The Goldbergs – Dave Kim’s Party

By: Ariba Bhuvad

The 80s were the time of raging house parties. If there wasn’t loud music and a wrecked house, then it simply wasn’t a party. In that spirit Adam (Sean Giambrone) decided to throw a party at Dave Kim’s (Kenny Ridwan) house. His parents are out of town and Adam wants to use this opportunity to impress Brea (Sadie Stanley). Adam starting inviting everyone to the party and eventually Dave Kim, himself, learns of the party at his own home–and he isn’t too happy about it. Adam decides to invite Brea, but he can’t stop acting weird in front of her. She says she will try to make the party, but doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. 

Meanwhile, Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) gets a visit from her publisher Mr. Whitby (Chris Parnell) with her newly published cookbook. She’s super excited to see her face on the book, and even gave the family a shout-out in the book. To launch her cookbook, Mr. Whitby says they will be holding a signing at a local bookstore. 

Adam is working hard to figure out what he will wear to Dave Kim’s party. He invited Dave Kim, Johnny Atkins (Sean Marquette), Carla (Alex Jennings), Brian (Theodore Barnes) and JC (Zayne Emory) to help plan the party. Pops (George Segal) wants to help, but Adam refuses to let him. Any idea that Adam has; however, revolves around impressing Brea and spending time with her. 

Beverly is at her signing and finds out from Mr. Whitby that it will also be a reading. And read her cookbook she does, although it’s not exactly the most exciting or entertaining thing to witness. 

The night of Dave Kim’s party arrives and Adam is dressed for the occasion and gets a ride with Johnny. All Adam wants is to share a moment with Brea, but as he contemplates that Pops shows up with a Cadillac. He tells Adam to take that car to the party and all the girls will be all over him. Adam flat out refuses Pops’ help once again and says he wants to be left alone, hurting Pops’ feelings.

When Adam arrives to Dave Kim’s party it’s already well underway and things are a bit crazy. Brea isn’t there and Dave Kim is stressed out because of the growing mess in his house. Adam decides he will call off the party, that is until Brea walks in and instead he gets everyone hyped up again. As the party continues to get out of hand, Adam tries to talk to Brea, but he’s being awkward and weird.

Meanwhile, Beverly’s ego is getting bigger and bigger over her cookbook. After the signing/reading she calls her fans “BevHeads” and thinks she can get away with anything, especially appearing on television on a show called “Mornin’ Jenkintown.” Despite Beverly being awkward on television, she doesn’t care and thinks the rules don’t apply to her. She breaks traffic laws and cuts people in line. She even takes the family to a fancy restaurant and assumes a table will just be given to them with a free dinner.

Brea decides to leave Dave Kim’s party because she feels really awkward there. Adam says he will take out the camera to record everyone and says it will calm the party down, but that plan completely backfires. Instead the party just gets crazier, and Johnny, Adam, Dave, and Brea end up hiding under the table. Adam calls Pops to bring in reinforcements 

Back at the Goldbergs’ home Erica (Hayley Orrantia), Barry (Troy Gentile) and Murray (Jeff Garlin) decide to hold an intervention to confront Beverly about her ego. They tell her she has been rude and shameful and her response is that everyone is just jealous of her success. She would rather be at her book expo where all the BevHeads will embrace her. Unfortunately, when she gets to the book expo no one comes to her booth. Just Mr. Whitby is there and he tells her that she was just a local minor success and that was because of her friends and family. Murray, Erica and Barry show up to support Beverly and say that they are so proud of her. Murray manages to get the attention of folks at the expo and tells them to come check out Beverly’s book. 

After Dave Kim’s house is completely trashed Pops and his friends show up to help break up the party. But before they do, Adam apologizes to Pops for how he was behaving before. Pops tells him that he knows what’s in Adam’s heart and forgives him. And thanks to Pops and his friends, the party comes to an end. They make it incredibly boring so the young kids get bored and leave. 

Adam confesses to Brea that he did all of this just to impress her. She tells him that all he has to do is talk to her and be himself. He doesn’t need to act weird and, finally realizing that, he asks Brea to get ice cream with him. 

All is well that ends well as Barry, Erica, Murray and Beverly make food together from Beverly’s cookbook while Adam is out on a date with Brea eating ice cream. And guess what? At the end of the episode Sean Giambrone asks the real Dave Kim about whether or not this really happened–and it did! And, apparently, his parents may not know about it until this day (well, maybe they do now).