Fresh off the Boat 4.07: "The Day After Thanksgiving"

“No one is lonely, Louis. That’s not a thing.” -Jessica After dealing with some computer trouble and things being especially crazy at my new job, it's time for me to get back to recapping! “The Day After Thanksgiving” was an interesting take on the classing Thanksgiving episode of television courtesy of the “Fresh off the Boat” creative team. You’ll recall from previous seasons that the Huangs don’t especially like Thanksgiving, because it usually involves spending time with Jessica’s insufferable sister Connie and her equally insufferable family. Jessica and Louis actually like the day after Thanksgiving better, because that’s when they actually get to do what they want to do. Starting from that point we get a fun, unique Thanksgiving episode that actually reveals a lot about Grandma Huang. I feel like we don’t get to see a ton from her in a typical episode other than a few comedic moments, so I appreciated that this episode delved into her character a bit more. It was also a fun opportunity to see more of George Takei in his role as Bernard the English teacher.

The episode opens with Louis and Jessica going over their Thanksgiving plans. Jessica has already told Connie that they’re not coming to DC for the holiday because, as they did the previous year, they’re going to open the restaurant again. What Louis and Jessica are really looking forward to is the day after Thanksgiving. Louis is planning on taking all the naps. Jessica plans to, along with Honey, dominate Black Friday via a plot that involves using Grandma Huang’s wheelchair. We then fast forward to the actual day after Thanksgiving. The family are all arguing over who is at fault for whatever awful things actually have transpired. Poor Evan is overwhelmed. He’s just sitting at the kitchen table with a blank look singing the “I Love You” song from Barney the Dinosaur. It was hilarious, although I still very much hate Barney. My childhood dog, who was born in 1987, was named Barney, and when I got to about third grade, kids started making fun of me for it, even though he was around before the purple dinosaur.

Grandma Huang, meanwhile, seems to be not doing particularly well in her ESL class. She keeps writing depressing answers on her worksheet, and Louis and Jessica are of course rather judgmental about this. Louis does support his mother, however, by going to an event where everyone from the ESL class recites a movie monologue. Louis and Bernard chat after the event, and Bernard says that the class is ending soon. We then cut to Louis telling Jessica that he has invited Bernard to the Huang family Thanksgiving dinner. The Huangs have been told by Kenny Rogers corporate that they will not be allowed to open the restaurant on Thanksgiving, so their plans are definitely unraveling. Jessica is not happy about Bernard coming to Thanksgiving, because that means she’ll have to cook a full, fancy meal. Louis, however, thinks Bernard could be the cure for Grandma’s loneliness. At first, Jessica is skeptical about Grandma’s relationship with Bernard. She thinks Grandma is just flirting with him to get an A in ESL class. Then Grandma offers to both pay for and cook the meal, so Jessica thinks her feelings must be legit. Jessica tells Honey she thinks this dinner might put Grandma in such a good mood that she’ll let them use the wheelchair for Black Friday.

The B story in this episode is that Evan seems to really want to grow up. He wants to be allowed to go to the school supply store by himself to buy a new three-hole punch, but Jessica won’t allow it. She reminds him that he is still young, even if he did skip a grade. Eddie and Emery offer to take him to the mall, which doesn’t thrill Evan because he can’t buy a three-hole punch there. Eddie gets some fresh new socks, and Evan is unimpressed. The boys see an ad for “I Know What you Did Last Summer,” and Eddie really wants to go see it. Emery, however, is skeptical that they should be taking Evan along. Eddie gets Evan on board by telling Evan he’d still be a little kid if he opted to see “Flubber” instead. Because he is, actually, still a pretty young kid, the movie traumatizes Evan. We see later that he is now scared of just about everything. He thinks the events of the movie are going to happen to him, basically. Eddie and Emery end up watching the Macy’s parade on tape later because the actual Thanksgiving is chaotic, and they convince the now afraid of everything Evan to join them. Evan is really enjoying it, and all is well until the Barney balloon is destroyed and goes down. While that traumatized Evan, I’ll admit I found it a bit satisfying!

Bernard does indeed show up for the Huang family Thanksgiving dinner, and he turns out to be incredibly loud and obnoxious. Louis tells Jessica he wants Bernard to leave, but Jessica wants them to tough it out for a few more hours so she can borrow Grandma’s wheelchair. They return to the kitchen, and Grandma tells them that Bernard had to go because “he was too much.” A very happy Louis starts talking shit about Bernard, and then Bernard himself exits the bathroom. It turns out he “ate too much” and vomited. Then he gives the Huang family an “F” for being rude. Grandma is understandably pissed at Louis and Jessica, and she’s venting her frustration by watching the video of the Barney balloon destruction over and over (a woman after my own heart!). Evan asks her about it, and she wisely says that the scene is like life. Sometimes you’re the balloon, and sometimes you’re the knife. Evan decides to “be the knife” this time around, and he blackmails Eddie and Emery into taking him to the teacher supply store for his three-hole punch.

In the aftermath, Louis and Jessica continue to argue over what happened. Did Grandma really have feelings for Bernard, or what she just trying to get a good grade in her ESL class? Jessica eventually goes to talk to Grandma, because Grandma’s ESL homework says her favorite thing is doing nails with Jessica. Grandma says she likes their girl time, because sometimes the boys are too emotional. She reveals that she really was just buttering up Bernard to get an A in the class after all. The two decide to go Black Friday shopping together, even though most of the sales are over by this point. They delight in the idea that they might see someone get trampled.