Rob Lowe Goes Down in Flames on “Brothers and Sisters”

In January, ABC announced Rob Lowe would be leaving its soapy primetime family drama “Brothers and Sisters” at the end of this season. Fans started wondering how he’d go. An easy out would be for his character, Senator Robert McAllister to suffer another heart attack as he did last season. Would Robert to take off and leave wife, Kitty Walker McAllister, to raise their newly adopted son alone since she had nearly succumbed to a full-blown affair with a dad in the neighborhood? Or would he become one only heard from via one-sided phone conversations if the show were to permanently send him back to Washington full time?

During the last few episodes, Robert lied to Kitty, telling her he didn’t get a new job due to the bosses being concerned about his past heart problems. Meanwhile, Robert was clearly crossing over into the world of dirty politics, as viewers saw him taking clandestine meetings in the back of limos and eventually considering taking a hefty sum of money in exchange for helping take down an unethical defense contractor.

It looked like heart troubles might just be what would do him in after all , when last night’s fourth-season finale got underway. He was rushed to the hospital with chest pains after he’d earlier handed over a key to his safe deposit box just in case “something happens”. He admitted to being diagnosed with an arrhythmia to brother-in-law Justin who found Robert’s heart meds. But all that wasn’t dramatic enough for the series. Instead, Robert was killed in a fiery freeway crash after he was released from hospital and had finished out a Walker family weekend up in the country. Three of the Walkers’ cars carrying eight family members between them were involved and Robert, badly injured, slowly faded away as his wife, Kitty, begged him to stay with her. She’d have no such luck.

Fans were kept wondering for next season as the scene left a few interesting nuggets. A bloody Uncle Sal made it clear he was HIV positive and Walker foe-turned-friend-turned-family member Holly Harper was also severely injured in the accident. The gruesome accident scene may have looked like something out of “ER” rather than “Brothers and Sisters,” but it was fitting enough for a finale … and a farewell.