What is "Relationship Purgatory?"?

Question

This term was used in the 5/13 episode of Brothers and Sisters on ABC by Sarah and Joe to describe their relationship. Can they repair things, or are things too far gone to ever be repaired again?

Answer 1

Purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.

--From Catholic Encyclopedia

I suppose in the case of Sarah and Joe, Joe hasn't fully atoned for his sin of kissing Rebecca (who seemed to instigate the kiss, per the end of that episode)., so because Sarah is not sure of their relationship, and relationships are not one way, they are currently in Relationship Purgatory.

But perhaps, their relationship would be better described by "Limbo"

(Late Latin limbus) a word of Teutonic derivation, meaning literally "hem" or "border," as of a garment, or anything joined on (cf. Italian lembo or English limb).

In theological usage the name is applied to (a) the temporary place or state of the souls of the just who, although purified from sin, were excluded from the beatific vision until Christ's triumphant ascension into Heaven (the "limbus patrum"); or (b) to the permanent place or state of those unbaptized children and others who, dying without grievous personal sin, are excluded from the beatific vision on account of original sin alone (the "limbus infantium" or "puerorum").

In literary usage the name is sometimes applied in a wider and more general sense to any place or state of restraint, confinement, or exclusion, and is practically equivalent to "prison" (see, e.g., Milton, "Paradise Lost," III, 495; Butler, "Hudibras," part II, canto i, and other English classics). The not unnatural transition from the theological to the literary usage is exemplified in Shakespeare, "Henry VIII," act v, sc. 3. In this article we shall deal only with the theological meaning and connotation of the word.

However, after reading this I do think Relationship Purgatory is more applicable.
Furthermore, isn't the Walker family Jewish, so why are they using Catholic analogies? Oh yeah, it's all about the guilt/punishment/etc.

:)

Answer 2

Relationship Purgatory is basically the couple months were a couple breaks off. They are more than friends, but they aren't an item anymore. It's basically the "awkward stage" of a relationship.