The Middle: Halloween VI: Tick, Tock, Death

Now, we have known that Frankie (Patricia Heaton) is crazy, and this episode confirms it. Sure, she's had problems with the Glossners before and now she's not going to take it any longer. It is Halloween and none of the cute trick-or-treaters come to their neighborhood because of the Glossners so Frankie decides to take action with a little help from Sue (Eden Sher). They egg the house, which is mean but sort of harmless, just giving the Glossners a taste of their own medicine only then Rita (Brooke Shields) arrives, catching them in the act. Instead of apologizing and running for their lives, Frankie turns the table and starts chasing Rita into the woods. Rita apologizes for stealing a Heck pumpkin and saying that her manners are poor because she is the only woman in the house. This forces Frankie to realize that with Axl (Charlie McDermott) and his two roommates, Hutch and Kenny (Alphonso McAuley and Tommy Bechtold) living there, she gets it and does apologize. Rita doesn't accept and instead, starts running again, calling Frankie a monster. Which she is, in that moment at least.
In the meantime, Axl is at home, chilling with his friends, watching three football games all at once and then the grim reaper shows up. Literally. Axl tries to tell him that the candy is at the end of the driveway though Frankie and Sue are no longer there. But then the grim reaper sort of stalks the house which secretly frightens both Axl and Hutch who hide out in the basement with Kenny. They believe that the grim reaper will kill them, but then a miracle happens, Kenny speaks. He just says that the grim reaper will steal their souls instead. Axl and Hutch, not to mention my dad, are shocked to hear Kenny actually speak with words. Still, this inspires them to finally leave the house. They load up Axl's car and immediately leave though who knows where they will live.
Mike (Neil Flynn) is stuck taking Brick trick-or-treating because he doesn't really care if the guys leave the house or not, so Frankie is punishing him. Mike is thoroughly miserable and then this night gets super odd. First of all, he is some guy from Night Watchers, not The Twilight Zone but no one gets it. Brick always picks the weirdest costumes. And his last house, things are weird. There is an odd painting of the woman's husband when he was a child who looks suspiciously like Brick. It gets odder, the woman's name is Cynthia and the house contains two libraries and the missing, but not dead husband is giving a lecture on fonts and they have 'done' it. They have four children. Brick is delighted as that is one more time than his parents. Mike says sardonically that Brick is a real chick magnet.
It ends just as weird as the episode began, with Brick giving Cindy (Casey Burke) all the candy he collected for her, name brand stuff because she has expensive tastes. Cindy is the grim reaper, which makes sense, she is super tall and different. However, why did she spend her whole evening at the Heck house instead of collecting the candy herself. She used Brick and that is not something I like.
Yeah, this episode wasn't great. Normally, The Middle is realistic, with plausible situations and reactions from the characters and this episode, everything was over the top and the fourth wall was completely shattered by Brick himself, declaring that his narration really ties the story together. It wasn't necessarily bad, just unrealistic, with Frankie becoming nothing more than a stereotypical crazy mom. All of that boxed wine really got to her head.
It was a little funny, but the tone was all off from the other episodes. This is easily one of the worst episodes of The Middle in the entire series run. Grade: C+
Side Notes:
-Not much to say, but Kenny was able to set it up that the Hecks were able to watch three football games at the same time.
-Brick wondered why he would ever leave the house if he had three unread books waiting for him at home. Mike compared football games to books so Brick could understand his pain.
-Axl believes that it is Frankie's purpose to nurture because she is a mother and it is easier to have someone else take care of them than to take care of themselves.
-Sue arrives home because she tried to plan a non-drinking party but get no response to that.
-It is a good thing that the guys left because Kenny had been using Sue's bed, that's just gross.
-Frankie never bought name brand candy, only now she believes that she finally has an excuse.
-I don't know what the writers were trying to go for in this episode but it was lost on me, so if you guys have any insight, please let me know in the comment section.