I found this episode to be an extreme letdown from the previous episode as both a father and a son did things that really disappointed me, and we saw the damage that lies by omission can do. This episode followed a theme called “need to know,” as we saw several characters not tell the truth to people close to them, some for purposely legitimate reasons, and some for shamefully deceptive reasons.

This episode followed a Christmas theme, but we saw that what should have been a joyous celebration of that time of year ended up causing breaches in some of the key relationships on the show.

I liked the opening scene of this episode as we saw Everwood enveloped in a magical Christmas themed aura, as Ephram and Delia were going shopping in a Winter Wonderland Street Scene right out of a Hallmark Card, and Delia was arguing that the “Holiday Pageant” that she was taking a part in was really a Christmas Pageant and all other religions, including their mother’s religion of Judaism, were being ignored. Then we saw Ephram find a flyer for Madison’s band, and the stage was set for a pattern of lies and deception in this episode which really disappointed me.

We saw a grouchy Andy come into his office as Harold and Louise were decorating for Christmas, and Andy said that he was overwhelmed and he asked him to take over John Hayes’ case, perpetrating the first lie by omission in this episode, as he didn’t tell Harold the real reason why he wanted him to take over his case.

I liked the scene with Hannah and Amy where Amy was trying to find the perfect gift for Ephram and Amy said that she was looking forward to meeting Hannah’s parents as they were supposed to be coming home from Hong Kong, but Hannah revealed that her parents weren’t coming home for Christmas, which concerned Amy. After leaving Hannah, we saw Amy talk to a very uncomfortable Nina as she revealed that Hannah’s parents weren’t really in Hong Kong, and she wouldn’t reveal anything else, and she asked Amy to talk to Hannah.

We saw that Bright convinced Ephram to go and see Madison’s band without telling Amy, and he told him that lies of omission weren’t lies, which was incredibly stupid advice for him to give him, and Ephram was incredibly stupid to heed his advice. What made it worse is that Bright was Amy’s brother, and he was telling his sister’s boyfriend to deceive her, which made both of them look incredibly thoughtless and inconsiderate. What was really stupid about it all is if Ephram had asked Amy to go with him to see Madison, she might have been a bit upset at first, given her insecurities about Madison, but if Ephram was honest with her and if he told her he loved her and Madison was no threat whatever to her and to them, I feel certain that she would have been okay with it, but him lying to her and sneaking off to go and see Madison’s band was incredibly wrong, thoughtless and stupid.

I hated seeing Ephram lie to Amy, telling her he was sick and breaking their date, especially since Amy was so excited and happy about spending time with him and she looked so beautiful. We then saw Ephram and Bright at the coffeehouse where Madison’s band was supposed to appear, and they did appear – without Madison.

We saw Amanda chase Andy down at the Holiday Pageant, but he was clearly avoiding her and he quickly found a way to get away from her.

I loved seeing Harold dance with Amy as they decorated their Christmas tree, and I was amazed that Tom Amandes has a really good singing voice, but their reverie was interrupted by an upset Hannah, who, upon being questioned by Amy as to why she told her that her parents were in Tokyo when they weren’t revealed that her father was dying from Huntington’s Disease. Then when Amy acted in a shocked manner after receiving this devastating news, Hannah asked her to not act that way because she didn’t want to be “that girl,” anymore, the “tragedy girl,” and in this one case, Hannah’s lie by omission was totally understandable. It was so heartbreaking to hear Hannah talk about her father and how close they had been and how he used to work at the library restoring rare books, and he liked the outside of the books and she liked what was inside the books and that made them the perfect fit, but now Huntington’s Disease had taken him away from her, and although he hadn’t passed away yet, he was lost to her because he couldn’t talk or think or move.

We saw Harold come to Amanda’s house as in his eternal attempt to outdo what Andy had do tried to substitute using color therapy instead of music therapy to help John and he shined different color lights at a clearly agitated Amanda, and losing her patience and abandoning any hope she had for John and mostly feeling angry and hurt for Andy disassociating himself from her, Amanda angrily threw Harold out.

We then saw Harold inform Andy that Amanda had fired him and that she was done, and Andy tried to push Harold to continue on with John’s treatment to the point of trying to dictate what Harold should say to Amanda to get her agree to resume John’s treatment, and he slipped and said “I'm not going to let my patient suffer just because I mishandled my relationship with his wife,” and a perceptive Harold warned Andy not to get involved with Amanda and that what he was doing was unethical and unforgivable.

I hated seeing Ephram continue his deception of Amy in this episode as he asked her how her evening had been and he nervously asked her if she had tried to call him, but at that point Amy didn’t catch on to his deceptive behavior.

We saw Jake try to charm the librarian as he returned some overdue books and then he met Amy for the first time, and then Amy, who got right to the point and skipping any pleasantries with him, directly asked him about Huntington’s Disease, and Jake sadly revealed that it was incurable and hereditary, and anyone whose parent had the disease had a 50% chance of getting it themselves, which concerned Amy greatly.

We saw Ephram talk to Andy and in a self-fulfilling prophecy for not only this episode but future episodes, he said that everything was going so well in his life but instead of just enjoying it, he couldn’t wait to smash it all up. He then revealed that he had gone to see Madison’s band, acting on the advice of Bright, (which Andy admonished him for, pointing out the bad advice that Bright had given him in the past), but Madison wasn’t there, but he had gotten her number from Jay, and he was afraid that if he called Madison he would mess things up with Amy, and Andy wisely told him that there were some things that he didn’t need to waste his time wondering about, which was advice that he should have taken for himself and his situation with Amanda, and Ephram left Madison’s number on the table, no longer wanting to call her.

I liked Amy’s talk with Hannah and Hannah was right that although Amy meant well, she was treating her situation like a project as she tried to push her to take the test to see if she had the gene to have Huntington’s Disease, and Hannah said that she wasn’t ready to take the test, which was totally understandable, but she thanked Amy for her concern and for taking her burden on and making her feel less lonely, and that Amy’s kindness and concern was pretty much the best Christmas present that she had ever gotten.

We saw Amy come to see Ephram, and thinking that she knew that he had gone to see Madison, he stammered out an apology and he admitted that he had lied to her about being sick and that he had gone to see Madison’s band play, and Amy was rightfully angry and hurt by his admission. For the life of me I’ll never understand why Ephram did that, and he jeopardized his relationship with the girl he had always loved and was with now to try and contact someone who caused him nothing but pain and heartache, and he also knew that Amy felt vulnerable and insecure about his relationship with Madison, so his doing that confirmed her worst fears. Bad move Ephram, bad move.

Speaking of bad moves, I hate that Andy went to see Amanda, and I hate that she said that she had fallen out of love with John, and they gave into their illicit desires and they embraced and kissed, ending a very disappointing episode on a very disappointing note.

Overall, I found this episode to be a huge letdown from the previous episode and I was very disappointed in both Andy and Ephram in this episode.