AllMovie

The good news at the outset of Party of Five's third season is that the Salinger family has regained full control of the restaurant owned by their late parents. The bad news is that the much-anticipated marriage between eldest son Charlie Salinger (Matthew Fox) and the younger kids' ex-nanny Kirsten Bennett (Paula Devicq) has been scuttled in a spectacular fashion (Charlie and Kirsten are still together, but they've given up all plans for marriage--or at least think they have). In the season opener, Kirsten is coldly unsympathetic to the marital woes of her mother Ellie (Kathleen Noone); Charlie's brother Bailey (Scott Wolf), his girlfriend Sarah (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and his best pal Will (Scott Grimes) are stranded in Mexico when their car is stolen; and Bailey's sister Julia (Neve Campbell) angrily confronts her returning ex-flame Griffin (Jeremy Holbrook)--who mollifies her with a surprise revelation. Finally, no one believes the youngest Salinger daughter Claudia (Lacey Chabert) when she announces that she's found her true love at summer camp.