Family Secrets and Lies: The Darlings Reveal Both on "Dirty Sexy Money"

There's a certain vindication in being right that just can't be beat.

I'm talking, among other things, about this week's episode of Dirty Sexy Money ("The Watch"), which I devoured last night. It was another brilliant installment of this fast, slick, soapy drama and, this week, presented an equal amount of over-the-top fun (Jeremy faking being a struggling artist in order to keep Sofia) along with a complex emotional story that painted in some of the backstory between Letitia and Dutch, along with the reveal about which Darling scion wasn't Tripp's biological child.

Sure enough, my hypotheses so far this season about Brian being Dutch's child--which, yes, would make him Nick's brother--proved to be right on the money. It's only ironic that the hateful, spiteful Brian, who lived his entire life trying to drag Nick into misery and despair and who painted Dutch as a beggar at the feast, would in the end not even be a Darling. It's only fitting, given that the first time we met Brian he was refusing to accept Brian Jr. as his son and a Darling heir, a revelation which now seems foolish as neither of them have any real claim to the Darling name or fortune.

It was heartbreaking that Letitia kept the truth from Dutch as well as Brian, truly believing that she was doing both of them a favor by leaving them in the dark as to their real relationship. Instead, Brian felt alienated and cast out from his own family and never felt as though he fit in. The revelation of Brian's true parentage has also cast a pall over Tripp as well; despite his claims that the knowledge hasn't tainted his love for Brian, it's clear that it has. Whereas he would have rushed to help Patrick or Karen if they were in the same predicament, he insisted that they let the law handle the matter of Brian's custody claim as well as his possible prison sentence for attempting to bribe that arbitrator.

I never thought I'd come to feel sympathy for Brian, but this week's episode definitely managed to do just that. The scene at the church between Nick and Brian was one of my favorite of the series so far as it was so fraught with emotion and the unsaid between them. It also had its own morbid levity as Brian once again told Nick that he hated him, only to finally accept Dutch's watch, which Nick tried to give to him. The scene that followed, in which Brian said his goodbyes to Brian Jr. (a.k.a. Gustav) was heartbreaking, as the emotionally crippled Brian couldn't bring himself to tell his son that he loved him, instead giving him the watch (continuing its generational path) and telling him to keep it set to New York time.

Sigh.

Next week on Dirty Sexy Money ("The Nutcracker"), Nick uncovers Karen's tryst with Simon Elders, which threatens to derail a Darling family tradition and unsettles Nick more than he can admit; Brian tells Tripp he wants to leave the ministry and work for him instead; Juliet falls for her visitor from the Seychelles; Carmelita is convinced she's being followed; and Lisa helps Jeremy impress Sofia with his art, but was that them locking lips in the promo? I can't wait!