The Goldbergs – Pretty in Pink

By starrymag | May 20, 2020

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

 

Proms of the 80s were all about taffeta bows and dresses, and Adam (Sean Giambrone) is contemplating asking Brea Bee (Sadie Stanley) to William Penn’s big night Dave Kim (Kenny Ridwan) says its Adam’s chance to finally ask Sadie, but Adam is nervous she will say no. Brea and Adam have been dating a while and as Adam goes to ask Brea she ends up asking him first. They share a kiss and as she walks away Adam can’t help but dance and skip around the school filled with confidence. Nothing can get him down as he joyfully walks around to the beat of Wham’s! “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” 

 

He runs into Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) who shows up to the school to give Adam rescue underwear. As much as he normally cares when Beverly does embarrassing things, even this isn’t enough to get Adam’s spirits down. 

 

At their dorm Geoff (Sam Lerner) and Erica (Hayley Orrantia) are being adults, which for Erica involves buying stamps. That’s being adult enough. She’s ready to jump into sweatpants for the rest of the day because, according to her, adulting is easy. The day takes a turn’ however, after Geoff hears a voicemail from his mom Linda (Mindy Sterling) telling him that his dad Lou (Ken Lerner) had a minor heart attack. As he freaks out, Erica is panicking because she is too scared to go with him and doesn’t really know what to do in situations like this.

 

After they arrive at the hospital Erica tries to leave once she knows Lou is doing okay. Unexpectedly, Barry (Troy Gentile) shows up to support Geoff and offer his pre-med knowledge to help understand what is going on with Lou. It quickly becomes clear to Geoff that Barry is useful in stressful situations. 

 

Adam’s M.O. is to resort to the world of movies during times of crisis and so there is no better place than the video store to get ideas on prom, specifically Pretty in Pink starring Molly Ringwald. Dave Kim tells Adam that Brea will end up being prom queen and, as a result, Adam will be left in the shadows. Johnny Atkins (Sean Marquette) shows up randomly to concur with Dave Kim’s statement as he points he too was Adam once. His old picture reveals a much nerdier Johnny Atkins than we know. Apparently, he went to prom with the coolest girl in school, but she ditched him after becoming prom queen. As a result, he gave up on life. Adam tells the boys he’s not worried because he and Brea like each other. In reality, Adam is freaking out and goes home to ask Beverly for help. She assures him that she will make sure he ends up being prom king and proceeds to share absurd ideas on how she’ll make that happen, including but not limited to putting a fake name on the ballot. Murray (Jeff Garlin) chimes in to tell Adam that he is going to prom with the most popular girl in school and simply because of that he is cool by association. 

 

Back at the hospital. Barry brings chicken noodle soup for the Schwartz family as they learn that Lou’s surgery went well. Barry insists on getting a detailed breakdown of how the surgery was performed because he wants to tailor his care plan for Lou according to it. Erica is grossed out by the details of it, but sticks around on account of Geoff. 

 

Despite what Murray said about Adam being cool by association, everyone at school certainly didn’t feel the same. When he walks around with Brea they either ignore him completely or behave as they’ve never seen him before, which puts him back to square one with the whole ordeal. Sadly, he does not see that Brea doesn’t care about any of the differences and is just happy to be with him. Adam goes home and asks Beverly to make him prom king and she rushes off without any questions to just do that. Pops (George Segal) doesn’t think that was a great idea, especially given because every time Beverly helps out things go very wrong. 

 

Erica wants to be there for Geoff. So, much to her displeasure, she asks Barry for help. Nothing drives her crazier than knowing Barry is better at being a caregiver than she is, but she needs his assistance. He introduces her to a method he calls “TEEF”–Tone, eye contact, empathy and food. He tests it out on Pops as an example to her by creating a cream cheese crisis that doesn’t exist. Barry starts by telling Pops that they are out of cream cheese, even though he wasn’t thinking about it at that moment. Then, he skips to empathy and gives Pops comfort about the fact that there is none. Pops is immediately comforted by Barry’s words. Next, he uses eye contact and finally presents the cream cheese (that was there the entire time), making Pops a very happy man despite this all being fake. 

 

Beverly goes to speak with Principal Ball (Stephen Tobolowsky) and Mr. Woodburn (Dan Bakkedahl) about making Adam the prom king. They reveal he had zero votes and points out that not even Adam voted for himself. All Beverly wants from them is to get rid of the prom court and asks them to think back to their prom experiences. Recalling how awkward and bad it was for them, Principal Ball cancels prom altogether stating they are a Quaker school and should uphold original traditions. Adam is incredibly angry to learn what Beverly has done and even angrier that prom has been replaced with a school assembly being referred to as “The Egalitarian Quaker Gathering of Friends.” Adam rejects Beverly’s help and says he will handle this fiasco on his own.  

 

In an attempt to use Barry’s “TEEF” method, Erica takes Geoff out on a picnic to help him feel better. It goes incredibly wrong and Geoff is instead weirded out by how Erica is behaving. She ends up walking away and says Geoff should just call Barry for help. 

 

Adam attempts to talk to Principal Ball. Once he reveals that he is going to prom with Brea, he is made fun of by him and Mr. Woodburn because they think he’s lying. They realize that if they had a date like Brea Bee to prom they would have been cool. Adam urges them to understand because he doesn’t have to end up like them and just like that prom is back on. Then, off again and on again…just so Principal Ball could show off his abilities as the man in charge. When Adam catches up with Brea; however, she’s annoyed because she heard that it was because of Adam that prom was off in the first place. He comes clean about how he asked Beverly to help and she went rogue. He tells Brea that he was worried about her becoming prom queen because it may mean he’ll get left behind. Brea had no such intention and says that if that is what he thinks of her, she doesn’t want to go to prom with him. Down on his luck, Adam returns home to watch Pretty in Pink as Murray finds him sulking. He points out to Adam that he’s much like Molly Ringwald’s character and that things can work out for him, too. Trying to be realistic, Adam says that life isn’t like the movies, but Murray drops some wisdom and says that every once in a while you get a movie moment and what you do with it is up to you. 

 

Adam shows up at prom and apologizes to Brea for behaving as he did. He knows she wants to be with him and to make up for it he asks her out to prom this time. And she responds with, “A million times yes!” 

 

Geoff talks to Erica and says that no one can help him with what happened with his dad because hospitals are horrible and they make everyone uncomfortable. It’s not her fault she doesn’t know what to do because no one knows what to do or say. Besides, Barry isn’t like anyone else anyway. Plus, he doesn’t need her to be Barry. He just wants her to be there for him. 

 

At prom Brea is crowned as the prom queen and Johnny Atkins finally gets to be prom king. And, just like that, another chapter of Adam Goldberg’s life in the 80s comes to an end.