Man With a Plan – Put Him on the Ground

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

The episode begins with Adam (Matt LeBlanc) having breakfast with his parents. Bev (Swoosie Kurtz) excitedly reveals how her eye doctor thinks she can be a service dog given her excellent tunnel vision. Joe (Stacy Keach) notes how the grocer and pharmacist weren’t spared from this news either. Adam is bored and is soon tasked by Andi (Liza Snyder) to take Emme (Hala Finley) on her playdate with Julian (Gunnar Goldberg) as she’s gotta take Kate (Grace Kaufman) to the doctor.

Adam hates the badly-behaved Julian, but Andi feels mixing with good kids will rub off “good” on him. Joe finds it such a “mom” thing to say and bets that dads know better. Andi disagrees saying both are equal, but according to Adam both are good at different aspects of life and the fact that women still marry men who are generically annoying proves his point. Andi defends saying that women marry because they’re optimists and need someone to open tight pickle jar lids for them. Adam challenges her to handle the dead squirrel on the roof. Andi’s game, but apparently an owl ran away with it and Andi’s sure it was a mom owl as she took care of it like a boss and didn’t brag. Andi signals a high five at Bev who claps back after Joe turns her head in Andi’s direction.

Don (Kevin Nealon) walks in and Bev reveals how Joe, who’s up for knee surgery, isn’t agreeing on getting himself a home nurse to help him through rehab. She reminisces the days when it was easier for her to handle Joe when he was on medical marijuana. Bev asks Don to handle the situation.

At the play-date Julian approaches Adam asking him to get Emme off the swing as he wants to use it now, but Adam asks him to wait instead given he’s already had his turn. Julian calls him a butthead. Adam and Don call him the same making Julian strut off.

Soon Emme and Teddy (Matthew McCann) come back with Emme being pissed that Julian pushed her off the swing. Adam’s puzzled as to how Teddy could just stand there doing nothing. He channels his “dad” side and asks Teddy to put Julian to the ground even though Andi wouldn’t like it. Teddy follows as instructed making Adam proud.

Adam later trains Emme to not spill the beans successfully under the facade of a secret-keeping game, but Teddy himself reveals it to his mom while they return home in the evening. Andi sends the kids upstairs and is unhappy with how Adam handled the situation. She predicts it’ll blow up in his face later and when it does she’ll tell him “I told you so,” like moms do.

Next day, Lowell (Matt Cook) and Don interview home nurse scrub-clad Funchy (Ron Funches) at a cafe. Lowell is impressed by his decade long experience and rave recommendations. Don feels the scrubs would scare Joe off and suggests removing them. Funchy jokes about maybe Joe takes an interest in topless male nurses. Lowell asks him about his unusual name. Funchy tells about how “Fun” is already part of his name and “Chi” means Namaste. Soon, Joe enters and asks if Funchy’s the guy who sells Coca Cola’s secret recipe. When Lowell reveals he’s a male nurse and Don asks him to stay put, Joe lies about getting himself a drink and runs off.

Later at home, Don complains about all that had gone down at the cafe but appreciates Joe’s trick. Kate comes down from upstairs complaining about Teddy using her mascara brush to draw chest hair. Marcy (Kali Rocha) joins in appreciating Teddy’s new cult behaviour. Adam is amazed to know that not all moms hate necessary violence like Andi.  Joe joins the club too and hands his old boxing gloves to Teddy. Seeing almost the whole family together, Andi walks in wondering what’s the occasion. Adam reveals how everybody supports Adam. Andi’s upset and the whole mom-dad thing comes up. Marcy corrects its not being about the gender and that’s it depends on the one’s relationship; like in theirs, Don’s the mom and she’s the dad.

The next day Adam is surprised to find Andi at work as he thought she’d take an off day given she was proven wrong. On the contrary, she’s okay. Apparently, things did blown up on Adam’s face as Teddy’s facing detention for pushing kids around at recess. They rush to the principal’s office where Teddy defends about trying to protect younger kids from bullies. However, the school still ends up detaining him for a week as per their zero tolerance policy.

At home Andi tries explaining Teddy that he’s in big trouble but he doesn’t understand what he did wrong. He asks what if one day Emme is alone and his words don’t work and there aren’t any elders around should he still not take to violence? Andi’s at a loss for words. She brings Adam to one side and asks him to deal with this situation. She ultimately admits that dads can handle these aspects better. Being a mom, she can’t support both sides of a coin. Adam takes charge and makes Teddy understand that he cannot police the whole world. He should try dealing using words initially. Also, if one does the crime, he/she must be ready to serve the time. Hence, detention is a hard reality for him now. Also, he is to later go and apologize to the mob. Teddy asks if the mob included his girlfriend. Adam and Andi are pleasantly surprised and they can’t hold their excitement over Teddy’s first girlfriend. Adam asks him to go draw himself some chest hair; he’s earned it.

Later, Don comes over and is depressed about not being able to make Joe agree on hiring the nurse. Adam offers to help and immediately, Don skips back up shouting, “No take-backs” and rushes out. Adam is pissed that he got tricked. He explains about the importance of having nurse during rehab, but Joe even more irritated that Adam’s handling this now instead of Don. When Adam reveals Don handed him over, Beverly rejoices as apparently it’s all going as per her plan. Adam is bemused. He passes it onto Andi, again, as anticipated by Beverly. She tells Joe how much she believes in him and how she’s sure he won’t break Beverly’s heart. Andi finally manages him to agree. He also agrees on having Funchy aboard as both of them have interest in weed – Joe for his glaucoma and Funchy’s staunch belief in vitamin weed.

The next day Adam finds both Funchy and Joe neck deep in video gaming. He’s puzzled as Joe’s rehab hasn’t started yet, but Funchy says he’s just trying some pre-op medicine i.e. both are high on weed. Adam asks Joe why he was called. Joe says he needs someone to remove the hair ball from his shower drain. Adam tells he’ll just go get a drink first, walks out the door and escapes out just like dads do!