#it's not about inherent goodness wrt the parental alignment

[normalbrothers]

one function of bringing their father back, aside from giving some insights into arthur and his struggle when it comes to his identity and place in the family while also giving a certain pretext to his 'becoming' (rather than being inherently like his dad (whatever that would mean anyway), he makes choices that get him on that path regardless) in later seasons, is ... to show that tommy, specifically, isn't like him. polly's line about tommy possessing his father's devilment and his mother's common sense, and that he should let her win, is pretty rigorously followed through then. he's compared to her by charlie in s2, and what we find out about her (which is admittedly sparse) always aligns with whatever tommy's going through at the point (his increasing mental instability, his seeing 'ghosts', his suicidality). and what their father does by the end of the episode is having manipulated arthur into stealing their family savings (and it wasn't just five bucks out of the piggy bank, but rather a considerable amount) and then leaving them, once more, behind for america, never to be seen again. the following episode takes this up again, but inverse, when, finally, grace suggests they leave together (for america as well!) and tommy declines for reasons that remain generally true for the rest of the show. that he has people he loves and people he needs to protect.