People talk regularly about Jason Katims' sob-inducing work on Parenthood and his similarly toned Friday Night Lights. But a lesser known fact is that Katims wrote the My So-Called Life episode "Life of Brian," in which Brian Krakow is the narrator and Rickie has a moment at the school dance that was as triumphant as LGBT culture got in 1994. In other words, for those of us who watched that episode then, we should all get together to celebrate 20 years and counting of having Katims, the architect of tears, write for us.

In Season 3, Julia (Erika Christensen) and Joel (Sam Jaeger) face that they won't be able to have a second child biologically to give Sydney (Savannah Paige Rae) a sibling. Along comes Zoe (Rosa Salazar), the coffee girl at Julia's law firm, who happens to be pregnant. Julia, an efficient problem solver in the mold of her responsible brother Adam, conscripts Zoe into a situation that should be good for both of them: Julia and Joel will adopt Zoe's baby. What unfolds throughout the season is as complicated as you can imagine, as the two women — similarly sharp, thoughtful, and loving, but from very different backgrounds and class positions — grow close. There's a sense of dread, of course, because the wrenching question of whether Zoe will actually be able to give up the baby looms over everything.

And when she decides not to, there's no fiery confrontation or recrimination; Zoe doesn't turn out to be a different person who tricked Julia. And Julia, ultimately, gets it, though she's heartbroken. In the penultimate episode of Season 3, Zoe goes into labor, and Julia is by her side all the way — a partner in every sense. Later, Julia returns to the hospital with Joel and Sydney. They think they're coming to see their new son. Instead, Julia looks into the nursery and sees Zoe with the baby, in love and clearly not willing to separate. Julia holds it together for Sydney's sake, but then goes and weeps by herself in an empty hospital room. It would be impossible to exaggerate what a beautiful, wrenching job Christensen does here.

That whole sequence is wonderful. But it's the scene in the finale, the last one we ever see between Zoe and Julia, that killed me. As she was giving birth, Zoe said to Julia, "I love you." In this scene, as Zoe's mother waits for her in a cab, Zoe says to Julia, "Julia, you changed my life." Those are two different things, of course, but here they might mean the same. When Julia grabs Zoe's hand, it's to give her back the watch Zoe had asked her to give the baby — it's now Zoe's to give. When Julia turns to leave Zoe, she wipes her tears and looks resolved. She doesn't know, but will soon find out, that she's to have a son after all: This episode ends with Victor (Xolo Maridueña), an older boy whose mother is in jail, coming into their home for the first time.

As an actor on film, Christensen has never found a role that allows her to show her range of talent that Traffic did. But Parenthood has allowed her to display every shade. And I sometimes wonder whether I will miss Julia and Christensen most of all when the show is over. —Kate Aurthur