The Goldbergs – I Coulda Been a Lawyer

By: Ariba Bhuvad

Did you know that Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) could have been a lawyer? Well, this week’s episode of The Goldbergs explores that and a whole lot more. Beverly is through and through meant to be a mother. Every morning she makes a personalized breakfast for all three kids, takes care of things around the house, helps Murray (Jeff Garlin) and Pops (George Segal) with their things and ends her day with running errands and going shopping. On her way out, she ends up getting into a car accident because she doesn’t stop at the stop sign, and uses the defense that no one ever stops there.

After being torn over Lainey (AJ Michalka) leaving him behind, Barry (Troy Gentile) is finally feeling better. But his friends don’t let that mood last for too long because they remind him that he should be working on college applications. Because he spent most of the year upset over Lainey, he didn’t even think about college. He lies and tells JTP that he has been working on stuff, but realizes that everyone has been volunteering and doing all sorts of extracurricular activities. Stressed and frustrated, Barry goes to Pops to say he’s freaking out. As he begins to mention college, Murray shows up and tries to help Barry. Randomly picking from a list of schools, Barry lands on Tufts University and decides he’ll just go there. Murray says it’s not how he is supposed to pick a college but goes along with it excitedly anyway.

Meanwhile, Beverly is trying to heal from the accident and is infuriated with that intersection. She wants them to add another stop sign there and begins coming up with hypothetical situations of what could have happened. She even freaks Adam (Sean Giambrone) out by saying that if he was in the car he could have been horribly injured. Erica (Hayley Orrantia) overhears the conversation and thinks that Adam actually did get hurt. It is at this moment that Bev says she could have been a lawyer and because of that, she will get that stop sign put in. She’ll start with collecting evidence and in the meantime asks Adam to make a video to go along with it.

As Murray and Barry sit down to work on college applications, Murray realizes that Barry hasn’t really done anything. He has straight A’s in Math and Science, but no extracurricular activities to fluff up his resume. Murray takes this entire situation very seriously and says he wants this for Barry more than anything–even more than Tom Selleck’s mustache.

Beverly pays a visit to the comptroller who doesn’t seem happy about her presence. He tells her he can’t do much, but it doesn’t stop her from giving her presentation and showing Adam’s video. The comptroller gets annoyed with Beverly and says that he will get the stop sign put in and that she “won her case.” When Erica tells her mother that she finds it cool that she made a difference, Bev thinks that she is being sarcastic. However, Erica means it as she has been struggling with writing one song for three months.

In order to make Barry’s resume stand out, Murray decides to change a few things on there. He takes every strange thing that Barry has ever done and spins it into something philanthropic or commendable. When Barry mentions he yells at dogs, Murray changes that to “trains service animals.” After fabricating extracurricular activities, Barry shows the JTP his new and improved college resume. They are not amused and are angry that he would lie about it and jeopardize their chances of getting into college.

Because of her recent victories, Bev decides she wants to become a lawyer, but when Erica starts listing all the things she’ll have to do including taking LSATs, going to law school and taking the bar it is then that Bev changes her mind. She says she’s happy just saying she could have been one. Erica will not take no for an answer and comes up with a list of occupations that her mother could pursue including diplomat and food critic. But Bev says she doesn’t want to be any of those and she’s fine doing what she does. The real reason for Erica’s frustration comes out when she says that she seems to be following in Bev’s footsteps. Beverly dropped out of college and so did Erica so she fears she’ll just end up being a mom to ungrateful kids like Bev. As a result, Erica has already given up on music.

Feeling guilty about his resume, Barry tries to tell Murray that he doesn’t want to lie. Instead, he’s written an essay that he wants Murray to read. But Murray is too preoccupied with the Tuft alumnus he has invited over to talk to Barry. He comes to realize that Barry’s resume is a lie, and Barry comes clean about it all. He knows that he messed up his senior year, but he doesn’t want to lie his way into college. He hopes that his essay will be enough, and if not, then there isn’t much else he feels he can do.

Inspired by Erica, Bev decides to make a cookbook with all her famous recipes. Erica is happy to see her mom pursuing something and is inspired by her mother who tells Erica that her dreams are just starting. And just like that, Erica finds her voice again and begins practicing singing while Murray reads Barry’s essay and is overwhelmed by it. He tells Barry that he cares about him more than anything, and respected Barry’s truthful essay.

Bev manages to get the stop sign–something the actual Beverly Goldberg did as well.

Barry is back in good spirits and starts playing with Rubik’s cubes. He pretends to have solved it, but really he just removed stickers from others to make it appear as if he did. He throws the cube at Adam and says he finds the appeal in it.