The Goldbergs – Breakin’

By: Ariba Bhuvad

The Goldbergs aired their Season 6 finale this week, sending off fans with an emotional goodbye until we meet again for the next season. High school graduation is here for Barry (Troy Gentile) and the JTP–Geoff (Sam Lerner), Naked Rob (Noah Munck), Andy (Matt Bush) and Matt Bradley (Shayne Topp). This means the future is nigh and the stress levels are high. Well, not for anyone else but Geoff who has done so well in high school that’s named valedictorian and has to give a speech at graduation. All the stress and anxiety gives Geoff a case of the shingles because not only is he worried about the speech, but he has every single minute of his summer planned out down to bathroom breaks. But not if Erica (Hayley Orrantia) can help it!

In an attempt to get rid of his stress and have an enjoyable summer, Erica decides that both of them will venture out in a van to follow the Grateful Dead around all summer. It’s not exactly the type of plan Geoff would opt for, but it’s clear he needs to let loose before both he and Erica start college in the fall. But while Geoff is trying to calm down and relax, Barry has some other plans for his summer vacation before heading off to college–torturing Adam (Sean Giambrone). However, he just sees it as spending quality time with Adam and getting to do the things he won’t get to as often now that he’ll be attending Penn like shoving him into a locker. Out of retaliation, Adam confesses to Principal Ball (Stephen Tobolowsky) that Barry didn’t complete his volunteer hours. This ends up biting him in the butt when Barry apologizes later for his behavior, but by then it’s too late and Ball has said that if Barry doesn’t finish his community service hours he can’t graduate. Since it’s Adam fault this happened in the first place, he comes up with an idea to hold a break-dance fundraising event at the school. Principal Ball agrees to let him do this in exchange for saying he completed the necessary amount of hours he needed to. The whole ordeal almost doesn’t work out for Barry when the event doesn’t go as planned when famous breakdancer Turbo doesn’t show. So, Principal Ball says Barry can walk across the stage at graduation but he won’t get his official diploma until the hours are completed.

Seeing as how Geoff decided to leave in a van for the summer, he opts not to give the valedictorian speech at graduation. Instead, Barry feels inspired after realizing not getting his diploma would be catastrophic. He gets up on stage and gives a heartfelt, inspiring speech to his class about the future and how William Penn Academy changed their lives. It turns out this is exactly the type of thing Principal Ball was looking for and grants Barry his diploma after the speech. Murray (Jeff Garlin) and Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) look out at Barry from the crowd with tears and joy as Murray says, “The moron did it.”

Geoff and Erica get ready to set off for the summer, but before they leave Beverly hands them a bag of trail mix inclusive of M&Ms and such (a/k/a “GORP”). She may have tried to interfere with the summer plans, but now she and Murray are letting their kid go and do her thing.

And just like that, we come to the end of the sixth season of The Goldbergs! With college on the horizon for Barry, the JTP, and Erica what will happen next? We can’t wait to find out!