Man With A Plan – We Don’t Need Another Hero

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Adam (Matt LeBlanc) is driving Teddy (Matthew McCann) home from baseball practice. He wants to drive the truck up their driveway, but Adam says not until his height reaches that mark on the door. Teddy feels the mark rises up by itself as he never reaches it in spite of getting taller Adam smirks and asks Teddy to put his feet down from the dashboard as he’s got to respect “Grey Thunder” if he wants to drive her someday. He adds that he’s just looking out for him and they chant “You get what you want by knowing what other people want” in unison. They shift their discussion to studies. Teddy tells him about an English paper he got back where he got an A for his essay on “your favorite hero.” Adam is proud.

They get back home and Andi (Liza Snyder) shows them a chair she just painted which says “Just dream…” Adam is in a great mood and digs out Teddy’s essay asking Andi to read it. She does and turns out Teddy’s called her as his hero! She’s happy while Adam is not so much. She pins it on their fridge. A few hours later she finds it missing and immediately connects it to Adam feeling jealous. It seems he pinned it up behind their pantry door, which apparently is the heart of the house where all cherished items are stored – food and the broom (he whispers the latter). He admits his jealousy.

The next day at office Lowell (Matt Cook) assures Adam that he’s his hero. Pleased, Adam asks if he’d stand in front of their refrigerator mentioning it to everyone passing by. Basically, it’s all moot unless it’s on paper. Don (Kevin Nealon) feels winning Teddy over would be game. According to Adam “saving the planet from aliens” would’ve done the trick but he is short on aliens. Joe (Stacy Keach) enters the cabin and Don preps to leave with him. Adam asks where they’re going. It seems they’re going fishing and they planned it last night at dinner after playing bingo. Adam is hurt on not being included or told. Lowell tries cheering him up by giving him the “hero” note and pins it up on their cabin bulletin. Adam appreciates it but ain’t the same. However, he loves how it spruces up their cabin.

At home Adam shows Teddy all his mementos from childhood and digs out a newspaper article that talks about him once saving a cow and delivering an emergency calf. Teddy is amazed and asks if he really got his hand up the cow’s butt. Adam is embarrassed, but woefully agrees.

Adam asks Don to arrange a spider which they’d release in Teddy’s presence and Adam would catch it, earning himself some brownie hero points. As per plan, he summons Teddy. Don releases the spider. It escapes too fast and both brothers look for it manically. Don spots it crawling over Adam’s arm. He skips manically dusting it off on the table. Andi comes in time and kills it with a newspaper. Teddy hugs her as she remains his hero. Adam is jealous.

Adam goes over to Teddy to help him with studies. Teddy’s relieved as he could really use some help with his math. Both stare blankly at the first question of finding factors of a polynomial. Adam asks if he’d want to drive the truck down their driveway instead.

Cut to father-son staring at Andi’s dream chair that got crushed by the truck. Teddy is scared that mom would kill him if she found out. Adam asks him to go inside as he’ll take the hit. As anticipated, Andi comes and is shocked to see her dream chair broken to smithereens. She connects it all to Adam’s jealousy and asks him to grow out of it. Adam maintains his stand that as a dad that he deserves to be his kid’s hero and he did the same by calling Joe his hero back in his school days. To prove this, he reveals his memento essay but as it turns out the hero named there was Ronald McDonald. He can’t believe he skipped Joe’s name and takes that as the reason why he was never taken fishing. He goes over to Joe’s to apologize.

Joe; however, is cool. According to him kids choose those people as their heroes who say nice things to them. But dads don’t do that. On the contrary, they let their kids know about the truths and prepare them to be better individuals. He feels that a dad’s work is never done. In regards to Don being taken fishing, he reveals that he’s like a tall beer tree that gives great shade and gets beers. Don needs more cuddling. Adam is pleased, calling Don a baby. The father-son duo lay back on the sofa bonding over TV.

To make up for his jealousy Adam and Teddy reveal a surprise for Andi in their driveway. She’s thrilled two chairs this time that say “Just Dream…” and “…of Beer.” Adam tells her that if moms get to be their son’s heroes, dads get to be over-sensitive. It’s their time now as moms have had it for centuries now. Andi needs moms to be the next 45 presidents in return. Adam is okay with it.

Teddy and Adam sit on the new chairs. Adam admits he’s proud of Teddy for choosing mom as his hero. Teddy thanks him and is relieved his plan worked out well. He explains that his English teacher is a mom. Him choosing mom as his hero put him on her good books, i.e. him getting what he wanted by knowing what other people wanted. Adam is ecstatic that his son hit a master stroke from his teachings. He again asks who his real hero is. Teddy reveals it’s LeBron James and Adam is crushed for the umpteenth time.

Later Don, Adam and Joe are in the living room where Don’s reading out his own essay about Joe. Adam gives him a side eye finding Joe is all pleased. He blurts out to Don that he’s just taken fishing as he’s a tall beer tree. Don gapes at Joe who looks pissed at Adam for causing trouble. Adam sighs and tells Joe how a brother’s work is never done either!