Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Middle: Change in the Air

This was a very good episode.
Axl (Charlie McDermott) is away at college and texts Mike (Neil Flynn) a good deal while ignoring Frankie (Patricia Heaton). Frankie doesn't take this news well, even going as far as stealing Mike's phone and pretends to be him just so she can hear from him. She misses him but Mike says her constant nagging via text message is doing no good.
Meanwhile, Sue (Eden Sher) is thrilled that Axl is out of the house. She loves being able to go around her house and high school without his insults and putting his fingers in her face and tripping her in the hallway because he did all of those things. She and Brad (J. Brock Ciarlelli) even dance down the hallway just because they can. She and Brick can get ready for school on time and she can rinse and repeat.
Brick (Atticus Shaffer) is not that thrilled about middle school however. He has heard a nasty rumor that eighth graders hide out in the bathroom just to give sixth graders swirlies. So he abstains from liquids as much as possible just to avoid the bathroom. He does well, not giving in as his science class studies the sun or when his gym class runs tons of laps but finally gives in as one of his classes samples some especially spicy. But the bathroom is not the nightmare he feared. The bigger kid is not nasty. And he is hailed as hero, until his classmates notice the toilet paper stuck to his shoe.
In addition to all of this, the Heck household is in turmoil. The air conditioner is broken and Mike is too cheap to fix it so they call Darrin (John Gammon) despite him having only taken two classes. But he is so sweet and refuses to take money from Mike, not that Mike was even offering in the first place. He and Sue even share a moment, once again, over a trash can. This time they only hug and even comment on being like flies, always around trash cans. Because of this, Sue decides that she wants to pursue Darrin again, having only broken up with him because of the jerk, Axl. She even gets Brad's support because he never really wanted them to break up in the first place but was supportive nevertheless.
She goes to tell him, but then Angel (Christiann Castellanos) shows up. She and Darrin are going to the movies. Sue, being typical Sue, assumes that she is invited to join them, but she is not. You can almost see her heart break. Then Darrin asks her what she wanted to talk to him about, and she says that they waited too long to fix the air conditioner and now it can never be fixed. But of course, she is not talking about the air conditioner, but her heart instead. Fortunately, she handles the situation well once she realizes that Angel, who is in cosmetology school near Darrin's air conditioning school is actually a cool person, but that doesn't mean she'll be over him anytime soon.
Mike is also missing Axl more than he will admit, going as far as asking Darrin and Brick to watch the football game with him. Fortunately, Axl finally breaks down and texts Frankie. He needs shampoo. But Axl totally listens to Frankie's text and calls Mike while he is eating noodles out of a coffee pot. A connection is finally made.
This was a great episode, but of course, I was rooting for Sue and Darrin to get back together as they did have so much fun (all of it unseen on the show) but they are not. Once again, they handled it like adults but I won't give up hope until the show ends. I'm too much of a hopeless romantic for my own good. In addition to heartbreak, there were also funny moments, like Frankie stuffing a bag of frozen chicken down her bra to cool herself off. I hope the shows are always this good. Grade: A
Side Notes:
-Nice to see Darrin back. Cassidy (Galadrial Stineman) is still serving her time as a guest star on Disney Channel shows, such as Austin and Ally.
-To cool off, Brick covered himself in popsicles but then became covered in flies.
-Sue and Darrin would mini golf and dance together for fun. How sweet is that.
-I loved how Darrin had no idea that Sue's new position even existed.
-Axl, it is not healthy to eat ice cream right out of the dispenser. That's totally unsanitary.
-Brick wouldn't even move from his lawn chair at the dining room table.
-Mike says he can't wait until all the kids are out of the house.
-Sue says that she would never stop calling dad, even if Frankie asked her to.

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