First of all, I don't really know why this episode was titled the way it was, there was no danger, at least not on the surface.
It's Mike's (Neil Flynn's) birthday and Sue (Eden Sher) wants to make him a video telling him how awesome and wonderful he is. Which she does even though her whole family warns her that he'll hate it, which he does. He makes Sue stop it in the middle of the video, hurting her feelings, though she doesn't cry about it (at least not on screen). Mike does halfheartedly apologize, offer to take her out for ice cream and then says thank you.
In the meantime, Frankie (Patricia Heaton) tears the house apart attempting to find the perfect present she bought for Axl's (Charlie McDermott's) graduation. And she does finally find it, and it sucks. It is a shoe shine kit for businessmen, because that's what he will be. She ends up giving it to Mike and without hesitation, he asks if she kept the receipt.
Brick (Atticus Shaffer) was bullied at school and Cindy (Casey Burke) twisted the bully's arm around. Though Brick was proud, he wanted to learn how to defend himself, so he asks Axl to help him build some of these things called muscles. It goes badly. Axl is horribly out of shape, unable to lift the weights or even do five pull-ups and he's ashamed, believing that he's wasting away. And it will only get worse because he will be sitting down at work all day, doing whatever he'll be doing. Sure, men peak physically at twenty-five, but they peak mentally at thirty-five, so he could still at that going for him. Brick encourages him to watch more PBS, which I guess he does. Brick lifts books and plans on moving on to heavier stuff like encyclopedias so he can carry Cindy's books.
Now, while those are minor, the excellent talk Sue and Mike had at the end make this episode something memorable. We finally learn about Mike's long deceased mother and how unfeeling his family is, though they do truly care. Mike's mother died of lung cancer at forty-two and was a school teacher who loved to dance. Sue believes that she would have liked her and Mike admits that she was a nice lady. It was genuinely touching. I love the touching moments between father and daughter.
That being said, this episode was rather mediocre. Sure, death is coming, and aging is inevitable. I just think that this whole episode could have been done better. It was rather lackluster, despite some good, typical performances. The brothers could have bonded more, and I really wish Mike had been touched with that lovely video Sue made; she put a lot of thought into it and Mike merely brushed it off. Grade: B
Side Notes:
-The frugal hosier had a power outage sale of steaks.
-When Sue was five, she wanted to wear make-up and colored her eyelids with permanent marker. I wonder how it came out.
-Brick believes that women's rights are people's right.
-Sue's really good with glitter.
-Mike apparently has a squishy center, after all, he saw Moana with Sue.
-Mike loves reading Sports Illustrated uninterrupted.
-Sue was unable to find any baby pictures of Mike.
-Everyone believes that if Mike were an ice cream flavor, he would be vanilla.
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