The Middle: Hecks on a Train

This was a good episode, despite the fact that it has sort of been done before.
Aunt Edie has died and the episode starts with the whole family (sans Axl {Charlie McDermott}) remembering great things about her while they attempt to look for important papers, namely, her will. Luckily, Sue (Eden Sher) finds her birth certificate, social security and proof of the purchase of a burial plot in South Dakota where she met and married her first husband, Carl. So off they go, to South Dakota. Axl does join them for this.
Speaking of Axl, he takes her death pretty hard, mainly because he used her death as an excuse to get out of stuff, like papers and tests and now she is actually dead. However, his guilt doesn't last. Sue is busy writing her essay on her college applications and one of the colleges she is applying to is East Indiana State. He is furious, believing that she will ruin his last two years of college. Mike (Neil Flynn) doesn't care one iota of what Axl thinks. If Sue gets in to that college and wants to go, that's where she will go. However, there is also a snag with her application as the train lurched and she accidentally submitted an essay with a huge typo in the last sentence. She is devastated about the whole thing.
In the meantime, Frankie (Patricia Heaton) trips and Mike doesn't help her up because he is busy getting ketchup but a stranger does. She is not pleased with him and calls him out on not being a nurturer. He doesn't hug her enough. And she wants more, especially now that the kids are  grown up.
Brick (Atticus Shaffer) decides that Aunt Edie's ninety-six years on Earth were just too short so he puts down his book and will actually live life. He even makes a friend on the train, Travis (Hudson Borthwick) and his parents are thrilled. But Travis uses Brick as a tool to distract the bartender so he can steal some beer. Brick decides that he will return to his life of reading about people living in the moment.
Despite the sadness of the trip, it ends up happily. Sure, Frankie misses the train and her family doesn't even notice when she jumps out of a car as she hitched to get the rest of the way home, but Mike took care of all the paperwork and paid for all of Aunt Edie's funeral expenses, splitting it between five credit cards. Even the lodge that Aunt Edie loved so much looked better at night and the family is finally happy with each other. Axl makes peace with Sue potentially attending his college.
It was a great episode with each character getting their moment to shine and when Frankie surprised her family, that was hilarious though in a sad way. Still, it was sort of like a previous episode when the family flies on a plane, though this was more realistic. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Aunt Edie called Brick Axl the last time he went to visit her.
-Aunt Edie has tons of portable bars around the house.
-Brick discovers that repeating what other people say is better than just repeating what he says.
-While the Hecks are travelling who is taking care of her poor sick old dog Doris?
-On the train, the Hecks splurge on a whole plate of chicken fingers which, because of her tripping, Frankie promptly drops on the floor.
-Mike assures Axl that even if Sue does attend East Indiana State, he will at least be able to drink by then.
-At first, Brick believes that someone murdered Aunt Edie.
-Frankie and Mike describe that Aunt Edie did everything she wanted to do and still had twenty years to spare.
-Frankie's voice over ends with her saying that Mike picked her up three times that night and she picked him up once because they partied too hard.