Rob Lowe "Divorcing" Brothers and Sisters: How Will His Character Be Written Off the Show?

With Rob Lowe's spokesperson confirming today the swirling rumors that the Hollywood handsome Lowe is leaving the wanna-be-hip Sunday night soapy ABC TV drama, Brothers and Sisters, the only thing inquiring minds are left to speculate about is "How will Rob Lowe's character, Senator Robert McCallister, be written off the show?"

Alert viewers of Brothers and Sisters (e.g., those who still have a pulse) no doubt sensed something was awry at the end of Sunday night's episode, when the previously so-ambitious-he-would-leave-his-mother's-funeral-early-to-make-a-campaign-speech Rob Lowe character urged his TV wife Kitty (played by Calista "Ally McBeal" Flockhart) to run for his U.S. Senate seat despite the fact a) that she has never held public office, b) she is battling Stage 3 Lymphoma and c) she and her husband recently adopted a baby and being a U.S. Senator is not the most family friendly of careers for mothers of young children recovering from cancer and easing their way back into the work force (and certainly not one that a driven man like the Rob Lowe character on Brothers and Sisters would support).

With the marriage of Kitty and her senator husband on the rocks almost from the day the two yuppie Republicans got married, one wonders if the Brothers and Sisters writers will ultimately answer the questions "Can this marriage be saved?" with a resounding No! and have the Rob Lowe and Calista Flockhart characters end their marriage in divorce. If so, will it be a scandalous and dramatic divorce, with Rob Lowe battling Flockhart for custody of their baby and dragging her in the mud with allegations about her affair with the Mr. Mom guy in the park or an amicable parting that would appease sentimental fans of the show but do little to boost the show's lukewarm ratings (one wonders how well this vanilla show would do without the boost from its Desperate Housewives lead in).

It is also possible the Brothers and Sisters screenwriters will opt for a medical termination of the McCallister marriage. Those who tuned into Brothers and Sisters from Day 1 recall the show began with the shocking and dramatic fatal heart attack of womanizing patriarch William Walker in the swimming pool at the Walker family mansion with the whole family watching. The Brothers and Sisters scriptwriters could opt to reward early viewers with an echo death, writing out the Rob Lowe character with a sudden fatal heart attack at a similar inopportune time.

Another scenario for writing the Rob Lowe character out of Brothers and Sisters could be to craft something campy ala the recent death of Karl Mayer on Desperate Housewives after an airplane crashed into a gingerbread house in which he and his girlfriend's husband (it's complicated) were engaged in an argument. Being that Brothers and Sisters is set in California, perhaps the senator could die from overdosing on guacamole or something equally surreal. Chances of a freakish demise for the senator are unlikely, however, since Brothers and Sisters' only three similarities to ABC's hit show Desperate Housewives is the Sunday night time slot, the annoying female leads and the unusually large number of gay characters.

Sources:
http://brothersandsisters-tv.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758737/
http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/01/21/rob-lowe-to-exit-brothers-sisters/