The Middle: Escape Orson

Well, this is going to be a sucky year for the Hecks, as opposed to every other year that has existed.
Sue (Eden Sher) still doesn't have a dorm room in college and Axl (Charlie McDermott) is upset that April (Greer Grammer) is spending the day with her grandmother so he has no choice but to spend time with his family and Brick (Atticus Shaffer) announces that Cindy (Casey Burke) has had another growth spurt, so now she's even taller than him.
But then Sue hands Frankie (Patricia Heaton) a pile of coupons and she finds one that is going to expire today which means the whole family is going to the Escape Room.
Now, having been to an escape room, I can say that they are a lot of fun, but I wouldn't really want to go with my parents and Axl isn't thrilled either.
And they run into the overachieving Donohues and are now determined to beat their time, which will probably never happen but they are going to try.
However, after eight seasons, you would think we would know pretty much everything about these characters, but no, apparently, Sue is brilliant at winning board games and the family believes that she is their secret weapon. This turns out to be false and Sue does something completely out of character, she has cheated at these games for her whole life. Given Sue's personality and her ridiculous inability to lie, I can't believe that she would be able to successfully cheat at all these games, stealing money from the bank at Monopoly and creating characters when she didn't know who was on her card and Axl tries to keep her secret but in the end, he just can't.
Naturally, the Hecks are disappointed but use the lazy host's inattention to their questions to their advantage and get two more minutes added so they have time to escape and this time they listen to Axl and open the door, only to find a brick wall. But this time, Sue pushes some bricks in and the wall disappears and they actually win the old-fashioned way. Sue is thrilled that this win is genuine.
There are two rather wan minor plots. Brick believes that the sixth person the Hecks are put with to escape the room is his favorite author and he tries to solve that mystery though as it turns out the gentleman is a fumigator of insects.
Frankie also remembered her dream where she was kissing Frank Sinatra, but nothing major. Mike (Neil Flynn) takes this to heart and tries to be more considerate of her and even asks how her day went before planting the most romantic kiss in the history of the show on her lips.
Unfortunately, though I love the idea of having an escape room on a sitcom, this show was by far the worst of the season as I hated what they did to Sue's character. She can barely keep a lie and vomits every time she steals something so I find this completely out of a character which upsets me. That being said, I also found it odd that her hidden talent was winning at board games, but I would have preferred that over what the writers decided to do, though they attempted to make it funny, but this episode also fell flat with laughs. And having the other guy there was just lame. Grade: B-
Side Notes:
-Every time someone says pee, Sue needs to pee.
-Frankie likes the middle-aged Frank Sinatra best, for whatever reason.
-The Donohues love helping the elderly shovel their sidewalks.
-I liked how dirty the Heck's car was from all the road salt needed with the snow fall on the streets.
-The theme of the escape room is escaping the zombie apocalypse.
-Brick didn't drink the brain juice but he did lick the jar, which is just odd.
-Axl is so gross he eats a chip he's been sitting on for maybe even hours. Sue is so hungry that so does she, again, out of character for her.
-The joke is on the Donohues, as the Hecks never have fun.
-The owner of the Escape Room's name is Rowdy which is also odd.