Well, Sue (Eden Sher) is finally going off to college and Frankie (Patricia Heaton) has to feign the tears. She feels nothing about her only daughter leaving for college. Fortunately, she at least feels bad that she isn't sad. Frankie wonders if it is because Sue is the second kid or if all the emotions will hit her at once, later.
Sue, on the other hand, is overly prepared for college and even started packing in June. Mike (Neil Flynn) also spent the whole summer teaching her life lessons, including balancing the checkbook, tying all sorts of knots, and the changing the car tire.
Sue, of course, wants her drop off to be perfect, and even has a scrapbook that declares it to be an iconic moment so then it must be so. Axl (Charlie McDermott) is being his usual jerk self and doesn't even want to go but he is going, that is Mike's final word.
Sue has so much stuff that two cars must be taken which means Axl has no choice but to drive. Sue has walkie talkies so the two cars can communicate with the other which drives Axl beyond crazy and he decides to pass the main car but he drives so fast that some of Sue's crap falls off the car which means that the lead car gets a flat tire and Mike forces Sue to change it all by herself and she doesn't perform well under pressure. It takes forever as both cars have to be unpacked because the spare tire happens to be in Axl's car and then it nearly rolls away from Sue in one of the show's funniest bits. While Sue is busy attempting to fix the car, Frankie begs Mike to just help his daughter and how her life turned out just fine even though she never learned how to change a tire and Mike calls her bluff on all her emotions, or lack thereof. The new tire doesn't work which means that they need to call a mechanic and Sue gets to practice her other new skill of balancing the checkbook before continuing the journey. This time, she is in Axl's car with Brick (Atticus Shaffer) while Mike and Frankie are in the lead car by themselves. Frankie finally gets emotional when she says that of course she will miss Sue because Sue was such a huge part of her life for the last eighteen years but how exciting everything is when Sue is totally looking forward to college and how she will Sue up the world and how glad she is that she gets a front row seat to the whole thing. After this, Sue gets super emotional and asks that Frankie give the walkie talkie to Mike. She informs him that even though it is difficult for him to tell her that he loves her, it isn't hard for her so she tells Mike she loves him and Mike just says yep and returns the device to Frankie.
Fortunately, they arrive at Sue's dorm room and it takes them three whole hours to unpack everything because Sue brought a lot of crap before the good byes. Unfortunately, the show ends badly with Sue sitting alone in her extremely cute dorm room waiting for her roommate to arrive. It was a great episode and I was disappointed that it didn't end better. It should have ended with Mike and Frankie still on the couch thrilled that they are empty nesters before Brick declares that he is still here.
This show was mostly great, with some great performances all around, I just wish it had ended on a better note, but it was funny and typical of the Hecks for something simple to spiral out of control.
Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Brick doesn't have much of a plot line but he has started the eighth grade and loves that he no longer needs a pass to go to the bathroom which means that he is reading tons there. His girlfriend, Cindy (Casey Burke) also wants to take that relationship to the next level and he agrees but he has no idea where the relationship currently is so how can he move it up?
-He even foolishly asks Axl for advice which doesn't go well because, according to Axl, relationships have forty levels in American and sixty plus in Europe. So who knows where that will go, but Brick is determined to make this the year of him.
-Sue's week before college is horrible. Frankie purchased a cheap garage sale curling iron which burns off some of Sue's hair forcing her to eventually cut the rest of it off giving her compliments all around, even Axl says that she looks less bad than before. High praise from him.
-I really wish Axl would wear pants sometimes.
-Mike really hammers in the life lessons. Two funny bits including Sue balancing the checkbook but believing she had done it wrong because it equaled minus eleven dollars but Mike assured her that that was right. He also taught her how to defend herself if someone tried to steal her purse. She did well because he limped to bed. Yeah, that was great. Unfortunately, Mike will never admit how much he truly does love Sue.
-The best callback was when Frankie admits that she must be a great actress or else she would have never gotten cast in the local production of The Wizard of Oz.
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