The Middle: The College Tour

Well, when Sue (Eden Sher) lies and starts to throw up, you're in for an interesting episode.  She starts off the episode strong, waking Mike (Neil Flynn) super early so they can begin the endless weekend of college tours and at the first one, she receives tons of brochures on pow-wows and stuff like that because she believed herself to be a native american and that is what she filled out on her forms. Needless to say, she can't believe that she should have filled out Caucasian on the form. At the next college tour, she tries to overcompensate and makes it abundantly clear that she's white and is only interested in clubs for white people. I guess she is asked to leave the campus because Mike is driving in the car, muttering that it was out of their price range anyway. And then, not knowing which tray she should have picked, she drops in distress and runs away in shame and Mike just doesn't get it. Fortunately, her last college tour goes much better and she asks the great question of "If you could start out as a freshman, what would you wish you would know?" which solves the tray question, at least for that school. Along the way, they meet Maddie (Ashlee Fuss) and her super-involved father (Bil Dwyer) who is going to miss his daughter horribly. They make special daddy-pancakes and used to have tea parties, stuff like that. That forces Mike to think and he asks Sue if she wishes that he was more like Maddie's dad and she scoffs at that. She believes that Mike is the best dad in the world. I mean, why else would she have bought him a World's Greatest Dad Mug, mugs don't lie.
While Mike is busy dealing with Sue and her antics, Frankie (Patricia Heaton) gets a call from Axl (Charlie McDermott) stating that his coach is finally going to put in the game. Which does happen, only Axl manages to fumble the ball just nine seconds into his first game. Axl is humiliated and mopes around his apartment, forcing him to take advice from Frankie. It turns out he is so embarrassed because he invited Devin Levin (Gina Mantegna) to the game and that is the play she saw. Luckily, Frankie manages to actually give him some pretty good advice which he is desperate enough to take and calls her and charms her into grabbing some food to eat together. Frankie is pleased with what she has done.
Brick (Atticus Shaffer) gets a crappy plot line this week, but at least we get to see some characters that we seldom see much of. He is forced to stay at home, being watched by a variety of oddballs while he is supposed to work on a school project where he must build a car that can go at least fifty feet by itself. He does, only because he has help from these people.
All-in-all, this was a pretty good episode. Mike and Sue had some sweet moments, which are always lovely and it is also touching when Axl can be charming, even if he was prodded to be charming by Frankie. Sure, it would have been lovely if Brick would get a decent plot line, but the acting is always top-notch and there some funny moments. Grade: A
Side Notes:
-Brick's babysitters include the super religious Ruth (Grace Bannon), who wants a bowl of wheat and brings him some of her old toys, which are a block of wood and a rock. Chuck (Greg Cipes) is also there to watch Baby Mike and tells him that school is pointless and he left once he was told to where a shirt. Finally, Brad (J. Brock Ciarlelli) comes over and over glitters Brick's project car.
-Axl is disgusting as he has never cleaned his place which leads Frankie to buy cleaning supplies and label them as such.
-During their college trip, Mike and Sue stay at a variety of odd places owned by people that are distantly related to them because it is saving them money.
-Frankie foolishly cell phone tapes the fumble of Axl's which only makes things worse.
-Just when I thought we weren't going to see anymore of Devin Levin, she makes a quick appearance and mentions that she wishes Axl had some of this wit on the field.
-Frankie says that even though Mike is emotionless as an Easter island statue, she loves him anyway. And she does. Axl covers his ears, not wanting to hear how much his parents love each other.
-At least Brick didn't set the house on fire or something else crazy like that. We can be grateful for that.