After having been a pretty rocky season, despite the persistent storylines, the season finale of Californaication last Sunday – titled “Mia Culpa” – actually held a few surprises and twists that most wouldn’t have been able to guess at.

It seems that Hank Moody is rather incapable of spending a single, normal day with his family. And as the episode begins with a ridiculous and disconcerting dream sequence that does nothing other than explain that the character wants to be a good father, but’s torn, he literally stumbles out of his bedroom and into the kitchen. Moody’s family, all pristine in a television style, is waiting for him with glasses of orange juice and effervescent loveliness and early day smiles.

The familial love-in, though, gets derailed relatively quickly.

Before the wheels fall off, Becca and her father go for a walk during which time the youngster reveals a secret. As the two cross a bridge in Santa Monica, the teenager turns to her father and explains the scenario that led to the loss of her virginity. And while the scene’s rendered in tenderness and understanding a brief comic reference and subsequent confusion about a “Michael Cera-type” makes the scene all the more realistic.

Of course, the fact that Becca’s spent the better part of the last year with her father makes her want to reveal all of this to Hank first. What’s odd, though, is that he tells Becca that she shouldn’t tell her mother until after the move back east. And if the remainder of the show wasn’t given over to the potentiality of some blow up, this right here might suffice.

Instead, Mia returns after having cold jacked Hank for his novel. In tow is her agent and boyfriend who’s been let in on the little secret. What transpires are a few different business discussions that all conclude with the possibility of Hank telling his (almost) wife that he slept with Mia when she was still underage.

Despite the legality of it all, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that Mia and Karen were at one time close as a result of the latter’s engagement to the former’s father. There’s no good way to expose all of this to one’s better half, but Hank gives it a shot.

Sadly enough, the people behind the camera and in the editing room felt it necessary to eschew including the audio and dialogue for some chincy song while the couple get into it for a moment. No surprisingly, Hank winds up outside duking it out with the coppers. Completely disregarding how ridiculous it is to think that this character would actually knock a cop in the face, the fact that the boys in blue arrive so quickly at the Moody homestead, located in SoCal of all places, is absurd.

At least the third season of Californiatcation concluded with a stadium sized question mark. So while Hank gets carted away and chased after by his daughter and her mother, whatever comes next won’t be as dramatic - although, the following season is assured to have some boozin’ included.