This season of The Middle has been amazing so far, and I think I enjoyed this episode more than the premiere. Every episode is funny and this one was no exception with Brick not being able to take his medicine and Axl acting like a love-sick puppy. But we also had some serious moments this week with Sue and Mike. I appreciated that this episode was a little different, and I hope you all enjoyed it, too.
"A Tough Pill to Swallow" begins with Sue and her usual peppy self. She's excited for classes to begin and introduces herself to the professor. He doesn't think she's in the class, and Sue thinks this is just like high school. No one ever remembers her. Unfortunately Sue is told that she failed to renew her financial aid. She didn't realize she had to renew it every year even though they get reminders. I loved that there was a poster about financial aid on our screens as Sue was having this conversation. Sue runs home screaming for help. She is so upset she can't complete her sentences, but her parents understand.
"Did you tell them you have it for four years? Did you mention the big envelope? Did you tell them how poor we are?" Frankie always cracks me up.
Frankie and Mike try to understand how this happened. Sue said she remembered getting an email, but she didn't pass it on because her parents told her to stop forwarding them so much stuff. The email also had fancy words like "fiscal" "pursuant to" and "subsidies." Frankie tells her daughter that "Pursuant to the situation we are screwed." After a lot of screaming and yelling Mike thinks he can fix the situation by talking to someone at the college.
Mike was great at the Bursar's office. He's really friendly and happy which we all know is very unlike him. He tries to get the Bursar to make an exception, and I loved that he kept touching the cat picture which irritated her further. Side note: I just love that this lady had a cat picture on her desk. Anyway, Mike and Sue are out of luck. The financial aid deadlines are set by the state department and nothing can be done.
Sue prepares to leave college, but she receives an email telling her she has been reinstated. Sue gets extremely excited and starts celebrating by jumping up and down. "I love my life, I love my college, I love my room!!!" Of course the last part was an exaggeration because her room is a dump. Was that trash that flew into the dorm?
Sue tells her parents, and Frankie thinks the financial aid came through, but it turns out Mike sold his part of the diaper business to pay the tuition. Mike loved that business, but he loves his daughter more. He knows how important college is to Sue so he sacrificed his happiness for hers. This was a different side to Mike. Usually it seems like he doesn't care, but he truly loves his family, and I'm glad The Middle let us see that.
Brick had a crisis of his own this week: an ear infection. Brick has never swallowed a pill before, and Frankie refuses to go get other medicine. She tells Brick to grow up and take the pills. Frankie gets creative and tries several different ways to get Brick to take the pill, but they all fail. I loved that she hid the pill in chocolate pudding and that Brick knew exactly what she was up to.
Frankie: "People your age used to be blacksmiths. They handled hot iron. You can swallow a little pill." Brick: "They also died at 14." Frankie: "Just like you're going to do if you don't take the damn pill."
Brick doesn't get better. Frankie has to pick him up from school, and she's not happy about it. "If I'm going to sneak out of work in the middle of the day it better involve a margarita or a Cinnabon." Brick says he's fine, and his other senses are getting stronger as his hearing diminishes. He then sniffs Frankie and can tell she had the Cinnabon. He points out that yelling doesn't help. We learn that she can't parallel park because her dad yelled at her. She thinks that if she can parallel park Brick can take that pill. Unfortunately she fails and backs into another car. But good news! Brick swallowed the pill. "I swallowed the pill! I am a man!" "Who cares! I dinged that guy's license plate." As she drives away in a hurry she ends up taking off her car mirror. I seriously couldn't stop laughing during this scene.
Axl's story was less serious this week than his siblings. He's still obsessed with April and wants to see her every chance he gets. He goes on and on about how great she is (Her eyes are the color of a lake!) This irritates his friend Hutch especially when Axl takes the RV places without informing him first. Hutch and Axl get into a fight and decide not to talk to each other. Except they still talk to each other by "freeze back in" and "freeze back out" and throw insults at one another. Axl leaves once again to go see April except this time it's on his scooter. How far does he think he'll get on that thing?
One of my favorite parts of this episode was the football practice with Hutch and Axl. It turns out Hutch's feelings were hurt because Axl didn't tell him first hand about April. He had to find out about it from Kenny. They are supposed to be fighting (because it's football) but they end up hugging and making up. Aww!
I think you can tell from my review that I thought this episode was great, but what are your thoughts? How do you all feel about Mike giving up his business for Sue? Do you want to see more serious moments on The Middle? See you all next week for the Halloween episode!
