Kevin Can Wait – Kevin’s Bringing Supper Back

On this week’s Kevin Can Wait, the episode starts with Donna (Erinn Hayes) getting up to wake up the kids. Kevin (Kevin James) offers to help, but Donna tells him that he will not be able to handle the kids’ rudeness and that she is used to the twenty minute routine of waking them up. Kevin persists and Donna agrees, but says that “you’re going to be right back here asking me to do it.” When he walks into Sara’s (Mary-Charles Jones) and Kendra’s (Taylor Spreitler) room, he is sweet at first and quietly tries waking up his “little princesses.” In return, he receives the “leave me alone, I’m sleeping act” so he brings out the big guns to rouse them – in this case an air horn. Message loudly received. After he leaves their room, his son Jack (James DiGiacomo) is already awake, but he blows on the horn for good measure.

As Kevin is making pancakes for breakfast, Kendra and Sara are fighting about washing Sara’s stinky lacrosse bag. Sara is against it because she feels that her smelly bag is responsible for her team not losing ten games. Kevin tries to end the fight by saying all the bag needs is Febreze. He tells both girls to sit down for breakfast, but they are in a hurry and rush out the door. Jack has his headphones on so he does not hear his father’s breakfast invitation. Even Donna has no time for pancakes and she leaves the house quickly. The only house member left is Kendra’s fiance Chale (Ryan Cartwright) who smells the pancakes or has calls them “griddle cakes,” which remind him of his childhood in London with his nana who made them. As he is reminiscing out loud, Kevin quietly walks away leaving the pancakes forgotten.

Late in the day, Kevin is hanging out with his retired police buddies at their local hangout Enzo’s and he asks his brother Kyle (Gary Valentine) if he got five Bill Joel tickets. Kyle said he was not able to get the tickets. Bummed, Kevin has to settle for Plan B. He talks to his buddy Mott (Christopher Brian Roach) about a guys’ hangout on Sunday to watch football, but Mott declines. He tells Kevin that he is taking his family out to their family cabin to have quality family time. Mott asks Kevin if he does anything like that with his family and Kevin pretends that he does. Despondent about the state of his family, Kevin leaves the bar. After he left, Mott reveals to the other friends that they lied to Kevin. Kyle was able to score the tickets, but they are surprising Kevin.

When Kevin returns home, he calls for Donna. He is surprised to find her hidiing in the corner reading a book on a bucket. Because of his talk with Mott and the breakfast incident, Kevin is frantic that the family has no traditions and he wants to fix that. Donna tells her husband that this one of his “kicks” and reminds him of other times that these kicks got him and the family into trouble. She had to bring up an uncomfortable memory–the potato farm that cost a thousand dollars that only produced four weird looking potatoes that no one felt comfortable eating. However, Donna reluctantly agrees to his family bonding idea, but warns him not to be too enthusiastic about it.

Kevin’s first attempt at family game night was Monopoly. No one is excited to play except Chale. To make things worse, the pieces are missing. Everybody sees that as a sign and are ready to leave, but Kevin is not ready to quit yet. Quickly, he finds random house items from house keys to cheese doddle to substitute for the playing pieces. Kendra and Sara start arguing so the Monopoly is a bust.

Later that night, Donna and Kevin discuss in their bedroom why the game night was a disaster. Kevin feels that Monopoly was a bad idea while Donna points out that there is tension between the two sisters because twenty-one year old Kendra is unhappy sharing a room with her younger sister. Kevin feels he can help resolve that tension so his next plan is the Gable bubble ball tournament. The family meets at the park and they are all inside giant beach balls. According to Chale, this game combines soccer and an MRI. Kevin says that this game has no rules and it only requires hitting your opponent. It turns out that Kevin is only good at the game and things go badly when Jack rolls away from his family after being pushed by a kid on a swing.

After the bubble disaster with Jack, Donna stresses to Kevin that his obsession with family bonding cannot continue. She tells him that these things have to happen naturally and he was finally getting the message. When the lights in their bedroom go off after their talk, Kevin has a new idea for the family to try–Sunday Supper. Donna agrees to cook if Kevin can get everybody at the table.

At first, the dinner is super awkward. Kevin tries to get everybody excited, but only Jack seems to be getting the memo, despite having to go to the hospital to be x-rayed after his bubble ball incident. Sara and Kendra end up fighting for the umpteenth time this episode. There is a silver lining this time. Kevin reminds the girls that family is forever. Kendra admits that she has been stressed out about school and has been taking it out on Sara. She apologizes for her behavior. Sara admits that she is used to having her own room so it has been a struggle to share her room with her older sister. Kevin goes into the kitchen to get a beer and Donna follows him and is happy with the turnaround. She admits that he was right to stress family time. After she leaves, Kevin gets a call from his friends. They did get the Billy Joel tickets and they are picking him in twenty minutes.

When Donna comes to get Kevin to play a game Chale started, he suddenly remembers that the next day is a school night. He tries to tell Donna that the dinner was a good start, but it is time for everyone to do their own thing. She lets him go on for a bit, but she reveals that she knows about the concert. One of his friends’ wives spilled the beans to her. She tells him that she knows that he is a huge Billy Joel fan, but reminds him that his family night goal actually happened. His family is having fun and spending time together.

Kevin decides to go to the concert. Billy Joel, who guest-starred in this episode, even gives Kevin a chance to sing “It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me” at the mic. It is safe to say that Kevin made the right choice for himself.