There are two main plots here. First involves Ryan finally earning real respect from Mike in a most unlikely manner. Ryan is joining his son Boyd, Eve and Mike in attending the opening day game for the Colorado Rockies. Before the game even begins, they are joined by Mike's old friend, Bill McKendree (played by Richard Karn) who appeared a few episodes earlier where Mike greatly disappointed him in not hiring him to be the architect of some new mall stores for Outdoor Man because Bill didn't put in a good bid. Now he is drunk and complaining about being divorced and how losing that mall job set him on a downward spiral.
Thanks to Eve's coaching, Boyd gets one of the Rockies to toss him a baseball, but Bill intercepts it and laughs about how he stole it away. Ryan strongly tells him to not hurt his son because of a dispute with Mike. Bill stands to argue and accidentally spills his beer all over Boyd. End of scene.
The group returns home and we learn that Bill got a punch in the nose...from Ryan. This is what caused Mike to boast that "Today, my fourth daughter became a man." Kristin is disappointed but Ryan is proud that he did what needed to be done. Now this is followed with a negative that seemed unrealistic to me-Boyd is now terrified of his dad, thinking he might slug him if he doesn't do what he is told. But Mike comes to the rescue by explaining the difference to Boyd. Mike is often shown doing things that will help Ryan even though he still thinks (at this point in the series) that Kristin would be better off with someone else in her life.
The other plot is about Mandy needing to get a B on a history paper in order to not fail the course, and her parents take away all her communication devices until she does so. Mandy, of course, believes this is cruel and inhuman punishment. She goes looking around the house for the hidden devices and comes up a ham radio in the basement that was somehow left on and happens to overhear Kyle talking to Ed, who is on a trip to South America. Kyle asks if he's able to use the Amazon gift card that he got him.
Mandy is startled to learn other people can hear their conversation and winds up talking with several people, who all learn about her history paper. My favorite line is when Kyle reminds her about the history paper and she says she'll never get it done because she knows nothing about World War II. A man named Walt, over the ham radio says, "I can help you Mandy. I was at Omaha beach." Mandy responds, "Thank you Walt, but my paper's about World War II, not your Nebraska vacation."
She winds up gaining stores from people over the radio and writes a good paper on her topic. This was one of the episodes that endeared Mandy to the audience. She is truly a unique character in TV history. She's dumb in lots of ways, and yet she can put things together and do good things, such as hearing what these people told her and putting down their stories in a way to write a good paper-all on her own. Many could have heard their stories and not put together a good paper.
I also want to praise the writers on this series in this manner: This episode is like so many-all of the regular characters have more than just a token line, even though there is focus on only a few of them. With so many series that have many regulars, most episodes see two or three of the regulars have almost nothing to say or do in episodes where they aren't featured, or they are not even on those episodes.
I think overall this to be one of the series best episodes-a 10 in my book.
Thanks to Eve's coaching, Boyd gets one of the Rockies to toss him a baseball, but Bill intercepts it and laughs about how he stole it away. Ryan strongly tells him to not hurt his son because of a dispute with Mike. Bill stands to argue and accidentally spills his beer all over Boyd. End of scene.
The group returns home and we learn that Bill got a punch in the nose...from Ryan. This is what caused Mike to boast that "Today, my fourth daughter became a man." Kristin is disappointed but Ryan is proud that he did what needed to be done. Now this is followed with a negative that seemed unrealistic to me-Boyd is now terrified of his dad, thinking he might slug him if he doesn't do what he is told. But Mike comes to the rescue by explaining the difference to Boyd. Mike is often shown doing things that will help Ryan even though he still thinks (at this point in the series) that Kristin would be better off with someone else in her life.
The other plot is about Mandy needing to get a B on a history paper in order to not fail the course, and her parents take away all her communication devices until she does so. Mandy, of course, believes this is cruel and inhuman punishment. She goes looking around the house for the hidden devices and comes up a ham radio in the basement that was somehow left on and happens to overhear Kyle talking to Ed, who is on a trip to South America. Kyle asks if he's able to use the Amazon gift card that he got him.
Mandy is startled to learn other people can hear their conversation and winds up talking with several people, who all learn about her history paper. My favorite line is when Kyle reminds her about the history paper and she says she'll never get it done because she knows nothing about World War II. A man named Walt, over the ham radio says, "I can help you Mandy. I was at Omaha beach." Mandy responds, "Thank you Walt, but my paper's about World War II, not your Nebraska vacation."
She winds up gaining stores from people over the radio and writes a good paper on her topic. This was one of the episodes that endeared Mandy to the audience. She is truly a unique character in TV history. She's dumb in lots of ways, and yet she can put things together and do good things, such as hearing what these people told her and putting down their stories in a way to write a good paper-all on her own. Many could have heard their stories and not put together a good paper.
I also want to praise the writers on this series in this manner: This episode is like so many-all of the regular characters have more than just a token line, even though there is focus on only a few of them. With so many series that have many regulars, most episodes see two or three of the regulars have almost nothing to say or do in episodes where they aren't featured, or they are not even on those episodes.
I think overall this to be one of the series best episodes-a 10 in my book.
