The Goldbergs – Parents Thursday

By starrymag | October 30, 2019

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

 

The 80s brought together some of the most iconic couples ever and, basically, if you acted together then you ended up together. Such is the case for Adam (Sean Giambrone) who was hoping the fall play, Romeo and Juliet, would rekindle his and Dana’s (Natalie Alyn Lind) romance. Dana is going to audition for the role of Juliet and feels like the theatre class hunk, Andrew Gallery (Matt Cornett), crushed it as Romeo at fancy arts camp. 

 

Dave Kim (Kenny Ridwan) thinks Andrew checks all the boxes and frightens Adam when he says that if Andrew and Dana end up being Romeo and Juliet then it will create a showmance. This convinces Adam to try out for the role of Romeo as well, which meant running lines with Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) who made up her own lines of dialogue. 

 

Meanwhile, Erica (Hayley Orrantia) is doing great in college and getting so Geoff (Sam Lerner) thinks they should celebrate. But Erica doesn’t want to go to parties even though Geoff thinks she should try meeting people. A girl riding on a skateboard falls into Erica and introduces herself as Ren–short for Lauren (Kelli Berglund). They become super close and start hanging out all the time, but when Parents Weekend rolls around Erica is too nervous to let her parents, especially Beverly, come to campus and ruin her friendship with Ren. So, she decides to lie to Ren and tell her that her parents were lost at sea on a cruise. Barry (Troy Gentile) shows up right then with a package from Beverly and Erica plays it off as Barry not accepting their parents’ fate. 

 

Adam learns that he gets the role of Romeo and even beats out Andrew for it. It turns out it’s because he fits the role of an awkward boy in love more than anyone else. Unfortunately, Dana didn’t get the role of Juliet and instead will be playing the role of Lady Montague, Romeo’s mother. Instead, Asha (Jordyn Lucas) got the role of Juliet, but her father, Vic (Cedric Yarbrough) isn’t too excited about it. When Adam goes home to tell Murray (Jeff Garlin) and Vic that he will be playing Romeo, they laugh at him. 

 

Erica is worried about their parents showing up for Parents Weekend and she’s afraid if they do, then Ren will never talk to her again. Barry doesn’t seem too worried until Erica points out that Beverly showing up could be horrible for his love life on campus. The both of them decide to tell Beverly and Murray that Parents Weekend has been reduced to just a Thursday because of a campus renovation. Furthermore, most parents won’t be around because of it. Murray says he won’t be coming but Beverly says she will be there in the small window of time they have. 

 

Erica and Barry take Beverly to the ladies field hockey equipment closet, a burrito joint nine miles away, the dorm facilities room and the parking lot. Unfortunately for them, Beverly knows that they’ve been lying to her. 

 

During rehearsal Adam and Asha share a hot and heavy kiss which leads Dave Kim to believe that Asha is into Adam because she has “AG” written all over her notebook. Not to mention all of this is driving Dana crazy. After learning about the play rehearsal Principal Ball (Stephen Tobolowsky) decides he doesn’t like the R-rated version of Romeo and Juliet that Ms. Cinoman (Ana Gasteyer) is doing. Meanwhile, Vic is angry with Murray because he told Vic that he wouldn’t have to worry about Adam at all. Because of all this, Vic wants Principal Ball to cancel the play but to his chagrin it can’t be since the sets are already being painted. As a compromise Vic says then all the kissing and crude language should be removed. Principal Ball changes everything on the script and makes them colleagues rather than lovers. 

 

After learning that Erica had lied to Beverly about Parents Weekend, Erica is worried that Beverly is going to come for her. And she does when she shows up for Barry only during the actual Parents Weekend and ignores Erica completely. Beverly continues to shower Barry with all sorts of gifts including a pinball machine. 

 

Back at school, the play’s name is changed to Romeo and Juliet: A Tale of Platonic Office Associates. But along with it the dialogue, feel and story of the play has been changed and the kiss has been removed from it, too. Adam is shocked to learn that the “AG” written all over Asha’s notebook wasn’t referring to him but rather Andrew Gallery. Eventually, the role of Juliet goes to Dana instead, but rather than being excited Adam is upset about what Asha said and he loses Dana, too. 

 

Erica goes out to dinner with Ren and Beverly shows up with Barry to piss Erica off. Naturally, Ren is confused to see that Erica does have a mother that is alive and well. Beverly confronts Erica about the lie she told and is upset that Erica would rather say that her mother is lost at sea then spend a day with her. Thanks to Ren happily Erica realizes that she is very lucky to have a mother like Beverly. Ren’s parents don’t even show up and that’s worse than whatever Beverly does. 

 

Erica apologizes to Beverly for behaving the way she did. She thinks her mother can be overwhelming at times, but she also loves how much Beverly cares and asks her to join Ren and her for dinner. 

 

Adam is crushed after both Dana and Asha didn’t work out–Asha used him and he screwed up with Dana. He got carried away in the pursuit of showmances, but Murray reminds him that young love is difficult. However, thanks to Murray the play is back to its original version and Adam will still play Romeo with Dana as Juliet.

 

After apologizing to Dana he tells her that the only reason he wanted to do the play was so she wouldn’t end up with Andrew Gallery. The feeling is mutual as she shares that she was bummed about Asha and Adam’s kiss. But it turns out that when Dana and Adam finally do kiss, Adam doesn’t feel a single thing.