession, from his proclamation or whatever you want to call it. He really put himself out there, and I think we’ll see Julia struggling to see where she stands because it’s clear now where Joel [does].”

When asked about just where Julia does stand, Christensen noted that of course she still loves her husband, and she knows that, but it’s not just about the two of them anymore.

“They’re coming to recognize that their decision holds a lot of weight for their kids,” Christensen said. “They can’t just get back together and break up, get back together and break up. They have to decide ‘Are we going to make this work forever, for good, or are we not going to do that? Are we not capable of that? Do we not want that?’ Although they probably want to…Do they not trust themselves to make it work, and they don’t want to put their kids through that?”

“I think Julia’s learned a lot about compromise or being able to take things as they come,” she continued. “Not that planning is bad — planning is wonderful and should be done—but you have to be fluid, and you have to be willing to see what’s really happening, not just what you hope is happening.”

For the record, both Jaeger and Christensen are heavily #TeamJoel, noting that a happy ending for their characters when the series fades to black would obviously have them back together.

“We put six years into this damn marriage; we want to see this couple work it out!” Jaeger said. “I love coming to work and telling the story of this couple that we have for so long, and to see them struggle is heartbreaking for us.”

Christensen added: “If you were to ask me ‘Five years from now, where do you see Julia?’ She’s with Joel! So, they have stuff to work through, but that’s what I want, absolutely. There’s six more episodes and so much happens in one episode, so there’s a lot [more to come]!”

For more, check out what else Christensen and Jaeger had to say…

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PARENTHOOD is wrapping up its sixth and final season on NBC on Thursday nights at 10pm.

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