The Goldbergs – There Can Be Only One Highlander Club

By: Ariba Bhuvad

No matter the decade bullies have always been a staple part of many’s lives and that includes Adam Goldberg (Sean Giambrone). In the 80s Johnny Atkins (Sean Marquette) made Adam’s life a living hell, especially after Erica (Hayley Orrantia) graduated. During their woodshop class Adam begins talking about the movie Highlander and telling Johnny all about it. Instead of listening to him, Johnny took Adam’s VHS copy of the movie and sawed it in half.

While out with Barry (Troy Gentile) and Pops (George Segal) we watch Murray (Jeff Garlin) have a temper tantrum when someone steals his parking spot. It turns out; however, that the guy who stole the spot is one of Murray’s old high school friends. Murray and his friends used to call themselves The Jokers and Barry is surprised to learn about how similar they are to the JTP. But it also makes him sad because Murray never sees his old best friends and he’s afraid that will happen to JTP, but is determined to make sure it doesn’t.

Because Johnny destroyed his copy of Highlander Adam had to re-record it on tape. Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) is surprised to learn about this until Erica points out that Adam is being bullied because she’s not around to protect him anymore. To try and help Adam out Bev thinks that having a play date with Johnny will be the solution. Adam is completely against the idea though. Bev doesn’t listen and threatens Johnny to come over anyway. During their playdate/sleepover Johnny and Adam end up watching Highlander together, which Johnny actually likes. He enjoyed it so much so that Johnny asked Adam about starting a Highlander club at school.

After seeing how Murray is with his old friends Barry plans out the next twelve decades for himself and JTP. They’re overwhelmed to learn how much he’s tried to micromanage their life and tell him they can’t commit to this much time. He then comes up with the idea to buy an elite membership that will cost them thousands of dollars but will guarantee they always have something to do and meet up for. After learning that Barry is doing all this because of Murray and his friends, the JTP comes up another plan–reunite Murray and The Jokers. The JTP surprise Murray by taking him to a bowling alley where the rest of The Jokers are waiting for him. He ends up having an amazing night with his old friends, but Barry is disheartened to learn that Murray still doesn’t plan on keeping touch with his friends.

Meanwhile, Johnny and Adam start the Highlander club by snagging a less than excited faculty advisor (Clancy Brown) and uniting nerds and the cool kids. However, it backfires when the cool kids start to bully Adam and his friends and take over the club. Erica is not surprised to learn that Adam’s plan backfired and when Bev hears about this she tries to organize another playdate. However, Adam’s plan is to create a new Highlander club, but their faculty advisor denies them from doing so and says there can only be one club. Eventually, Adam gets frustrated with all this back and forth and realizes that he and his friends have the power in this situation. They are skilled with the blade and can fight for their club and that is exactly what they do after a showdown with Johnny and his friends. After their epic win Adam kicks Johnny and his friends out of the club.

Johnny tries to get Adam in trouble by tattling on him to Bev, but Adam is not having it. He was bullied by Johnny for so long and he had this coming. However, the two find common ground when they call it even and decide to watch a bootleg version of Highlander 2 together.

Barry finally finds a logical and sensible way to keep the JTP together after Murray invites The Jokers over to hang out. Murray tells him that Barry and the JTP will never disband because Barry is the glue that keeps them together, something Murray’s pals did not have. Barry decides that when he becomes a doctor he will work very hard and buy the JTP season tickets to Tthe Eagles’ games–and the real JTP continues to do that to this day.