The Goldbergs – Bohemian Rap City

By starrymag | November 13, 2018

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

This is the year for Queen and “Bohemian Rhapsody” and even The Goldbergs joining in on the trend with an episode dedicated to the infamous band and legend. The episode opens up to a throwback to running through the aisles of a toy store and feeling giddy and taken aback by all the toys surrounding you. Of course, Adam Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) depicts that excitement perfectly when he goes the toy store and stares up on Transformers and even learns about a new type of rock toy that is no longer available because of an employee buying them all up.

 

When he gets home, Pops (George Segal) and Murray (Jeff Garlin) are watching the news in which the Berlin Wall is coming down. But Adam could care less and changes the channel because he wants to learn more about a Toys ‘R Us sweepstake in which one kid is picked as the winner and given five minutes instead of the store to grab anything he or she wants. Adam is determined to enter the contest, but unfortunately, doesn’t have that many stamps.

 

Meanwhile, Erica G. (Hayley Orrantia), Lainey (AJ Michalka) and Erica C. (Alison Rich) are watching an episode of Star Search with hopes and dreams in their eyes. They want to send in an audition tape in hopes of being asked to come onto the show, so Lainey presents them with a song she wrote called, “I Want To Rock Your Body.” Unbeknownst to the girls, she wrote this song for Barry (Troy Gentile) and when he comes boasting in about it, Erica is understandably disturbed about singing a sensual song that refers to her brother, or in her words, “her mother’s son.”  Since they are part of a band democracy, they all vote on whether or not to do the song. Unfortunately for Erica, she gets outvoted.

 

While at the mall with Geoff (Sam Lerner), Erica begins complaining about the band democracy and wishes that she could just sing on her own sometimes so she wouldn’t have to answer to anyone. As luck would have it, they stumble upon a recording booth in the mall and meet an eager man named John Calabasas (Rob Huebel) who immediately convinces Erica and Geoff to pay for his services thanks to his dramatically reduced rate of $19.95 from the original price of $500. Not realizing it’s a scam, Geoff happily hands over the money and Erica gets into the booth to record. John is surprised to learn that Erica can actually sing and offers to be her manager. When she tells him she’s part of a band, he suggests ditching them and venturing out on her own for Star Search.

 

Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) is hanging out with the Yentas when they decide to bombard her with a Yenta-vention regarding Adam, who is playing with all of his toys nearby. They think he’s weird and strange and that he’s too old to be playing with toys. Concerned for him, Bev goes to talk with Murray and asks him to try and bond with Adam over a hobby. Murray claims not to have a hobby, but he collects stamps. Bev points out that he can use that to convince Adam to stop playing with toys. Murray reluctantly agrees for Bev’s sake and decides to talk to Adam.

 

Lainey and Erica C. find out that Erica recorded a demo at the mall and Lainey is absolutely livid and feels betrayed by her best friend. Erica reassures her she didn’t intend on signing with the manager who asked and she refused because she told him she was in a band. The conversation gets heated and they start talking about “Bohemian Rhapsody” and who is the Freddie Mercury of the group. One thing leads to another and they decide to split up with Erica C. and Lainey doing their own thing and Erica G. going solo.

 

Murray goes to speak with Adam as Adam tells him he is preparing to do a Transformers/Star Wars crossover recording with his toys. Murray tries to interject by showing Adam his book of stamps, and Adam is confused as to how this is Murray’s idea of fun, but he decides it’s because Murray grew up in the olden times.

Murray offers to share his stamp collection with Adam if Adam stops playing with his toys, which Adam takes to mean he can use the stamps for his contest entries. Later on, Adam tells Pops what he did and when Pops tells him that those stamps were collector items, Adam reassures him that he’ll win the contest and sell some of the toys to get the money for the stamps back. He believes it to be a fool-proof plan until the contest winner is announced after a whopping 2 million entries–spoiler alert, Adam did not win.

 

Lainey and Erica C. start practicing for their audition tape and Erica comes downstairs to find out that they are doing the same Queen song as her. And while they argue over if there can be multiple Rhapsodies or not, Erica tells them she will be performing in front of a live audience for her audition tape at the mall. And let’s just say, Lainey is not happy about that at all.

 

Fearful for his life, Adam tells Bev (in front of the Yentas) what he did with Murray’s stamp collection and she gets frazzled because he brings up toys and the contest. This certainly won’t end well for Adam, will it?

 

Erica’s performance at the mall takes an embarrassing turn when she forgets that the song she’s trying to perform by Queen requires multiple harmonies/people and when she tries to hit all of the notes, it ends up being an epic fail. Because of her bombing the audition, the “manager” decides to quit and when she points out that they signed a contract he reminds her that it was written on a tissue. And before he walks away, he wishes her good luck with everything but music.

 

Meanwhile, back at home, Bev and Adam try to salvage and fix Murray’s stamp collection; however, when he walks in with a new stamp he notices something is off about one of the stamps and that it used to be creased in the corner. Surprised at why Murray remembers so much, Adam finds out that not only did Murray work at a post office when he was younger, but it was the only thing that helped him get through his mother’s death.

 

Realizing the emotional connection Murray had with the stamps, Adam comes clean about what he did and Murray erupts with anger saying everyone knew it was a hobby even if he pretended it wasn’t. Murray starts grabbing Adam’s toys around his room and tries to break them, but doesn’t realize that he’s actually playing with them as they were intended to be played with. It breaks Adam’s heart when he realizes Murray is saddened by the situation.

 

Defeated by her performance at the mall, Erica goes back to Lainey and Erica C. and asks to join them again–even if she has to grovel. But they tell her not they’re stupid and know she bombed her audition tape performance at the mall. However, they’ve moved onto Barry and to prove it they perform together with Lainey singing beautiful vocals while Barry starts rapping because he thinks its called “Bohemian Rap City.” It doesn’t take Lainey long to realize that Barry is awful and she asks Erica to come back. They both need each other and it’s just not the same without the support of the other.

 

Riddled with guilt, Adam tries to apologize Murray by getting them tickets to the Stamp Expo. Murray tells him that Adam doesn’t have to pretend to like it for Murray’s sake, but Adam actually gets it because just like stamps are meaningful to Murray toys and comics mean a lot to Adam. He suggests that they create new bright spots by going to the Stamp Expo and as they venture out together, Mama Smother is smiling from a distance.

 

With the band together again, both Erica and Lainey record their audition tape and send it off to Star Search together. Good luck, girls!