American Housewife - Bigger Kids, Bigger Problems - Review: "We'll Recycle Her Face!"

On this week's episode of American Housewife, Taylor's growing up, whether or not Katie and Greg like it!

Katie's busy dealing with the various schemes of Oliver, Anna-Kat, and Greg. Greg has pulled Anna-Kat into his school recycling crusade, much to Katie's dismay, as it just means Anna-Kat's bringing home weird inventions like "plastic bag dryers" that equal more work for Katie. Oliver's got his interview with Teen Helpline coming up, and Katie's a bit unconcerned that his complete and total lack of empathy might be a problem. "I've gotten this far without it," Oliver says. And not to worry! - "They give you a script. And if anyone starts to cry or something gross like that, I'll just pretend I got disconnected!" Yep, they'll be real lucky to have old Oliver!

Surprisingly, Taylor's the only one who's not giving her any problems. While Katie is hoping this means they can finally be friends, Doris advises that it means Taylor's probably hiding something. And because Doris is Doris, and tends to take things a few steps past WAY TOO FAR, she and Katie end up searching Taylor's room - where they find a prescription for birth control! Katie confronts Taylor and Trip ("If we're talking about who's going in where. I think there's a bigger conversation to be had!"), and a furious Taylor tells Katie they haven't even had sex yet. But they will at some point! Well, at least according to Taylor. Trip doesn't seem to have caught on to what's going on yet! Katie's angry that Taylor didn't come to her when she started thinking about having sex and rips up the prescription. (Katie!?!? Would you rather be a 40-year-old Grandma?) Taylor's angry that Katie went through her room. But Katie can do whatever she wants. Taylor has a backup plan. "I'll just get Angela to take me to the doctor again!" she declares. Uh-Oh. Somebody's in TROUBLE!

Before we explore the possible dissolution of Katie and Angela's friendship, let's cover a lighter topic - the death of nature! A now dedicated to the cause Anna-Kat is horrified to see that the lunch lady is using disposable trays instead of reusable ones. She and Franklin confront her. Her response? "Tell someone who gives a dink!" Burn...

So Anna-Kat reels in Greg, who's horrified, but sure that that the school recycling committee can talk some sense into the lunch lady. Anna-Kat, Franklin, Greg, and the other half of the school recycling committee - Bill, put together an interesting presentation about the effects of trash. And despite all their hard work, the lunch lady isn't impressed. This leads the group to turn to public shaming. They pile up all the bags of trash from the disposable lunch trays in front of the lunch lady's car, to which she responds "Bite me nature!" while gleefully driving through the bags of trash. Greg and Bill decide that if they really want the lunch lady to see the light, they're going to have to bring in backup.

Backup's name is Mr. Green. He comes in armed with a suitcase of "evidence" he's lifted from the lunch lady's trash can that he's ready to use to shame her into recycling! He's a man on a mission and it doesn't seem like he's willing to take no for an answer, until he discovers the lunch lady is a fellow cat lover, that is. The mission is abandoned pretty quickly in favor of him scoring a date with her!

Anna-Kat realizes that they aren't making any progress toward getting the lunch lady to use reusable plates and steps in. She asks if the reason she won't use them is that they're too much work to clean (the same reason Katie doesn't like recycling - it's too much work). The lunch lady confirms this and Anna-Kat presents her with a proposition. If she'll start using the reusable plates in the cafeteria, Anna-Kat will find people to clean the plates for her. The lunch lady agrees! It looks like she, Greg, and Franklin are going to be spending a lot of time washing dishes!

Back to Katie on rampage! She confronts Angela, who says she knew if she didn't help Taylor get birth control she'd start having sex without it. Katie says that Taylor should have come to her about going to the doctor for birth control. Angela asks Katie if she would have actually taken Taylor. Katie says no, but she doesn't think that matters, Angela still should have come to her.

At home, Katie forces the whole family to have an anger-filled family dinner, where she continues to rail Taylor in front of the rest of the family - who has no idea what's going on! Taylor argues that she's 18 and should be allowed to make these decisions for herself. Katie says that as long as she's living in her house, it's her rules. So Taylor decides to change that. And "moves out" - to Angela's!

After scaring Oliver into admitting where Taylor went, Katie tells Greg what happened, who wishes Katie would have told him what was going on sooner but seems to be much less alarmed about the actual thought of Taylor being on birth control. He says they're in uncharted territory now that Taylor's an adult and they're going to have to adjust the way they parent. However, they both agree they're not happy that she's "moved out," and decide to go bring her home. But before they can get out the door, Angela arrives with Taylor in toe. She tells Katie that she and Taylor need to work their issues out, and she's staying out of it.

Katie realizes she's going to have to apologize if she ever wants Taylor to speak to her again. She admits that she knows Taylor will be doing "adult stuff" now that she's 18 and tells Taylor she knows she handled things wrong. She even offers to apologize to Trip. (Sounds too good to be true, right?) Yeah, it totally is. She has Taylor call him and goes where Taylor's out of earshot. Then she tells him that if he ever touches Taylor without her clothes on, she'll hang him with his own...well, you can finish that thought!

Finally, Katie and Angela make up. All is well again. Now let's hope Taylor never finds out about Katie's threat to Trip!

Random Thoughts:
-Poor Bill Doty. Foot Locker seems like a pretty rough gig!

-The fact that Katie kept forgetting how old Taylor is was hilarious!

-The funniest line goes to Trip - "Now that it's my second senior year, Taylor and I are in the same class. Fingers crossed I don't end up with Anna-Kat!"

What did you think of how Katie handled things with Taylor? Did you like seeing the cast of The Drew Carey Show back together? Let me know below!