The Goldbergs Review: “Big Orange”

With only two episodes left this season, we’re down to our final rounds of laughs with The Goldbergs for many months to come. Let’s take a look at the events of this season’s penultimate episode, “Big Orange.”

The main thing happening in “Big Orange” is the women in Barry’s life (namely his mother and girlfriend) finally deciding that they’ve had enough of Barry’s favorite shirt that he almost always wears (the titular Big Orange). Their combined force convinces him to go shopping with them for new clothes, but he ends up just wearing the shirt more than ever afterward. Knowing that enough is enough, Beverly and Lainey destroy Big Orange.

Elsewhere, Adam fights with his father over Murray’s decision to knock down Adam’s decaying and crumbling treehouse. Adam realizes that it’s going to end up happening, so he attempts to recruit his sister for one last treehouse-related adventure (inspired by Nancy Drew). She just isn’t into the idea, though, and it seems like there’s no hope.

Both plots combine as Barry hires his siblings to find out who ruined his favorite shirt. The “Goldberg Gang” reunites, but Erica quickly realizes that their mother is the culprit. Even after a confession from Lainey, though, Adam absolutely refuses to let the Goldberg Gang die, seeing the destruction of his treehouse as the real end of his childhood. Despite Erica’s pleas, Adam continues to question everyone that could possibly be involved in the mystery, and everything culminates with a funeral for Big Orange and a really beautiful moment between Adam and Erica in which they acknowledge how much they really do mean to each other. It’s clear that this relationship is going to change a bit as Erica goes off to college, and I’m glad that we got such a heartfelt moment between the two before that happens.

My absolute favorite thing about this week’s episode was the way that it teamed Beverly and Lainey up. These are two of the best characters on a show full of wonderful characters, and we haven’t gotten nearly enough of them together through the season. I’m hoping that the success here leads to a ton more next season.

I’ve got to mention how PERFECT the “outtake” at the end of the episode was. I’m not going to spoil it here, but it was one of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen on this show.

Some of my favorite episodes of The Goldbergs combines two distinct plots into a single story, and “Big Orange” is a great example of this. Between the plot structure and the relationship-building with Beverly and Lainey, “Big Orange” was a wonderful episode to lead into the season finale.

What did you think about this week’s episode of The Goldbergs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!

[Photo Credit: ABC/Ron Batzdorff]