This week we see the Butlers and the Johnsons deal with bullies and their different reactions and actions to it.
Tina goes to visit Gemma at her job so they can go out to lunch when they get interrupted by a teacher telling Gemma about an incident at lunch: apparently a student punched another student in the face. Not any student though, turns out it was Grover who did it!
Later on, Calvin brings up the topic with Dave, who explains to him that a kid, Justin, has been bullying Grover for a while. Calvin asks Dave where are they taking Grover to celebrate for fighting back, and Dave explains that they don’t believe violence solves problems, which launches them both into an argument.
Back at the Butler’s, Marty reveals that he had a bully too when he was younger but that he never stood up to him. Calvin tells him he should’ve done something, and so Marty does. He takes the video game control off of Calvin’s hands, standing up to him in response. Calvin says he’s his father, not a bully.
At the Johnson’s house, Gemma is angry that the student is bullying Grover, but since she’s the principal she can’t have her son punching other students. Dave tells her he will take Grover to Justin’s house and have him apologize.
Calvin confronts Tina and tells her she made Marty “soft” because he stood up to him. Tina tells Calvin that indeed sometimes he goes too far and too mean with Marty, and all he says is that today’s kids are weak because in his time “it wasn’t bullying unless something was cut, broken or set on fire”.
Dave comes back home with a black eye. Gemma gets worried and says she can’t believe Dave let the guy do that, but Grover happily tells her that Dave kicked the guy’s ass. Dave tells her that that wasn’t what he wanted, “but it was pretty awesome”. Gemma gets mad that Dave got into a fight in front of Grover, and Dave quotes Calvin to justify himself.
Calvin and Marty begin playing D&D, with Malcolm joined them because he’s sure Calvin will end up storming out. They continue playing, and it seems like Calvin got into the game for real. Once the game is over, he wants to play again and Marty tells him he doesn’t have to, since he’s always making fun of him for it. Calvin tries to tell him he was wrong in his own way, and they end up fixing things and even sharing a hug.
Dave ends up talking to Tina about the fight he had with Justin’s dad, and Tina tells him what he did was stupid. She tells him that it could put Gemma in trouble. He says he will try to find a way to fix it.
Back at the principal’s office, Justin’s parents are talking to Gemma while Dave interrupts to apologize. They threaten Gemma’s job by saying they will contact a lawyer and make sure she never works again. She tells them that she’s suspending Grover for fighting and Justin for punching, and after a few threats later they reluctantly agree and things get solved.
We finish the episode back to our regular schedule seeing Calvin, Dave and Marty play D&D together, while Dave tries to team up with Calvin but Calvin’s next move is to kill Dave’s character in the game.
I liked this episode because we saw both families get their beliefs questioned when it comes to bullying - Dave finding out that an apology sometimes doesn’t solve everything, and Calvin realizing that maybe he was mean to his son, and trying to fix it. Bullying is a hot topic to talk about and I feel like this episode addressed it as best as they could, sticking to the show’s true fashion.
What did you think about the episode? Leave a comment below!
