First of all, writers of The Middle, I am very disappointed that this year does not feature a Valentine's Day episode. The Middle has always done the holidays right, so I feel like I was denied something wonderful.
This was far from a Valentine's Day episode.
Sue (Eden Sher) is thrilled that she finally has the roommate of her dreams: her brand new bestie, Lexie (Daniela Bobadilla) but that quickly turns to smoke as she immediately buys a huge, albeit cheap TV and assumes that Sue will just pay for half of it. Sure, it is only one hundred and fifty dollars but to Sue, that is a huge amount of money. Yet, instead of telling Lexie that she is on a super tight budget, she coughs up the dough and donates plasma. Which she realizes is important only after donating tons of it to pay for everything extravagant that Lexie buys. Her parents insist that she tell Lexie the truth, but confrontation isn't Sue's strong suit. Only when Lexie foolishly throws out Sue's almost empty bottle of shampoo does Sue take action, declaring that she is poor. Lexie takes the news pretty well and insists on paying for everything though Sue won't let her. Fortunately, despite Lexie having the money for VIP tickets to see Taylor Swift they go outside the concert and strain to hear the remnants of her songs but they nevertheless have a great time.
Axl's (Charlie McDermott's) boss, Jack (Alan Ruck) finally takes a shine to him but it is only because Jack is stressing out as the company is going bankrupt, hemorrhaging money like crazy as the company just inherited a bunch of rotten apples. Axl tries to brush the revelation, no one his age eats fruit pies anyway. Jack takes this advice to heart and fires fifty people, the entire fruit pie division, thinking nothing of it. He will gladly listen to any advice Axl has to offer in the future and if Axl keeps his wits about him, then Jack's job could be Axl's which just leaves him with a depressed feeling.
Brick (Atticus Shaffer) doesn't know what it is like to have friends so now that he finally has some, it doesn't go that well. He hires them to work on a school project with both Troy (Jovan Armand) and Cindy (Casey Burke) as the actors and himself as the director but Brick is a tyrant, and insists that they be letter perfect and capture the emotions the professional actors possess. Fortunately, Frankie (Patricia Heaton) tells Brick that he must treat his friends better because he doesn't have many options. He apologizes and they go out to get fries together.
Frankie and Mike (Neil Flynn) don't have much of a plot line but it is one that I can certainly relate to. Frankie steps on this piece of unidentified plastic and wonders what household appliance it belongs to. Then, Frankie finally figures it out. It should go into a slot on the dryer door so they don't need to use a broom to keep the door closed. This is all the Valentine's Day present Frankie needs only to have Mike squash her dreams as he threw the piece out yesterday. Frankie isn't pleased. But oh well, they will survive and things will stay the same for them.
Now, while the plot lines didn't really connect, they were great anyway. Axl's may have been a bit far-fetched with his boss befriending him just to confide in someone, but the greatness of Sue's and Brick's made up for it. That being said, in this strong episode, it could have been more interesting with a Valentine's Day theme. But there will funny moments and great, zany lines with once again solid performances from the core cast as well as the guest stars. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-Brick has to recreate a pivotal film moment and he can't decide between Battleship Potemkin or Knot's Landing which he binged on after Aunt Edie's death. On a beta max. Needless to say, his friends don't share his enthusiasm.
-He even gets his parents to fill-in for the parts after Troy and Cindy bail but Mike isn't feeling the emotions so he immediately gets Brad (J. Brock Ciarlelli), available at the last minute, to propose to Frankie as Frankie is expecting his child. It is awkward but wonderful.
-Cindy's excuse is that she has a head cold and her great-aunt died while Troy has the flu plus his great-uncle passed away. Brick doesn't understand how this could happen, I mean what are the odds? But Frankie tells him that this is not the case, they are lying to him.
-Axl's hair starts falling out and he believes that he is gaining weight as the job is stressing him out, even though he is only there ten hours per week.
-Jack's truck drivers are threatening to strike again, after all, they declare they can't drive for forty-eight hours straight.
-Lexie has three emergency credit cards and insists that she is not rich even though she does also have a horse, but he is really old.
-Frankie used to have a rich friend but she was a sponge though she did learn how to water ski.
-Mike tells his children that they should always friend down and that their plan to get out of debt is that they will die before they have to pay everything off.
-I wonder what happened to Doris?
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