In an interesting (but very welcome) scheduling decision, ABC decided to air two episodes of The Goldbergs this week instead of just one. Here’s what happened in the first of the two, “La Biblioteca Es Libros.”
The main story for the episode dealt with Barry deciding to get a job in order to earn the respect of his father. Of course, he runs to Erica to get her to find him a job (and he almost got one at the store in which she works), but she doesn’t want to help him. Somehow, he manages to get a job at the local Pizza Depot as a delivery boy. His boss warns him of the terrors of delivering, but Barry isn’t phased at all. Later that night, Murray offers Barry a beer since he is proud of him. Murray sees the beer as a rite of passage, but Barry panics and slaps the bottle across the room, not at all used to getting any respect.
During his first day of delivery, Barry fails horribly (partially due to having to use a real map and stress-eating the pizza he should be delivering). When he gets back to the Pizza Depot, he is, of course, fired. Barry doesn’t tell Murray about getting fired, and Murray gives him his own recliner and access to the remote, allowing him to choose what they watch. Erica is enraged by the double-standard between her working and Barry working, and she finds out that he was fired after following him to work. That night, Erica orders pizza to the house, and everyone finds out that Barry was fired. Unfortunately for Erica, Murray bonds with Barry over getting fired instead of getting angry with him. She goes off on her father, and he admits to her that he can bond with Barry because he is a boy. Making up for it, he shares a beer with his daughter.
The B-story here is about Adam’s failures in Spanish class. Beverly refuses to believe that Adam is bad at Spanish, and she blames his teacher. She decides to go and talk to the teacher and use her “mom logic,” and the meeting ends with setting up his teacher as a tutor. Even after some help, Adam just cannot grasp the language. Surprisingly, his teacher offers him another chance at the questions that he missed, secretly giving him the answers in order to make his grade better. Beverly and Pops are proud of the B- that he receives until he explains the way that his teacher is “helping” him. Beverly just doesn’t understand because of her “mom logic,” but Pops explains to her in no uncertain terms that the teacher is helping him cheat since Bev is paying her.
Adam feels great about his new grade in Spanish, but Dana informs him that everyone knows the teacher is helping him cheat. He still sees her as a tutor, though, and asks her to tutor all of his friends. When Adam’s friends start trying to pay her for a better grade, she quits, telling Beverly that Adam has to pass his oral presentation or be placed in remedial Spanish. Beverly and Pops try to help Adam with his presentation, even though he doesn’t actually know any Spanish. When he gets up to do his presentation (accompanied by his mom), he uses theatricality to try and ace it, but he, obviously, does not succeed. Later that night, Beverly apologizes to Adam and admits that she went a little nuts with her “mom logic.” They share a sweet moment over the fact that she only sees him as perfect.
This was a really good episode of The Goldbergs that had some great moments between all of the members of the family, but, once again, Pops didn’t have a real role in the episode other than to clarify things for Bev. Nevertheless, there were plenty of strong scenes, especially concerning Barry’s job hunt.
Additional Thoughts:
– “You’re threatening me with things I want you to do!” – Murray finding out Barry wants a job
– The montage of Barry’s job interviews was fantastic.
– Beverly’s “mom logic” explains so many things, y’all. So many things.
– “I like beer! I’ve said too much, I must go.” – Erica’s reaction to Murray giving Barry a beer
– The Three Amigos reference in Adam’s presentation was a delight.
[Photo via ABC]
Follow Us
